New Albany is a state of mind … but whose? Since 2004, we’ve been observing the contemporary scene in this slowly awakening old river town. If it’s true that a pre-digital stopped clock is right twice a day, when will New Albany learn to tell time?
Earlier this evening I took the time to peruse a few social media discussion threads about tomorrow's mayoral election. I was happy to see more than a few references by voters to their dismay with Gahan's governing record.
Can't vote for someone (Gahan) who refuses to work with the county (he and his administration go out of their way to not work with the county on anything), is in bed with business (city contracts with campaign donors ... hmmmm), and is spending too much on projects that don't need to be done (aka city hall).
Of course, issues like these have been a passion of mine, and it's all very flattering to hear folks talking about them -- because the local chain newspaper hasn't exactly been breaking a sweat to beat a lowly blogger to the punch, eh?
I just go out there and work my side of the street.
Here's an excerpt, dedicated to all the Gahanites who believe they have some sort of "right" to define terms of engagement.
Ask any guerrilla who ever lived. They don't.
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Whenever Gahan's family members, their former co-workers and other mindless fans prattle about loathsome stalkers hating on the epitome of mayoral perfection, a reminder is in order.
One simply can't speak truth to power without breaking a few eggs, preferably right between the powermonger's eyes.
In the face of so much power, money and control, those of us in the political opposition have a perfect right to seek counter-balancing power where and as we find it. It is Gahan's objective to hold power, and the opposition's to modify his grasp of power, or when necessary, to seek to deprive him of it. His tools for exercising power are considerable and entrenched. By necessity, ours are improvisational.
My own chosen tools are words.
They may not seem like much compared to money and authority, but I believe the bully pulpit still matters when used consistently and creatively. Then again, I'm literate; the illiterate might disagree, because lacking the words, they're deprived of power, at least my kind of power.
In 2019, an election will decide whether Gahan's reign is furthered, or the city returns to self-government. I'm looking forward to it. My own "obsessive" recommendation on May 7 is to vote for David White in the Democratic mayoral primary and #FireGahan2019.
1. a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people.
2. Archaic. a man hired to do violence.
3. Obsolete. a pimp; procurer.
4. Obsolete. good friend; good fellow.
5. Obsolete. sweetheart; darling.
In fact, definitions vary. Teddy Roosevelt used the word one way (below) and my anonymous correspondent (above) another.
The applicability of these many definitions to examples in real-life also is variable. H.L. Mencken spent decades (a) eloquently writing truth to power, or (b) spewing intemperate vitriol at respectable pillars of society.
Was Mencken a buffoon or a bully? A man in love with his vocabulary or a muckraking ray of sunshine? Would he be accused of "cyber-bullying" today, if his columns appeared on-line and not on newsprint?
We all cross the lines on occasion, and I have done so, too. At the same time, this notion of my writing as bullying is strange to me, and perhaps it reveals a different issue, in that some folks probably don't know what to make of me. I don't fit into a convenient box, and I like it that way, but defying categorization bothers some of them.
If they can't tell exactly what my "job" is, they can't typecast me -- and they can't tell me how to go about doing "my job," whatever it might or might not be. Furthermore, in the absence of any willingness on their part to interact, the usual policing levers aren't effective.
What am I? Blogger? Politician? Business owner? Drunkard? Vocabulary deviate? Polemicist?
Why not just plain citizen, exercising that elusive concept of citizenship?
Is this really so hard to grasp? I have demonstrable principles. I'm able to state them cogently. I take part in the process even when it's futile. As a citizen, I'm just trying to do my small part in making this city a better place -- and all these hidebound, antebellum fogies stand in the way of progress.
It's enough to make a man curmudgeonly. Of course humans are fallible. We can't be perfect. Were always learning. I just try to tell the truth as often and consistently as possible, and let the proverbial chips fall where they may. I hope you like it, and I'm not sorry at all if it bothers you. It's my art. You may cease reading at any time.
After all, I'm not at the homeless shelter commanding the occupants to get better. I'm at city meetings demanding openness, transparency and accountability of elected officials, and chiding the supposed journalists when they're to busy promoting cooking school to bother.
I'm not cruel to kids or dogs. Rather, I'm delighted to offer an alternative viewpoint as it pertains to self-assigned community "leaders" with more money and power than brains, and who really did learn everything they need to know way back in kindergarten.
The kids and dogs make better company, anyway -- and have you ever noticed that when a dog offers his territorial pissing, he confines it to a sustainable zone?
If you think Jeff Gahan knows more about a city's street grid than Jeff Speck, I'm not going to miss your comments about the theory and practice of my art as a polemicist. However, I'll remind you that your belief is foolish, and falls into the category of palpable absurdity.
In reverse chronological order, here are a few blog references to Bully Baylor over the past three years. Surely these began prior to 2013, and if you have examples, add them to the comments or at Fb.
... Even this heretic knows that Goliath was the big bad bully, and not the dude with the spot-on slingshot, and accordingly, I’ll continue to speak and write openly about the way things are in New Albany, because when it comes to underdogs, sleepers, dark horses and the man in Tiananmen Square blocking a column of tanks with his briefcase, you won’t find any of them in the $100,000 mayoral suite overlooking one-way Spring Street.
... Like Harding’s “normalcy” and Kennedy’s “vigor," the phrase with which Roosevelt begins this letter, “Bully for you” will forever be emblematic of his presidency.
... Our final thoughts: A message to Mr. "Bully" Baylor. Hell would freeze over before Freedom of Speech would EVER Support or Endorse you. Sorry Rog the only thing your good at "is kissing ass or bullying people...
... Without question, Roger Baylor's a bully. Like the previous post says, he would post something like what the Health Dept posted on him and laugh his head off and get his gang of bullies to laugh with him. This person is a menace of the worst sort. He incites anger and hatred. Nothing more.
... No question Baylor is a bully. He would, without so much as a wink, put together some sort of picture just like the one on the Health Dept. site and feature this on his blog. He would do this while sneering and jeering, and he would spout venomous comments with his loyal followers who would gush all over the remarks with similar refrains of their own. Then, he would promote such a picture/blog entry on every website he frequents, Twitter, Facebook, other blogs. And he would guffaw and drink while adding one lie on top of the next in his self-righteous screed.
Like Harding’s “normalcy” and Kennedy’s “vigor," the phrase with which Roosevelt begins this letter, “Bully for you” will forever be emblematic of his presidency.
The very concept of the Bully Pulpit, or the use of the president's position in American society as a means to push an agenda, was defined by the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt believed that the presidency was more than just an elected political position, but could be used as a force for social change in the nation, not simply via laws and executive orders, but by speeches, programs and appeals to the American people.
Bully Baylor's mayoral campaign slogans are beginning to generate themselves, aren't they?
NA Confidential's mask-free policy on reader comments.
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