Convenience Big Store: The limits to bribery and the necessity of resilience

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Even the corrupt have their limits

I'll always remember when the passport control officer in Goma, Zaire, stopped accepting my fee for an "expedited visa."

"No, Mr. Chris, I'm afraid you are persona non grata," said Jean-Baptiste, whose last name I never knew despite crossing the border from Rwanda dozens of times and paying him hundreds of dollars in the mid-1990s. He held fast, even after I offered to double the fee.

A few weeks earlier, I'd reported on Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko sending troops to close the Rwandan refugee camps controlled by people responsible for the 1994 genocide. I'd witnessed soldiers and police raping schoolgirls and pillaging the camps, and the Associated Press and Voice of America carried my reports.

Mobutu's regime did not appreciate the coverage, so one of the passport photos I supplied every time I crossed was pinned to the border post bulletin board. I wouldn't cross the border again until rebel leader Laurent Kabila captured the borderlands and changed the nation's name to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Corrupt officials always look out for themselves; that's the foundation of their behavior. Jean-Baptiste accepted my bribes only until he might lose his job.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made me think of Jean-Baptiste. Patrick took a $1 million donation and a $2 million forgivable campaign loan from Attorney General Ken Paxton's supporters just before he oversaw Paxton's impeachment trial. After he delivered an acquittal, he raged against the impeachment process. Jean-Baptiste, who also engaged in performative indignation, would have laughed approvingly.

However, Patrick's broadside against House Speaker Dade Phelan and his lieutenants is only the beginning of the next battle in the Texas GOP's civil war: School vouchers.

The West Texas oilmen behind the donation and loan, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, have long wanted to privatize public education by allowing parents to spend taxpayer money on private and parochial schools. Patrick has tried to help them for years.

Supporters call it school choice, something parents already possess without taxpayer funding, but there is more to it. Dunn, Wilks, Patrick and Paxton are in a self-described battle against secularism. Their enemies are rural Republicans, who see a threat to the largest employers in their districts, public schools, and Democrats, who know this will end with resegregation and discrimination based on race, religion and identity.

Gov. Greg Abbott will call another special session on school vouchers soon, and he'll make additional school funding dependent on getting a Dunns and Wilks-approved voucher program.

The only people capable of stopping the Christian Nationalists are Texas voters. The question is, what will make Texans angry enough to shut them down?

Chris Tomlinson, Business Columnist

What Else I'm Writing

Climate activists attend a rally to end fossil fuels, in New York, Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

Photo by: Bryan Woolston, Associated Press

California lawsuit against Exxon, Chevron will hurt Big Oil

Latest lawsuit demands oil companies pay billions into climate change fund and stop producing fossil fuels.

Heat waves rise as the sun beats down on a solar array Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023, at the Blue Jay solar and storage plant in Iola.

Photo by: Jon Shapley, Staff Photographer

Fix the electric grid for the future, not the past

In Texas, the politically correct electricity solution is more fossil fuels, but climate change demands clean energy.

What I'm Reading

Must Read: Migrant arrests plummet in Eagle Pass after backlash over 'inhumane' treatment at border Cities and property owners have withdrawn permission for state troopers to access their land. (Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News)

Should Read: The Kids on the Night Shift Our broken immigration system continues to generate unintended consequences. (New York Times Magazine)

Interesting Read: Texas drivers among the most distracted in U.S., survey says (Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News)

Technical Read: A Cognitive View of Policing Training designed to improve officer decision-making under stress and time pressure led to 23% fewer uses of force and discretionary arrests and 11% fewer arrests of Black civilians. (Becker-Friedman Institute, University of Chicago)

Fun Read: The Donkey Lady Has Haunted Generations of San Antonians. She Has Her Own Talk Show. "There are so many ways that I relate to her. She thinks she's misunderstood. She's a single lady. She doesn't have health care." (Texas Monthly)

Question of the Week

Have you ever paid or had someone demand a bribe? What did you do? Reply directly to this email and tell me your thoughts.

Mailbag

Last Week's Question: Is perfectionism the path to success or a wage slave's treadmill?

"We might agree that being perfect is unattainable, but if you go into surgery, are we happy with a surgeon that is perfect 85% of the time? Or when the DOD mishandles 1% of their funding and wastes $7 billion (yes, that is 1% of their annual budget), do we agree that is okay? Yes, we often waste time and resources on trying to achieve perfection, but most folks value 'better.'" – Joe Diana, San Antonio

"If ballet dancers did not strive for perfection, they'd look pretty stupid up there. The same is true for a baseball infield. I think Michael Jordan worked hard at being perfect, and I'm glad he did. Seeking perfection is one way of playing the game of life — when it works, it's aces." – Kathleen Weber, Houston

"Political polarization can be thought of as a form of perfectionism. Meeting somewhere in the middle, say 75% or 85%? This is how we can go back to getting things done as a nation." – Blaire McPherson, Spring

"I retired after spending most of my career at Memorial Hermann (hospital). I don't recall the word perfection being used. I do recall 'get it right every time.' Frankly, our patients -- and their loved ones, expected perfection every time." – Thomas Broad, Houston

"The definition of being perfect in itself is usually not measured in objective terms, and it is always changing. If you pursue something that is always changing, then you are a slave to the treadmill. Success is achieved by setting and meeting one's goals and adjusting as needed." – Deb Conley, Boulder

"PERFECTION IS A GOAL AND NOT AN ACHIEVEMENT." – Ben Ennis, San Antonio

The Takeaway

Two-thirds of Americans say they feel exhausted when they think about politics, a new Pew survey reports. After the Paxton impeachment trial, I can understand why.

A commentator is going to commentate, so I shared my views on X, formerly known as Twitter. You know your post is getting around by the number of people who call you a "groomer," "communist" or any variety of vile, unoriginal and coded slurs.

Such trolling is an attempt to censor. Folks figure if they hurl enough insults, behave reprehensibly and cause psychic damage, I'll give up and go away.

Good people with more important things to worry about, such as family and work, are dropping out of the political process rather than endure the Make America Great Again crowd's irrational arguments and rote abuse. They hope to melt all the snowflakes so they can accede to power.

As the philosopher John Stuart Mill said in 1867: "Let not anyone pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing."

Or, as we say in Texas, it's time to cowboy up.