BRYAN, Texas — Willie Blackmon, an Aggie, veteran, and former Judge, has decided to run for Place 5 on the College Station City Council.
He is running against Nicole Gallucci and Bob Yancy for the position.
We caught up with Blackmon at Tavo Coffee where he answered our questions about everything from how he first came to College Station to what he wants to see from the city going forward.
Question:
"First of all, tell me about your background. Why did you come to College Station in the first place?"
Answer:
"I do know that I wanted to attend Berkeley or Stanford or USC because I loved California. They had a fair way of treating people but Earl Rudder came to my home and said, 'I would like to talk to your son.' He talked to me and convinced me he was Earl Rudder, and I told him that I'd consider his school."
Question:
"What are some of those parts of College Station that make it so memorable?"
Answer:
"Well, of course A&M makes it memorable because I'm an All-American, Hall of Fame, Distinguished Alumnus."
Question:
"I know being a lawyer keeps you busy, but what do you like to do in your free time?"
Answer:
"In my free time, I try to make my fiancée as happy as I can. We're getting married October 22 of this year, and I do everything I can to make her happy and satisfied and help her realize she's marrying a pretty good Texan. Most of the other times, I'm doing projects like at A&M where I led the charge to put the Matthew Gaines statue up because he was a cofounder at A&M and prove that Reveille was owned by a black couple. I also petitioned A&M to put his picture in the Congressional Medal of Honor Hall of Honor. It's there now."
Question:
"Why was putting that statue at A&M so important?"
Answer:
"It was important to me because this was a man that was a slave. He had his rights taken away from him at birth in Louisiana. Which, incidentally, is where my father is from and raised in. That statue, when he came to Texas as a slave and went to Fredericksburg and was freed from the Civil War, he did a lot of things with the 12th legislature in 1870 that led to the establishment of what is Texas A&M. It was A&M College."
Question:
"Since you've been involved in the courts, tell me about your history with the law. What about the law fascinates you?"
Answer:
"Well what about the law fascinates me? Fairness and Justice. This country has not had a lot of fairness and justice so all people should be treated the same, fairly. The rule of law is what our Constitution dictates so every human being should be subject to the law of the land. The laws that our founding fathers established in the 1700s in the American Revolution. We can all give each other that which fascinates me because it's not an easy thing. The human rights and civil rights are a thing that every human being has a right to."
Question:
"Why did you join in the military?"
Answer:
"I joined the military because my family members in the military fascinated me. I had relatives who were in the American Revolution, family in the War of 1812 and the Civil War, when my (Third)-great grandfather was a slave, John Glover. My father was in the Korean War and my brother was in Vietnam, so I always felt like I had a sense of duty to my fellow countrymen, to serve my country."
Question:
"What are some of the things in College Station that you'd want to solve if you were elected?"
Answer:
"There are problems in housing and transportation. We just realized that we need to improve transportation. A&M has a system for Blinn, Texas A&M, and the students. The citizens they now, finally, have it. I've watched them over a period of years, since I've been in town. You must have accessible and affordable transportation systems in place."
Question:
"You mention service, and I think a lot of politicians run either because they want to be seen as a leader in the eyes of the people or because they truly believe they want to put others first. Where do you line up with that experience?"
Answer:
"I live helping people, serving people. I'm with that second group that likes to do what's right by my fellow man. It doesn't matter what I get out of it. The feeling I get out of it is that I've done the best I can to help my fellow American citizens."