Boys and Girls in America Have Such a Sad Time Together

There's nothing like a small town election to bring about a good conspiracy theory.

I'll set the stage this way: I grew up in the town of Whitehouse, Texas, which is about 7 miles south of Tyler. Whitehouse has about 6,500 residents and is a place that people might describe with a phrase like "It's a good place to raise a family." I'm not sure what that means, but you can usually place it into a conversation without the other person blinking an eye.

I'm currently living with my parents for two months during my internship at the Tyler U.S. Attorney's Office and I had the opportunity to vote today in a Whitehouse bond election concerning a proposed city park that would sit about 150 yards from our front door. As you can guess, the only people in town who really opposed the park are the people who live on our street and the street that runs along the opposite side of the currently undeveloped land.

Thus, I was surprised earlier this week to find a mysterious flyer tucked into our front door. In relevant part, the flyer stated that the City of Whitehouse had the first right of refusal regarding the land, but if the bond election did not pass, HUD was second in line and was planning to build a series of low-income housing projects on the land. There's nothing that can motivate a lethargic conservative electorate like the threat of a HUD development.

Today as we went to the polling station, we saw a woman that my parents go to church with who told us an interesting story. According to this woman, the letter was a fabrication from an unnamed source who really wanted the park to pass and placed the HUD threat in the letter simply to motivate voters who would normally have been opposed to the park. I'm not calling this woman a liar, but I find it pretty unbelievable that someone would take the time to print up hundreds of fraudulent flyers and place them on houses days before the vote simply to sway people's vote over a city park, but crazier things have happened.

Decide what you will, but I want the conspiracy theory to be true. It just wouldn't be a small town election without one.