Coward

Before we get started today I’d like to thank each and every one of you who voted for my column in the recent “Best of Topeka” contest. When you consider the huge advantage the Capital-Journal columnists have in circulation numbers compared to the Metro this was really cool. And needless to say, it made my day.
But it’s about a lot more than just me though. It’s about the Metro editor, Denise Hall, taking a chance on me in the first place. Other than a few letters to the editor, I had never done anything like this. She still doesn’t know quite what to think of me yet though. That’s okay. I’m still trying to figure her out too. It’s about the Metro News itself, and the people who read us. Yeah, we’re a small paper compared to the Capital-Journal, but I believe our readers tend to be more informed and more inclined to get involved. So yeah, it was a team effort by all of us. Thank you.
How about a good monster story today. I’ve heard tales of a monster that lives amongst us all. They say it has nine heads and that the nine heads hate each other and are constantly fighting over who’s in charge. With the heads constant fighting, the monster is always confused. He has no direction. They also say it’s always hungry and there’s no way for it to satisfy it’s appetite. When I first heard this story, I thought the person told me the monster lived on “axes.” Man, that part used to always scare me. What kind of a monster could possibly have nine heads and live on axes? When I realized it was “taxes” and not “axes” the monster lived on I was terrified. But hang on, there’s more to this horror story. The monster has a name. They call it the “Topeka City Council.” If you happen to be in the downtown area on a Tuesday night be careful. They say this is the night it eats.
Ah, I just made that stuff up. I was just taking a cheap shot at the council, and for the most part, I’ve avoided talking about this mess. I sat out the fight over the helicopter. I didn’t say anything during the fight over the budget. I also stayed out of the City-County fight over the hardware-software thing, mainly because it was all way over my head. I’ve avoided all this because I figured that sooner or later cooler heads would prevail. Maybe not.
Actually, I have a lot of respect for most of our council members. And for the most part I believe they’re all good people trying to do a job knowing that no matter what they do, it’s going to make someone else mad. It’s kind of like being married. No matter what you do, it’s wrong.
You know, I really thought that once we got past the budget process, the City Council could start moving this city forward. Chances of that happening went away last week when one of them gave copies of the recent City Manager’s evaluation to the hosts of a local talk show. You know the story.
I have a pretty good idea who’s responsible for this breach of trust that’s essential for this governing body to function, but I’ll just keep it to myself. It’s not so much what they did. It’s the cowardly way they did it. Personally, I thought the evaluation should have been made public in the first place. Obviously this person thought so too.
So here’s the deal. If you’re going to take a stand like this, at least have the guts to make yourself known. You had your chance to defend your actions. But you decided to take the cowards way out. For this you should, first identify yourself. Then you should resign. There’s no room on our City Council for someone we can’t trust.
Kevin McGinty can be reached at: kevinmcginty@sbcglobal.net