The McCollumn - 7/29: 'And now, the rest of the story'

I suppose that one of the hazards of covering news stories in your hometown is knowing more information about what you are covering than what is pertinent to the story.

When I’m sitting in front of a computer screen (generally near the deadline hour on Wednesday), I’m forced to cut down my notes and collection of funny and interesting quotes into a “Just the facts” sort of style.

Thus is news reporting.

I’m not saying this is a bad thing.

I don’t know that anyone actually wants to hear the one-liners floated by various members of the city council. What kills in council chambers may fall flat out here.

Sometimes, events occur that are noteworthy, that is to say worth me picking up a pen and jotting something down about it, but not actually newsworthy, for some reason.

This week, I present for you two examples of “non-news items” that occurred during regularly scheduled public meetings.

Are these actually news? Probably not, but this is my space, and I think they deserve mention.

What do you think?

Opelika City Council

During last week’s city council meeting, a young woman got up to address the council during the Citizens Communications portion of the meeting.

Usually, former councilman Clarence Harris or T Speir are the only people to speak, so I listened as the young woman began to tell the assembled citizenry about her issues in dealing with custody of her children with the Alabama Department of Human Resources.

She said the children were being tossed around from foster home to foster home – a seven-year-old, four-year-old, two-year-old and two-month old deserve more stability than that.

The woman said she had approached Council president pro tem Patsy Jones to ask her advice, and Jones pointed her to the council, telling the young woman she wasn’t sure the council could truly be of help to her situation, but that someone there might be able to help.

The woman raised questions about inadequate legal representation, and city attorney Guy Gunter stepped in and offered the woman his legal advice.

While the council may not have had the ability to do anything, the Reverends Tom Tippett and John Rector, on hand to help lead the meeting in prayer, immediately hopped up to offer their assistance to the woman, taking her out into the hall to ask her further questions and get her what she needed.

Councilwoman Jones seemed touched, adding, “I know we have a mixture of people here, and God is always good,” with what appeared to be a small bit of moisture in her eyes.

Opelika City School Board

“I have something to say,” Patsy Boyd Parker, school board member and veteran educator, said during the Opelika school board’s meeting Tuesday, directing her comments directly at Superintendent Mark Neighbors.

Her tone seemed to imply something important was soon to come forth.

Parker is not known for speaking in vain. Neighbors seemed slightly taken aback.

She began by giving “all due respect” to Phil Raley, then proceeded to upbraid Neighbors for his apparent refusal to go and pose for his official superintendent portrait to be displayed in the lobby of the performing arts center.

Parker gave him a three week deadline to go and get it done.

After she finished, Neighbors breathed a sigh, saying “I wasn’t sure where you were going with that one. Thought I might be in trouble.”

“Three weeks,” Parker snapped back. “You very well might be.”

Opelika Observer Staff Editorial - 7/8: 'Disagree' does not mean 'disrespect'

At this week’s Opelika City Council meeting, a citizen took time to address the council during the Citizens’ Communications portion, a time set aside during each council meeting for the public to address the council with questions or grievances.

While the common belief may be that such an event is a normal occurrence, truthfully, it is not. Citizens rarely exercise the opportunity to speak at council meetings.

The aforementioned citizen was unhappy about several decisions and votes made and taken by the council, and stood up to voice those concerns - a perfectly valid and appropriate usage of the time allotted.

However, the citizen ended by taking aim at the mayor and council members on a personal level - questioning their honor and stating that the council members were “rapidly losing their honor.”

The citizen was later upbraided for those remarks by Council president Eddie Smith, but, to us, it seems a regrettable shame that the situation has come to that.

When did public discourse in this country fall to such a low level?

When did debate become who could yell the loudest and say the most outrageous things - regardless of whether they can be verified or not?

We are used to seeing politicians and commentators on the cable news networks engaging in such dubious behaviors, but we were unaware the poison had spread to so far, to the local, grass-root level.

Votes and decisions may not always be backed by everyone, but no one deserves the right to question and impugn the honor and integrity of someone for their vote.

You may not like a decision made by the council, but a vote you personally disagree with does not shame or dishonor a council member.

Any character attacks such as that often reflect more on the person making the attack.

If your argument has such little meat that you must use personal attacks as a prop, perhaps it’s best to sit down and be quiet.

You are not contributing to the solution; you are furthering the problem.

Inflamed rhetoric and wild unsubstantiated claims make for great sound bites and pull quotes, but they don’t actually bring solutions to the problems they pretend to address.

Rather, they serve to further drag down this country, as civility and mutual respect are tossed to the side.

Political debate in this country used to be a civilized affair. People could disagree on issues and have arguments without hating the person behind the issue.

We need to find a way back to that model - disagreement without being disagreeable.

We are a nation forged largely on compromise.

When brave men and women recognized that two factions backed by rigid ideologues would never want to find a solution, they met together and forged peaces that would bring the country together.

Let us not forget that the Miracle at Philadelphia in 1776, that new nation conceived in liberty, came about because our founding fathers put aside political differences and inflated egos for the good of creating a new nation.

Compromise and rationality, not inflamed words and angry protests, are the true children of 1776.

Judge today’s arguments by this standard: the louder they yell, the weaker their argument.

The McCollumn - 7/8/: Cliff and the 'dog days of summer'

He tries to eat leaves. I don't judge.

More than a month ago, almost-Dr. Adam Cooner, snake hunter extraordinaire, sent me a series of texts and picture messages telling me about a litter of puppies his mother had come across up in rural Walker County.

I was saddened by their plight, but more than a bit taken aback when Cooner asked if I wanted one of the puppies.

Some of you may not know me terribly well, but know I am not the sort of person who has ever been called an “animal person.”

At best, my relationship with pets has been a sort of peace born of a mutual recognition of each other’s right to exist, but little more than that.

While I often petsit for others, the thought of having to care for the well-being of another living thing was never really a point of interest for me.

I’m barely involved enough to take care of me; how could I handle a pet?

Cooner and others seemed to think otherwise and their arguments prevailed upon me.

Cooner dropped the puppy off upon his return from an externship in Ohio, and the dog and I began a roughly three week experiment, one where he familiarized himself with a strange new home and I tried to develop a name that a) fit the dog and b) I wouldn’t mind yelling for the next 3 to 9 years.

After much hand-wringing and consultations with various McCollum cohorts, a name was chosen: Fitz, short for Admiral Fitzwallace, the fictional Chairman of the Joint Chiefs played by John Amos on “The West Wing.”

“Obscure, but fitting,” the bipartisan, blue ribbon McCollum Pet Naming Commission said in its findings.

Now, Fitz is a fixture at McCollum Cottage, a roguish scamp of a mutt who may slowly be winning me over.

Note I said “slowly.”

I’ve not yet adjusted to the cries and yelps to be let out to go to the bathroom at 4 a.m. Those opportunities do allow me to try out some seldom used Middle English curse words, so maybe they aren’t a complete loss.

I have to remember that I, too, occasionally wake up that early for exactly such a purpose.

The yelping seems to be on exactly the right pitch to set my nerves on edge.

The repeated “You’re leaving me in this crate for several hours alone. I hate you” bark is annoying, but it often makes me feel bad for having to leave him there.

Shopping for the proper food can be more than daunting. The options available to pet owners is somewhat staggering.

I spent almost 20 minutes just wandering the pet food aisle at Kroger the other day, and I still feel like I didn’t really see half of what was there.

I put off going to Petco. If the Kroger aisle made me nervous, that place could make my brain explode.

I suppose, as a non-pet owner for almost all of my life, I’ve never had a reason to think about any of this stuff.

I’m learning now, besieged with advice from everyone I know, whether I ask for it or not.

“You and a dog?” one long-distance friend asked. “Odds are only one of you lasts out the summer.”

Could be, chum.

But, for now, Fitz and I are good.

We’ll watch a little Arrested Development, have a nice lie-down and go to sleep.