ON THE AVENUES: Greg Pennell tells his story.

Greg Pennell is proud of his career as a police officer with the New Albany Police Department.

During 29 years of NAPD service Pennell never once was suspended, even briefly. He won a medal of valor in 2009 for capturing an armed shooter who’d murdered a co-worker at the Pillsbury plant; Pennell pioneered the NAPD’s computer crimes unit along with his and his colleague, Sherri Knight.

Perhaps most impressively, during his police career Pennell conducted himself according to a personal value system of constant accountability to the public.

“As a police officer my boss always was the population of this city,” Pennell says. “I worked for the citizens of New Albany, in my mind and my heart.”

Recently I spoke with Pennell by phone from his home in Florida, where he moved after retiring from the NAPD in mid-2016. When I asked Pennell to explain why he chose to leave the police department when he did, his answer came clear and crisp.

“I supported David White for mayor in 2015.”

Evidently freedom of speech and association had ramifications for Pennell, as it has for others in New Albany, before and since.

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White’s announcement came on September 12, 2014 at the Scribner House in downtown New Albany. Pennell attended the short kickoff in the company of several city employees, including longtime street department workers Donnie Blevins and Clifford Swift.

Pennell remembers glancing across the intersection of Main and State Streets to the sidewalk by Wick’s Pizza and seeing three of Mayor Jeff Gahan’s closest City Hall associates standing there, intently studying the crowd at White’s gathering.

Missy Sarkisian Stotts also came to White’s announcement at the Scribner House. She had worked for many years for the city prior to being downsized in early 2012, less than a year after the 2011 Democratic Party mayoral primary, when she supported the candidacy of one of Gahan’s opponents.

Once Gahan became mayor, Stotts lost her job. She harbors no doubt that picking a primary candidate other than Gahan cost her employment.

Ron Grainger knows, too. He lost his job early, in late 2011, because someone had to be cut to allow the mayor’s future son-in-law Chris Gardner to become flood control director without the slightest relevant experience or qualifications.

Blevins and Swift were pressured and bullied subsequent to their support of White in 2015. They were long-term city employees with exemplary work records, but both opted for early retirement rather than risk being fired from their jobs.

Blevins’ own conclusion about Jeff Gahan is sweeping and comprehensive in its brevity.

“Jeff is a bully.”

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“In 2012 I didn’t know much about Gahan,” says Pennell, who at the time had the merit rank of captain and was the NAPD’s chief of detectives.

The incoming Gahan administration formed a committee and opened a process for officers to interview for the jobs of police chief, assistant chief and major. Pennell decided to interview for the assistant chief’s job. He was offered the position of assistant police chief and accepted it.

Pennell served in the position of assistant police chief for two years, until May of 2014, when he asked to be reassigned back to chief of detectives. His request was concurrent with Knight stepping down as chief.

News reports during this period reveal the NAPD suffering from several internal controversies, with allegations of misconduct and discrimination, merit board decisions and an investigation by the Indiana State Police. In September of 2014, Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson announced that no criminal violations had been found.

“I no longer had confidence in the Gahan administration,” says Pennell, who prefers not to go into further detail.

White’s campaign launch at the Scribner House occurred one week after Henderson’s press conference, and coincidentally, almost immediately thereafter the former police chief and then-current day shift captain Merle Harl retired from the force.

Normally this would have created a vacancy for a new captain to be promoted from the waiting list of sergeants. However, Chief Todd Bailey – Gahan’s choice to replace Knight – called Pennell into his office.

“He asked me to take the day shift captain’s job instead.”

To Pennell, working as day shift captain might as well have been a demotion compared with being chief of detectives. “Why not promote a sergeant?” he asked Bailey – and there was a long silence.

With pins dropping and crickets chirping, it quickly occurred to Pennell that Bailey wasn’t giving him a choice in the matter.

“I could see the handwriting on the wall,” Pennell said. With no options, he resolved to accept Bailey’s decision and also to insist that the chief put into writing what was happening: the day shift captain’s assignment was temporary, and there would be a clear timetable for Pennell’s return to chief of detectives.

Bailey seemed reluctant to produce such a letter but eventually he did. It stated Pennell would return to being chief of detectives by October 12, 2015.*

Reassured, Pennell performed his daily duties as day shift captain and as the date drew near, he prepared for the mandated transition back to chief of detectives.

Then came another plot twist. Shortly before the October 12 deadline a fellow officer alerted Pennell to a message posted by Bailey to the NAPD’s messaging system, stating that the position of chief of detectives was being eliminated – effective immediately.

This was an unexpected and shocking development. As Pennell points out, there had been a chief of detectives in the NAPD for as long as anyone could remember: “It goes back at least to the 1880s, and maybe to the beginning of the police department in New Albany.”

Clearly, Pennell couldn’t return to a position that no longer existed. Upon reading the message he drove to police headquarters to discuss the matter with Bailey, and as luck would have it, the chief was seated in an adjacent squad car as Pennell pulled into a parking spot.

“Todd, do you have a minute to talk about the message?”

Stammering and visibly uncomfortable, Bailey replied that he had only a quick minute, so Pennell got straight to the point and asked about the signed agreement for his return to chief of detectives.

Bailey told Pennell he could go back to the detective division, but not as a captain, meaning Pennell would have to give up his merit rank of captain, which he had earned through the testing procedures put forth by the New Albany Police Merit Commission.

According to Pennell, the police chief “just walked away.” Pennell had the written evidence and still possesses it, and yet he’d been outflanked and knew it.

“I had the letter, and I could have hired an attorney, but what good would an empty promise do?”

So much for trust.

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Pennell concedes that Bailey’s abrupt elimination of the chief of detectives position was upsetting, as was the police chief’s overall attitude toward him.

“Not many things bother me,” says Pennell, “but this one did.”

Recalling Blevins’ account of workplace harassment at the hands of Gahan’s subalterns, as well as those of other former city workers who still fear what might happen if they publicly tell their stories, it’s a familiar and destructive cycle.

What are the effects of bullying? Targeted employees can experience fear and anxiety, depression, and can develop a kind of post-traumatic stress disorder -- leading to psychological harm and actual physical illness. This leads to absenteeism and turnover as bullied employees avoid or flee the torturous workplace.

For Pennell, the mental stress exacerbated pre-existing physical conditions, and eventually he took sick leave to try and get better. He was off work for a long period. In mid-2016, Pennell chose to retire rather than continue in an unmanageable situation.

“I didn’t want to string out sick leave, and that was that.”

So it transpired that for Gahan’s purely political reasons, the NAPD lost a highly skilled, veteran officer.

Our chat concluding, Pennell recalls that the work he and Knight were doing at the computer crimes unit was noticed by none other than the Secret Service, which deputized him as a federal marshal from 2007 through his retirement in 2016.

“I think Bailey disbanded the computer crimes unit,” chuckles Pennell.

“Maybe he brought it back after I was gone.”

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Footnote

* Ironically, Bailey himself is a rare survivor who probably can attest to the whims of Gahan’s vindictiveness. He was chief of police at the end of Doug England’s third term, and chose to support England’s handpicked successor, Irv Stumler, in the 2011 primary. Gahan handily defeated Stumler, and Bailey was removed as chief when Gahan took office in 2012. The private terms presaging Bailey’s subsequent comeback remain unknown, but he has since become a frequent Gahan campaign contributor who is willing to openly campaign for the mayor during election season.

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Recent columns:

April 23: ON THE AVENUES: Gehenna, Franklin Graham, Jean-Paul Sartre and Fred Astaire lead us straight to Hell.

April 16: ON THE AVENUES: Amid Deaf Gahan's "victory" over grassroots activists at Colonial Manor, the toxic paranoia is no less rancid.

April 9: ON THE AVENUES: It's time for a change, and David White understands that change begins with a whole lotta scrubbing.

April 2: ON THE AVENUES: Donnie Blevins tells his story.

ON THE AVENUES: Donnie Blevins tells his story.

Donnie Blevins is a purposeful man with little time for wasted motions or words. He puts his brain into gear before putting his mouth into motion. Blevins’ personal page at Facebook is characteristically concise and to the point.

“I'm a Christian, a fair, honest and hard-working man.”

When Blevins was a child, disaster struck the family. One night he awoke to smoke and chaos. The bunk bed he shared with his twin brother caught fire, the spark from a faulty wall socket igniting the curtain and spreading flames to where the boys slept, unaware.

As Blevins’ father pulled his brother from the bottom bunk, his brother grasped Blevins’ hand to yank him down off the top. They made it outside and watched in shock as the house and all their possessions were reduced to smoldering debris within minutes, the blaze so intense there was nothing left except ashes when the fire department arrived.

“All I had on was my underwear,” Blevins recounts. “We didn’t have anything, and we didn’t have anywhere to go. We were homeless – no insurance, because dad was renting the house.”

Luckily their father’s boss from the sheet metal factory knew someone at the New Albany Public Housing Authority, and so the family found a place to stay. Even 45 years later, Blevins hasn’t forgotten this feeling of rootless vulnerability.

“I remember when we first got into the housing authority, mom and dad took us over to the old Lillian Emory School. Mom went inside to sign us up for first grade.

“But we didn’t know it was a school, and I remember me and my brother sitting in the car out in the parking lot, crying our eyes out.

“We thought it was an orphanage. We thought mom and dad couldn’t afford us. We still didn’t have any other clothes except the ones we had on. Mom finally came back outside and we drove off, and this made us feel a little better, so we asked her: ‘Why are you giving us away?’

“What are you talking about, giving you away? I’m putting you into school!”

At first the Blevins twins slept on the apartment floor atop a blanket. One day a neighbor gave the family a baby bed for their young sister, then other neighbors brought clothes. Someone donated a mattress for Blevins and his brother to use. “That floor sure was hard,” he says.

Slowly things got better. Blevins’ dad got a second job, and his mom found work, too. Only then could the family afford a babysitter at night to look after seven children. When the twins were in the fifth grade their parents had saved enough money to leave public housing and move to a home in Sellersburg.

When Blevins was 12 he got his first job working in a hay field for a Clark County farmer, then started cutting grass. At 16 he applied at his father’s workplace, where the minimum age for employment was 18. They hired him anyway. Other jobs followed, and after high school Blevins got on at the Sellersburg water company.

Blevins minces no words. “I never had any handouts,” he says. “No rich uncle, no rich grandpa. I had to work hard for everything I had.”

And he did. In 2000 Blevins accepted a position with the city of New Albany, eventually working in four different municipal departments: street, sanitation, stormwater and wastewater. He wanted to get more involved with his community and ran for an at-large city council seat in 2003, garnering the highest vote total among Democrats during the primary, then winning a council seat outright in the fall.

Blevins became one of eight Democrats on the council, with only a single Republican. One of his rookie council colleagues from the 2003 Democratic landslide was Jeff Gahan, the future mayor, who won the first of two consecutive 6th district council terms alongside Blevins, who says he had no significant disagreements with Gahan during this period.

Unfortunately the Democrat-dominated council was prone to internal factionalism, resulting in frequent four-versus-four power alignments. Blevins became an unlikely (and uneasy) swing vote among warring Democrats. His discomfort often was palpable. Seeking re-election in 2007, Blevins was defeated in the May primary and seemed almost relieved to be shedding a burden.

As always, Blevins got on with his life. He’d come a very long way from the scared little boy in underwear watching his family’s house burn to the ground. Blevins was a husband and a father with an unblemished record as a city employee. Conscientious and thoughtful, Blevins also served as pastor in his church (he still does).

What’s more, Blevins had a fledgling business to nurture. His NA City Boys Sanitation company began operations in February of 2006. Disillusioned by then-mayor James Garner’s privatization of the city’s sanitation department (Blevins was transferred from sanitation to the sewer utility and wasn’t part of the move to eventual sanitation contractor EcoTech), he started his own private sanitation company. It has been growing ever since.

“NA City Boys can’t do residential pick-up here in New Albany because of the city ordinance, but we can do commercial, and we can work in the fringe area in the county.”

From its inception NA City Boys has competed for contracts against EcoTech. Did this fact rub people the wrong way, and more importantly, was it ever an issue between Blevins and his fellow elected officials during the time of his council tenure?

He says no.

What about Gahan? Was there ever any friction with him?

“No,” says Blevins. “Jeff congratulated me (for starting NA City Boys), and nothing was negative, not at all.”

According to Blevins, neither he personally nor NA City Boys experienced problems during the remainder of Garner’s lone term or Doug England’s final mayoral stint. The entirely of Gahan’s first term passed uneventfully as well. Blevins’ city job and his side project remained separate, and life was good.

It all changed after the Democratic Party primary in 2015.

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Businessman David White announced his candidacy for mayor of New Albany, challenging the incumbent Gahan. Blevins and White were good friends, having met for the first time in 2003 at a Democratic Party picnic. They hit it off, and naturally Blevins volunteered to help White with his campaign.

White lost in the primary and Gahan was re-elected. For Blevins, this was the end of it. It never occurred to him that helping a friend would result in retribution. However, the ramifications were immediate and irrevocable.

“After the primary election it went downhill fast,” he states.

The polls hadn’t been closed for long when Blevins felt an arctic breeze. He was cited for improper cell phone use by his street department supervisor, who left no doubt that this directive to “write up” Blevins came straight from the higher-ups.

Specifically, after ten years of peaceful co-existence, suddenly NA City Boys had become a problem. Was Blevins doing NA City Boys business by phone while on the city’s time clock?

“No I wasn’t,” he replies firmly. “Other guys used their phones for Facebook or to play games, but I only answered when my wife and kids called me. Then they said those were business calls -- but everyone knows you can’t run a business over the phone.”

The harassment became noticeable and quickly escalated.

Blevins had been parking NA City Boy trucks at his house since the company was founded, but suddenly in early 2016 he received a certified letter from the city referencing an ordinance against parking commercial vehicles on residential property. He chose not to fight the decree and began parking the company’s trucks at a commercial property he owned on South Street.

Then in the spring of 2017, while working to clean up flooding damage on the riverfront, Blevins was openly snubbed in front of witnesses by the second-in-command to flood control director Chris Gardner – the mayor’s son-in-law, who assumed the position in 2012 with no other qualifications than a university marketing degree.

Several city workers had been cleaning all morning, and when it came time to break for lunch everyone at the site had transportation except Blevins and one other employee. Blevins asked the flood control supervisor if he’d mind running them to the store.

“He told me, ‘Donnie, I can take anybody up to the store but you. Nothing personal.’ ”

The supervisor confided that Gardner had ordered him “not to do anything for Donnie,” and said he couldn’t help Blevins because he “didn’t want to get himself into trouble.”

According to Blevins, throughout 2016 and 2017 he received frequent hints from Gahan supporters that he was a pariah and needed to make amends. One such messenger was Terry Ginkins, owner of TA Ginkins Company, recently revealed by NA Confidential as one of Gahan’s most reliable pay-to-play campaign finance donors.

One day on a job site Ginkins arrived and sidled up to Blevins, making small talk before saying, “Donnie, you need to get on board with Gahan.”

Blevins adds that when Ginkins’ company was remodeling the firehouse at Community Park in 2017, street department employees were sent with heavy equipment to dig and install a drain – something already included in Ginkins’ bid, presumably saving the contractor money.

This rankled Blevins, then Ginkins paused one day to taunt Blevins about “getting behind” Gahan, boasting that “I (Ginkins) don’t have a problem with Jeff.”

This time Blevins didn’t hesitate.

“I don’t imagine you do, because Gahan built your company.”

Ginkins bristled. “What do you mean?”

Blevins told him: “You know exactly what I mean. You get all these handouts and jobs, get all that money and then kick some back.”

“He got really mad,” Blevins remembers, “and he said I had no right to say those things.”

Blevins bit his lip, thinking to himself: Terry, you and Jeff are two peas in a pod.

---

For Blevins the end came in February, 2018. He was working nights on snow removal, out on a run after 9:00 p.m., when Gahan made a visit to the street department office.

When Blevins returned, his supervisor called him inside to deliver the ultimatum he'd just been given. According to the supervisor, who said he had no idea why any of it was happening, Gahan had gone “berserk” about Blevins, referring to him as “that son-of-a-bitch” and promising to “fire his (Blevins’) ass the first chance I get.”

The supervisor, himself nearing full retirement, was shaken by the mayor’s attitude. He also was determined to look out for number one, interpreting Gahan’s obscenity-laden tantrum as a clear warning to Blevins to get out while the getting was good – or the supervisor would do as needed to protect himself.

Weary of mistreatment, Blevins did just that, opting to avoid the looming ax by opting for early retirement at a sizable disadvantage in terms of potential retirement benefits.

"I needed to retire because I was going to lose my job. I told him go ahead, schedule my days, and that's when I started taking my vacation and sick time."

At 50 years old with 19 years in, Blevins needed another 10 years for a full pension, so the ordeal ended up costing him 75% of his optimum monthly pension check. Thanks to his union membership Blevins kept his health insurance, although his monthly insurance premium now costs 50% more than the benefit check.

It’s a very good thing Blevins retained the health insurance.

Tragedy struck a few months ago when his wife suffered a massive stroke.* She remains comatose. Blevins brought her home after a stint at a nursing facility, and how his primary job is caring for her, devoting himself to his stricken wife’s needs as his adult sons manage NA City Boys in his absence.

Gahan? Characteristically, he isn’t finished yet.

Six weeks ago Blevins received another certified letter from the same city functionary, this time citing a vague complaint from an unnamed neighbor about truck noise in the morning, and ordering NA City Boys to cease and desist. There’s a machine shop opposite Blevins’ commercial property, with other industrial users nearby.

There’s also a church where a chief political ally of Gahan’s preaches.

In spite of it all, Blevins tells his story calmly and factually, betraying no outward signs of anger, bitterness or self-pity. He concedes there are times when it’s hard being a Christian and maintaining his composure. But as has always been the case with Blevins, there’s plenty of work to do, and he just does it.

Blevins’ own conclusion about Jeff Gahan is sweeping and comprehensive in its brevity.

“Jeff is a bully.”

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* An update: Carmen Blevins died on August 18, 2019. 

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Recent columns:

March 26: ON THE AVENUES: Gahan's hoarding of power and money is a threat to New Albany's future.

March 19: ON THE AVENUES: In 1989, six months of traveling fabulously in Europe.

March 12: ON THE AVENUES: Tender mercies, or why Democratic Party luminaries didn't want to be seen at the "Protect Hoosiers from Hate" rally.

March 5: ON THE AVENUES: Prom planning's nice and all, but New Albany still needs an autonomous independent business alliance.

Costs, benefits and all things Amazon.

Just as I was reading articles about Amazon -- opposition in NYC and the larger-scale damage done -- news started arriving: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Headquarters.

Some thoughts via Twitter:

Justin Miller: Amazon didn't need New York's talent, they wanted New York's dollars. That's what they're admitting here.

United Black Front: "Amazon is the richest corporation in the world,” Zachary Lerner says in Long Island City. “There’s no reason that we should have ever considered giving $3 billion to this corporation to come to New York City."

Every Billionaire Is A Policy Failure: Here's the thing: Amazon is still perfectly welcome to build in NYC--always has been. They just have to give up the bullying. You can't have a "positive, collaborative relationship" with a community if your terms are 'pay our $3B bribe or we're out.'

Consequently, this story is a tad obsolete.

"Don't Let Door Hit You on the Way Out": People Power Credited as Amazon Reportedly Reconsiders New York HQ2, by Jake Johnson (Common Dreams)

"Can everyday people come together and effectively organize against creeping overreach of one of the world's biggest corporations? Yes, they can," says Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

In the face of widespread and impassioned opposition from local politicians, progressive members of Congress, and ordinary New Yorkers, Amazon is reportedly having second thoughts about its plan to locate a second headquarters site in Long Island City.

"Can everyday people come together and effectively organize against creeping overreach of one of the world's biggest corporations? Yes, they can," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) declared on Friday in response to the news, which was met with glee by advocacy groups that have opposed the New York government's deal with Amazon since it was unveiled in November.

"Bye, don't let the door hit you on your way out," wrote the North Brooklyn branch of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), echoing a sentiment that was shared across social media.

"Our community's organizing is paying off! Let's keep it going!" added Make the Road New York, a state-level advocacy group ...

And why it matters.

New Study Shows Full Cost of Explosive Amazon Growth on Communities Nationwide

When Amazon recently closed its books on 2018, it made headlines with a third straight year of record-making profits. However, a new exclusive analysis from Civic Economics and the American Booksellers Association makes clear that the titanic growth of the world’s most valuable public company has resulted in as-yet-unrecognized loss and stagnation for America's cities, towns, and local communities.

The new report — Prime Numbers: Amazon and American Communities — quantifies the stark economic cost exacted nationwide as a result of Amazon's online retail sales.

Reviewing the most recent four years of Amazon's U.S. retail sales, Prime Numbers documents that in 2018 alone Amazon and its third-party vendors sold $189 billion of retail goods. The report’s analysis reveals that the nationwide results of those sales were:

• 540 million square feet of displaced retail space,
• 900,000 displaced retail jobs, and
• $5.5 billion to $7.0 billion in uncollected sales tax.
• For the period of 2014–2018, the cumulative loss in uncollected sales tax is estimated to be as high as $22.5 billion.

In contrast, Prime Numbers also documents the enhanced positive impact of locally owned, independent businesses for communities, as compared to both chain competitors and Amazon and its third-party Marketplace vendors.

Looking at the most recent numbers for the independent bookstore channel nationwide, the study reports that approximately 28 percent of all revenue of indie bookstores immediately recirculates in the local economy. This translates into a massive local impact advantage of 610 percent over Amazon (which recirculates only 4 percent locally) ...

Have you been threatened or harassed by Mayor Jeff Gahan or someone in his inner circle? Let's talk about it.

Have you been threatened or harassed by Mayor Gahan or someone in his inner circle?

If so, I need to speak with you. I'd like to hear your story, and moreover I'd like to write your story and tell your story -- understandably, given the likelihood of reprisals, your anonymity is assured.

It's an election year and Team Gahan will spend the following months hoisting numerous pictures of bright, shiny objects. These will be accompanied by glowing words of boilerplate written to a template stolen from big league Democrats by unctuous sycophants like Adam 'Tricky" Dickey.

Team Gahan won't mention hidden costs or the extent to which the mayor's cult of personality is taxpayer-funded. They will say nothing of the pay-to-play patronage system that funnels tens of thousands of dollars into the campaign finance account.

Most importantly, they'll say nothing about Gahan's persistent abuse of living, breathing human beings, depicting him as a benevolent "little father" to all childlike New Albanians.

Many of you know better. Your stories need to be heard so we can begin to demolish Jeff Gahan's personality cult, one fabrication at a time. Folks, the emperor's new clothes are little more than press releases he commissions, then believes.

Thanks. I look forward to hearing your side of the story.

Doing it for Matt, because Jeff Gahan doesn't want to hear about pedestrians, bicyclists and skateboarders being killed on city streets. That's why Jeff Gahan MUST GO.

How the Williams Plumbing trucks
block vision at 9th & Spring -- a pictorial.

The top story of the year at NA Confidential -- the top story in the 14-year history of NA Confidential -- came on August 7.

Last night a driver killed a skateboarder at 9th & Spring. His name was Matt Brewer, and he was one helluva guy.

I was angry then, and I remain angry now. No single occurrence in 2018 better illustrated the truth of a very old axiom as applied to Jeff Gahan's seven-year reign as dictator wannabe: Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Four months later, neither the police nor the prosecutor has released information on the circumstances of Matt's death. In fact, according to the News & Tribune's early coverage (the newspaper has not even attempted to follow up on the story), the police already had exonerated the driver at the scene.

City Hall's response was, and remains, unconscionable, damning and sadly indicative of the ethical, moral, AND cash-driven rot that pervades the Gahan administration -- and, by extension, the hierarchy of the Democratic Party and its elected officials, who are this chicanery's enablers.

That's because there has not been, and likely never will be, any sort of human response to Matt's death at all on the part of officialdom, of the sort revealing qualities like sadness, empathy and resolve. Rather, we've been handed cowardly evasions and the sort of by-the-numbers word puree crafted by computers for androids.

A young man was killed, a young woman was widowed and just as in 2016, when Chloe Allen died trying to cross the street at the horrible intersection of Spring & Vincennes, city officials had nothing whatever to say.

Like rats conniving behind the baseboards, all we heard were scurrying sounds as Gahan and his operatives rushed for the cover of their bunkers.

Weeks passed, and finally tepid gurgling sounds about radar speed surveys began emanating from our so-called "leaders," to be conducted by HWC Engineering, the preferred municipal pay-to-play sausage-maker, which had been chosen by Gahan to gut Jeff Speck's street grid reform recommendations in the first place.

This does nothing to address the fundamental problem, although we can be sure it prompted Ed Jolliffe, HWC's Indianapolis-based human ATM, to deposit another few thousand in the re-election fund.

I was angry then, and I'm angry now. In the weeks following Matt's death, I devoted more than a few column inches to City Hall's "inhumane" response (gotcha, Nanny Barksdale). You can call my words polemics, or perhaps bile; I prefer journalism tinged with passionate advocacy in the sense that we not allow our friend's passing to have occurred in vain.

And that's exactly what Gahan wants.

These many words of mine in August and early September were met by threats against me on the part of city officials in New Albany. The details are irrelevant, and I don't care to dignify these insinuations at the present time. They know, and I know. Naturally, I welcome their hatred. It's bullying, and it's something that you, as a voter, need to be aware of.

Why are you enabling the Gahan administration's toxicity, payola and corruption with your vote?

Are the serial transgressions really worth it for our city to gain a few bright, shiny objects -- with their huge costs being passed on to your grandchildren?

This isn't about Democrats or Republicans. It's about fundamental human decency. Can you detect any among these people?

Municipal elections are coming in 2019, and I intend to be involved in them. I haven't decided exactly how. It's something I hadn't planned on doing, but then Matt was killed, City Hall's wagons were circled, and the mayor showed his pathetic true colors -- yet again.

It has to stop ... and the cleanest of all conceivable campaigns are the ones in which candidates confine themselves to simply telling the truth.

Like I was doing this past August. Stay tuned for details, and thanks for reading.

Car-centrism: Why does the news media always let human drivers off the hook when non-driving humans get killed?

How many bicyclists, skateboarders and pedestrians have to die before Jeff Gahan gives a flying fuck?

ASK THE BORED: Faced with 75 signatures on a petition, Nash, Summers and the clueless BOW non-safety board can't muster a single empathetic response.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Both Jeff Gahan and Warren Nash believe that driver convenience far outranks considerations of human life.

ON THE AVENUES: The "downfall" occurs when we all fall down.

If you want to know how Deaf Gahan purposefully botched the Speck plan for walkable streets, read this article. Hint: HWC dunnit.

Non-learning curve: This ON THE AVENUES column repeat reveals that since 2011, we've been discussing the safety hazards on Spring Street between 10th and 9th. Too bad City Hall is deaf.

As the Bored of Works dithers over safe streets, a reprise: "On the crass exploitation and politicization of tragedy."

Making this place walkable will require understanding concepts as well as exercising the ballot.

ON THE AVENUES: There's only one way to cure City Hall's institutional bias against non-automotive street grid users, and that's to #FlushTheClique.

ON THE AVENUES: Another year older and deeper in debt, so let's doo-doo it all over again.

ON THE AVENUES: Another year older and deeper in debt, so let's doo-doo it all over again.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

Oh, I am heartily tired of hearing about what Lee is going to do. Some of you always seem to think he is suddenly going to turn a double somersault, and land in our rear and on both of our flanks at the same time. Go back to your command, and try to think what we are going to do ourselves, instead of what Lee is going to do.
-- Ulysses S. Grant

End-of-year compendiums taunt as much as they tempt. While at times an adequate teaching tool, the glibness of 20/20 hindsight usually gets in the way of instruction.

Apart from the planetary scourge known as Homo sapiens, there are no neatly printed numerical calendars, just natural cycles of life and death, recurrence and the dialectic. Nothing ever really ends on December 31, or begins the following day. All of it is a continuum, until the final pervasive darkness overtakes us all. After that, calendar pages no longer turn.

Encouraged yet?

Awesome, so let’s begin the year’s end housekeeping with thoughts pertaining to the life of ON THE AVENUES itself. In short, there’ll need to be a slight adjustment.

That’s because speaking personally, the single biggest story of 2018 was the official debut of Pints&union on August 1, which put an end to three and a half years of my semi-retired underemployment. As the pub's advent followed the long delayed final settlement of my NABC buyout, it became a judiciously considered exclamation mark affixed to what I view as a personal rebirth.

During my hiatus there were ups and downs, births and deaths, frustrations and exhilaration, but in the main it was a gratifyingly productive period. I’ll look back on those years as a cherished time to learn and grow. It was like earning a second undergraduate degree, or perhaps finishing a master’s program in creative synthesis.

Just as in an overall daily sense I’ve no idea where I’d be without my wife Diana, in professional terms this accolade now fully extends to my friend and employer Joe Phillips, to whom I’m grateful for the opportunity to reinvent a career in beer. We’ve had six-months to build a foundation, and in 2019, the beer program’s going to fly high.

It’s about time – and it’s all about time.

My work routine became established fairly quickly, but it has taken me a few months to sort through the scheduling implications for my sidelines of writing and blogging. Since the advent of ON THE AVENUES in 2011 it has been my weekly goal to publish the column on Thursday. However, my work week at Pints&union is front-loaded, falling largely at the beginning of the week (from Monday through Wednesday, and into Thursday).

Perhaps a better course in 2019 would be to publish ON THE AVENUES on Tuesday, giving myself the weekend to prepare -- and what better day to begin than Tuesday, January 1, New Year’s Day?

---

Bernie Sanders tweeted on Friday.

The American people are tired of a president who is a liar, a fraud, a narcissist and a bully. They want leadership which unites us, not divides us. They want policies which work for all, not just the wealthy few.

I hastened to comment on this.

Welcome back to Nawbany, Bernie. We have one of those charlatans, too.

Because New Albany is similarly afflicted, it was another long, strange civic journey in 2018, and it’s going to be twice as annoying in 2019.

Fortunately, unlike the chaotic situation three decades ago in the People’s Republic if Romania, my fellow New Albanians will have the lawful opportunity next year to exercise their power of the ballot and remove our own under-educated, egotistical, image-replicating, cash-in-the-service-of-special-interests, bullying and personality cult curating Nicolae Ceausescu wannabe, along with the bootlicking clique of vapid lackeys drooling in his general vicinity.

We can get to Trump later. He’s minor league by comparison. First, it’s time to pluck the Genius of the Flood Plain from the comfy projected office chair in his palatial Reisz Mahal, and put him back into peddling veneer.

Wait …

Veneer: A thin decorative covering of fine wood applied to a coarser wood or other material.

That’s it: Potemkin veneer. Come to think of it, the ideal epitaph for eight long years of toxic Gahanism.

Bring out your brooms, citizens. Behind the bright shiny Disney images, this place is a mess. Granted, it won’t be easy beating a campaign-finance-engorged narcissist of the 19th-century Tammany Hall model who genuinely believes his face must adorn Kroger shopping carts right next to where consumers toss their Metamucil, condoms and Rice Krispies Treats, but working together, we can do it.

---

Brevity may be the soul of wit, although it isn’t typically my specialty. Today I’ll play against type and keep it relatively short.

Returning to those pesky compendiums, a summary: It’s been a year, and next week there’ll be another one. Throughout the past year, I’ve struggled first to discover, and then maintain a balance between the varying public roles I’ve written for myself. Privately, I’ve confided in some of you why this has been the case.

Paranoia may be the big destroyer, but when you’ve no doubt the threat is real, there’s an obligation to calculate risks. That’s because bullies are cowards, and cowards often are disinclined to target the source of their rancor. Rather, they nibble maliciously at the periphery – family, friends, employers – rather than come straight to the source.

In this specific instance that source is me, and so kindly allow me to close the year by encouraging all those having something to say to me to cut out the middle man and come directly to … that’s right, me.

Mano a mano is the one thing they seem utterly terrified to try, preferring instead various chicaneries from afar to silence dissent rather than engage it through direct dialogue.

Yes, I can be a handful.

Yes: I say what I think, believe in what I say, and fight for what I believe. I care deeply about justice, fairness and equality of opportunity for all, not only those playing their big fish/little pond games. It’s not a switch or spigot capable of being turned on and off, although I’ve tried mightily to do so.

But you see, facts are the end game for me. My "side" has legions of them, and in the coming year, the facts will continue to be enabled to speak for themselves – with the necessary polemical assistance from the likes of me.

After all, that’s why I'm here.

Readers, thanks for another fine trip around the sun.

---

Recent columns:

December 20: ON THE AVENUES: Truth, lies, music, and a trick of the Christmas tale (2018 Remix).

December 14: A joyful noise? The six most-read ON THE AVENUES columns of 2018.

December 6: ON THE AVENUES: Straight tickets, unsociable media and whether Democrats should rally around Gahan's gallows pole.

November 29: ON THE AVENUES: "That's why I voted no," explains Scott Stewart, pausing to duck rocks feebly lobbed by Team Gahan's propaganda pygmies.

Chris Morris on distracted driving: "Pedestrians have the right-of-way, and don’t block crosswalks with your vehicles."

True story.

Those of us not cocooned in our cars understand quite well what it is.

Bullying, or the routine aggression that characterizes bad driving behavior.

We’ve all been there. You’re crossing the street, thinking you have a clear path, when the driver waiting at the light starts lurching into the crosswalk, itching for the green signal. Before you know it, you and everyone else crossing has to squeeze around this bully.

Inspired by a recent Jonathan McLeod post (headline: “Stop fucking driving your car at people”), I set out to catalogue a few of the most obnoxious behaviors people routinely engage in behind the wheel of a car.

Intersection bullying — when motorists occupy a chunk of crosswalk real estate that belongs to pedestrians with the right of way — is just one example of the many nasty, antisocial, and downright dangerous things drivers do when they’re interacting with people outside their car.

There’s a ton of bad driving behavior that should be socially unacceptable, but for some reason, granted the anonymity of a car, people engage in it anyway. This routine aggression needs to be called out for what it is — bullying.

Chris Morris nails this one.

MORRIS: Dealing with distracted drivers (Raycom Meets Tom May)

One of the reasons given for New Albany’s street conversion last year was to slow traffic, making it safer to not only drive in the city, but to walk, jog and ride a bike without the fear of being hit by a speeding car.

But city government can’t legislate distracted driving or those motorists who ignore traffic signals and crosswalks. Unless the police see it, not much can be done. So, a year later, are the streets safer?

Let’s say things have improved.

As a regular walker and jogger I see people every day ignore basic principles of driving on a downtown street. The main ones being pedestrians have the right-of-way, and don’t block crosswalks with your vehicles.

Here is what I see regularly at crosswalks: A motorist will pull up to the stop, ignore both me and the crosswalk, and wait for an opening before pulling out into traffic. Even though I was there first, and already had a step in the crosswalk, they just go on as if I were invisible. This one drives me crazy. Crosswalks are there for a reason, to allow walkers a safe path to cross a street.

This happens regularly in the morning as I cross Eighth Street. I usually have to jog behind or between cars because the crosswalk is covered up by a vehicle. It’s like I am invisible as they prepare to pull out onto Spring Street ...

With Taco Walk a week away, isn't it time for Develop New Albany to publicly take the cultural appropriation pledge and ditch the sombreros?

Did you know the Frito Bandito character was created in the late
1960s by the Foote, Cone & Belding advertising agency?

To casual observers, it might not make sense to wait until May 12, a full week after Cinco de Mayo, to spotlight an article about cultural appropriation in the context of this annual exercise in derivative marketing.

But in New Albany, very little makes cultural sense and almost everything is derivative, including Develop New Albany, our own peculiar institution, currently functioning as an appendage of Mayor Gahan's re-election effort, and thus beholden to a succession of 1:00 a.m. mobile phone directives.

As long as DNA continues to evade its "Taco Walk" ramifications of stereotyping and cultural appropriation, we'll keep bringing it up.

Which is to say, what you do on your own time is your burden, but shouldn't we expect a higher standard from organizations tied to municipal government?

Who'd have guessed? William Anthony Nericcio's "aggressive, relentless, and, at times, pathological interrogation of Mexican, Latina/o, Chicana/o, "Hispanic," Mexican-American, and Latin American stereotypes."

We've pointed to Nericcio's work on several occasions in the hope that the DNA board's daily reading is not restricted to the Collected Exhortations of Dear Leader (indeed, futility is this blog's constant and lamentable companion), but with a week to go until the renewal of Taco Walk, we'll offer another point of reference.

First, to recap, last year citizen volunteer Kelly Winslow brought the Taco Walk idea to DNA, unaware that she needed a lawyer, because from the moment DNA's "leadership" cadre arrived on site bearing sombreros, maracas and printed lyrics from the Frito Bandito's infamously demeaning ode to corn chip hucksterism, the event careened off the rails in terms of cultural awareness, leaving Winslow with little choice except to take back her idea and politely excuse herself -- but no such luck, because not only is Mexican culture ripe for appropriation, so are intellectual property rights, DNA reminding Winslow she could get out any time she liked, but her idea could never leave, and to be perfectly blunt, DNA has been nickel-and-diming and bullying her ever since, which is peachy keen according to well-scrubbed community pillars like DNA's city council liaison David Barksdale, who can't seem to grasp that if appearances in fact are everything (they're not, but we're on a roll now), then the appearance of a sombrero situated atop a middle-aged white person shaking maracas and chanting a 50-year-old advertising ditty, who is representing an organization that benefits from taxpayer dollars, is precisely the wrong one, now and forever.

Consequently, here's a slightly less academic explanation of the overarching point.

Put down the sombrero and back away slowly.

Think we might talk about it during the Tuesday morning merchant meeting this week? It's at 8:30 a.m. at the Pepin Mansion on Main Street.

And don't forget: Let's all eat at Israel's Delicias de Mexico Gourmet on Saturday, May 19.

Here's why your Cinco de Mayo celebration is problematic, by Katie Dupere (Mashable)

Today is Cinco de Mayo, one of the most widely celebrated Mexican holidays in the United States. But all the taco eating and $5 margaritas can cloud what you're actually celebrating — and lead to some nasty cultural appropriation.

That sombrero you're wearing, for instance, is never appropriate, unless you're of Mexican heritage.

But cultural appropriation is more than just a cheap, straw imitation of the wide-brimmed hat. It's parodying a culture without knowledge or respect of its roots. Many non-Mexicans are guilty of this on May 5, knocking back margaritas but totally oblivious to what they're even celebrating.

"In Mexican culture the sombrero, 'ponchos,' the music, the dancing, and even the tequila that was first made by the Aztecs have several cultural struggles behind them that a lot of people don’t understand," Melissa Nuno wrote on Medium earlier this year. "It can be offensive to some when people from other cultures try to own it, especially without at least trying to understand what it means to the people of that culture."

Bullying, or the routine aggression that characterizes bad driving behavior.

We begin with the basics.

This means you: "STOP FUCKING DRIVING YOUR CAR AT PEOPLE."

My favorite paragraph from the following is this:

See someone crossing the road ahead? Slow down and be prepared to stop. If braking at the sight of human beings in the path of your car feels like an unbearable imposition, you might be a garbage person.

Yep.

How to Not Be a Bully Behind the Wheel, by Angie Schmitt (Streetsblog)

We’ve all been there. You’re crossing the street, thinking you have a clear path, when the driver waiting at the light starts lurching into the crosswalk, itching for the green signal. Before you know it, you and everyone else crossing has to squeeze around this bully.

Inspired by a recent Jonathan McLeod post (headline: “Stop fucking driving your car at people”), I set out to catalogue a few of the most obnoxious behaviors people routinely engage in behind the wheel of a car.

Intersection bullying — when motorists occupy a chunk of crosswalk real estate that belongs to pedestrians with the right of way — is just one example of the many nasty, antisocial, and downright dangerous things drivers do when they’re interacting with people outside their car.

There’s a ton of bad driving behavior that should be socially unacceptable, but for some reason, granted the anonymity of a car, people engage in it anyway. This routine aggression needs to be called out for what it is — bullying. To start things off, I’ve compiled this short list of things that people should never do behind the wheel ...

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: Bring out your brooms -- we have nothing to lose except the toxic cliques and vacuous kakistocrats of imbecilic Gahanism.

Yesterday I suffered an allergic reaction to self-designated big fish and their tiresome small-pond antics, but first, let it be known that André Spicer, professor of organizational behavior at the Cass Business School in London, is the author of the book Business Bullshit.

Last November, the author contributed a "long read" to The Guardian: "From inboxing to thought showers: how business bullshit took over."

A certain amount of empty talk is unavoidable when humans gather together in large groups, but the kind of bullshit through which we all have to wade every day is a remarkably recent creation. To understand why, we have to look at how management fashions have changed over the past century or so.

He had me at "empty," but there's even more.

A century of management fads has created workplaces that are full of empty words and equally empty rituals. We have to live with the consequences of this history every day. Consider a meeting I recently attended. During the course of an hour, I recorded 64 different nuggets of corporate claptrap. They included familiar favourites such as “doing a deep dive”, “reaching out”, and “thought leadership”. There were also some new ones I hadn’t heard before: people with “protected characteristics” (anyone who wasn’t a white straight guy), “the aha effect” (realising something), “getting our friends in the tent” (getting support from others).

If Insider Louisville were to ban the use of "reaching out" by its staffers, one in particular, I'd subscribe today. It hasn't -- and I don't.

Let's see: claptrap, emptiness, inanity ... the word association inevitably leads us down a currently dormant garden path to the theory and practice of Gahanism in New Albany, hence the word I'd chosen to discuss today, kakistocracy.

kakistocracy

[kak-uh-stok-ruh-see]

noun, plural kakistocracies

1. government by the worst persons; a form of government in which the worst persons are in power.

Origin of kakistocracy

Greek 1820-1830 ... kákisto(s), superlative of kakós bad + -cracy

Imagine my surprise when it became apparent that Spicer had been thinking along precisely the same lines. It seems I'd totally missed John Brennan's recent internet-breaking use of the word kakistocracy with reference to Donald Trump.

Donald Trump’s ‘kakistocracy’ is not the first, but it’s revived an old word, by André Spicer (The Guardian)

... Brennan is the only the most recent in a long line of people to dust off the term to describe what he sees as a incompetent and unethical regime. During its 450-year history, kakistocracy has mainly been used by conservatives to convey their anxieties about what happens when tradition and order are upended. Today, it is being claimed by people from across the political spectrum to describe the wicked disorder that can result when expertise and ethical judgment are aggressively and systematically pushed aside.

That's breathtaking, considering there is no evidence to indicate that Spicer has ever been to New Albany, where City Hall enables toxic cliques and encourages them to bully the citizenry, as with Develop New Albany's treatment of grassroots activist Kelly Winslow and the way Gahan's servile minions laugh it off.

As for the malignant cliques, they were covered here just last year.

clique

[kleek, klik]

noun

1. a small, exclusive group of people; coterie; set

verb (used without object), cliqued, cliquing.

2. Informal. to form, or associate in, a clique

Origin of clique

Middle French
1705-15; < French, apparently metaphorical use of Middle French clique latch, or noun derivative of cliquer to make noise, resound, imitative word parallel to click

Related forms

cliqueless, adjective
cliquey, cliquy, adjective
cliquism, noun
subclique, noun

The British definitions for clique include further background.

Word Origin and History for clique

n.

1711, "a party of persons; a small set, especially one associating for exclusivity," from obsolete French clique, originally (14c.) "a sharp noise," also "latch, bolt of a door," from Old French cliquer "click, clatter, crackle, clink," 13c., echoic. Apparently this word was at one time treated in French as the equivalent of claque (q.v.) and partook of that word's theatrical sense.

Let's end with a quote about cliques.

No matter where you are in your life, whatever set of people you're with, it all still breaks down like high school does. You have your social cliques, you have the people you get along with, the people you don't and the people you're ambivalent about. All of the dynamics are still here.
-- Colin Hanks

Wait -- Hanks attended New Albany High School?

He didn't?

Ah, okay (slaps head) ... that's why he's not a city councilman.

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: "Individual bullying is usually characterized by a person behaving in a certain way to gain power over another person."

We have a disturbing situation here in New Albany. Ranking Democrats within Team Gahan's ever-shrinking perimeter of comprehension seem to think it's funny to joke about shooting and tasering people.

Spoiler: Threats and intimidation aren't laughing matters. They're bullying.

ON THE AVENUES: David Duggins’ violent “jokes” will continue until the New Albany Housing Authority’s morale improves – or Duggins is fired. We advocate the latter.

 ... Only with power comes the “right” to say it was all a joke, and make no mistake: (David) Duggins’ threats to Brown were all about power. So was Gahan's hostile takeover of public housing. People? They're just in the way.

Perhaps you remember the entertainer's explanation last fall of why he masturbated in front of women:

“When you have power over another person, asking them to look at your dick isn't a question. It's a predicament for them."

If, like (Brandon) Brown, you find yourself wondering whether a highly paid public official with a policeman standing by his side is joking – that’s a bit of predicament, isn’t it?

Jeff Gahan owns this predicament. For too long, Duggins has been empowered, and we see clearly what this means to him. Duggins needs to go, and he needs to go immediately, before someone gets hurt.

We're looking at a dick, Jeffrey. How can Duggins ever be trusted after this?

Most of us know bullying when we see it, and we've been here before, because money is the ultimate bully. Still, let's consider a brief refresher.

Bullying (Wikipedia)

There is no universal definition of bullying, however, it is widely agreed upon that bullying is a subcategory of aggressive behavior characterized by the following three minimum criteria: (1) hostile intent, (2) imbalance of power, and (3) repetition over a period of time. Bullying may thus be defined as the activity of repeated, aggressive behavior intended to hurt another individual, physically, mentally or emotionally.

The Norwegian researcher Dan Olweus says bullying occurs when a person is "exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons". He says negative actions occur "when a person intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical contact, through words or in other ways." Individual bullying is usually characterized by a person behaving in a certain way to gain power over another person.

Let there be no mistake: the issue with Duggins' behavior didn't begin Monday evening. NAC received this revealing testimonial earlier today.

I’ve been waiting for this shoe to drop. In every encounter I’ve had with this manipulative bully, David Duggins’ verbal and body language has swung between smug condescension, derision, and smoldering anger, with a dash of Trumpian sanctimony (“I care deeply about the poor”) thrown in. I’m paraphrasing, but that’s essentially what I've heard him say. I’ve watched Duggins at meetings grimace at others’ comments and have even seen him give hand signals to members of his/Gahan’s NAHA board prior to his appointment as interim director. He has a short fuse and is temperamentally unsuited to his current (overpaid) position. He should resign or be fired. I hope this issue does not go away.

Indeed. Duggins has to go. We're to the point now where someone might get hurt. My prediction: Since by his own estimation, Jeff Gahan has not been wrong once during the past six years, the mayor cannot fire Duggins on demerit, as this would soil Gahan's lapel. Rather, look for the situation to become one of health and well being; poor Tazie Davie has been working so hard to bring Dear Leader's plans to fruition that he's (a) had a breakdown, (b) will go to anger management counseling, and/or (c) enroll in drug or alcohol rehab.

My guess is he'll still be a bully, but there you have it.

The handwriting looks so very familiar, and I'm reminded of 1984 -- the year, not the book.

Not to mention that telltale white printer paper -- far from commonplace, right?

Thanks to P for the hilarious "familiar" headline comment, and let's come right out of the gate with clarity: Who doesn't love genuine, tactile, anonymous fan mail with a real postage stamp?

You get so little of it in this electronic age of ill behavior on social media.

I'd previously scheduled a two martini Saturday evening, and subsequently enjoyed an entertaining Facebook discussion of my fresh new mash note, one culminating in my being first trolled and then blocked, to the vast amusement of us all.

That's modernism, but I'd already become nostalgic for ancient times -- so very long ago that New Albany had a newspaper covering New Albany (whoa). Nostalgia is a feeling best indulged in moderation, unlike the martinis fueling it, but I'll risk the digression.

Chronologically advanced readers will recall that the "bullying" began during the decade of the 1980s, when I was known to submit frequent “letters to the editor” to the New Albany Tribune. One of these days, I’ll dip into the bulging banker’s box downstairs and unearth fragments of the archive, but for now, just one example should suffice to make the point.

In late '83 or early '84, after writing a letter to the 'Bune in opposition to one or another of Ronald Reagan’s reactionary conservative excesses, I received a small, tidy envelope in the mail. There was no return address of any sort, only a New Albany postmark. In those days, you wouldn't think to shake a suspicious envelopes for white powder or similar residue.

I shrugged and opened the envelope, finding crude, palsied, superannuated handwriting on a small rectangle of spiral notebook paper. The message was brief and to the point.

Jesse the Revolutionary

Or Killer Kennedy

Who is your choice?

The note wasn’t signed, and so it was that two decades before blogging started, the first anonymous response had arrived to brighten my day.

It strengthened my belief that anonymity is a fundamentally malicious affliction undertaken by the chronically dysfunctional to exact vengeance on those who are envied for having the integrity to stand behind their words, thoughts and opinions.

Ironically, with a primary election approaching in 1984, this anonymous note helped sharpen the decision-making process, and when prompted, I duly cast my ballot for Jesse "The Revolutionary" Jackson.

Alas, Ted "Killer" Kennedy did not appear on the machine.

Later, checking the primary results -- one of the lawyers who congregated at the liquor store brought me the sheets from the clerk's office -- it became apparent that I might have been the only Democrat in my Georgetown precinct to opt for Jackson. Perhaps there were two or three Jackson votes in the precinct. Memory sometimes slips.  

Gary Hart narrowly defeated Walter Mondale in the 1984 Indiana primary, and I'm proud nonetheless to have selected the sort of radical calculated to induce pain in the sort of person who'd take the time to write me an anonymous letter.

My only regret is being unable to let the writer know about Jesse.

More bullies and bullying from the Sunday summit of the bully pulpit.

What's a bully, anyway?

bully

[boo l-ee]

noun, plural bullies

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.

August 6, 2015:

ON THE AVENUES: Money is the ultimate bully.

 ... 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.

September 27, 2014:

Bully for you, bully for me. Let's have a bully pulpit in every foyer.

 ... 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.

April 24, 2014:

RUMOR MILL..... (at Freedom to Screech)

... 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...

August 24, 2013:

My second favorite News and Tribune reader comment yet.

... 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.

August 19, 2013:

My favorite News and Tribune reader comment yet.

 ... 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.

All together now ...

The Baylor for Mayor meme, October 23: Gandhi on campaign finance.

From August 6, 2015:

ON THE AVENUES: Money is the ultimate bully.

Vintage Coffey Klatch: "Let me explain by threatening you."

It's a far cry from the infamous Copperhead incident, or the various other threats Dan Coffey has issued over the years, but yesterday he took to the pages of social media to gently caress the blog.

Dan Coffey
Roger, thanks for an older picture of me. I have a lot more hair in this picture. Let me know if you need any of your postings from the past 3 years. I'm sure you will be able to use them fo your upcoming campaign. I"ll do my best to help get them out in the public for you.

NA Confidential
The complete and unexpurgated archives of NA Confidential since 2004 are available without encryption or invocation at http://cityofnewalbany.blogspot.com

This week's scorecard:

Dan Coffey's homophobic council tantrum: The Video.

Longtime homophobe Coffey offers heartfelt prayer for his "lying piece of (expletive)" colleague.

Prayer duly restored, the Ayatollah Coffey will now decide whether your religion deserves his stamp of approval.