"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Tuesday 17 August 2010

An Encyclopedia

Long life and intact memory represents a significant body of knowledge and experience. I have known many people on various levels of intimacy. I've encountered many more.

Political people are particularly interesting. Mostly congenial, confident, competitive and skittery; they are quick to react.

They are super-conscious of their image. In or out of politics, they don't change. Politics attracts that personality.

Politics is public .

A Councillor can hope to influence decisions and certainly cast a vote with all the strength of conviction.

It's not a small thing. It requires mutual respect among councillors for the position they hold and the responsibility they share .

It calls for discipline. Animus is out of place. Every decision is followed by another to be made. And the work begins again.

Hostile barbs are not forgotten or easily forgiven . There's a powerful inclination to strike back.

I do it here.

This is not the council chamber.

The cameras are not running.

Those who read, want to know what's going on and what I think about it. I tell .

I get the occasional splutter of vituperative rage from Councillor "anonymous" .

The Mayor's power glower is obviously intended to reduce me to a quivering miserable mass of fear and trembling.

I don't understand why the Mormac twins think any part of public business should be secret.

They clearly believe control of the majority of votes and the administration , should be sufficient power to squelch all opposition.

It may be.

But public business is the public's right to know.

Especially with the only opportunity in four years to cast a vote coming soon upon us.

In all my years and encounters, I have seldom met the likes of Morris and MacEachern.

They are a political aberration.

Seldom seen and never found in pairs. .

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