"Stegall" Sounds Like "Stonewall"

People never fail to amuse me. Politicians are at the top of the list.

Did you see today's (5/4/08) Record Searchlight article about the report recently filed by a couple of ethics experts on the sex scandal that rocked City Hall a couple of months ago?

Our Mayor, Mary Stegall, claims in the article that the culture at City Hall is fine, and that any issues raised by the scandal have long since been addressed.

She goes on to say that in the time since the scandal broke, not a single city employee has come to talk to her about it. Nor has she heard "an outcry from the public."

"I haven't had one phone call saying the public is concerned about the city. What I've heard is that people are basically disgusted by the newspaper," she is quoted as saying.

The Searchlight, the article points out, made two California Public Records Acts requests, and finally had to sue City Hall to get details on the story.

I'll leave alone the whole topic of punishing the messenger. What I'd like to point out to Ms. Stegall is that in this era of a callous and careless Bush administration--of false terror alerts and illegal wars, sanctioned torture and a raped environment, winks at big oil bandits and secret deals with defense contractors , shredded constitutional rights and oh, so, so much more insanity that you can't even begin to list it all-- in this era, I think the population in general has gone a bit numb. We've all got that thousand-mile stare and are trying desperately to nurture some flicker of hope, to get that one tiny spark to stay alive until January when Bush, et al, finally, finally, finally vacate the White House and someone who (we hope) is not so completely in the pocket of big money moves in.

In this era we've been taught that it's pointless to complain. Our politicians not only will completely disregard you, they'll flip you the bird as they do so. "Eff off," they say, "I've got my fat cat salary and my huge pension and benefits and contacts and my circle of fat cat friends and lawyers and corporate cronies. I'll never have to live in the real world again, so eff you very much for your comments."

Ever get that feeling?

Well, Ms. Stegall, the point I'm trying to make is that in an era such as this it might be good policy to be a bit more proactive in your approach to all things related to this scandal. Maybe a bit less of a cavalier attitude would be nice. Instead of sitting, waiting for your phone to ring, maybe you should have done a bit more damage control. Maybe you should have actively solicited public comment, instead of stoutly refusing to turn over relevant information. And maybe now, when you're asked to comment, you should show us your humble demeanor, rather than point the finger and try to blame the local paper, whose job it is, I might remind you, to dig up this kind of stuff you'd rather keep hushed up. Maybe you ought to actually listen to what one of those ethics experts said: That there doesn't appear to be "any kind of reform effort under way," and that you and other civic leaders "appear reluctant...to acknowledge that there might be a problem."

Instead, you just say, Nope, no problem, nothing to look at here, please move along. Everything would be fine if it hadn't been for that pesky Searchlight.

Is it any wonder that "Stegall" and "Stonewall" look and sound so similar?

~G