Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Now, something on which we just might agree

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

Brooks Peterson

Brooks Peterson's column is published Mondays. Brooks also sits on the Caller-Times editorial board and can be contacted at petersonb@caller.com

Monday, September 6, 1999

Now, something on which we just might agree

Corpus Christi Online

No question about it: September has arrived. Says so right up at the top of the page.
   So why does it still feel like August?
   I mean, cripes: Just look around you. The crankiness that is the inevitable concomitant of August in Corpus Christi shows no signs of abating; on the contrary, it is threatening to engulf us like some malevolent, unstoppable blob of plasma transported here by an alien spacecraft.
   Is there anything about which we're not angry? The Letters section of this paper, always a fairly reliable barometer of the community's mellowness, or lack thereof, is jam-packed with people angry at local government, county government, state government, the feds (natch) - and, of course, at their fellow South Texans. Evolutionists are angry at creationists. Sheriff's and constables' deputies are mad at the Commissioners Court for not granting them a major pay hike. City Council members and the city manager are mad at the parties responsible for that long-running tire fire at the landfill. The student athletes of Corpus Christi's two pre-eminent high school football program are in the soup for a brawl at a "controlled" pre-season scrimmage.
   Oh, and The Dean of the Texas Senate is mad at three City Council members - Melody Cooper, Henry Garrett and Betty Jean Longoria - for voting in favor of a compromise on the issue of renaming Agnes Street after Cesar Chavez. He claims that by voting for a compromise measure, they broke a promise to support the name change. They say the senator was the first one to advance the notion of a compromise. He says they're lying. They say he's lying.
   Sort of makes you want to ask, with Rodney King: "Can't we all just get along?"
   Eventually we'll get the Cesar Chavez thing sorted out. Inevitably, however, other such dust-ups will take place. How are we to deal with them?
   Beats me.
   I do, however, have a couple of thoughts that might - might - prove helpful. First, can we agree that we should never, ever discuss such stuff in August? August in Corpus Christi is a testy time at best: Expecting us to behave like grown-ups vis-a-vis delicate issues under such conditions is wildly unrealistic at best.
   Second: How about - just for practice, as it were - we honor some figure on whom we can all agree? This would be an individual whose contributions touch all kinds and conditions of people, not so much crossing ethnic/political lines as obliterating them - a universal benefactor, you might say.
   Interestingly enough, I have a candidate: Willis Carrier.
   You know: the guy who invented air conditioning as we know it today.
   OK: This may strike you as a bit fluky, but just stay with me. In all seriousness, can you think of anyone who has contributed more significantly to our comfort and well-being? Every one of us not currently suffering from prickly heat and/or writhing in the grip of sweat-drenched clothing owes a huge debt of gratitude to Carrier, who back in 1902 devised the first system for "conditioning" the air.
   I have no idea what sort of fellow Willis Carrier was. Don't know what his politics were. Don't know how he treated his workers. Don't know if he loved dogs.
   What I do know is that, thanks largely to Willis Carrier, I no longer have to endure the kinds of infinitely uncomfortable road trips our family periodically made between Austin and the Rio Grande Valley in our '52 Ford. You have to have experienced such an ordeal to have even the beginnings of an understanding of what A/C means to Texans.
   As I see it, the only question is how best to honor ol' Willis. An equestrian statue is a possibility, but somehow the idea just doesn't scan. Perhaps an indecipherable piece of modern sculpture like those that already adorn some of our public places? Nah.
   Here's my take: How about a statue of Willis Carrier leaning back in his swivel chair and luxuriating in the chill breezes put out by one of his own machines?
   Frivolous? You're entitled to your opinion. Seems to me, though, that such an exercise would be vastly more constructive than the endless hissing matches we've experienced all summer.
   Time to chill out, neighbors.
   (Peterson can be reached by phone at 886-3772, or by e-mail at petersonb@caller.com)



Brooks Peterson

| Talk about this column | Other Columns | Home |