It's 9AM
He’ll probably write the Mayor, she said.
I was talking about an idea to a dad at the ballgame and the Mom’s overheard me.
I know she meant it was much like pissing up a rope, but still, someone must do it.
I correspond at least quarterly and sometimes monthly with two mayors.
I tried with the last few Presidents but got form letters in return.
I tried with a third Mayor, but he was a bit full of youth, vigor and high on the idea of making the position and dismissed me out of hand.
What on earth would anyone say to the Mayor anyway?
It’s just a role for promoting the town right?
No real power.
A figurehead.
Which is what my first letter many moons ago was all about.
Public perception versus hard facts and how to intermingle them both.
The Mayor of my old hometown took to the streets with a promise to clean up Pine Bluff.
Literally.
She hosted Saturday morning litter walks where bags and gloves were provided to anyone who wanted to show up, clean up and talk with the Mayor.
Youth groups from churches joined her, and kids from high school looking to get in their community hours showed up.
And they did the deed.
The city council was contentious and fragmented on how to solve the many, many woes facing the city known as one of the most dangerous in America.
Jobs fled, people fled, buildings collapsed and blocking Main Street.
Verbal fights in Town Hall meetings, and almost every branch of the government under some sort of lawsuit.
This wasn’t normal, wasn’t small town America, and as far as I can recall, was not the town I grew up in.
Yet the Mayor had a solution.
Get up.
Get out.
Pick up.
Now I am not sure when people decided that litter belonged out of the window instead of their car.
There was a commercial in the 70’s that showed an Indian crying while people destroyed the environment with their trash.
To me, tossing litter is a higher form of idiocy, a statement that tells me the person who does it is self possessed and lazy.
Zero care for the world around them.
A real, “someone else will do it” attitude, and I could make guesses on how they live the rest of their life.
Guys who work all day in the sun, but throw fast food bags in the back of their truck bed because it magically disappears on the way home.
Girls who just washed, waxed and detailed their ride and there’s no room for the Burger King bag in the floorboard until they get to a gas station.
Basically, the selfish narcissists who turned every corner, vacant lot and city park in town into debris filled trash dumps.
The Mayor decided cleaning up the corruption and inaction and ineptness with City Hall started with showing the people that it was time to clean up the city too.
Literally.
She showed up, she picked up.
And it worked.
Not fast.
Not fast enough to avoid criticism from the same Ward Directors decrying she was showboating for the cameras.
Never mind that there were no cameras there are first.
The same Ward Directors who fought progress to a standstill and turned the clock back on job growth, development, and fighting criminal activity through their own lack of activity, cried foul on the Mayor who got out and picked up trash.
She started by doing.
She served by serving others first, giving them one clean park, then another.
Week after week.
Even as she fought against a lot of grown ass men working very hard to tell her how much what she was doing wasn’t going to work.
So I wrote her a thank you note.
Then a letter of encouragement.
Then thoughts about glory days and days gone by and ways to get back to what we were.
Not all in one letter, just a couple.
I shared ideas for other ways to make improvements, simple, easy no cost solutions.
I asked if I could tell her story to a friend in the news business, which got the clean ups on radar, and on television, which in turn, increased turn out.
All that involved just another note.
A shared idea.
Which is what I do in the city where I grew up, and what I do with the city close to where I live where the Mayor is doing great things.
Notes of encouragement and ideas about the future.
I get told they have a lot on their plate.
I know they have a ton of people whispering for attention, clamoring for favors, and making noise about all the things they are getting wrong because the price of any sort of progress is complaints.
But who doesn’t like an “atta-boy” or “atta-girl” when you get something right?
I think more than Mayors need them.
Maybe we all do.
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Chapter
The room was dark and musty, the only light coming from a few flickering candles scattered around the space. In the center of the room sat two figures, their faces shrouded in shadow.
"What are we going to do with the girl?" one of them asked, his voice low and gravelly.
"She has potential, that much is clear," the other replied, his voice smooth and measured. "But we can't let her continue to work on her own. She needs guidance, direction. We could use her to create and recruit a new coven for our purposes."
The first figure leaned back in his chair and chuckled. "A new coven, you say? And what nefarious purposes do you have in mind?"
The second figure leaned forward, his eyes glinting in the candlelight. "Oh, the usual. Power, control, domination. And with a young, inexperienced witch like Kat at our beck and call, we could achieve it all so much faster."
The first figure nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I see what you mean. But we have to be careful. If she gets wind of our true intentions, she could turn on us in an instant."
"That's why we'll have to keep a close eye on her," the second figure replied, his voice dripping with malice. "We'll have to make sure she stays loyal to us, no matter what. And if she doesn't, well... we'll just have to eliminate the problem."
The first figure chuckled again, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "Yes, yes. This could be the start of something great. With a new coven at our command, we could rule the magical world."
"Exactly," the second figure said, standing up from his chair. "Now, let's go find that little witch and get to work."
A great article Chris, we have those dingbats in Australia, who think it’s ok to throw their
rubbish out of the window
After reading this article I went outside, looked in my car and lower and behold. There is a McDonald's bag that has not been. Don't tell I picked it up. I walked over to the garbage can and I'll put it in and then I saw a couple other things around the yard where my grown boys just throw things out when they get through so I started picking that up. Next thing I know my husband is digging a hole to put a plant in that I have rooted and I have asked for them to dig a hole ever since the week before Easter. I guess it's working and I'm not even a mayor