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Tiny Colorado City, Texas will be getting attention today
The mayor of Colorado City, Tom Boyd, has resigned and will not seek reelection after he went off on citizens who were calling him to complain about electricity and water outages that aren't exclusive to this remote Texas town 70 miles west of Abilene on I-20.
"If you don’t have electricity, you step up and come up with a game plan to keep your family warm and safe," Boyd wrote on a Facebook post. "Get off your ass and take care of your own family!"
“No one owes you or your family anything; nor is it the local governments responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim, it’s your choice!” he wrote. “The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING!”
In his resignation announcement, Boyd clarified his original message. "I would never want to hurt the elderly or anyone that is in true need of help to be left to fend for themselves," said Boyd. "I was only making the statement that those folks that are too lazy to get up and fend for themselves but are capable should not be dealt a handout. I apologize for the wording and some of the phrases that were used!"
The political pundits will make Boyd the flavor of the day. He'll be splashed across CNN as the devil. Tom will be painted as pure evil. But let's sit back and think about this for a minute. What's the first thing a responsible family does when bad weather is approaching? We check on one another. My father calls to make sure we have firewood pretty much whenever there are 3 or 4 inches of snow on the way. He reminds us to have the cars loaded with fuel. He's not babysitting, he's making sure the lessons he instilled in us aren't being ignored. He's being a parent.
Yep, that's exactly what Tom's trying to do to his able-bodied constituents, but it definitely came out as a parent who's fed up with the kids whining about their predicament. Tom vented. I think about how my dad would react if I called him screaming that the power was out, and I didn't know what to do. There's a very good chance he would vent right back at me, and then he'd ask what kind of plan I had to get out of the situation.
The message here should be clear: check on your family, neighbors, your texting buddies, those who can't fend for themselves and stop being douchebags who scream while situations are dire. Survive and advance. Live to fight those big-ticket items another day.
• OffGridSurvival.com has some excellent ideas for people who don't have fireplaces, firewood or any way to heat the inside of their houses. Terracotta pots can be heated with candles and turned into radiators.