Lee Cotner is appointed to a third stint on the NAFC school board.

Full disclosure: Lawyer and former school board member Lee Cotner, who represented New Albanian Bank Street Brewhouse back in 2013 when the Floyd County Health Department's Dr. Tom Harris was a bit too haughty for his own damned good, and eventually was smacked down vigorously by various state agencies as well as compelling the enactment of legislation to keep him in his place -- wait, where was I?

Oh, that's right: Lee Cotner has been appointed to fill the District Two school board seat weirdly vacated by D.J. Hines, and with the News and Tribune yet again down a reporter, the SoIn newspaper was late to a pre-selection plot line explored by the C-J.

NAFC school board vacancy concerns NAACP leader, by Kirsten Clark (Courier-Journal)

New Albany-Floyd County School Board is expected to swear in a new member Monday evening following the resignation of DJ Hines, ending a process a local NAACP leader says lacked transparency and raises concerns about minority representation on the district's governing board.

"I am disappointed the school board has missed an opportunity to make itself more reflective of the community in which it serves," said Nicole Yates, president of the New Albany NAACP, in an email to the Courier-Journal. "The student population in Floyd County schools is 22 percent minority. Yet there is zero minority representation on the school board."

She continued: "Just last year the school board expressed disappointment that a minority school leader was not chosen at New Albany High School. The recent vacancy would have been a chance for them to lead by example while demonstrating that the same standard that they argued for New Albany High School applies to the board."

The N & T did muster an unattributed preview, and minimalist coverage of the actual meeting.

NA-FC Schools board votes to fill vacancy; Members vote 4-1 for Lee Cotner with one abstention, by John Boyle

... Board members approved Cotner in a 4-1 vote with one abstention. Cotner will serve for two years to finish the term of D.J. Hines, who unexpectedly resigned roughly one month ago.

Cotner previously served two stints on the NA-FC school board. His first term stretched from 2002 to 2006 after he was elected as an original member of the first school board. In 2012, Cotner was reappointed by board members to fill an opening.

And the selection process?

"The only thing that they had to qualify was that they had to live in the district," board president Becky Gardenour said. "We got 10 letters. I checked with the county clerk to make sure everybody lived in the district, and three people didn't meet that requirement. We got lots of good candidates. All of them were qualified."

Rachel Dolezal and minstrelsy ... or, the thoroughly depressing week that was, Part 4.

Ten years ago, I finished an informative book, and wrote these words in this space.

My friend Jon gifted me with “Where Dead Voices Gather,” by Nick Tosches, whom I consider one of the finest American writers of our time. Tosches specializes in biographical portraits of entertainers (Jerry Lee Lewis, Dean Martin) and doomed outcasts (Sonny Liston), and he also writes novels.

In “Where Dead Voices Gather,” Tosches manages to top his own lofty standard, basing an entire volume of compelling historical, musical and cultural testimony around the almost completely undocumented life of one Emmett Miller, a stalwart of blackface minstrelsy in the 1920’s. As in all his non-fiction works, Tosches does not fail to address the simultaneously disturbing and exhilarating essence of what it means to be an American.

At some point on television last week, now perhaps almost quaint and nearly forgotten amid various other vile outrages occurring shortly afterward, Rachel Dolezal made a point.

"I don't put on blackface as a performance," Dolezal, the former president of the Spokane, Washington, branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), told interviewer Matt Lauer. "I identify as black," she said.

The history of minstrelsy in America may or may not be relevant to any of this, but as a white male desperately trying to parse the nuance produced by the Dolezal case, notions of masks and disguises seem plausible in part. For a balanced overview of the genre, a History of Minstrelsy exhibition at the University of South Florida library looks very solid, indeed.

Also, earlier in the week that was, local free-lance writer and activist Erica Rucker pointed to this article.

Black Like Her, by Jelani Cobb (New Yorker)

I pass it along, unsure whether it matters at all. There was Dolezal unfinished, then the church shooting -- horrifying.

The past week was depressing and also frustrating, because I don't like the feeling that comes with the realization of knowing so very little about the whys and wherefores of our community, assuming it is even proper to continue viewing it as a community.

All that's clear to me is that I have a lot to learn.

Elections are for losers: Malysz subs for Gahan at NAACP forum.

NAACP meeting bullet points: Firefighter hiring, housing strategies, who didn't show up, and who did.

NAACP members question employment standards during forum in New Albany; Gahan criticized for not attending meeting, by Daniel Suddeath ('Bama Radio and the Big Pop-Up)

Though city, county and state officials attended, members of the New Albany chapter of the NAACP used the bulk of their questions to ask about New Albany issues ...

... (Mayor Jeff) Gahan wasn’t present for the forum, and that drew some critical remarks from a few of those in attendance. New Albany resident and NAACP member Marcia Booker said there have been instances of city fire department and street department workers not following employee guidelines, and that the issue “has been brought to the mayor’s attention” without a resolution.

“It’s like he promises he’s going to correct a situation, but nothing ever happens,” said Booker of Gahan, who entered office Jan. 1.

For those who persist in thinking that Doug England no longer serves as mayor, the chutzpah-laced symbolism of the following is instructive:

Community Housing Initiatives Director Carl Malysz attended the meeting on behalf of Gahan, and wrote down a list of questions and comments including those made by Toran and Booker that he said he would present to the mayor ...

Having weathered the transition from England to Gahan, tipped the troglodytes into apoplexy, and resumed attending meetings as official agent of the ruler, surely Carl's up for a new, more descriptive title. We like this one: Keeper of the Compromising Photos.

The New Albanist: "Zero Tolerance, But What's Real and What's Not?"

(Late note: The Tribune's coverage can be found here)

Randy Smith offers a dispassionate and thoughtful analysis of the increasingly surreal case of Jack Messer and racist comments that were made, or not made.

The crux of the issue remains this, as phrased by Randy: "Without a formal complaint, how does this become a public issue? How does the Merit Commission even take up the matter?"

I like Jack Messer, and believe he's done a fine job on the council. I've no clue as to his job performance as police officer, and having heard nothing negative, I'm inclined to take it as a positive -- not unlike umpiring. If his words have violated the racial compact, there obviously must be discipline. But surely there is a procedure to determine this apart from the unfolding trial by press release and media circus?

Does such a procedure exist? Or, are we seeing it now? I'm neither rushing to defend not hurrying to distance, just inquiring ...

Zero Tolerance, But What's Real and What's Not?

... Wednesday evening, the New Albany chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) successfully summoned all 4 local TV stations, 2 local newspapers, and inadvertently 1 Internet journalist to a press conference on the steps of the New Albany Police Department.

The occasion was a hitherto unknown meeting of the Police Merit Commission, whose purpose was to conduct an inquiry into whether comments made by police officer Jack Messer in January constituted officially inappropriate conduct.

A cherished and hallowed way of life.

Two weeks have elapsed since the C-J’s Harold J. Adams broke the "racist remarks" story and NAC smirked here that "them people" has become the current city's council's unofficial motto.

Today, Matt Thacker brings the Tribune belatedly into the game.

NAPD officer reportedly made racist remarks; NAACP calls for review of officer’s arrests

… Dustin White, legal redress for local NAACP chapters, says he would push for an internal investigation by the police department or prosecutor reviewing all of (Jack) Messer’s arrests to see if there are any questionable cases or if his cases reflect any bias.

“They need to decide if that’s the type of police officer they want to have and whether that questions the integrity of the police force,” White said ...

... “I don’t think this whole thing is a question of sensitivity or diversity training,” White said. “It’s a question of whether he thinks everyone should have civil rights according to the constitution.”

Messer is also a New Albany city councilman and is a Democrat. He has said he may switch parties, but White and (Nicole) Yates, both Democrats, reject any suggestion their criticism is politically motivated.

Maybe not, but now it's clear why City Hall mentioned the revival of the Human Rights Commission at a recent council impotency confab. Note also that NAC has supported the revival of the moribund HRC since at least 2005.

As for the dust-up about Messer, it may surprise you to learn that I have a personal opinion.

In all likelihood, the Messer incident is relatively minor in the cosmic scheme of things, and it is highly doubtful that he will ever be confused for David Duke, but: In a city with as dismal a record of human rights consciousness as New Albany, you’re almost certain to get a racist bite anytime your line gets wet, and in that way, it's always political.

It's not so much that the bar here is set too low. It's that its buried and can't be found at all.

As Messer -- whom I continue to appreciate and respect for being right far more often than not during his council tenure -- is learning, it’s one thing to uphold the law of the land as a policeman, and quite another to establish the non-civic credentials currently demanded of Republicans in order to belong to their tea party ... and to make a New Albanian mayoral bid.

In general terms, and in an observation not aimed at Messer himself, the irony is this: In Floyd County, the Democratic Party is so devoid of intellectual content, platform consistency and a record of upholding coherent views on virtually any topic, that it isn’t even necessary for a person to switch parties and join the GOP in order to accommodate an aberrant racial viewpoint.

You're free to disagree. Discussion?

Small mention; potentially big deal.

A quick blurb in the Courier-Journal earlier in the week probably didn't garner much attention. I'd like to think that's only because it was tucked into a list of several other news bytes.

I'd also like to think it might represent an opportunity to begin a more serious discussion of fulfilling our duties to each other, as previously outlined at NAC in the New Albanian's "It's never too late for a renewed civic commitment to human rights".

Mayor Doug England will have a town hall meeting next month at Jones Memorial AME Zion Church.

The meeting, announced by the church and the New Albany branch of the NAACP, is set for noon April 5 at 258 Ealy St.

For more information, contact Pastor O. Lacy Evans at (502) 643-0996.

If being heard is a human right, it means someone has to listen. Please consider joining me in that endeavor next Saturday.