THE SPECTATOR: HYPOCRISY IN DECISION MAKING
There appears to be some hypocrisy afoot in Brenham and Washington County. If you happened to drive past Hohlt or Henderson Parks this past weekend, you saw the parking lots overflowing with cars and trucks, with many parked in the grassy areas. 41 girls’ softball teams from all across this region of the state, along with their coaches, parents and siblings, spent three days on the fields, in the stands, and beneath pop-up tents. By my conservative estimate, at least 1500 people attended the tournament. They were in Brenham because the original host city wouldn’t allow them to play there due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Good for Brenham. Our hotels certainly needed the business, as well as our restaurants and shops who have been suffering since early March. And anyone who knows me, knows I’m a big fan of girls’ softball…having watched my daughter play for 13 years.
What I don’t understand is how it’s okay for people to gather in Brenham and Washington County in the hundreds to watch and play softball, after local officials have cancelled every local event planned for July and August. How is the Chappell Hill Volunteer Fire Department’s annual barbecue cook-off more of a danger than all of those folks crowded around softball fields? How is Downtown Brenham’s “Summer Sip and Art Walk”, with a maximum of 288 people spread out over 25 stores, more dangerous? Why is listening to live music outdoors considered more dangerous than watching softball? If your answer is “because there’s alcohol involved”, well I would just say that you’ve never been to a girls’ softball tournament.
My point is that our local officials are not being consistent with their decisions…like giving the okay for a recent wedding reception with hundreds of guests. Please don’t think that I’m against any of these events I’ve mentioned. I know very well that our community needs the economic help, and the emotional uplifting they bring. I would just like to see our local officials be more consistent with their decisions on whose event is okay, and whose event must be cancelled.
And that’s the way it looks to this Spectator.
have not heard an explanation from our elected officials since The Spectator did this article. Like they say money talks.
Has anyone considered that the city may not be forcing these events to be canceled but instead the organizers are deciding to cancel them on their own? As for the the wedding everyone is complaining about, that was a private event on private property. Have some respect for others 1st amendment rights unless you are willing to give up your own.
The organizers were informed they had to cancel those events. You are incorrect in saying that an event on private property does not violate the Governor’s order. If that were the case, all of the large wedding venues in the County would be open for business. They are not. If you have a group of people at your house in the country, you can probably get by with it.
SPECTATOR, Do we know who OK’d these events? Was it the Mayor, City Manager, or who?
No we do not.
Call the City of Brenham Parks Department Management or better yet get ahold of Mr. Rau because it seems like he’s the gofer making big decisions on someone’s behalf!
When those fields get rented out by any individual or group The City of Brenham Parks Department is responsible for redoing each field after every game and picking up trash during and after the games so I would definitely start on that road if your needing more information. If you do the math estimated 40 times $250 that’ll give your answer why it was allowed to go on! It’s all about the almighty dollar around here so maybe they can hire one employee they let go and hire someone with street and common sense because an education shows no value here with this event being allowed to happen! Just Ridiculous!!
Brenham Texas at its best. One of the reasons why I left that place!
I know that it’s cathartic to lay blame on out-of-towners. It’s also suspiciously convenient. Many of our neighbors spend the majority of their waking hours working in other counties. We are just not very different from them, they wrong their hands over outsiders too, and we all need to stop deflecting and address the reality that transmission is now widespread in our own community. We need to directly address that reality.
My thoughts on the situation are much different. Kids need to be able to continue on with sports. They are outside and getting exercise, so what is the difference between them playing on a field than them running or walking around the track at hohlt? They are more than 6 ft away from eaxh other while on the field. Each team had to bring their own ball to play with while it was their team on the field. There was no meeting at the plate or shaking hands. There is hand sanitizer in every single dugout, and bathroom. Most girls had a mask on when they weren’t playing. Life must move on, just be smart about it and sanitize like you are supposed to. This virus will never go away 100% so are we supposed to wear mask and stay at home for the rest of our lives? How many more families need to lose their businesses and not be able to afford to take care of their families? How about if you are so worried about the virus you can stay home.
Exactly.
Be brave and live.
Most of all of us will be fine.
People need to get back out there and live.
I thought it was great to see all those hard working familys out there in the heat living life the way God intended.
I bet you the wedding at giddings stone mansion was someone who knows somebody. Or is buddies with someone important here in Brenham. Me and my family drive by there at 11pm just to see what all the noise was.
Wouldn’t do any good to call the cops because they were there too.
JGM
I agree. I drove by there yesterday and was shocked by the crowd. Most were not wearing masks.
Mask ……..
Count how many people wear them under their nose ….
Notice how many mask have a big gap on each side of a persons face , shooting air out the sides to the people beside them
Notice how many people are constantly pulling them down
Notice how most people are just about the fashion
Mask are a joke , the virus is progressing as it would mask or not . LOCK yourselves in the closet and maybe it may pass you up . The virus is moving through the states and mask will not stop it.
Death rates are way up. Forty six pages of obituaries this weekend in the Houston Chronicle. Agreed Spectator, alcohol is not the reason or Bars would not have dozens of cars and Multitudes of drinking patrons most any night of week. And it doesn’t take half a brain to know they sell far more alcohol than food. Law says they can’t do anything, but they manage in other cities in Texas. It’s all about the buck. We have very poor leadership at county and city levels. Hypocrisy abounds in numerous ways in this community for way too many decades.
Death rates are way up? Can you share your data on that? Let’s stick to facts and not fear.
Death rates are way up? Really?
Agree 100%. I was at the park Sunday morning and again this morning. Sunday was a zoo. People parking anywhere and everywhere (next to No Parking signs). We keep spending hundreds (?) of thousands of taxpayer dollars adding parking spaces and erosion control measures along with salaries for maintenance to subsidize events like this for out of towners. We will never collect enough sales tax dollars at the Dollar store to offset the cost, but the fields look good after city workers finished picking up all the trash left behind.
Unrelated thought. How about a bluegrass festival at the Dietrich facility in the fall?
I am one that never leaves comments but I am really aggravated with the system! What I find so unfair is that hundreds of people can gather for a softball tournament or a wedding but yet the residents in the nursing home (in Brenham) where my mother is cannot even set outside to get sunshine……in fact they cannot even leave their room to walk down the hall!!! If hundreds of people from all over can gather for a softball game then why can’t these poor elderly people one or two at a time walk around outside to get sunshine……makes no sense to me!!
Softball tournament should NOT have happened. A lot of these people come from hotter spots and create more community spread. Not a good decision whoever made that call to allow the tournament
With govt in charge THEY get to pick the winners and losers. Ridiculous. Open up. We will all be exposed one way or another. Death rates are way down. We can’t stay hidden forever.
As a healthcare worker in the field, it is very disturbing to me that people are not taking the seriousness of this virus and the need for social distancing to heart. I guess once they have a family member that is affected or loses their life, they will wake up. Also, I don’t think they understand that we are still learning about the long term effects and that it evidently affects more than just the respiratory system and possibly for years if not their life. I am glad to see this article as there definitely needs to be a wake up call in this and other communities. Look at the rate soaring in Brazos county.
CORRECT’ look at the number of new cases Look at the increased percent of those tested who test positive. The non compliance & poor leadership will see that more than 300,000 will die in this country. The economy will be wrecked, Had citizens complied, government entities handled this correctly, we would be headed in the right direction. The deniers continue to believe what they want to believe, “hot weather will take care of COVID19,” Not so! “Medication for plasmodium falciparem & p. vivax will do the trick,” Not so!. On and on. They conviently forget that what they believed was incorrect. They dismiss their 0% batting average. Then they turn around and accuse the medical folks & the media of purposedly creating our problem. Who knows how much this will cost? Who knows the long term effect?
My quess would be that they weren’t worried about it because those families would go back to their hometowns taking the rising covid numbers with them. Except that they didn’t think about how many might have brought the darned virus here with them. I totally agree it was very irresponsible of our “city leaders”. Once again its a showing of the good old boys club of the wealthy with the right names to do what they want.
City leaders????? What’s that???? Do we have any???
good point. we shut down bars, and reduce restaurants to 50 percent yet cases continue to rise. May it is all the out of towners The dollar general across from Holt park was full of moms and kids not wearing mask this weekend. It appears the only thing the city and county want to shut down involves alcohol. events. Take a look at the whole picture.
I’m so proud of you David for using your real name.
I’m so proud of you David for using your real name.
Our children weren’t allowed to play baseball but out of towners were.
I was wondering the same thing.
It seems to be only the things that meet their agenda. Thanks for sharing what a lot of us are thinking.
I am so glad you can finally see how the city does things. They take care of the buddy but not their people. Time for leadership changes with Brenham and city council.
I totally Agree!!
Do you happen to be referring to the recent wedding reception that was attending by our local officials, in which attendees did not wear masks? Yes, many of us are aware of the hypocrisy.
Further in line with the local hypocrisy is the school debate. If it is not safe to have local events, how is it safe for our children and teachers to return to school…in droves. If the most precious members of our community, our children and those who sacrifice their time to teach our children, can be packed tightly into schools and on buses, I would like to see our local leaders walk the halls with them, ride the buses…wear a mask for eight hours a day.
Stop the hypocrisy. Show some consistency. Be leaders.
The wedding held at Giddings Stone Mansion was upsetting because it was a reported by attendees to be a large festive event with music, fine food, dancing with barely a mask or social distancer in sight. This was at the same time less influential folks were told no July 4 parties, no mass public Hot Night Cool Tunes or other gatherings. Now a thousand out of towners can gather for over two days with no masks, booze in coolers.
This is Brenham! It has always been like this. Your last name matters here with everything – doesn’t matter if it is wrong!
Sounds like Round Top and Carmine too! It’s all in the name.
There is a difference between the events. The “wedding” was funded with private money and people could make the decision to attend based upon their level of comfort with the risk. The Summer SIP and Hot Night Cool Tunes are funded with TAX PAYER money and hosted by City staff. The City does not even have the library open, because they have taken such a conservative stance, so they certainly aren’t going to use TAX PAYER money to host a festival downtown. If someone wants to privately host a party or event then you are FREE to do so.
WAKE UP people….. you think the divide between the “haves” and the “have nots” is big now, just keep giving into FEAR and turning your freedoms over to the government. The “haves” are vacationing in Florida, renting vacation homes on river and enjoying the work from home structure. The “have nots” are stuck with no freedoms, living in fear of a virus that has a 98.9 percent recovery rate, and struggling to put food on the table. Before you give up any more freedoms and succumb to fear, I would think twice. Freedom benefits us all.
The Summer Sip is funded by sponsorships and hosted by mostly Main Street volunteers and the stores. Hot Nights, Cool Tunes is funded by sponsorships also. City staff do provide most of the manpower for hosting those concerts. Both events are under the auspices of the City of Brenham, which is being very conservative with their decisions (as you stated).
Kids need to return to school so parents can work. The economy needs to be totally open and unrestricted so that money can flow. If not, you will slowly starve once your Social Security and other benefit checks dry up… who do you think pays for that… taxpayers. Who are taxpayers? Working people. Our system may not be perfect, but it is a functioning machine. You cannot simply remove parts of it and expect it to keep working properly. If covid is as bad as they claim, it will eventually get all of us, overwhelm the system, and everything collapses, leaving you starving whether we live as normal or not. But if we shut everything down, keep kids at home, nobody works, businesses fail, then no tax dollars will go into the pot. They can print more, as they have, but eventually the system will collapse. Whatever evil mind thought it up is brilliant, you have to admit it. Bring down America without firing a shot.
That is the truth, but most will disagree.
Open it up.
All of it.
Stay home if needed.
Don’t believe all that you are told by the computer or television.
You’re right Mrs Jones! We need to shut the schools down and reissue all those tax dollars to the parents to go get or fund the education of their children. Parents know best.
The schools need to open or those dollars need to come home. This isn’t a public school teacher welfare system. You have to earn it and virtual ain’t earning it by a long shot. Most kids can’t learn that way. Educators, should know that already.