SEPTEMBER 16 / Attaboy (and -girl) to the Chronicle

HATING WALMART is de rigeur among Clever People, right up there with hating Sarah Palin; folks who look at Bambi's mother and see steaks, ribs, and stew meat; and . . .

. . . molecules that contain the element carbon. Despite this, our local redoubt of elitism, the Houston Chronicle editorial board, did something unexpected this week. It endorsed a proposed new Walmart south of the Heights.

The developer of this Walmart store has acted in a responsible manner in extending a hand to the city and nearby communities to make the project an urban asset rather than a liability. The proposed agreement provides a good precedent for future efforts by the city to shape urban development and we urge the City Council to approve it.

(Editorial, "A good deal: City should approve pact with Walmart's developer to secure improvements," Houston Chronicle, September 15, 2010)

What's going on? Did soneone sneak into the Chronicle building one night and squirt a syringe of common sense into the water coolers?

Even more remarkable, the editorial omitted the usual paragraph in favorable Walmart stories about how the big chain, though in the right this time, is a really horrible company in which good people should never be caught dead.

That's called credentializing. It's when someone (a journalist, for example) confirms his membership in a tribe (the Clever People, for example) by publicly affirming a core value of the tribe (Walmart is evil), even as he does something that appears to be contrary to that core value (but let'em build this one store, okay?).

A good example of credentializing can be found in the column by Lisa Falkenberg a day earlier, also unexpected, also approving the Walmart.

I'll probably get banned from my favorite Heights coffee house for saying so, and it's not that I'm a fan of Walmart. Some of their [read its] business practices led me years ago to avoid shopping there if I can avoid it. I'm fortunate enough to have that luxury.

That's credentializing on steroids.

Don't try to wrap your head around her claim never to shop at Walmart "if I can avoid it." Why can't she avoid it all the time? Does a Walmart greeter pull her from her SUV, threaten to cut her throat with a sharpened AARP card, drag her into the store, and refuse to let her leave until she has bought a nice box of wine and a pair of new Snuggies?

What she's really saying, in her own endearingly indirect way, is that she sometimes shops at Walmart. "If I can avoid it" is loud armflapping to distract from that simple and, apparently, somewhat shameful (to her) point.

Still, she did the right thing by supporting the new store, even if her seal of approval (let'em build) has a big, old asterisk on it (not that I'll ever darken the doors there, if I can avoid it)).

And while I'm passing out awards, how about that Joe Holley's five-part series on the "nation of Texas?"

First class.

Mr. Holley traveled far, far from Houston into a strange land known to the natives as "Texas." He talked to folks in Henderson, South Texas, and elsewhere about life and politics. In Haskell County, for instance, he found some who supported native son Rick Perry for governor because they knew him and his people, and some who planned to vote against him for the exact same reason.

Sweet reporting and writing, sweeter still because the reader sensed that the reporter was sharing something interesting because it was interesting, not to score points for some cause.

Even better than the politics, however, were Mr. Holley's descriptive paragraphs. This one about Haskell County rings true.

The Gibsons live, as their parents and grandparents did, in a small, close-knit community. Hasellites run into each other every morning at the Texaco convenience store, where they grab coffee and a sausage biscuit on their way to work or school. They gather on fall Friday nights to watch the Haskell Indians play football, everybody goes to church on Sundays, and when a neighbor dies, the whole town mourns.

In a real-life episode worthy of Friday Night Lights, the high school quarterback got his girlfriend pregnant not long ago, and the town helped the young newlyweds find a place to live.

(Joe Holley, "Candidates for governor cannot ignore 'Tractor County,'" Houston Chronicle, September 15, 2010)

That's good stuff, folks.

Remember, this is the same newspaper that sent redhot lefty Lisa Gray to Rockport to report on the aftermath of the Ixtoc I blowout, thirty-plus years after the event. She talked to virtually no one except a redhot local environmentalist, then excoriated both Rockport and Texas for failing to measure up to her and his standards of perpetual rage.

Mr. Holley, by contrast, didn't show up with the answers. He talked to people and, evidently, listened to what they said. In the old days, that's what newspaper reporters did.

Ms. Falkenberg, to her credit, also listened to folks who sorta like the idea of having a Walmart in the neighborhood.

For a newspaper whose editorial board delights in referring to Texas as a national laughingstock, Mr. Holley's series, Ms. Falkenberg's column, and the Walmart editorial show an impressive degree of respect for our state and its culture -- as they are, not as a bunch of Houston elitists would have them be.

For one day, at least, our locals behaved like adults, not only on the front page (where such behavior is not uncommon), and not only in a local column (much less common), but also on the editorial page (where it is rare, indeed).

Attaboy! Attagirl!* Attaboard! Keep up the good work.

Comments

[gary]

Has there ever been a small community that was not described as "close-knit?"

UNCA D: It's a cliche, yes, but -- like many cliches -- a useful one. The one I dislike is "sleepy," as in "sleepy downtown Podunk."

[Phoenix]

"If I can avoid it." Why can't she avoid it all the time? Does a Walmart greeter pull her from her SUV, threaten to cut her throat with a sharpened AARP card, drag her into the store, and refuse to let her leave until she has bought a nice box of wine and a pair of new Snuggies? Ahahaha. That was perfect and made me smile.