A New Voice. A New Perspective. A New Responsiveness.

Parker County sits on the border between urban and rural cultures. We are an exurb moving at an increasing pace to suburb. Our resource needs grow greater as people move to our area. This once-small town is becoming a small city.

Sociologists and demographers have studied this type of change for decades. The rapid change of small communities into urban or suburban areas creates a host of challenges: increased traffic, increased stress on infrastructure, increased development, increased construction, increased crowds. All inconvenient. All stressful.

There is also a deeper challenge, one sociologists have recognized since we started these studies: the strain on and loss of local identity. Who we are as a community is changing; new replaces old - it is the normal process of urbanization.

That doesn't make it less painful or less stressful.

But the question isn't 'How do we stop it?' The change has started and time moves forward. We either adapt and integrate the new, or we stagnate in conflict, trying to stop the inevitable tide.

The right question is, 'How do we manage it?' How do we embrace the new that aligns with our community, and say good-bye to those things that no longer serve us? And how do we minimize those elements that always come with change that destabilize and disrupt? How do we embrace those changes that make us better?

Our community has been listening to one political voice, one set of ideas for almost three decades. The decisions that come from those ideas are disconnected from our everyday lives. If you drive across Weatherford, you know this. When you pay your property taxes, you feel this.

It is time for more voices and new ideas to enter the conversation. This isn't about party politics or special interests, it's not about national debates. These local challenges are our challenges and if we do not solve them, no one will. But one set of ideas is not up to the challenge, one party in the conversation cannot give voice to answers.

I offer a different voice, a different perspective on what we face and how we can meet the challenges. I want to have these conversations with all of you, to meet these challenges with all of you.

Community is not about a few individuals or groups telling us who we are. Community is about who we are, and who we are becoming. Together. At the heart of community is communication. The key to communication is listening. I'm here to listen. To represent the people of our community. To give voice to the ideas and values that make us who we are, who we are becoming, and who we will be.

I'm here to serve the people of Precinct 2 and the people of Parker County.

I ask for your support and your vote in the November General Election.

Henry Lee Butler
Democratic Candidate
For County Commissioner, Precinct 2