[EL] Another day

[henry weinstein]

Thanks for sharing.

On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 8:55 AM, George Korbel <korbellaw at hotmail.com>wrote:

>  And so we buried Mario Gallegos yesterday.  Too young at 62.  You
> probably have never heard of him.  He was a Texas State Senator from the
> Houston area, fire fighter and a son of a multi generational family that
> fought for Civil Rights in Texas.  He was a plaintiff in scores of voting
> cases. Yet he ever so gently gave his from his life in an attempt to
> meet unending needs of his constituents.    As you may know, a Texas State
> Senators represent more than 700,000 persons and are significantly more
> powerful and influential  than members of Congress.  Mario used that power
> and Texas benefited.
>
> Mario had a liver transplant some years ago and while he was in the
> dangerous period around transplant was forced to travel from Houston to
> Austin (upwards of 200 miles) in an ambulance and  to cast the deciding
> vote from his gurney killing the ID voting statute for that session at
> least.  He had been promised that he could undergo the transplant and the
> Republicans would not bring up the bill others in his absence.  But
> they did not hold to their word.  They played chicken with Mario and forced
> Mario to risk his life to vote.   He did so without hesitation against the
> insistence of his Doctors that  it was to dangerous.  He was one of the
> organizers of the effort by the Democratic Members of the State Senate who
> fled to Santa Fe New Mexico in an attempt to kill Tom Delay's infamous
> Congressional Gerrymander or as Mario sometimes said the Delaymander.    He
> was a real, plain spoken strong person with the cut of Civil Rights leaders
> of the 1960s.  So he will be missed.
> The last time I spoke to him it was about the increasing political power
> of Hispanics and what it will mean for the poor.
>
> The promise of that day is close but not close enough for Mario who will
> have to watch from the other side.
>
>
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-- 
Henry Weinstein
Writer, Teacher
cell phone 323-445-7006
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