The venerable phrase “hoist by your own petard” has a colorful background, and is meant to suggest that one has been “injured by the device that had been intended for use to injure others.”
In other words, those TNT-filled boomerangs tossed at the Roadrunner by Wile E. Coyote have a habit of coming back to explode in the face of the "genius" who threw them. And so it is that 4th district councilman Larry Kochert’s premeditated presidential shenanigans on January 18th have returned to pay him a visit.
EVANS: New Albany Council meeting disturbs pastor, by Rev. O. Lacy Evans (Local Guest Columnist; New Albany Tribune)
Having been called upon and identifying myself and the item I wished to address I was informed by the president of the council, Mr. Larry Kochert, that I would not be allowed to comment on this item because it had been postponed or removed from the agenda. Ironically, the person just prior to me had been allowed to comment on the very same item ...
... Such a “mistake,” i.e., granting permission to one person to speak while disallowing another the same privilege, has the tendency to infer something different, especially when the denied person is one of another ethnicity, gender, religious or political persuasion than the person who was granted permission.
There are times when the council Gang of Four’s fumbling ineptitude produces the type of embarrassed giggles one experiences while watching hoary reruns of "Hogan’s Heroes" – and then, in a sobering fashion, there are times when one grasps the extent of the mean-spiritedness that motivates this cabal’s enduring resentment against those manifestations of contemporary society that refuse to accommodate Luddite simplicity.
Looking on last Thursday as CM Kochert gleefully pursued the petty gamesmanship that has sadly defined his underachieving political career, all the while remaining painfully oblivious to the fact that his ward-heeling machinations were having the dual effect of insulting the African-American community leaders in attendance and empowering the very political target (think: Mayor James Garner) that he had intended these procedural hijinks to harm, onlookers were neither embarrassed nor laughing, but thoroughly disgusted with a spectacle that has no place in the process outside of redefining our city's socio-political dysfunction.
More and more people are starting to "get it," so please keep hoisting, Larry, while the NAC chorus sings from the Paul Simon songbook:
Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip sliding away
I wrote a response letter to Rev. Evans via The Tribune yesterday afternoon after reading the column by Rev. Evans. I got the confirmation call back from the paper but it didn't get in today, some of it is also in a comment on another post on NAC (i.e. "How can you be a leader?" Simple)...however here's what it says.
ReplyDelete"I too agree that if one person was able to speak concerning the hiring practices of the NAFD, then the process should have been allowed to continue on by allowing all additional speakers. The situation could have been handled better by the council President with just explaining not only that the issue had been moved from the agenda and the mis-communication, but he, and the other council members, could have shown some courtesy to take the extra time to hear additional speakers, and to have allowed all comments to be entered into the record. After hearing the final speaker, he could have also directed the City Clerk to add this to the top of the agenda at the next meeting...but he didn't do that.
How many people in the city of New Albany have needed to call 9-1-1 for the NAFD in the last couple of years, either for a fire related issue or EMS? Out of the many calls that the NAFD and EMS have answered, has anyone ever stopped them at their driveway and asked a firefighter or an EMT if they could see their written test scores?? Of course not. You're just thankful that they are there within minutes to help. I agree that the hiring rules should be changed to place little or no emphasis on written test scores. If you can fill out the application for employment, listing your qualifications,and considering the way some applications for employment are worded, that should be your written test. If any person who has at least a High School Diploma/GED, the physical ability, the agility, the courage, and can be trained to do the job properly, and has the willingness to put their lives on the line daily to save lives, should be qualified to be hired regardless of the shade of their skin. Bigotry and decades of hand me down ignorance have no place on the city council.
In the last 2 years, personally, the NAFD, EMT (big red) has been to my house 28 times to take my Mother to the hospital. The crew from Engine Company #6 on Charlestown Rd (in my district) is extremely professional, prompt, and once at the hospital, they even come back in to do a follow up just to see how things are going. I am for changing the hiring rules to place more emphasis on the physical abilities/agility/mental attitude aspect of the job, rather than test scores."
Gee...I wonder, if it gets printed, if I'll get the obligitory cuss out call from the "King"! He'll get MY machine, and no return call.
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ReplyDeleteI removed the previous comment because of spelling..sorry. Hey..I like the Paul Simon "slip sliding away". In another light, and in a play on the wording, The Righteous Brothers.."You've Got That "sinking" feeling, oh..oh that sinking feeling" might apply to both LK and 15th St. Of course the overall attitude of the current city council as a whole is.."Let It Be".
ReplyDeletei was denied work for the new albany fire department because of my age.
ReplyDeletei am more than capable of passing the physical test and i have 8 years of experience with damage control and fire fighting from the U.S. Navy....
Please forgive my ignorance, but would that be THE DICK STEWART?
ReplyDeleteTommy2X4, The way I see it, if the U.S. military is accepting recruits up to age 42 now with no problem, being 35 and given your Navy experience in damage control and fire fighting, it should have been a done deal. Perhaps that might be one of the "changes" in hiring practices the NAFD would consider.
ReplyDeleteAs an Asian-American female, I feel that I have been discriminated against.
ReplyDeleteThough I usually get red faced when I hear or see some one using the media to promote or illustrate a racially charged story. I truly feel in this case this would be a good one for the wave3 trouble shooter or at very minimum the New Albany tribune to delve into and demand an answer from King Larry as to why, exactly why, he denied a citizen to speak in a public meeting, while the speaker immediately before him was allowed to speak at length regarding the same topic.
ReplyDeleteThe second question would be, what grounds or proceedures are needed to have king larry dethrowned for such an act of spiteful, deliberate, autocratic behavior.
Bottom line, I would love nothing more than the mainstream media get ahold of this, you know they would eat it up.
Let Rev Coleman get a hold of it, and it will be on every TV station in the Metro area.
ReplyDeleteGood presentation, Tim. Sorry I was a bit late.
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteI don't know, but there should be something written somewhere on how to remove a council president due to abuse of power.
Matthew...Asian-American female? Something you're not telling us?...lol
Me thinks Matthew is Erik's cousin.
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteYou know the more I think about it, the less likely it will be for anyone to research that information. Let him conduct a few more meetings like that, snub the wrong people for the wrong reason and his house of cards should tumble down fast.
Why put him to a firing squad when he is all ready hanging himself?
iamhoosier... To quote an often used line from the late Johnny Carson, "I did not know that". But to correctly answer Meatbe/Erik, if you have the physical ability, agility, and mental attitude and can be trained to do the job, it should not matter if you're Asian American, African American, Native American one bit...you should be considered. I do think that the age requirement should be at least 42 just like the military is now.
ReplyDeleteChris, I agree with you let him hang himself. Move over Saddam! There's a new dictator in the house!