What 'Washington, D.C.' Means to Them

Perceptions about Washington, unfortunately, are shaped largely by the mainstream media. And I believe that it's fair to say that, other than the political stuff, D.C. is covered in the media much as the Third World is. It's almost always bad news.

And vice versa. If Washingtonians were asked to imagine Kentucky, they'd probably mention hillbillies and, lately, the home of a Miss USA gone wild.

- Betty Winston Baye

Louisville

The writer is a columnist and an editorial writer at the Courier-Journal.

Texas: Huachinton, Can You Hear Us?

In bilingual South Texas, Washington, or Huachinton, is a faraway place disconnected from our realities.

Most South Texans, I'm quite certain, have never been to D.C. Or they have spent only a few bewildering days there, taking cabs because the Metro system seemed to work for everyone but them.

To them, Washington means the federal government, political blowhards and misspent tax money.

Some older South Texans wistfully recall when Texans were among Washington's powerful, and federal money built dams and brought electricity and potable water to then-small towns. Many black and Latino Texans recall that it took World War II spending and the GI Bill to open up the middle class to them. They also recall Washington's distant hand ending Texas's poll tax and forcing the state to open its colleges and public schools to all.

But Washington's good deeds and Texans' D.C. clout began to wane in the 1970s. And the two-way disconnect grew as fast as Texas's population.

Now that three of the nation's 10 largest cities and the second-largest congressional delegation are in Texas, and a Texan is president, you might think that Washington's interest in us would be renewed. You might expect that Texans would moderate such hateful measures as building walls to keep our neighbors out. And, by the way, prevent border ranchers from watering cattle from the Rio Grande.