Tribune in the vanguard? Now, there’s something to be for -- so guess who’s against it?

For the first time in recent memory, New Albany has a newspaper that’s willing to up the ante and take risks by expanding local coverage of governmental and political affairs, and expressing cogent and articulate viewpoints about the best available ways for the city to move forward during its current window of opportunity for ecnomic growth and the betterment of its quality of life.

Naturally, for those whose smudgy windows remain draped with heavy black shrouds of acrimony and bile, the future view isn’t as clearly understood, but the maudlin and self-defeating preferences of New Albany’s unreconstructed Luddites, conspiracy aficionados and anonymous character assassins need not detract from the New Albany Tribune’s steady progress toward relevance.

Reporter Eric Scott Campbell may well be the hardest-working man in local journalism circles, and the newspaper’s publisher, John Tucker, has penned a series of insightful and deadly accurate columns decrying the city council follies perpetrated by Siamese Councilmen Dan Coffey and Steve Price.

To be sure, some former Tribune employees have made it clear that they do not appreciate the management style of the new regime, and while I’m cognizant of these objections, the positive results so far are clear, unmistakable and crucial in the face of a last-ditch summer counter-offensive of regression and indecency undertaken by New Albany's shrill “we can’t” obstructionists.

Accordingly, earlier today the reigning troglodyte shaman (“Trog Sham,” to the uninitiated) kicked off Morbid Hour at the Luddite Bar & Grill with a strident denunciation of Tucker and the Tribune, including this priceless bit of xenophobic legerdemain:

Who is John Tucker to come to town and second guess what citizens have been working on for more than 10 years?

These sentiments, which are freely divulged by the Luddite’s shadowy cast and crew, are eerily reminiscent of those sons and daughters of immigrants who express wholehearted opposition to immigration, in the sense that the poster woman of Trog Nation is an idolized and idealized Main Street business owner who came to town herself just two or so years before the Tribune’s publisher.

That’s simple hypocrisy, of course, but being a dazed New Albany trog nativist means never having to admit to inconsistency and other logical fallacies.

Why 10 years? It’s worth noting that Trog Sham doesn’t stop at linking ultimate truth to vaguely defined residency requirements. She’s also ruling out any remote possibility that truth might be discovered in the blink of an eye – or at least in any less than a decade:

Yep, 10 years have accumulated under the belts of several civic activists in town, and their hard work will NOT be trivialized!

Evidently it’s not about the possibilities inherent in truth, vision and efficiency – any of which might be embraced by a newborn or an adult first-time visitor to New Albany – but about long-term efforts undertaken by a select and specific crew of the chronically disgruntled.

And that reminds me of another old saying:

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again while expecting the outcome to change.

Do you hear the tubs being thumped? Yes, the weekly Trog karaoke has started ... so take it away, EastdistEnded:

We don't need no education
We don't need no thoughts or goals
No activism in your pressroom
Tucker, leave them Luds alone
Hey! Tucker! Leave them Luds alone!
All in all it's just another drip in their craws.
All in all you're just another drip in their craws.

With apologies to Roger Waters and David Gilmour and their “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2.”