MOTHER NATURE TO TEXAS: DON’T MESS WITH ME

Most of the rest of America has long understood that climate change is real. Texas represents a sort of throwback in today’s world that thinks denying reality is smart and sane and safe. Well, it ain’t and now far too many people are suffering as a result.

And the second disaster is Abbott’s effort to avoid responsibility for the devastation committed against the lives of millions of Texans by taking a page from Donald Trump playbook that reads: “Lie until you’re caught and, then, lie until you can’t.”

Texas has always believed it didn’t need to be told how to distribute electricity over the national grid — that’s the federal government’s plan to provide redundancy in case of a once-ina-lifetime snow and ice storm. Surprise!

So, instead, Texans operate their own grid. The kind that makes them wholly dependent only upon themselves.

There is a saying in the Lone Star State: “Don’t mess with Texas.” Well, Mother Nature and Texas-size hubris have made a big mess of far too many peoples’ lives and there is no one else to blame. Despite what Gov. Abbott would have us believe, he is in charge of what has just messed with Texas.

He kind of reminds me of Bud Abbott from the famous comedy duo. Except as a straight man for the very funny Lou Costello, Bud was talented and entertaining. And believable.

Texas’ Abbott is none of those things and he is not one bit funny. Just ask the millions of people who went without heat or water or food or any other of the standard comforts of living in the greatest country in the world!

And that brings me to one of my all time favorite movies, “Coming to America.” As much as I enjoyed the movie, it is only the title I need to make a point.

Electrical grids, highway systems, bridges, tunnels and railroads in America are all in need of repair and significant upgrades. If what we are witnessing in Texas is a sign of what will come — and it most assuredly is — then now is the time to get cracking on an infrastructure bill in Congress.

Wouldn’t we all like to see high-speed rail, 21st-century smart, redundant electrical grids, roads and highways built to handle automated driving, tunnels and bridges designed to last another century and the rest of our country’s infrastructure designed or upgraded to lead the world and not trail it from far behind?

President Joe Biden wants to do all of that. He wants us all to believe the United States is “Coming to America.”