McAllen needs civil discourse, mayor says; nun's activism honored at luncheon

McALLEN — When controversial issues divide McAllen, citizens must learn to respectfully disagree, Mayor Richard Cortez said Wednesday at the 40^th annual Mayor’s Prayer Luncheon.

There has been no shortage of such issues, ranging from the future of McAllen’s theater to the proper use for the Botanical Gardens, during the past 10 months. In several instances, public opinion appears to have caught Cortez and city commissioners by surprise.

During his brief remarks, Cortez called for civil, respectful discussion:

“So as we govern, and we all have different opinions about what is good for our community, at some point in time there has to be a decision as to what to do. And someone is not going to agree to that decision.

“What defines our community in McAllen? We find a way to disagree respectfully. And if we don’t do that, if we don’t learn to heal from, sometimes, acts or things that other people say about us, then are we really a godly community?” Cortez said. “And so I ask you, going forward, as we deliberate different issues in our community, there are some of us that just happen to think differently. We cannot be a community of all of us looking alike, thinking alike, speaking the same — that’s not who McAllen is. We were made a very diversified place. But what will make us special forever is how we treat one another.”

The annual luncheon evolved from a pancake breakfast first held by Mayor Jack Whetsel, and is organized by a 12-member committee.

This year, the committee presented its community service award to Sister Marian Strohmeyer, who helped found Casa Merced, which shelters Central American refugees, and Comfort House, which provides care for people with terminal illnesses.

Comfort House opened in 1989, after Strohmeyer became concerned with the plight of gay men stricken with AIDS.

“They would leave the Valley because they were gay, and they would come back when they became sick,” Strohmeyer said. “But they wouldn’t be let (back) in the house.”

Comfort House offered a place for those men and other terminally ill patients. A decade later, she co-founded Hope Family Health Center to provide counseling and primary health care for the poor. Strohmeyer still works there.

After accepting her award, Strohmeyer had some advice for Cortez.

“Ignacio Ellacuría, the Jesuit, said, ‘The principle of mercy is to remove people from their crosses. Taking people down from their suffering. Bringing them up from their poverty,’” Strohmeyer said. “If you want a plan for the City of McAllen, mayor, I think that would be a very good one. To remove the suffering people of McAllen from their crosses, so that every decision you make, you don’t ask about how much money it’s going to bring in or how many people are going to come to town, but what effect it has on the poor.”

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Dave Hendricks covers McAllen and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4452.