The adversary she found herself forced to fight was not worth matching or beating; it was not a superior ability which she would have found honour in challenging; it was ineptitude - a grey spread of cotton that seemed soft and shapeless, that could offer no resistance to anything or anybody, yet managed to be a barrier in her way. She stood, disarmed, before the riddle of what made this possible, she could find no answer.
... Ayn Rand (from “Atlas Shrugged”)
----
John Tucker took stock of the “grey spread of cotton” in Sunday’s Tribune, and not unexpectedly, found it draping two of the chairs on the east side of the council’s chamber:
TUCKER: New Albany council leading the disarray, by John Tucker, publisher of the New Albany Tribune.
More to the point of this column — (Steve) Price, (Dan) Coffey and the rest of the council oversee the city and its operations. They indirectly oversee the city employees. Who wants to work for a boss who continually accuses workers of ineptitude and cheating fellow citizens like these councilmen do? How do we expect to keep or obtain quality city workers when they behave in such an insensitive manner? The answer is you can’t. Good people want to work with good people. The recent actions and statements of these two councilmen are going to drive away good city employees. With budget shortfalls and expensive projects on the horizon, we simply can’t afford that.
The Tribune continues to lap the Courier-Journal when it comes to coverage of local governmental and political news, and although such dominance might be expected considering the newspaper’s concentrated coverage area, it remains that its potential for excellence was largely untapped until the current management team came aboard.
If you’re in the mood for the “spin” cycle, note that the flailing councilman has wasted no time in consulting the Coup d’Geriatrique’s reality fabrication bureau, contributing a crayon-stained press release that can be read here: A LETTER FROM COUNCILMAN STEVE PRICE.
Am I being petty, am I picking on the nickels and dimes. The answer to that question is an opinion of itself.
Powerful, simply powerful.
You can hear the adulatory applause of the besotted mock professor, and feel the sting of the abacus. “Them pergessives’re screwin’ us,” bloviates Jethro, “so we’ll just screw ‘em right back.”
The Luddite Bar & Grill erupts into pandemonium, the linoleum buckles, the tallow drips to the beat of the jukejoint jumping to "Free Bird," and our absentee slumlords sleep soundly knowing that their 3rd District entrenchments are safe so long as their champion is at the helm.
Meanwhile ... even before CM Price fell flat on his face during his ineptly choreographed “rape” moment at the last council meeting, the residents of the 3rd District endured nearly three years of embarrassment, but fortunately, the time for ending this reign of error draws near.
We can only hope that further damage can be limited in scope, and that perhaps – just maybe – the Floyd County Democratic Party can be persuaded that with public officials like Steve Price, you don’t need Republicans in order to be beaten.
The pain can be self-inflicted.
Does the party support CM Price's cries of "rape"? A ritualistic public censure most definitely is in order.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
This cries out for a guest column in The Tribune.
The recent events involving the initiative of Mr. Tucker, the Tribune and the linguistic pyrotechnics at the City Ciuncil have been inspiring. Such firefights of emotive language have even pushed me, away from my hermetic dorkdom to broach the SOLA-sphere, an unhealthy exercise in bile. My position has remained relatively consistant. I don't think the use of the word rape was a self-evident atrocity. I also found it intriguing that Mr. Blogstatic said that he refused to read the satire from Mr. Tucker, apparently he needn't sully his soul with diatribe from the darkness.
I did read it and was impressed. I thought this was an instance of journalism functioning correctly. This was not PR with a byline -- explaining why the latest McCartin death-strip was a god-send. Rather, it was an analysis of a situation (or, conversely, a culture of situations) and the use of a device, namely satire, to delineate the essence thereof. Good work, gentlemen.
Let's hope that the Tribune doesn't stop with critiquing the Council's performance only. There are some other elected & appointed officials who certainly need public scrutiny . . .
If the Trib stops the buck with the Council, their opinion won't seem too credible to me.
Post a Comment