Smalltown Politics Dwarfs National Scene

As both political parties hold their conventions, the big story here dwarfs anything national. An outsider called Pedro Perez is stirring up controversy over the new detention center just outside Smalltown. The center should open in mid-October. This recently woke up Pedro who, as I said, is not from around here. He seemed only recently to realize the prison existed. He now has a website illustrating massive prison escapes all around the country and says Smalltown will be next. He spoke with three TV stations to try to stir up controversy. It was all over Sea City local news last night. I suspect Pedro wants to become well known so he can run for County Commissioner. He is tall, about sixty years old, with a generous amount of attractive silver hair. He has large silver-framed glasses and a handlebar mustache. He has a made-for-television look that screams "Politics."

His claims of prison danger do not hold much water with Myra MacDonald, who knows the warden. She has seen the formidable facility with its stun fences and guard towers. Myra showed up with fifty others to a meeting that Pedro called after he informed the media about it. We were going to have a community meeting at our church later, but Pedro decided to hold his own gathering ahead of us and to call the media just like we were going to do. Myra attended Pedro's meeting and told him she was highly offended that he said she lived in a colonia. His definition of a colonia in no way described where she lived, she told him. Pedro got his balloon popped tonight. As Myra told me just before the meeting, "Pedro rained on my parade and now I'm going to rain on his."