Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Thoughts on Fort Worth

What prompted the title of today's entry was the news of the death of Jim Wright.  

I never lived in that area of Texas and hadn't even heard of the man until he became Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.  

After Wright resigned I recall my dad saying things that weren't complimentary of the former congressman.  He seemed to be one of only a few Democrats  Geodad really disliked (I imagine LBJ would be at the top of that list).  

And during lunch today when Geogal shared Jim Wright had passed my reaction was one of surprise. I thought the guy had died several years ago.  

Reaction from north Texas is very likely mixed.  His detractors possibly include those that were opposed to the Wright Amendment.  

However if one looks into the aviation history of the area it seems reasonable that the Wright Amendment was written and enacted.  While DFW Airport is now one of the largest and busiest it wasn't always that way.  

For more background look at this page I found some time ago.  

The story of GSW Airport is certainly a sad one.  One passage near the bottom of the page states it well:

It was truly as if they built this beautiful airport & nobody ever came...

After reading all that material now I understand why Fort Worth residents of so long ago had such enmity toward Dallas.  

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