What Else Can I Say?

I want to respond to some charges against me, and I want to enter a plea.

The charges boil down to an indictment of my attitude.  I am described as "mean-spirited."  Some people dislike my confrontation of Noah Jacobs.  I am relentless in publicly recalling his introduction to the neighborhood last fall, when he launched into an unrestrained and uncivilized temper tantrum aimed variously at the Mayor and the Village Manager.  I have said, publicly and privately to Noah, that he had no business running for office when he did, that he knew nothing about the neighborhood, that he showed no interest in it, and that his acceptance of victories, engineered by someone else, was disrespectful, bordering on contemptuous, toward the Village.  (I confessed to someone else recently that I have tried my best to get Noah to resign.)  I do not fail to recall as well Noah's other public temper tantrum, after he was given the Mayor's seat, and he lost control, composure, and dignity during a Commission meeting, refusing to let Roxy Ross speak during her turn.  He later told her it was clear to him that she cannot get over not being Mayor herself any more, and channeling Andre Pierre, he has suppressed her and the rest of his colleagues by dominating meetings, telling others when they have expressed themselves enough, and when he has had enough of it.  He has also made a childish spectacle of himself mistreating and disrespecting the former Mayor, with behaviors like talking about her in Commission meetings while turning his back to her.  He lets Commissioners know not only when he insists on a vote, but sometimes what that vote is to be.  I accuse him of suffocating meetings with this kind of behavior, unleashed not only toward his colleagues, but also at the public, and I make clear when he is unable to lead a meeting at all.  He often relies on others to manage the meetings for him, since he is apparently incapable of doing it himself, and he sat by, silently and impotently, while a recent code workshop got completely out of hand.  It appears either to be sickening feast, or life-threatening famine.  And I have accused Noah of being disingenuous at best, and grossly hypocritical at worst.  He is vastly more tyrannical than any nightmare he ever had about anyone else, and he is deeply antidemocratic.

Which leads me to the other part of the charge against me.  I am accused by some of being equally relentless in criticizing Bryan Cooper.  Charlie Smith, the resident, not the Finance Director, says I am "mean-spirited."  Gaspar Gonzalez says I am "snarky."  I would say of Bryan: talk about disingenuousness and hypocrisy...  Others might say of me: talk about a hostile fixation... Be that as it may, I have been open in pointing out repeatedly how unprepared Bryan is, how antithetical to the interests of the Village are Bryan's leanings, what waste and sabotage he perpetrates, how little he has to offer and how much he drains the Village, and what a cowardly approach he takes to discourse.  The childish and unvarying launching of spitballs, and accusations of everyone (except his friend Noah, and his idol, Steve Bernard), is unbearable.  Bryan recently offered a startling insight about his approach to the Village.  He told us that his entire posture and tenure as a Commissioner rests on a grudge he has been nursing for three years.  One vote, by a prior Commission and an ad hoc committee, didn't go his way, and he has resolved to punish the Village and withhold his services and representation because of that one disappointment.  As in Noah's case, I have openly and repeatedly asked him to resign.

So those are the charges.  The plea: Guilty.  In my defense, if such is possible, I would say I am not mean-spirited.  I am disgusted by that which is disgusting, and I want the peaceful and adaptive neighborhood we have every reason to expect to have and enjoy together.