Mayor Arjumand Hashmi (center), a Pakistani-born cardiologist who has become one of the United States’ most improbable politicians. (Photo by Anand Giridharadas, NY Times)
PARIS, Texas — In this city in northeastern Texas, not far from the Oklahoma border, there would appear to be more antique shops than restaurants and more churches than both of those things combined.
There is a lot of God in Paris, Texas — the Christian one, to be precise — and a lot of antiques, because there are a lot of old people dying and leaving their wares behind. What there’s not a lot of is dynamic young people. Those who can tend to leave for college and never come back.
road sign to Paris
But Paris is also an unmistakably charming town, with the Southern — more than the customary Texas Western — feel of a Charleston or New Orleans. And it is now having something of a renaissance.
A little more than a year ago, with little fanfare, this out-of-the-way Texas city elected as its mayor a man who is simultaneously (A) a Muslim, (B) a Republican, (C) a cardiologist, (D) a Pakistani native and (E) a really wealthy guy.
For my latest column, I trailed Arjumand Hashmi, the improbable mayor of Paris, Texas, for a day. Because he is the mayor as well as a practicing cardiologist, he weaves in and out of each job throughout the day. He could be inserting a catheter in someone’s heart one moment, then on a surprise inspection of a city agency 15 minutes later, only to return to analyze some blood work at his office. To make all this work, he now wakes up at 3:30 a.m. and has donated part of his medical office to Paris, so that it can function as his mayoral office when he needs to wear that other hat.
Dr. Hashmi concedes that he has national political ambitions, but he is coy about them. The question, strangely enough, is whether voters elsewhere will be as open-minded as those in Paris, Texas, have proven.
But wherever he ends up, Dr. Hashmi may have a unique opportunity to build bridges in an age of deep divisions: he is, after all, a brown Muslim voted in with the support of droves of white Christians; a Lamborghini-rich doctor born in one of the poorest places on earth; a cowboy boots-wearing Texan who is also a Yale-trained jetsetter; and an American who has close friendships with the leaders of Pakistan, with which the United States has a hard, fraught relationship.
In the meanwhile, he has a city to turn around — and voters to win over. And he is trying to get used to them, too: “I’m still trying to correct people’s English in town,” he said, only half-jokingly. “I keep telling them they have an accent, but they don’t believe me.”
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Charles Richards Charles Richards moved to Paris in 2004 after retiring from a 40-year career in journalism – the last 26 years as a news writer and sports writer with The Associated Press in Dallas and Washington, D.C. In mid-2004, The Paris News coaxed him out of retirement, and he began covering the police, court and regional beat for The Paris News. Then in early 2005, he was switched to coverage of a sharply divided Paris City Council. He was appointed by the City Council in 2006 to the 12-member City Charter Review Commission, which extensively rewrote the outmoded document. His writing awards include two first-place awards in statewide competition for feature writing. The most recent was his 2005 story on a Paris doctor’s startling use of leeches in a successful attempt to re-attach a man’s severed ear. Over his career, Richards’ interview subjects include Alabama Gov. George Wallace, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush, David Koresh, Arnold Palmer, Muhammad Ali and numerous other political and sports figures. He is an alumnus of Texas Tech, where he was editor of the school newspaper. He lives in Paris with his wife, Barbara, who is retired after 30 years as a teacher and high school counselor.
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