It's a Small World

So, yesterday The Cracker Daddy was out and about doing his Saturday thing.  Since The Cracker Daddy's mom turned down his invitation for breakfast, it was time to go get my early vote on.  Of course one cannot go get their vote on on an empty stomach.  Since it was approaching lunchtime, I decided to head down to Deep Ellum and grab a tasty sammich at Uncle Uber's Sammich Shop.  Every Saturday, they have a special sammich that is not on the menu.  Seeing that this Saturday was Cinco de Mayo, the special was the El Pollo Loco, which is a marinated chicken breast topped with pepper jack cheese, chopped romaine lettuce, tomatoes, onions and avocado (I decided to add bacon on top of it) and dressed with habernero ranch.  I went with the special and was not disappointed.  Take a look at the tasty lunch I had:

Yes, that was rather tasty.  The fries are hand-cut on the premises and are some of the best in Dallas.  They will sell you a side of the habernero ranch for $.25 and it really is a must-have.

Having filled up at lunch, I was ready to go get my vote on.  The current election that I was voting in was for the DISD Board of Trustees aka the school board.  Now, anyone who has been following education or the political happenings in the city of Dallas knows that DISD is a mess....a really big mess. Between gross and I mean........GROSS financial mismanagement and feathering the nest of the school construction industry and the charter school edubusiness industry over taking care of the students, teachers and, in general, that whole thing.......educating the students in the city of Dallas (you know.....the reason DISD is supposed to exist for), the DISD has become somewhat of a bad joke.  The closest spot to go early-vote was at the MLK Jr Center on (you guessed it) MLK Jr Ave in South Dallas.  When I pulled up I noticed there were campaign people staked out for the District 9 School Board of Trustees election.  As, I started to walk up to the building, they called me over to persuade me to vote for their candidate, Demarcus Offord.  I let them know that I was there for District 3 and was voting for Bruce Parrot (the incumbent who is sort of a reformer; but, at least he is asking the right questions about DISD finances).  That pleased the Offord people and we struck up a conversation.  After a few minutes, we got down to introductions and it turns out that I am indeed chatting with the District 9 candidate Demarcus Offord.

Much has been written in the DMN (Dallas' only printed daily news) and in the Dallas Observer's Unfair Park blog.  He is young (20 years old), inexperienced, and firmly committed to not selling out to maintain the status quo.  I admire Demarcus for standing up and getting involved with trying to improve things. Damn.....The Cracker Daddy would love to cast a vote for the young brother.   So, as the introductions continued, one of the ladies introduced herself as Joyce Foreman -- my blog crush from Unfair Park.  I have been trading comments and commenting on her comments for 4 years or more on UP.  In two words, Joyce is THE SHIT.  I do not always agree with her on the issues; but, I like how she fights for what she believes and her passion for giving back to her community.  We need a lot more Joyce Foremans in this world.  The Cracker Daddy LOVES him some Joyce Foreman.

I spent the better part of 2 hours out in front of the MLK Center just shooting the breeze with these wonderful people who are all trying to positively influence and change their community for the better.  The Cracker Daddy gives a big tip of the hat to them.  This is what participatory democracy looks like:

and I like it.  I encourage all of you to get out and participate in your community....participate in our democracy.  If you don't like something, don't just complain -- work to change it.  Who knows what you may accomplish or who you may meet......but, you'll be the better for it.