Historic Change Comes To Fort Bend County!

When I was growing up in Houston,  I had a great uncle and aunt who lived in Rosenberg that we used to visit every Christmas until they moved to Houston during my college years. Fort Bend County was despite a sizable Black population, largely white and conservative leaning.

It was Tom DeLay's power base during the 80's and 90's as a reliably red suburb on the southwest corner of purple to blue Harris County.   DeLay rose from here to prominence in the Texas GOP and a state legislative seat.  He eventually got to Washington DC repping the 22nd Congressional District, and became the House Majority Leader and a major adversary of President Bill Clinton.

Fort Bend County isn't red any more.  It has increasingly been trending purple because of the numerous suburban neighborhood that have popped up around Missouri City, Sugar Land, Katy and Rosenberg like Mission Bend, Sienna Plantation, Quail Valley and others.

Fort Bend County not only became since the 80's one of the Houston metropolitan area's fastest growing suburbs next to Montgomery County to the north of us, it is also rapidly diversifying. 

That spells political trouble for the Texas and Fort Bend County Republican Party.

Tom DeLay Country finally flipped blue in the midterms, and while we were at NRG Center yesterday gleefully celebrating Harris County going deep blue, down I-69 our suburban neighbors were having a very Happy Blue Year celebrating their own historic gains.

The Fort Bend Democrats had come close in 2016.   Hillary Clinton became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Fort Bend County in decades, but unlike here in Harris County, Republicans still won countywide, but by much narrower margins than usual.

That set the stage for what happened on November 6 when the Blue electoral tsunami hit Fort Bend County.

Brian Middleton became the first African American ever elected as the Fort Bend County DA. He was also the first Democrat elected as Fort Bend County DA in 25 years. 

But they didn't stop there.  KP George was also elected to become Fort Bend County judge (the chief executive of the county) and become the first South Asian elected a county judge anywhere in the state of Texas. 

George, as Lina Hidalgo made happen here in Harris County, unseated a longtime Republican incumbent in Robert Herbert, who had held the position for 15 years.

Missouri City also elected its first African American mayor in Yolanda Ford.   The lifelong resident of the town and city council member beat incumbent mayor Allen Owen, who had been running the city for nearly 25 years.

Fort Bend County also elected seven Democratic judges, one of them being a high school classmate of mine in Teana Watson.   This was her third attempt at a judicial run, losing in 2012 to James Shoemake for the 434th District Court, then four years later narrowly losing the race for the 400th District Court to GOP incumbent judge Maggie Jaramillo.

The third time was the charm for Watson in her race for the Fort Bend County Court At Law #5 bench, comfortably beating Republican Harold Kennedy. 

Shapnik Khan, the vice chair of the Fort Bend Democratic Party, also attributed the wins to the increasing diversity of the county.

“It’s the minorities like us,” he said in an interview with Ella Feldman. “The Asian-Americans, the Hispanics, the African-Americans, it’s a combination of the different ethnicities. They’re moving in, and not only moving in, but getting involved.”
That they are.   Even more importantly, they are working together to change the county for the better and make its leaders and government officials as diverse as Fort Bend County is.Congrats Fort Bend Dems!  The easy part is over of flipping the county blue.   Now comes the hard work of keeping it that way.

Fort Bend ISD Naming School For Malala

Fort Bend County to the southwest of Houston is one of the suburban areas, like Montgomery County to our north that has experienced explosive population growth since the 1980's.  The Fort Bend Independent School District has been on what seems to be an almost nonstop building program to keep up with it.

Even better, it turned blue because of that explosive growth in the 2018 midterm elections

A new elementary school, the 51st in the FBISD, is currently being built in the Aliana community in the northwest part of the district.   After asking the FBISD community to submit a name for the new school scheduled to open in January 2020, a committee comprised of FBISD teachers, parents, students, community advocates, staff and an FBISD board member went through the nearly 100 names submitted to choose the name of the new school.

The school will be named Malala Yousafzai Elementary School, and it is one as a TK I am definitely in agreement with.   The Nobel laureate has been a tireless advocate for public education.

“Fort Bend ISD is proud to name Malala Yousafzai Elementary in honor of a true advocate for education. Our FBISD Profile of a Graduate outlines the skills and attributes graduates should possess upon graduation from our schools. Through her compassion for others and servant leadership, Yousafzai is an embodiment of these characteristics, which we are trying to instill in our students. We look forward to hearing of the many successes of the school and its students in the future,” said Dr. Charles Dupre, FBISD Superintendent of Schools.
The name for the new school was approved during the December 17 FBISD board meeting

Malala and her father are currently on a trip to Australia, and when they heard the news, were quite pleased with it.

This is such great and encouraging news," said Malala's father Ziauddin Yousafzai.  "I'm very thankful for this.  It's an opportunity for young students to get inspiration."

"Malala's name is known globally and now, for a school to be associated with Malala's name, it just shows that the spirit of education is being wholeheartedly promoted," he added..

As for Malala's thoughts about the FBISD action, she conveyed through her father that she was "quite glad" and 'grateful to the Sugar Land community for helping spread her message of education for girls.

She garnered international attention at age 15 for surviving an Taliban attack on her while traveling home from school.   A year later in 2013 she delivered a highly publicized United Nations speech that urged world leaders to make education a priority.    Yousafzai became the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014

The attendance zone boundaries for Yousafzai Elementary are currently being determined by the district.

As for whether the Yousafzai's will be in the Lone Star State when the school is dedicated, Ziauddin Yousafzai said, "I cannot make any promises right now, but should we receive an invitation and are in Texas or nearby, we would definitely love to attend and meet these amazing people.

Um, FBISD, y'all might want to get on that ASAP.

Mesquite, TX Passes Trans Inclusive EEO Policy Update

In breaking news from North Texas, looks like the ongoing negative attacks on trans people by Gov Abbott, Lt. Governor  Goeb Patrick  AG Ken Paxton and the Texas GOP have started to have the opposite effect.

According to Lone Star Q, the city council of the eastern Dallas suburb of Mesquite, TX just voted tonight despite opposition from the Texas Bigots Values haters to add trans, bi and SGL workers to their city's Equal Employment Opportunity policy.

“Sorry to disappoint everyone, this isn’t the bathroom war…no matter what a political hack from Austin tells you in a fundraising email,” Mesquite Councilman Jeff Casper said. “Let me be clear: This policy has no effect on public restrooms. It simply states that the city of Mesquite’s employment decisions will be based on character and merit.”

As I keep pointing out, while the haters may have some loud voices, we LGBT peeps in the Lone Star State are continuing to fight for the type of inclusive and equitable Texas we wish to make a reality.

Congrats Mesquite and everyone who worked on getting this done for over a year.

White Perp Knocks Out The Racist 'Knockout Game' Narrative

Amazing how the appearance of one white male shuts down this whole racialized 'knockout game' media 'scurrfest' and 'urban predator' meme.  

Here in the Houston 'burbs, 27 year old Katy resident Conrad Barrett attacked a 79 year old African-American man while he was out for a November 24 walk in his Katy neighborhood.  

The vicious assault resulted in the man's jaw being fractured in two places and left him hospitalized for four days. 

Meanwhile the waste of DNA went to a bar in Fulshear, TX the same day and showed video of it to a person who was alleged to have been an off-duty police officer.  Barrett was arrested December 26, and a search of his phone not only revealed 10 more attacks,  but one of him making the alleged comment, "The plan is to see if I were to hit a black person, would this be nationally televised?"

Duh, when you viciously attack an African-American senior citizen, you damned skippy it's going national and probably international.  It's also guaranteed to go national when you make racist comments and derogatory statements toward my people.




One of the gems of racist idiocy from this fool is one video in which he says that African-Americans "haven't fully experienced the blessing of evolution."   

Dude, the first human on this planet looked like me and originated in Africa.  Looks like the only person who hasn't 'fully experienced the blessing of evolution' is your wannabee white hood wearing behind. 

Barrett is being charged with one count of violating the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr Hate Crimes Act.  The criminal complaint was filed under seal December 24, 2013, and unsealed upon his December 26 arrest.   He has made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy and if he is convicted, he is facing a maximum of 10 years in jail and a $250,000 fine.