By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
Childhood trauma is not pretty, it’s not upbeat, it’s not positive, and most people don’t really want to read about it on a Sunday. But childhood trauma happens on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and every other day of the week at any hour of the day or night.
There is no way to put a positive happy spin on childhood trauma and no one should ever make the attempt. The human who grows and evolves under conditions of childhood trauma is no doubt formed and shaped by their experiences. Adult survivors of childhood trauma are living amongst us and in many cases, are shining examples of what as a nation we believe is possible.
Living in a society that believes in pulling oneself up by their bootstraps means you have choices coming out of childhood trauma. You can choose to make your adult life a better one than what you learned as a child. It isn’t easy, all the cards are stacked against you and the world you have known hasn’t been a safe one.
La Marque Mayor Keith Bell is one of those people who grew up in trauma and he is one of those people who made a choice to abandon his confusing, painful experiences and step into a chance at his version of the American dream.
The first thing he did once he was a legal adult was to take himself into College of the Mainland and apply to the Police Academy. “I had wanted to be a police officer when I was a kid,” said Mayor Bell.
What he learned that day at COM is that he was just a few years too young to become a gun-toting officer of the law.
“I said to myself if I didn’t start school right then I might never do it, so across the hall was the Fire Academy and I enrolled that day,” said Bell.
It was a stroke of his mother’s misfortune that afforded him the tuition money. She had been injured when she leaned onto the rails of a balcony in a section-8 rental. She was awarded a sum of money which was set aside for him to use for college.
For the first 12 years of his life he lived with his grandmother in a housing project at 29th and Ball in Galveston. “We were a community, we would share in our holiday celebrations, in our feasts and together we shared gift giving,” said Bell.
They also respected the roles of adults in their community. “If an adult who wasn’t your parent caught a child misbehaving it was okay for that adult to discipline the child,” he explained.
“Sometimes if one parent had to be gone for an errand another parent looked after the children. It was a real community,” he continued to explain.
The first 12 years of his life were filled with school, community and Grandma. Then Grandma died and he found himself living with his crack cocaine-addicted mother. “She was my mother and my first love and she loved me,” said Mayor Bell. “She did her best to provide for us even through her addiction,” he added.
He went from community and good times to days without food and times when his mom couldn’t pay the rent. While life was marching on he was marking time, just living. All the while he was pretty much miserable and couldn’t see the bright side of life. He attended school where sometimes the principal would question him about his mother’s activities.
Trapped in a no-win situation, he was overwhelmed and dropped out of Ball High School. He found his way back to high school and is an alum of O’Connell Catholic High School.
Choosing to get an education and take charge of his future made a difference in his life and the lives of the many he has served. Bell served as a fire fighter with the Galveston Fire Department from 1996-2010.
While serving as a fire fighter, Bell took on responsibilities with the firefighter’s union. He was the executive secretary to the union board for seven years. “It was when I was busy with the union that I was encouraged to run for public office,” said Bell. He ran for La Marque City council and won a seat in 2004.
During those years he fell in love, married and raised a blended family of six children. He and his wife purchased their home in La Marque. Together, they started a family-owned business.
With one of their children in ICU at Memorial Houston and her future uncertain, the many hats he wore became too overwhelming. So, he took off his firefighter hat and focused on both his family and making La Marque a safer place to live (the young girl made it through her medical condition and is healthy).
He served as Mayor Pro-Temp of La Marque since 2009. On January 2, 2021, he became mayor of La Marque when longtime Mayor Bobby Hocking retired. With 89% of the votes cast for him, Keith Bell became the elected mayor of La Marque in May.
Mayor Bell has committed to making La Marque the safest city in Texas. Growing up in an unsafe reality, Mayor Bell has a keen insight into what it will take to make La Marque a safe city.
Under his mayoral watch, the city has added five new positions in the police department and 10 new police cars. He and his staff began conversations with experts in law enforcement from around the nation along with doing community surveys to be able to build a plan for a safer La Marque.
A safe city isn’t just a place free of crime, it’s a place where there is excellent education, affordable housing, and jobs. A safe city also needs all city systems such as the water and sewer to be run in a safe and healthy manner. Mayor Bell intends to work on all aspects required to make La Marque the safest city in Texas.
His commitment to safety is something that causes him sleepless nights. “I’m sometimes awake worried about the members of the community who don’t feel safe,” said Bell.
Mayor Bell is holding a daunting role with a lot on the table that needs attention, so how does he have any time for enjoying life? Well, asking him about his grandkids brings out a huge smile as he counts out loud the 11 grandbabies who he adores.
“I enjoy the grandchildren in ways I wasn’t able to enjoy my own children. They’re little people and it’s a kick to watch them grow and mature,” said Mayor Bell.
