The Lake Isn't The Only Thing Toxic Around Here

We have two newspapers in the area. Both host blogs. I do not participate in one at all and the other with less frequency than I used to. I rarely post about local issues because the climate is so toxic.

There are three factions in this community. One is the government and its entities and those who believe they can do no wrong. The other consists of the watch dogs who are more often like pit bulls than Saint Bernards. The third are those who don't much care one way or the other.

I have slowly slipped into the third category. I know people on all sides. None are friends in the true sense of the word; some are better acquaintances than others. Why the slide into apathy? The acrimony is exhausting.

We have a columnist who is part of the watch dog group. She had, lost and regained her column for political reasons no doubt. I'm not privy to the arrangement; this is just my assumption. When the second coming of the column came there was the promise that the watch dog efforts were going to expand beyond the city limits. Oh, boy.

There was a forum yesterday regarding the controversial education corridor. The details, for the purposes of this post, don't matter. The reporting of what happened does.

The columnist wrote a flowery, yet scathing, accounting of the proceedings on the watch dog blog. It was purely personal opinion and observation, which is fine, it's what columnists do. Another point of view was in the paper this morning and a live commentary on line by a third party. There must have been three different meetings.

Somewhere in between the three is probably what actually happened. This is an example of why I have a problem with the watch dog group wanting to expand its horizons. They would seem to be on overload already with keeping track of every detail of what the city and its entities do. They are probably aware of where people eat and what. We know the hidden tape recorder tactic was tried and failed.

Now it seems the intrepid columnist has poked into the doings of the urban renewal district of a small community down lake. The resulting column was apparently riddled with inaccuracies; a trait for which the columnist is known.

The members of that town's urban renewal agency wrote an opinion piece that was published in this mornings paper refuting much of what the columnist had written and in so many words suggested the effort was not appreciated and to butt out. Sound advice to people who do not live in the community when you have enough trouble getting it straight in your home community.

I'm sure I'll be told to take my own advice. And I will. This will be the last of it for some time to come.

However, once, just once I'd like to see the watch dogs say something nice; like nice job guys! Like the Mudgy and Millie project.

No. Nothing. But then I don't really care any more. I'm tired of being tired. Nothing ever changes. Name calling, finger pointing, inflammatory accusations. Ho hum. Life in a small town. What's to care about?