Dimensionally Barrett

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo at West University and Bayou Blue Democrats joint meeting. Source, John Barrett When I came back to Houston in 2018, after living in the Boston area for many years and a year abroad in South Asia, I made sure to register to vote and happily cast my lot for Lina Hidalgo, a young woman who was ready to take on the Republican machine and the business-as-usual approach to governance in the nation’s third most populous city.  It would be a mistake to gloss over what the County has accomplished under her guidance and it is more than a little startling that upon thinking about it, her career is in many ways just beginning. Born in Colombia, Judge Hidalgo spent her youth in Peru and Mexico before her family moved to Houston when she was fifteen. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in political science in 2013. That year., Lina became a U.S. citizen.(1) She received received the Omidyar Network Postgraduate Fellowship "to work with an inter...

In a kind of push to simplify things, I’m going to introduce this series on “Stuff to Do”.  One of the recurring questions I hear is “what can I do?”, and I think while that comes from a very genuine place, all too often the implication is that everything is so overwhelming that the brain short-circuits. That’s completely understandable. I’m not going to list everything all over the country, but I am going to concentrate on Texas, Harris County, and Houston issues.  On any given day, when I open Bluesksy or even Facebook (still), there are postings by individuals and organizations, petitions to be signed and, of course, larger nationwide efforts like the upcoming protest on Saturday, April 19. Another reason I’m doing this is because reposting stuff on Bluesky or Facebook takes time. I want to give people regular one-stop shopping, at least from my end, so there’s that. Anyway, I’m going to try this out for awhile. I may still multiple post on social media, but for ease of use...

Marilyn Burgess, center. Source:  https://www.hcdistrictclerk.com/Common/Default.aspx In an effort to keep somewhat abreast of what of organizations and events around Houston and Harris. County, I am going to try to put up at least one post a week of something I have attended and the takeaways, along with resources and how to get involved. There are dozens of groups under the umbrella of Harris County Democrats and I should stress - as Lili Schecter did last month - that you don’t have to join all of them, but find a couple to support and do what you can for them. Blue Bayou Democrats , who host a monthly “Democracy Cafe” have a number of events regularly on the calendar. This past Tuesday night, they hosted Marilyn Burgess, Harris County District Clerk and like a number of people, had you asked me what the country district clerk did, I would be hard-pressed to answer. As it happens, she does plenty. To say that the HC district clerk oversees the functioning of the country courts d...