There was a fixture of a fellow named Joe. Joe loomed in the background the whole of my years at the City of Dallas Park Department. No one knew how old Joe was. At times he would proudly bring in his birth certificate and show people he had been born in America. You could never really see the birth date well. Primarily though, Joe functioned as a patriarchal Mexican man. Joe had slowed down over the years and they had him running the trash truck on the East side of my division. The supervisor before me had left a stack of paperwork describing the process of how they had tried to fire Joe numerous times. Joe had once been the play ground repair crew leader. They had ground him down until he was in charge of trash.
I remember once before he was trash-guy, and I was still a park keeper, I was assigned to his crew one day. He had us sit in the crew truck most of the day. Our boss had a white truck, however white trucks were ubiquitous in Dallas. Every time a white truck came down the street by the park he had us jump out and try to look busy. It was one of the hardest days I ever had while I worked for the City. It is extremely hard to play Joe's game. It's easier to just work at a task all day.
Joe told me of a story where he was once pulled over by the police. For one reason or another he had to go "down town" with them. His big German Shepard always rode with him. Joe always explained the event as the time his dog was arrested. Most of the other Mexican workers did not like Joe. He had a good deal of money and he seemed to have some power in his neighborhood. He only lived a couple miles from me so I knew a bit about his street.
Joe found it amusing that the City gave up its mandatory-age retirement during the Reagan Administration. "Now I work 'til one hundred," Joe would say with his toothless grin. No one was ever quite sure he was actually kidding. Joe had to be 70 by then. Joe hated my boss Richard. Richard was Hispanic, yet could speak little Spanish. Richard was in on many of the failed attempts to fire Joe. Joe of course spoke fluent Spanish.
Joe drove an old pick up truck. When I was a supervisor I often arrived early to open the gate. Joe was always sitting by it waiting. He would then follow me in my office for his instructions for the day. One day I just said, "Joe you don't have to come in my office here every day, just go do the garbage run." Hell, he was just going to spend most of the day in the Mexican burrow of East Dallas at one of his haunts anyway.
Another friend of mine said, "The biggest mistake you will ever make is accepting an invitation over to Joe's for a day of barbecued goat." I did visit Joe once in awhile. He had one of those 20 foot wide satellite dishs in the back yard. He had a lawn mower in the kitchen. There was always mysterious men looming around bringing Joe shots of Tequila when he snapped his fingers. He watched mostly porn from Mexico on his coveted dish network. It was after all, the 1980s. I did heed my friend's warning and never excepted the numerous goat roast invitations.
Stupid pop culture, media-complex, distraction-from-reality story
I am thinking, each day I should jot down the stupidest news story that is foist upon us by the big-media-complex as a distraction from the reality that has become America. So here we go - welcome to today's "Stupid Pop Culture, Media-complex, Distraction-from-reality Story."
Hey everybody, the cold snap and eight weeks of bad winter weather up here is beating us down. People will have to take out loans to pay their heating bills. Oh, to hell with that shit. Now here is the real damn story. Rabid Packer fan dad tapes son to Packer loyalty. I know the rest of the country suspects we are a bit back woods up here. Taping a Packer shirt to your kids - just part of game day routine up here. Nothing like a dose of Packer insanity to validate national concerns about us. Now there is some real God damned news!
Wisconsin military service person of the week
This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Marine Lance Corporal John Mattek Jr., 24, who died from wounds he received from a roadside bomb that exploded near his Humvee in Anbar Province, Iraq. John died in the hospital in Maryland on Monday, June 13, 2005. The explosion was on June 8. He was a gunner on an armored vehicle. Lance Corporal Mattek was flown to Germany and then to Maryland. He was assigned to Company B, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, Regimental Combat Team-2, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force. The unit's home base is in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned John played linebacker on the football team for Antigo High School and after graduating high school in 1999, he went on to play strong safety and special teams for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point's football team. John Mattek Jr. was the 40th Wisconsin service member to be killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
3,923 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
474 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
28,938 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1,851 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
84 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
6 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
125 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
14 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; and, icasualties.org.
