2006 Off to a Roaring Start

From my perspective life as we know it appears to be looking up in New Albany. We aren't thru the first week and already the local brewery is back on line, a new restaurant is scheduled to open downtown soon, we have a refuse contract signed, and my garbage got picked up today just like it always has on Thursdays. Hooray!!!

Perhaps I've missed something but I don't understand what the SOLNA group is so fearful of. My experience in New Albany has always been that if I wanted information about the source all I've had to do was ask the source directly. That may very well required some research and footwork on my part to determine who the source was for a given issue but I have yet to fail in my quest. Following the chain of command looks good on paper for the military but if I have a question for the mayor, I'm gonna ask the mayor personal like. If I find out later that he lied to me, I'm gonna call him on it straight up in person.

This is the only intelligent way I know of acquiring factual information and keeping our elected public officials honest. It's also the only way I know to create trust between government and the public. Obviously this approach is not practical for the Governor of the state nor the President of these United States but for city and county officials the only reasons not to are lack of concern, laziness, or fear. As for the latter, contrary to popular belief, They can not eat you!!

As long as one approachs a civil servant in a civil manner, there is no reason for him/her to dodge a question unless he/she does indeed have something to hide. My personal experience has been that most folks in public office really do want to know what our concerns and views are in order for them to do their particular jobs well. What they don't want is to be embarrassed in public by rumors, false accusations, or flat out misinterpretaions of something they may have said/not said or done/not done.

It was pointed out to me earlier this week that the word agenda is not a dirty four letter word. We all have them every day when we get out of bed. For most of us it is to get through our workday so we can go home to our families and enjoy the fruits of our labors. For most of our policemen it is to keep our community safe. For most of our sewer workers it is to keep the lines clear and the apparatus running so we don't drown in our own refuse. And for most of our elected officials it is create and maintain a community that is pleasant to both live in and visit.

Having said that, if one cannot get satisfactory answers to direct questions, public debate becomes a legitimate productive option. But if and only if we have the facts before us to debate.
Without them we are just more talking heads putting spins on non issues.

So remember; "Just the facts ma'am!"

By the way, congrats to the Bistro New Albany! I'm hungry already.