Not To Worry

Several phone calls came in after Council aired on Cable last week. It happens after the gang goes berserk and beats up on me. People sense I might need re-assurance so they call to tell me to keep doing what I am doing. The encouragement is much appreciated. It's good to hear from people who see things as I do.

Last Wednesday, as soon as the program ended, a resident called to express her concern. The ferocity of the attack by the Mayor and her friends convinced her I was at risk. I re-assured her. The situation is not worse now than it has been since the term began.

Councillor Wilson is an old antagonist. He was a losing candidate for the second time in the 2003 election. I registered at the last minute and won the last seat at the table. He apparently thought it was stolen from him. It's all in the way one looks at things.

During that term,Mr. Wilson came regularly to meetings. He frequently took the microphone to demonstrate his superior understanding of how a municipality should function.

He discovered he could turn his invective in my direction. I told the Mayor Mr. Wilson's behaviour in the council chamber, during meetings was disorderly and it was his job to stop it. The third time it happened, I took the Mayor aside and told him if he let it happen again, I could give him no guarantee I would sit quietly and accept it.

He did it again. The Mayor stopped him in his tracks. Councillors Keane and Vrancic ventured that a citizen had a right to do what he was doing. Mr. Wilson continued his criticism of how things were done in general but his screaming diatribes against myself ceased. Then he was elected on the slate.

At the first meeting of the new council , the first time I spoke, Councillor Wilson raised a point of order and objected to my comments. Councillor MacEachern repeated the exercise the second time I spoke. It was a sign of things to come. Each time I spoke, Councillor Wilson rolled his eyes to the top of his head and let his tongue hang out of the side of his mouth. It was quite bizarre. The Mayor seemed not to notice.

I, of course, was the very model of decorum. After a while he stopped . But it wasn't long before old habits returned. Councillor MacEachern threw a couple of spectacular rages, complete with yelling and screaming. The Mayor indicated the behaviour was my fault.

Councillor Granger darts in with feeble shots every time things turn raucous."Right on" he mutters "Right on". Even meek and mild Councillor Gaertner enjoins with lofty pronouncements about the baseness of my conduct. The Cardinal Sin is my lack of respect for the Mayor, Councillor Gaertner's esteemed leader.

The Mayor presides without notable concern about the average age level of council deportment. All are confident of their righteousness. They have safety in numbers. Debate is a foreign concept. Rules of Order are meaningless jargon. In their collective wisdom, they know one thing for sure. Whatever point Evelyn Buck might make must be immediately beaten into the ground like a splayed out wooden tent peg.The impostor must be kept in her place.

They keep trying. It's not working.