94

Estanislao Contreras and Maclovio O'Malley sat on the deck at Cobbleheads. According to an unreliable rumor, the City had asked the establishment's owner Joe "The Irish Prick" Kenney if he would want the Jefferson Davis rock placed at the entrance of his bar & grill.

Kenney stammered that he was a product of Democratic Philadelphia and that there was no room on his premises for this Religious Right racist. And for that matter, if the president took a seat in his dining room, he would personally escort this redneck dick into the oncoming traffic on Central Boulevard.

"I've always respected Joe although he won't let me recite my poetry on his stage," said Estanislao. "He has many positive qualities, but he doesn't appreciate my art."

"Not everyone shares your vision, Stan," replied Maclovio. "You break the rules and the majority of people need rules to give direction to their lives. You take away their rules and they are lost."

"I know one thing we have to take away."

"And what's that, vato?"

"The City did its part in eliminating the Jefferson Davis mound of manure. He was a slaveholder and a traitor. Can't we think for ourselves or do we have to have a white cop murdering a black man to raise our consciousness? Biden said that 10% to 15% of the people in the United States aren't worth a fuck. I would put that number closer to 30%."

"I would put that number closer to 63 million," said Maclovio. "That's the number of pendejos who voted for that cocksucker who has done nothing but turn our country into crap with his ignorance and arrogance. I hope we can get rid of that bastard in November."

"You know who the BISD needs to eliminate?"

"Everyone!"

"You have a point there, bro, but we can only eliminate the culprits one by one. The BISD christened a school after Charles Stillman."

"Are you talking about the founder of Brownsville?"

"He was worse than Jefferson Davis. He was Brownsville's first slaveholder. Unlike Davis who was from Mississippi, which as a part of the Confederacy and he remained loyal to his state, Stillman was a Connecticut Yankee who betrayed the U.S.A. He was a scurvy devil who sold out our country for money. He was shipping cotton south through Matamoros and moving armaments north to the Confederate army."

"Did he support lynching blacks?"

"No, but he supported the Texas Rangers who lynched scores of Mexicans. If you were a live Mexican with land, he resorted to the Texas courts to steal millions of acres from the original Mexican owners to build his kingdom. Though there isn't any evidence to support the accusation, he sent his wife Elizabeth back east early in their marriage and there is a sentiment that he cheated on her more times than Trump has on his wenches. He was so powerful that he could murder with impunity, but I have no doubts that he could not only grab women by their pussies, but he would rape them as well. We renovated his whore house and now it stands in front of the federal courthouse. Stillman was an authentic piece of excrement, but we honor him even though I can hear St. Peter telling him, 'Do not pass GO. You are going directly to hell, ho'!'"

"He did name Brownsville's most prominent downtown street after his wife."

"He could talk out of both sides of his mouth. When the Civil War was over, Stillman was urging the Confederates to fight in order to protect a white's right to own a black person. As a result, we had the last battle fought between Brownsville and Port Isabel after Lee had surrendered to Grant at Appomattox while the avaricious Stillman collected a pretty penny shipping one last load of cotton across the river to Matamoros. As an ignorant citizenry we don't realize that we epitomize the Confederacy with a racist history that commences with Stillman establishing the city on land that he had stolen to a past city commissioner using 'nigger' to describe two African-American female lawyers."

"Would you blame Stillman for Brownsville's designation as the Third World Capital of the United States?"

"Good futures are not built on bad pasts. Until the BISD renames Stillman Middle School to Cortina Middle School or another name that reflects our heritage, the spirit of Jefferson Davis and his rebels will continue to haunt our tortured town."