"I Survived Valley Interfaith's Accountability Session"

"I Survived Valley Interfaith's Accountability Session," that's the phrase I'm putting on a T-shirt and selling it to other candidates up for election this go round. That's the joke I'm telling the nuns from my community's churches as I leave Valley Interfaith's Hidalgo County Accountability Session held today at a church behind the San Juan basilica.

Leaders in the group's coalition of 33 churches asked Hidalgo County's state representatives, and county judge and commissioners court candidates their positions regarding reforming immigration policies, toll-roads, gambling, maintaining the current sales tax and broadening the business tax.

Much of the debate concerned whether the candidates would oppose an expansion of gambling as a source for funding education.

The audience of several hundred Valley citizens voted on our responses, giving us a grade on their scorecard of "YES," "NO," or "Wishy-washy."

I always enjoy the give and take of these grassroots sessions and this one was no different. When so much of Valley politics is about personality or clan adoration, it is refreshing to speak to a group of citizens that care about issues.

As a kid in grade school I attended St. Joseph's Catholic school, in the old days when nuns and priests were our instructors. Today, I was peppered (to use an overused Cheney phrase) not by a shotgun but by the questions from a number of our community's religious leaders and parishioners.

How did it go, one nun said to me in passing as I left the church. "I survived," I told her in jest. When she asked me I was reminded of the good Father and nuns of long-ago. They would be proud -- Today, I thought, I was not "wishy-washy."

The Valley Morning Star covered the Cameron County session.