The Bush Administration planned to start a pilot program in July that would run for a year, and then open the border to Mexican trucks as foreseen by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) cheerleaders.

On May 15 the U.S. House of Representatives approved HR 1773, the “Safe American Roads Act of 2007,” and sent it to the U.S. Senate. The Act will “limit the authority of the Secretary of Transportation to grant authority to motor carriers domiciled in Mexico to operate beyond United States municipalities and commercial zones on the US-Mexican border.”

The vote was 411-3. They must have been listening to the voters of the Big Bend.

In short, the Bush Administration is directed to change their “pilot” program to a three-year evaluation and limit it to 100 Mexican motor carriers and no more than 1000 trucks. A long list of requirements must be met for safety, etc. and then final approval will still be withheld by Congress pending a report.

The bill must be passed by the Senate and signed by the President, of course. But for the moment any urgency for stopping the recent La Entrada al Pacifico (LEAP) initiative is moot.

Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDoT) next public hearing on the Entrada “feasibility study” will be later this summer. In the original brochure the meeting is called “The Conceptual Alternatives Screening.” The brochure goes on to say “The second step of the study process will be to utilize the collected data (from the previous meetings) to identify a broad range of Conceptual Alternatives that will be evaluated and narrowed down to the Viable Alternative(s) for future consideration.” 

This is typical public relations flackery and puffery for controlling the options toward a predetermined conclusion. The deal is done but the controllers will let us think we get to participate. Sure, we get to help choose the particular agent of our home’s destruction — fire, wind, earthquake or NAFTA trucks. Austin and TxDoT know what they intend the study to conclude.

But with the U.S. House’s vote we at least have a fact which may inconvenience the “study” drill. That fact is 1000 Mexican trucks which will have to meet U.S. highway standards. That would be 1000 trucks transiting about 20 ports of entry, meaning no more than 50 daily through Ojinaga-Presidio … and probably far fewer than that. Say zero.

Ever on the alert to the gobbledygook of modern management manipulation we read the announcements of the TxDoT LEAP “study” carefully. We read that “staff (TxDoT) will present the initial alternatives identified through the first round of public meetings” and they will present the alternatives and “identify any new alternatives from key individuals or stakeholders within the project study area. …”

What this means is that some of us are going to have more say in the result than others. The TxDoT staff and local promoters are likely to cobble something together and present it as the preferred alternative for all of us.

Is the Nimby News just being paranoid? Nope. The key word here is “stakeholders.”

That word has crept into management schemes and jargon rather recently. Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary (published frequently since 1904 and as recently as 1977 in our copy), defines “stakeholder” as “one who holds stakes when a wager is made by others and pays it to the winner.” It is a gambling metaphor and the only one listed, although “stake” has numerous listings.

A Web search, however, lists dozens of “definitions” by various businesses, educational and government entities. The most common attribute of the modern use of the term is no longer to identify “stakeholder” with gamblers but instead with those who have a general interest, usually economic. Thus MOTRAN’s desire to establish a truck freight transfer business complex trumps our desire to breathe clean air.

One definition from an education institution is simply “one who has a stake or interest in the outcome of the project.” But the online Webster’s (second) definition today is simply “one that has a stake in an enterprise.” The first definition is still about gambling: “a person entrusted with the stakes of bettors (www.m-w.com).” Perhaps both definitions fit the TxDoT usage. TxDoT and MOTRAN have a stake in gambling with our homes?

Whatever the case, we suggest that anyone along the projected path of La Entrada is a “stakeholder” if the term is to be used at all. We suggest that it is highly improper for a paid agent of TxDoT, Ms Peggy Thurin, the director of the LEAP study project, to discriminate among those of us affected by the project. If this unstated intent of the term’s use is to assign a rank order based on economic interest, we will object more forcefully. (Ms. Thurin has not yet responded to our email asking her for the TxDoT study’s definition of “stakeholder.”)

Several “alternate” LEAP routes have been suggested as a result of the March meetings.

County judges have proposed a route from Presidio up the river road to Candelaria. There is the enhancement of the existing rail line. Proposals are heard to bypass Marfa and Alpine. And there’s a proposal to bypass Marfa to the west — along Highway 90. The existing alternatives, from the point of view of the study directors, can be rank-ordered and assigned cost estimates … which is why they do this kabuki.

But the least cost in the immediate future to TxDoT is to run the trucks over the existing highways 67/90 route. The least cost for those of us who live here, particularly in the small towns of Alpine, Marfa and Ft. Davis is to stop the trucks entirely. Our representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives just did that. Our other representatives need to be reminded that if they are “stakeholders,” they are holding our “stakes.” If any of them find this task of representation too onerous, we should seek other representation.
Representative Robin Hayes, a North Carolina Republican, said in the House, “We do not need 90,000-pound unguided missiles on our highways (Houston Chronicle online, May 15, 2007).”  •

(Also published by the Big Bend Sentinel of Marfa, Texas May 24, 2007.)