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KUYKENDALL: No tolerance for ridiculous show of disrespect Monday |
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Monday, 30 November 2009 |
I have respect for people who serve in public office. It’s not easy, and it’s not usually particularly fun.
Take the Benton City Council, for instance. There are nearly a dozen committees that the aldermen sit on or oversee, each one requiring their time — usually one night a week if not two.
Then there is the preparation necessary in advance of the committee and council meetings, studying the proposals and budgets so they know what they want to discuss at the meetings and how they want to vote.
(And believe me, studying city budgets is a drag, to say the least.)
It only takes a little bit of observation to be convinced that city council members — in any city — put in a lot of time and effort to serve their hometown.
I also have a lot of respect for everyday citizens who attend city council meetings in order the make their voices heard. A lot of respect. These meetings are anything but fun, most of the time. Someone who goes to comment on, say, the proposed fireworks ordinance might get to sit through two hours or more of reading and debate on other, less-interesting ordinances before he or she ever gets to speak about fireworks or whatever.
But there is one thing that turns me off and sparks an intense dislike in me more quickly than anything: a lack of civility.
And I got a healthy dose of it at last Monday’s Benton City Council meeting.
Pardon my “French,” but several people — some elected and some not — made made You-Know-Whats out of themselves by getting into a shouting match that pretty much boiled down to an argument over which was better, the U.S. Army or the U.S. Navy.
No, I am not kidding.
It was not only a lack of civility on the part of several people, it was an extreme display of hatefulness on the part of Don White, who has announced his intentions to run for mayor next year.
The, uh, entertainment began when White, who also ran for mayor in 2006, spoke during the public comment section on a proposed ordinance to allow the community development office to purchase a new pickup for a total cost to the 2009 budget of about $8,000, after the old pickup is sold or traded in.
White berated the aldermen — who have been working to cut about $800,000 in expenses and balance the 2010 budget — for being willing to spend so much when the current pickup could be repaired for an estimate of about $1,400, city officials reported.
His rebuke of the aldermen for their apparent willingness to spend so much on a new pickup instead of fixing the old one was not at all out of place. In fact, much of what he said seemed appropriate and apparently struck a chord with several other residents in the audience, who nodded their heads in agreement. This is the kind of citizen action I can respect.
But then White also claimed — inaccurately, according to Benton Utilities officials — that a city-owned pickup was being driven by a secretary at Benton Utilities, and it could be used to fill the need instead of buying a new one.
That, at least in part, prompted Alderman David Sparks to respond: “I personally don’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth, Mr. White.”
“I believe you served in the Navy, didn’t you, boy?” shouted back White, who served in the U.S. Army. Gasps arose from the audience.
Then, Alderman Doug Stracener, a Navy veteran, immediately jumped into the exchange, his voice raised and his face quickly reddening: “You are out of order! The Navy has nothing to do with this!”
They all shouted at each other for another 10 or 15 seconds while the mayor all the while banged his gavel and loudly repeated: “Out of order! Out of order!”
After everyone shut up and appeared to calm down a bit, Sparks immediately apologized for his comment, and then Stracener demanded an apology from White, who eventually offered his as well — but he looked so angry giving it, I thought he was going to go into cardiac arrest. He was frighteningly angry.
The whole ordeal was ridiculous and embarrassing. I was embarrassed to be there witnessing it, and for several days I half-expected a video of it to show up as a joke on YouTube. (I could just picture a headline mocking the whole thing: “Small-Town Arkansas Council Fights Over Military Service! Hilarious!” and then it getting picked up by Jay Leno or something.)
Embarrassment aside, let me tell you one thing: I will never be able to support — nor let slide — a local political candidate or officeholder who acts as hatefully and disrespectfully as what I witnessed Monday night.
There is absolutely no place and no need in a democracy for that kind of attitude or for those kinds of words. They do nothing to foster good feelings; nothing to help get things accomplished; nothing to promote this city or its residents. They are only divisive, destructive and childish.
So I must call upon all our city leaders — including those local citizens who take it upon themselves to carry the residents’ voices to the council — to check themselves next time they feel their temperatures rising. They should remember that their message will be lost entirely if their delivery is too obnoxious or distracting.
And they should remember that eventually, we are going to get tired of the anger, the tirades, the name-calling — the general lack of civility — and when we do get fed up, we won’t ever listen to anything they say anymore. We just might even tell them that we no longer believe a word coming out of their mouths.
Funny how that happens.
Kristal Kuykendall is editor of the Courier. Her column appears on Sunday. Any opinions expressed in this column are hers alone and do not represent the opinions of the Courier.
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