The mayors of Fort Worth and Arlington are in a friendly competition to see which 817 burg returns more U.S. census forms by April 30. This is a dorky, high school-level publicity stunt with very good intentions – to get as many local people as possible to declare themselves so the federal government can make a detailed guesstimate about the U.S. population and its demographics circa 2010. I’m all for it.
I’m also in favor of another reason for the competition: Hopefully, fewer census workers will have to go door to door in North Texas and listen to paranoid hold-outs explain in wide-eyed whispers how the current administration is socialist/fascist/Muslim/queer/anti-gun/anti-America/anti-Texas. The feds aren’t paying anybody enough to smile patiently through that.
