Welcome to Toblog. It's time to catch up here. If you are new to this blog or are just feeling nostalgic, let me refer you to four blog posts of note. "Save Our Small Town Democracy" (9/6/07) is a complete overview of the problem presented by the town manager type of government in many small towns. If you are concerned about the corrosive effects of Political Correctness, refer to "Politically Correct Beyond Words" (10/3/07)and "Politically Correct United Statians" (9/28/07). Finally, this blog started out considering new technologies and their impact on libraries. See "Week 9, Thing 23" (8/20/07)and what the future holds for libraries.
Happy reading and commenting.
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4 comments:
So Toby,
A German, an Italian and a Spainard walk into a bar. What do you all them? (Europeans)
A Kenyan and a South African meet in the airport. Aren’t they both equally African? (Yep.)
When a Canadian, a Costa Rican and a Peruvian get together what could their continental identy be other than American? New worlders? Western hemispherians? Nothing seems to fit.
The irony is that Columbus barely discovered America by failing to find the continental mainland, and Vespucci didn’t name the continent for himself when he found his way to South America. In fact even that claim to fame seems to be in doubt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerigo_Vespucci.
It appears to me that we who live here were never certain what to call ourselves. After all, our nation’s capital is the District of Columbia (after Columbus, not Amerigo). Our national anthem doesn’t mention our nation by name. “America” has been convenient English-language shorthand for the United States of America, but the usage has never been universal. Different names have long been used especially in other languages and we do it too (Germans, as you know, are Deutschlanders in their own language). Do we think Chuck Berry singing “ I’m so glad to live in the USA” is any less heartfelt than “I’m proud to be an American?”
Tangential to this issue but in the same vein is the story “Doctors out to cure medicine of eponyms.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2357794.ece Seems the time-honored practice of naming a disease or a cure after the discoverer is imprecise and confusing. But as luck would have it the article does raise the bugaboo of political correctness..
Let's go back to Martin's bar. A Mexican and a Canadian come in and it is possible that they might refer to each other as North Americans. However, I've never heard of members of either of these two nationalities calling themselves Americans. Say Americans and it's understood worldwide that it means citizens of the United States. Only the ideologue would despute this with the term "United Statians". And, it's their motives that matter here. Reducing our identity to the extent that we don't even know what to call ourselves would certainly serve the original goals of the cultural Marxists who spawned PC.
Despite the ironies of Columbus and Vespucci, it is common usage over time which has connected the name American with us. The drive to take that from us is simply part and parcel of the PC process that would happily have us vanish.
See you on the front porch...
So, Clay Owens' article in today's Times Record does a pretty good job describing the frustration of the Town Manager's contract still not being resolved, especially since Clay was not present at the previous meeting where there was much more heated discussion.
It seems the discussion about the contract at the Oct. Town Meeting was not even brought up during the Citizens Comments portion of the meeting because when Kathy Smith brought it up during "Old Business" she again didnt' get a satisfying answer from our Commissioners. What's the point of talking? They aren't listening.
It seems other than Commissioner Gearhart, the issue of the Town Manager honoring his contract doesn't even seem to bother the Commissioners. All the questions, complaints, anger seems to fall on deaf ears with Commissioners Hunter and Epperly-Glover.
Commissioner Hunter more than once, at Town Meetings has espoused his feelings about taking away the use of the car, but has it happened? NO...why are they dragging their feet?
And the article states that the Town Manager has recently rented an apartment just outside the town limits, and infers that the issue is whether he is required to live in the town limits, or just the zip code.
The issue is, and always has been, the Town Manager has not moved to Ridgey in the nearly three years since he was hired, whether it be town limits, or zip code area, and we want him to live up to his contract.
Even he has admitted (Sept. Town Mtng.) that he is only staying at the house just outside of town a couple of nights. This doesn't constitute MOVING to Ridgely (zip)! Has he shown the Commissioners a lease?
Every evening that I drive by, and it's often, there is no car, no lights, no movement at the house. Anyone else out there ever seen him staying there? Probalby not, because he is most likely just trying to appease the uproar by making it appear that he has moved.
He is still driving a town car, using town gas to go back and forth almost an hour each way, daily, and we are paying for it. He isn't living in Ridgely, it is a sham. Why dont' the Commissioners call him on this?
At least restrict the use of the car to Ridgely and/or OFFICIAL town business. C'mon Commissioners, you're being PLAYED a FOOL!
So now, it isn't just that the Town Manager is laughing at all of us because he knows no one is going to call him on this, he's pushing for anything he can get away with, a four day work week? extending the severance pay from 3 mo. to 6 mo.? and God knows what else he is asking for. And he'll probably get it because we all know the Commissioners are two against one and will most likely give him whatever he wants. WHY? So we don't lose him? Please, seriously, tell me, do you truely condone this kind of behavior?
What, tell me, would we lose? A seemingly dishonest, sneaky man who probably thinks he has hit a gold mine in Ridgely! Commissioners, take an honest look at this situation, the WHOLE SITUATION. Maybe he has...
I'll see you on the front porch too. It's great that we have that old tried and true forum here.
Anyhow, things are probably getting better with the TM contract question. It's very unlikely some of the strange things that came up at the Commissioner workshop will ever be voted into law because so many concerned citizens contacted their Commissioners. Commissioner Hunter is open to our concerns and as far as I know he still feels the same about the town car and other issues. We all know where Nancy stands on all the above.
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