Here in SoIn, the Fourth Estate continues to take it on the chin.

Can someone text me when Susan Duncan's "local" chain newspaper finally gets serious about applying these maxims to its coverage of local events, and on a consistent basis?

Until such a time, if it ever arrives, the cliches are slightly cloying. After all, advertising revenue from local governments buys a good measure of complicity, doesn't it?

DUNCAN COLUMN: Living on purpose

Among the definitions Merriam-Webster offers for “per•spec•tive” is this: “The capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance.”

We need that today — a lot of that.

Sometimes we get so engrossed in our day-to-day activities that we can’t, won’t, or don’t see the big picture.

All it takes, oftentimes, is a figurative step back to give us “the interrelation in which a subject or its parts are mentally viewed,” another of M-W’s definitions of perspective.

The other day an online post reminded me that our current decade, as we measure time in years, is nearing its inevitable end.

For someone who manages deadlines daily, I was slightly taken aback. Really? Already? Another one?

ON THE AVENUES: Pay attention, students, because voter turnout went UP in New Albany.

This time out, the weekly column is to be kept (relatively) short and sweet. I’ve no grand pronouncements to make, and quite a lot of catching up to do. After all, the art of the polemic is hard enough when you win.

---

Has anyone in Southern Indiana who purports to be “exercising” the practice of journalism (right) ever once considered the notion of institutional memory – or, conversely, the usefulness of a scant ten minutes of basic research?

Take it away, Susan Duncan; for the uninitiated, she’s the editor of the local chain newspaper.

Yet another exercise in flexing our Democracy muscles is in the books. Here are some post-2019 election musings from the editor’s office …

The majority of voters aren’t into exercise. Only about a third of the electorate in Clark and Floyd counties bothered to vote. That’s disappointing. Even the convenience of vote centers — something I favor for all counties — didn’t seem to make much of a difference in Floyd County. We have to start thinking outside the box when it comes to attracting voters. Maybe door prizes.

“Democracy muscles”?

Actually here at the vicious tabloid blog no one reads, door prizes are being saved for those rare and elusive occasions when the local chain newspaper's editor departs from daily news suppression and displays a modicum of comprehension, and this isn’t one of those cases.

That's because voter turnout on Tuesday in New Albany went up, and in truth, it went up somewhat dramatically given our recent history.

(That’s right: history. It’s all right there in the newspaper’s morgue, but as with so many of life’s challenges, one has to care enough to look past the knee-jerk and gaze upon facts.)

Alas, Duncan’s not the only one ignoring history. I'm having trouble understanding the many lamentations I've heard from members of both parties about "low" voter turnout on Tuesday.

Yes, it's all relative, and from an overall perspective 30% is puny, yet almost 1,800 more votes were cast in the mayor's race (8,447) than in 2015 (6,684). In fact, that’s the most votes in a mayor's race since 2003.

Isn’t THIS the takeaway, the headline, the banner?

If I'm bright enough to cut and paste numbers from the newspaper's own stories, you'd think the editor would be, too.

Obviously it wasn't the election result I personally was seeking, but both parties brought out voters who haven't been participating during recent election cycles, and for Jeff Gahan to pull in an extra 1,000 votes over his total in 2015 cannot be overlooked even if I'd like to. Seems his cash was well spent.

To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, it remains that those 4,631 Gahan supporters knew exactly what they wanted, and now they'll be getting it good and hard, but this doesn't make the mayor's ability to increase his support via 1,000 more votes any less newsworthy.

Of course, Duncan missed this, and a better indicator of her newspaper’s steady decline is hard to imagine.

---

You won’t be surprised to learn that I’m a bit discouraged, but life goes on.

What I'll never forget about the 2019 election campaign in New Albany is the way the incumbent's ludicrously massive pot of special interest money successfully deflected substantive discussion about so many important topics that his own political party supposedly cares about, as well as the accompanying way so many of the community's self-encrusted pillars let him get away with it, because in the end tribal spasms count for more than anything else to them.

Their "team" won, and now they can return to their sustaining daily delusions, warm and safe on the fantasy side of those Potemkin facades.

Probably none of it will impact me, but lots of less fortunate folks are going to suffer the next four years because Jeff Gahan remains mayor, and the cool kids who'll be so quick to criticize me for saying this aloud will be the same ones resolutely looking the other way when the whip comes down.

As usual, my main muse (his name is Jeff Gillenwater) has bored directly into the central points emerging from Tuesday’s balloting.

"We have to change the local culture, not just the people in office. That means holding those self-encrusted pillars and cool kids every bit as accountable as the politicians themselves. There are plenty of “educated professionals” - not to mention professional educators - around here who ought to be ashamed to walk down the street today. But they’re not. Because they “won”. 

"I’ll say again: Do not trust those people in politics or daily life. They lie. They cheat. They suck.

"Personally, I’m just glad we won’t be here in five, 10, 15 years as all the bright, shiny, unbid, and absurdly misdirected objects start to crumble and need substantial but wholly unfunded maintenance, not to mention an even more substantial change of overall direction toward the sustainable and/or regenerative well before current patronage projects are even paid off. 

"Whoever gets stuck in office trying to deal with that is going to be wildly unpopular, likely owing to the crime of trying to be honest and realistic. New Albany votes not just like it’s the 1950s but as if the 50s are an infinite possibility. It would be wonderful if people had the forethought to choose better, to think even 10 or 20 years ahead. As is, they’ll be forced in future as usual without ever tracing their pending lack of choice back to choices they’re making now."

Jeff also states the case in personal terms, and my household concurs.

"We both have long family histories here and in moving back thought we were going to be a part of genuine, cooperative community development. The insular power trip folks here, though, don’t want that at all. We both have a long collection of ugly stories and memories. A few along the way have sold out completely. Most have just left. Lots of talent rejected and wasted here in the name of “winning”.

"We’ve been here for 15 years or so, which is too long. During that time, though, everyone I’ve ever met here (except those getting a paycheck from a politician) who has legitimately studied urban planning or community and cultural development ends up disgusted and happy to leave."

I'm grateful to Jeff for expressing my feelings. At first it seemed I might be angry after the beat-down. However, in terms of civic dysfunction, the results were entirely in keeping with the very nature of New Albany. I'm sad and a tad puzzled. That's just about it.

One doesn't stop caring, agitating or fighting after losing a single battle or one ballgame. However, multiple setbacks suggest reformatted thinking and different tactics. We'll see how this goes. In the meantime, there'll be some literal and figurative housecleaning in my universe, and a period of desperately needed cerebral battery recharging in Europe later this month.

Political asylum in Trieste? Now that's a pleasing thought.

---

Recent columns:

October 31: ON THE AVENUES: In which Team Gahan's looming appointment with unemployment is examined.

October 3: ON THE AVENUES: The cold hard truth, or just plain Slick Jeffie-inflicted consequences.

September 26: ON THE AVENUES: Socialists for Seabrook, because we desperately need a new beginning in New Albany.

September 12: ON THE AVENUES: There's no business like no business, and it's none of your business (2016).

Perpetuating the rubbish: Hypocrisy, thy name is News and Tribune.

Hmm.

It's the very same newspaper that runs two weekly Christian advocacy columns, balanced by zero -- zilch, cerro, nada -- "alternative" religion or non-religion essays.

"Maybe we should find out, before passing judgment."

So maybe if Susan Duncan is serious about boosting comparative religious enlightenment, her own newspaper might -- you know, inform us about the alternatives rather than doubling down each week on evangelical Christianity.

Wait ... it might even take the form of a Muslim telling us about Islam. 

Or is Bill Hanson still paying back Tom May for penny ante poker debts by giving May two weekly columns, one of which is plainly evangelical?

DUNCAN COLUMN: Piling on the rubbish, by Susan Duncan

Trash.

I heard the word and my heart sank. The man wasn’t talking about refuse that’s collected and taken to a landfill.

No, he was using the word to describe people. A whole group of people.

With dismissive authority, he said, “Muslims are trash. Every one of ’em.”

He was conversing with a woman as the two were seated near the prescription counter of a local chain drug store. I had wandered into that area in search of an item on my shopping list. Unfortunately, I overheard his world view as I compared products and prices.

How had the man become such an expert on the followers of Islam, I wondered. Had he studied them to know with absolute certainty that Muslims — who number nearly a quarter of the world’s population — all are trash?

Plug in any people of faith from any religion into his original quote: Hindus. Jews. Buddhists.

What if he had said, “Christians are trash. Every one of ’em”? That surely would offend the sensibilities of any followers of Jesus who happened to be within earshot.

So, why is it OK to lump all Muslims together, into the same heap as it were?

The woman tried to add some perspective, I think.

We grew up here, she told her seat mate, and you know as well as I do that there’s white trash, too. The man readily agreed, adding in some blacks, as well. Apparently trash knows no color. It also doesn’t differentiate between heritage and religion.

I wanted to insert myself into their garbage gab, but I knew I wouldn’t change their minds, and I could almost hear the 911 call to police referencing a trio of gray-haired folks scuffling at the pharmacy. It could have gotten ugly in a hurry.

So, my purchase decided, I walked toward the checkout counter, burdened by their words.

The comments struck me as judgmental. Who sits in such an exalted place that they can look down upon others?

Troubling, too, was the casualness of the conversation. The pair just as easily could have been discussing the weather, or the merits of M&Ms vs. Reese’s peanut butter cups.

If I were to label the musings I overheard, I’d call it hate speech. Hate grows from fear, which is rooted in the unknown or the unfamiliar.

In a world of seven and a half billion people, is there anyone as worthy as are we? Anyone?

Maybe we should find out, before passing judgment.

— Susan Duncan is the editor of the News and Tribune. Reach her at 812-206-2130 and susan.duncan@newsandtribune.com.

God wearily responds to Susan Duncan: "Stop reading Facebook and pay attention to what's happening in New Albany -- and BTW, can you cut the evangelism crap?"

The embarrassment compounds alongside the heightened evangelism, and the newspaper's upper management remains rockheaded to the point of obliviousness.

Jeffersonville News and Tribune hits rock bottom as evangelism columnist Tom May argues for theocratic fascism, Pence-style.

You'll recall that the proselytizer May typically gets not one but two weekly column slots. The columnist was right there yesterday with a potentially interesting "From the Catbird Seat" column about the weekend's mass shootings, but even in this instance he managed to steer it toward Christian advocacy.

From the Catbird Seat: Shots in our darkness

 ... In the midst of researching the horrifying information for this article, the words of Daniel Webster appeared in the Google search. "If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is to become of us as a nation. If the power of the Gospel is not felt through the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end."

There's co-opting headlines to peddle superstition, and then there's just the plainly inane.

COLUMN: God reads Facebook, by Susan Duncan

... The meme personally attacks, albeit in lame fashion, a hardworking, intelligent young woman elected to Congress. Post what you will, but if you want to be more honest and true to your values, be more purposeful in what you share, and more diligent in monitoring comments on your page.

God must be bedeviled by what His followers post on Facebook.

That's right, an editorial expressing outrage about memes on Facebook, in this instance one attacking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Bad things on social media?

Think so?

Now THAT's a revelation (win wink, nudge nudge).

Lots of bad things going on locally, too.

Are we ready yet to talk about the amount of money passing annually from Gahan to the News and Tribune via the city's propaganda contractor?

Wait, what's that?

You say the newspaper is listening and making changes?

Yeah. Thrilled.That'll help, won't it?

More News and Tribune gimcrackery: 336 words about the importance of voters listening, two of which are not "Mark Seabrook."

The Jeffersonville newspaper's editor wants you to know that governor (and now candidate) Eric Holcomb is coming to town.

Column: Listen up, voters, by Susan Duncan (Tom May's Evangelism Primer 101)

He’ll fit right in at the Clark County Fair this evening, crunching the grass with his trademark boots as he shakes another hand. Those are his constituents, after all, and would-be voters he’s courting.

He is Indiana’s top elected official, Gov. Eric Holcomb, who is seeking re-election in 2020. The public announcement of his intention was made Saturday, as his words echoed off the walls of the hallowed Knightstown gym, where parts of the famed-film "Hoosiers" was shot.

Duncan also wants you to know that Holcomb has lots of money.

Holcomb has more than $6 million in his political war chest, more than any previous governor at this point in his re-election bid, according to the Holcomb for Indiana campaign.

Duncan dismisses as unnewsworthy NA Confidential's surveys of Jeff Gahan's campaign larder -- but I digress.

At this point, Holcomb appears likely to win a second term as governor, but the campaign season is a long one. Now’s the time to listen closely to what the candidates have to say — not about their opponents, but about the future of Indiana.

It's a perfectly valid sentiment, and because Duncan has informed otherwise absentminded readers that Indiana's governor is named Eric Holcomb, we know exactly where to look and to whom we should be listening.

Then it gets weird.

Tonight, Holcomb’s bringing his message first to the fair and then to the Calumet Club in New Albany, where he’ll be talking with Republicans and stumping for the GOP mayoral candidate. Republican or Democrat, we all should listen to what the governor has to say, and to his opponent. Only then can we make informed voting decisions.

Gahan's name appears on a daily basis in Duncan's newspaper, and as we've noted oft times before, many of these mentions come from various advertisements bearing Gahan's image; they're all campaign ads at root, though most are paid for by taxpayers.

But Duncan cannot bring herself to identify the "GOP mayoral candidate," who is Mark Seabrook. That's a de facto cheap shot, isn't it? The sentence might have made informative, reading: "GOP mayoral candidate Mark Seabrook, who is challenging incumbent mayor Jeff Gahan."

Recall also that neither the News and Tribune nor the City of New Albany will divulge how much money travels in the newspaper's direction for Gahan's myriad, thinly-veiled campaign ads.

Note to candidate Seabrook: It may be time for the ol' fruit basket envelope so as to preclude the potential unpleasantness of an ink-stained kvetch.

The blog that dares not speak its name, although this doesn't prevent the professional from asking the amateur for help.

Deaf to Bill, 2019.

A polemic (/pəˈlɛmɪk/) is contentious rhetoric that is intended to support a specific position by aggressive claims and undermining of the opposing position. Polemics are mostly seen in arguments about controversial topics. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics. A person who often writes polemics, or who speaks polemically, is called a polemicist.

With voting underway, and election "day" just around the corner, you'll have noticed that the News and Tribune has had almost nothing to say about the candidates and issues.

This has been true about New Albany, the newspaper's most consistently neglected coverage area, as well as for races in Clark County, where the newspaper now allocates most of its sadly flagging energies.

Let's delve into double standards, but first, as a citizen polemicist, I don't mind being held to a higher bar when it comes to submissions. Still, the hypocrisy gets to me at times.

My letters to the editor, which are not allowed to bear a signature that includes "NA Confidential" as identifier, always are subject to scrupulous editing for proof and evidence -- even as Bill's and Susan's Excellent Adventure runs two weekly Christianity columns and permits numerous Christian advocacy letters to the editor, one imagines without the same scrupulous fact checking, because if such were to be applied to the absence of facts ... well, you know.

It's faith, isn't it?

At times even an "online comment" merits a follow-up, hence an amusing exchange from March. I'd mentioned Jeff Gahan's pay-to-play corruption in this comment about Chris Morris' abortion column.

Note the irony of the first example in this definition of corruption.

1. dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery.

"the journalist who wants to expose corruption in high places"

synonyms: dishonesty, dishonest dealings, unscrupulousness, deceit, deception, duplicity, double-dealing, fraud, fraudulence, misconduct, lawbreaking, crime, criminality, delinquency, wrongdoing, villainy

2. the process by which something, typically a word or expression, is changed from its original use or meaning to one that is regarded as erroneous or debased.

synonyms: alteration, falsification, doctoring, manipulation, manipulating, fudging, adulteration, debasement, degradation, abuse, subversion, misrepresentation, misapplication; rarevitiation

"these figures have been subject to corruption"

Corruption is a many-splendoured concept, gloriously mutable for the purpose of polemics. Less so any newspaper blithely content to be a feel-good lifestyle publication to the exclusion of its duty to afflict the comfortable while comforting the afflicted.

Here is our cyber trail.

---

From: Susan Duncan
To: Roger Baylor
Cc: Bill Hanson - NT

Mar 22 at 3:40 PM

Roger,

Your online comment references “corruption,” indicating criminal wrongdoing. Where is your proof?

Susan

---

From: Roger A. Baylor
To: Susan Duncan
Cc: Bill Hanson - NT

Mar 22 at 5:48 PM

Don’t worry, guys. I protected your star mayoral $ advertiser by not mentioning his name. I could be talking about any mayor, couldn’t I? Now can you give us a reporter, as opposed to a crusading anti-abortionist steno?

R

---
From: Susan Duncan
To: Roger A. Baylor
Cc: Bill Hanson - NT

Mar 22 at 6:45 PM

You could be referencing any mayor; however, you posted the comment on a column by our assistant editor based in New Albany.

I’m not worried about advertising money from anyone, including mayors — nor do we make coverage decisions based on who does or doesn’t advertise in the newspaper.

If you have any evidence of criminal wrongdoing by any mayor in Southern Indiana, we would be interested in looking at it.

Susan Duncan

---

From: Roger Baylor
To: Susan Duncan
Cc: Bill Hanson - NT

Mar 22 at 8:54 PM

Wearily ... and if I have such evidence, why on earth would I share it with the News and Tribune? How could I ever trust you to do anything with it?

In spite of my antipathy amid indefensible blathering like Morris' abortion piece today, for almost 15 years I've been linking my readers to your newspaper, thereby exposing them to the contagion of Gahan's self-congratulatory daily newspaper ads, and yet not once has anyone at the newspaper said something along the lines of "thanks for the traffic - here's a complimentary on-line subscription."

You said it yourself a while back: you're just not giving free blurbs to a mere blogger. That's hunky dory, but know that it's fairly obvious to the blogger and HIS readers when your reporters get their ideas from perusing my material. I'm down with it, too; at least (the reporters) will engage in conversation and be human, and as a former business owner, I've generally refrained from critiquing the shop floor, because the buck stops with management.

As it does in this instance. To reiterate, if I had solid evidence of criminal wrongdoing, why would a degraded alcoholic blogger like me give it to the News and Tribune when it's the News and Tribune's job to do things like that -- you know, reporting -- in the first place?

Sincerely,

R

---

Here's the thing. I understand perfectly well that as a blogger, there are natural limitations.

I'm solo, pro bono and periodically loco. Conversely the newspaper's readership may have declined precipitously, but it's still more broadly distributed across various segments of the local populace than NA Confidential's -- though I surely have a loyal audience here, too. Just think about these two conditions, working together.

I do, often. They don't, ever. That's too bad, isn't it?

At any rate, we might spend the remainder of the day arguing about the meaning of journalism, and whether blogger can be journalists, and what a newspaper like the News and Tribune can be expected to accomplish in this day and age. I suspect the day would be wasted, and I'd be drinking by 5:30 p.m.

The point remains: If they won't allow me to identify myself as the NA Confidential blogger in a letter to the editor of the News and Tribune, it's some massive cheek to ask me to share "evidence of criminal wrongdoing" when I've put lots more time into exploring the preconditions of this topic than their entity has -- and they're far better placed to find it than me, given our respective economies of scale and potential magnitude of our bully pulpits.

I contend, and I will continue to contend, that in a time when local governments hire PR fluff firms to purchase advertising in newspapers, while continuing to pay classified rates for mandated notices and announcements, any insistence by a newspaper editor to the effect of revenue streams having no bearing on editorial decisions is disingenuous at best.

Although perhaps it's not indicative of corruption, only deferring to financial reality. Who knows? After all, I'm merely a blogging polemicist -- and the supposed local newspaper of record is allowing another election cycle to pass in a position of supine disengagement.

Here's a thought. Maybe if they find evidence of criminal wrongdoing, it will be shared with NA Confidential, the blog that dare not speak its name in the News and Tribune?

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to look for "proof" in today's multiple religion columns. Not holding my breath, though.

My letter to the editor about Jeff Gahan's Money Machine: These are down-low times for local journalism and governance -- but I'm just a self-promotional blogger.

I throw back my head and emit raucous laughter.

Roger,

The News and Tribune received a letter to the editor from you regarding the New Albany mayor’s race.

In reviewing the letter, there are a couple of changes needed for it to be published. The parts of concern are highlighted and referenced below:

• The “point of fact” is inaccurate; it is opinion.
• The highlighted phrases and word indicate criminal wrongdoing and since no such criminal convictions exist, cannot run.
• We do not publish Blog promotions in taglines

We are happy to reconsider publication of your letter once those concerns have been addressed.

— Susan

Tellingly the local chain newspaper's editor has found it expedient in the past to take many similar liberties when lambasting Donald Trump, but I suppose that's somehow different.

Roger: Here is my second try. I changed some words and omitted a few others. I don't suppose the newspaper would be willing to divulge the dollar amount of ads purchased annually by taxpayers for Gahan's self-promotional "city of New Albany" ads? The city won't tell me. Perhaps the expenditure comes from a third party. Is that how it works?

Susan: Thank you addressing our concerns. This version is just fine and will run on Thursday’s Opinions page. I don’t have the information you are seeking, but it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to share client information anyway.

Sharing the amount of tax revenue being expended to advance Jeff Gahan's personality cult dozens of times yearly as part of the mayor-for-life's quest to brand a city with his own face?

Jeff Gahan has been branding the city in his own image, and using our money to do it, but we need collective thinking, not the shoddy veneer of a personality cult.

No can do, bucko. Revealing the money in this fashion apparently would violate the sanctity of journalism, which brings to mind the words of Abraham Lincoln to his hesitant general, George McClellan -- paraphrased to suit my own thoughts.

If the Jeffersonville News and Tribune does not want to use journalism, I would like to borrow it for a time, provided I could see how it could be made to do something.

Bill Hanson was cc-ed in the preceding discussion. He never uttered a peep. Perhaps he was busy in the home library listening to Tom May audio books.

Here's my letter. Don't forget to #FireGahan2019

---

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR — For Thursday, Feb. 14

Mayor Gahan has too many outside backers

During the past eight years, Mayor Jeff Gahan has presided over a campaign finance operation of unprecedented scale and dimension. Let’s call it the Jeff Gahan Money Machine.

Presumably collecting campaign finance donations from the usual suspects is Gahan’s only real skill as a politician. The game is simple: self-interested parties give Gahan lots of money, and receive benefits so blatantly obvious that a six-year-old could figure it out.

Could someone run off and fetch a six-year-old to narrate the video?

Let's make one thing perfectly clear. While it’s true that everyone involved is responsible for perpetuating the cynical patronage system Gahan has so laboriously constructed, the upshot is that one person and one person alone might have chosen from the beginning to erect a higher bar and deter the possibility of corruption stemming from the practice of “paying to play.”

That's Jeff Gahan himself, but apparently transparency is too much for citizens to expect from a C-minus student, and so Gahan opted for the behind-the-scenes money. Tens of thousands of dollars have migrated to Jeff Gahan from out-of-town companies, lawyers, lobbyists, unions and PACs. Now there is a pervasive odor requiring a long overdue electoral purge.

Fortunately there’s a better way. Democratic mayoral candidate David White has stated publicly that he will not accept donations from individuals and corporate entities seeking favors to do business with the city. As such, White rejects personal benefit from the disbursement of public funds.

Rather, White seeks to restore genuine merit to the process of vending, consultation and contract seeking. With White we'll have ethical standards from the get-go — not a cesspool on the down low.

I encourage you to visit White’s website, to engage with him and to vote White in the primary. White won't have Gahan's $175,000 campaign finance war chest, much of it coming from outsiders, but he has something even better: straight talk, transparency and an honest desire to put the people of New Albany first, not Gahan's cliques and special interests.

White’s web site: www.davidwhiteformayor.com

— Roger A. Baylor, New Albany

But Ms. Duncan, when will the News and Tribune begin to "speak out" on relevant local issues and "challenge" local leaders?

Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. The newspaper manages the first half of the equation, but seldom the second.

Editor, heal thyself.

DUNCAN: The meat matters, by Susan Duncan (Tom May's Soapbox)

Silence is complicity — no matter the realm.

Failing to speak up — about anything — indicates a level of acceptance.

As long as Jeff Gahan keeps spending taxpayer money on this ...

... will the newspaper ever "challenge" the mayor as those demonstrators did Mitch?

People who yelled at U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as he dined in Louisville last weekend — it happened twice at two different restaurants — had reached the point where they could no longer keep quiet.

People in leadership positions understand, or should realize, they will be challenged. Not everybody is going to agree; unanimous consensus is elusive.

Here's a friendly hint, editor. Follow the rivulets feeding Gahan's Money Machine.

You'll feel like yelling, all right.

Our civility today has been diminished, but not our civic responsibility. We should speak out. And circumstances sometimes demand we speak up at a decibel that reaches yelling.

DNA's and the newspaper's masks ... or, thoughts occasioned by an excellent essay called "Meet the man who hides behind a mask."

Before linking to a very good column written by assistant editor Jason Thomas of the News and Tribune, kindly permit me a necessary digression.

---

Earlier this year I exchanged e-mails with N and T's editor, Susan Duncan, on the topic of Develop New Albany's Taco Walk, during which several of the organization's higher-ups decided it would be hilarious to wear sombreros, shake maracas and sing the Frito Bandito's corn chip theme song.

Needless to say, not everyone found it so funny. For more on why it isn't, revisit this posting about William Anthony Nericcio's "aggressive, relentless, and, at times, pathological interrogation of Mexican, Latina/o, Chicana/o, "Hispanic," Mexican-American, and Latin American stereotypes."

Actually I wrote to the newspaper in part because DNA consistently refused (and continues to refuse) to so much as acknowledge receiving my e-mails inquiring about the circumstances of the Taco Walk.

Here is the text of my letter to Duncan.

---

Dear Susan,

Last Saturday, Develop New Albany sponsored a Taco Walk. Member(s) of DNA’s board thought it would be cute to bring sombreros, mariachis and other stereotypical symbols of Latino culture of the sort that led to a major scandal at the University of Louisville during James Ramsey’s tenure.

I’ve personally spoken with an employee of a downtown eatery – a first-generation American with Mexican roots – who said she mustered every last bit of discipline to avoid crying when DNA’s own board members came into her establishment brandishing these items, and singing the theme to the old Frito’s commercials (ay, ay, ay ay).

This surely ranks on a par with blackface in the lexicon of appropriation and inappropriateness, and yet not only did the News and Tribune completely fail to notice, but it also published at least one photo documenting the tastelessness that utterly evaded editorial scrutiny (see attachments).

Naturally my efforts to engage DNA have been met with silence.

In vain, I’ve asked the question to them: If it was wrong for James Ramsey, why is it right for you?

As with U of L, DNA is the recipient of taxpayer support. As it pertains to individual participants, if someone wants to indulge in this manner it’s his or her free speech; tone deaf but permissible. But taxpayer-supported organizations simply must aspire to a higher bar. 

To me, DNA’s response is simple: “We’re sorry it happened, here’s why it’s inappropriate, and it won’t happen again.”

It’s a teachable moment, and for once would place DNA in the position of educating about its own National Main Street mandate. Instead, DNA has circled the wagons. It’s a virtual arm of city government, and as the newspaper seems determined to avoid addressing, NA’s current city government is not a transparent entity.

Since the Charlottesville incident, the pages of your newspaper have been filled with earnest denunciations of bigotry and white supremacy. This is fitting and proper. Does a sombrero during a Taco Walk equate with the lessons of Charlottesville? Perhaps not in scale, but certainly it’s a branch of the same tree – and in your eagerness to capture the forest, you’re missing this particular tree.

Thanks,

Roger

---

To Duncan's credit, she quickly replied, although handily avoiding the non-vetting of her newspaper's questionable photograph (above).

Thanks for keeping us updated. We are likely to run an editorial about this, if nothing else as a reminder to be more culturally aware. Event organizers missed an opportunity to promoted Mexican heritage and cuisine, instead tapping into stereotypes. Insensitive, yes, but I doubt it was done maliciously, likely without thought.

Then a month passed. DNA continued to stonewall, and so I asked Duncan what had happened.

I did follow through with broaching this in a meeting of the editorial board. The consensus opinion was that a better result would occur if we challenged DNA before next year’s event to use it as an opportunity to promote cultural awareness. The thinking was that too much time had passed since the taco walk, that running an editorial now would have seemed out of place and resulted in less chance for real change.

As an interesting side note to all this frantic circling of wagons, both here and in Jeffersonville, it helps to know that a member of the community first conceived of the Taco Walk idea and brought it to DNA with the best of intentions, imagining that by doing so, the community would benefit.

While DNA has alluded to the event being a windfall success financially (DNA will not release exact numbers), the volunteer concluded she wasn't happy with the way her idea was implemented -- cultural appropriation was among the reasons for her decision -- and so, working under the assumption the Main Street organization possesses a fundamental sense of decency, she told DNA she'd be taking it back for a future reboot.

Um, nope. Seems the anchor already had been dropped.

DNA wasted no time in sending her packing: Taco Walk belongs to DNA now, and the organization will do with it as it pleases -- and don't bother running to Big Daddy Gahan, because the fix is always in.

It was horrendous treatment of a person who was just trying to be helpful, so let's hope the N and T follows through in 2018 and holds DNA's feet to the fire as it prepares to profit once more from the idea it purloined.

You might even say lots of community pillars in New Albany are wearing masks, if not Frito-encrusted sombreros, which brings me to Thomas's recent essay.

---

As aspiring writers, we're constantly advised to write about what we know, and so it might make perfect sense to write about oneself; surely we know ourselves better than anyone else, right?

Alas, not so much. Autobiographical honesty is fiendishly difficult to achieve, and that's why full credit goes to Thomas for trying. This piece is very good, and I'm glad he wrote it.

Maybe the other members of the editorial board read it, too.

A boy can dream.

Meet the man who hides behind a mask, by Jason Thomas

Who am I?

I am white. I am male. I am a father. I am a fiance.

Other than that, I'm not sure.

Who are you?

I wear a mask. It cloaks me in confidence, in extroversion, in a self-prescribed aura of coolness.

The mask is ugly.

Behind it is a man of broken faith, a man unsure of his footing, a man who says he would die for his son and his son's mother. Would he?

A man — a person — like many of you.

I watched a movie on Christmas night that made me think. Really think.

It was called "Get Out." It has received considerable attention, in part, for its exploration of white people's exploitation of black culture. And for many other underlying themes that made me, a white male of privilege, squirm in my flannel-pajama-wearing cocoon of comfort ...

Editor Duncan pithily calls out New Albany in the newspaper's "Crossroads of Crisis" series finale.

NA Confidential persists in reprinting these instructions for the safe disposal of syringes and sharps, as found on the city of Louisville's web site. In New Albany, Team Gahan has chosen to mimic Ronald Reagan's response to the AIDS crisis by saying nothing at all. More about that in a moment, but first, the final round of newspaper opioid epidemic coverage ...

• CROSSROADS OF CRISIS: Anti-drug initiatives loosening heroin's stronghold
• Our Place sees success in drug prevention programs
• Stories of success: Recovering addicts reveal how they survived drug abuse

 ... and a series summary by the editor, who against all odds manages to make a devastating observation about the very city her newspaper so often neglects.

DUNCAN: Epidemic a crisis of the conscience, by Susan Duncan (Make Clark County Great Again)

 ... We hope you found something of merit in our special report “Crossroads of Crisis: Heroin Epidemic Demands Solutions,” which wraps up today. We did.

Addicts. Experts. Survivors. We learned from them all as we dug a shovel into Southern Indiana to help uproot the hold the opioid epidemic has on our communities.

It is, you know, an epidemic. If we were honest with ourselves, it would be listed among the most deadly. Naloxone, the anti-overdose drug, continues — daily — to bring users back to life. It’s the main reason the high numbers of opioid deaths aren’t even more outrageous.

People are dying, though, including young people whose lives held such promise.

Yes, Duncan locates the center of the target when it comes to "leadership" in New Albany, and since NAC has been making this point for weeks ...

Bob Caesar's intrinsically sad battle against drug addiction treatment clinics -- and this supposed Democrat's heroic ongoing advocacy of the beautiful people.

Council wrap: Then Bob Caesar said, "Can't we just load the opioid addicts on the cattle cars along with public housing residents?"

Does New Albany's ruling caste grasp that the opioid epidemic doesn't stop at the Clark County line?

Opiate addiction treatment clinic can duly kicked.

... we applaud her.

... we need a medically supervised place for people to detox. It’s better than a trash-filled alley or the cold concrete of a jail cell. It’s more humane. It offers better outcomes. We talk about it, but that’s about it.

Our passivity is palpable.

For instance, the next-best way, besides a needle exchange, to get spent, dirty needles off our streets is to place needle drop boxes in easily accessible spots in our communities.

Too many places, including New Albany, have rejected that idea, mostly for reasons rooted in fear and lack of knowledge.

Yep -- and the main offenders, marooned like clams at the crossroads of denial, are purported Democrats (Gahan, Caesar, Phipps).

At least they have an excuse. They've been too busy dismantling public housing to notice the opioid epidemic.

Maybe the newspaper can take note of this, too, now that the series is finished?

Opioid crisis denier Jeff Gahan won't be reading, but the newspaper's "Crossroads of Crisis" series continues.

Opioid crisis denier Bob Caesar won't be reading, but the newspaper's "Crossroads of Crisis" series continues.

The newspaper's opioid crisis series continues.

Opioid epidemic comes front and center in the Clark County newspaper.

Waxing self-congratulatory, the 'Bama newspaper's Susan Duncan lauds her government watchdog, which never seems to bark here in New Albany.

The News and Tribune's new editor took time this weekend to praise her team's heroic performance, and it sent me scurrying to the thesaurus to find synonyms for "delusional."

Among them: deception, fantasy, hallucination, illusion, and pipe dream.

Unfortunately, we don't see much of Duncan's imagined watchdog here in Floyd County, especially in New Albany. Furthermore, we recall the entire year that passed without a reporter in New Albany to ask questions like these.

Duncan's words merely reinforce the perennially Clark-centric performance of Bill Hanson's advertising vehicle. We're left to surmise that it's all about the money, so allow me to extend my smudgy alms cup to Duncan as she passes on the street:

"Excuse me, ma'am, but mightn't we get just a few farthings of your fierce watchdog commitment for the starving New Albanians?"

DUNCAN: Clark County Council shuffle deals residents a bad hand

... Our forefathers, wary of government overreach and oppression, also noted the importance of a freely functioning press in the First Amendment. As your local newspaper, we embrace that responsibility first among all others.

The story that appeared at the top of Friday's News and Tribune is a prime example of our commitment — and why it's important.

Tony Bennett cannot — at this time — serve on the Clark County Council, despite being tapped by a GOP caucus Wednesday to complete the unexpired District 2 term vacated by Brian Lenfert.

Bennett is ineligible; he doesn't meet the residency requirements outlined in state statute. The law says officeholders must have lived in the district they represent for at least six months and within the county for at least a year. Bennett falls short on both counts. He's only lived in Clark County since early September, something he readily admitted when the newspaper asked him the question.

Had we not fulfilled our role as a watchdog over government by educating ourselves on the legality of Bennett's appointment and inquiring as to his residency, I suspect Bennett would still be a councilman.

334 days later, the News and Tribune finally explains: New Albany was screwed for almost a year so the paper can "redefine" its approach. Thanks, Bill. May we have another?

In short, New Albany went 334 days without a beat reporter so the chain paper could hire a particular reporter to specialize in business, and concurrently, seize an opportunity to "redefine" its approach to community coverage by eliminating the concept of "beat reporter" entirely.

Instead, there'll be five broad areas embracing the geographical coverage area: Business/Economic Development (Grady); Education (Clapp); Crime (DePompei); Lifestyle/Health (Rickert); and Government (Beilman).

That's right. Crime, which continues to decline nationwide, merits its own reporter, perhaps because a proper understanding of reality television demands it.

Here's the introduction to the reporter Bill Hanson waited a year to hire:

Grady joins News and Tribune staff as business reporter; Indy Star fellow, former intern completes news team, by Elizabeth Beilman

And here's the editor's explanation for why all this is happening, in which she seems to suggest that it's a waste of time to cover meetings; of course, if we've learned anything at NAC these past few years, it's that the most obscure appointed boards meeting at the worst possible times tend to be the ones making the sort of decisions that impact citizens the most.

But let's not allow that to stand in the way of entertainment.

DUNCAN: Redefining our approach to news, by Susan Duncan.

On the positive side, Duncan's explanation of these changes suggests that Chris Morris now serves only as assistant editor, and this constitutes addition by subtraction. Surely he can't defend the status quo as vigorously now.

In spite of the secrecy and subterfuge, and setting aside my doubts, I'm willing to give this new approach a chance. It's possible that this approach evens the playing field with regard to Floyd and Clark County coverage, and if so, I'll applaud it. This will be difficult, given River Ridge envy, but it is possible. Perhaps the previous era of editorial narcolepsy finally will be surmounted.

However, it won't be forgotten how badly Bill Hanson played this hand since September of 2015.

Hanson screwed New Albany for 333 days without comment or public explanation. He is a putz, and the next time he mounts the podium to accept a community service award, a cream pie should be aimed squarely at his face.

I volunteer for the job. Someone's got to speak for us, right?

It's been 257 days since New Albany had its own News and Tribune beat reporter. In other news, Bill Hanson has congratulated himself and hired an editor.

Shouldn't that be "leder"?

News and Tribune appoints new editor: Veteran newspaper executive Susan Duncan to lead newsroom

A new leader has been named to guide the News and Tribune’s editorial vision ...

Editorial vision?

Like cooking school and reality television analysis?

What is this, The Onion?

The remaining bits include quite a bit of self-congratulatory rhetoric about the great faith-based work Bill Hanson is doing to ignore New Albany. Meanwhile, the new editor doesn't appear to be on social media, which would serve the dual purpose of sparing us frequent statements of hipster cred, while affording her the time to hire a beat reporter for NA.

Shea Van Hoy bids farewell to the newspaper that has bid farewell to New Albany.

Hope springs eternal -- but CNHI remains the overlord.

Even greater chain localism, anyone?