That's you, Roxanna Ross, Headmistress of the dark days of legislative doom. You were the Evil Empress, who wreaked suppression upon your little people and your hapless lieutenants. And they waited, for any chance they could ever hope to seize, to put you firmly in your place. They wanted you to feel what they once felt, that same sense of frustration, of helplessness, and of humiliation.
Did you see how it felt? Do you remember the amendments your one-time colleague and enemy, Steve Bernard, tried vainly to make to the minutes, the precious record of all that is our tiny Village? Do you recall the imperiousness with which you, and your underlings, Anderson and Childress, dismissed Bernard's helpless attempt at a small light in the darkness you created? Did you pay the slightest attention to Cooper, who could only pathetically join Bernard in trying to preserve fairness and dignity in this neighborhood you dominiated?
Well, you've tasted some revenge now, haven't you. Now you want minutes passed, because you've had up to three months to review them, and have made your corrections. No! You'll wait another month now, while Cooper pretends to review the minutes himself. You must have felt the sting of his revenge. Obviously he has not the slightest interest in the minutes. If he had, he would have made his own corrections, and he would have done it long before now, as you did. No, Roxanna Ross, this is not about minutes. It's about punishing you. And you'll hear from His Highness as well. You're in a hurry now to get the old minutes passed? Well, if they're that old, then they can wait some more. And so can you.
Noah Jacobs, The new Emperor, not the pretender, as you were, set you straight only about a month ago. He was searing in his confrontation of you: you just can't get over not being Mayor any more. That's right, Roxanna Ross, you're no longer the Mayor, or the Queen, or whatever you thought you were. His Imperial Majesty, Czar Noah, our "Dear Leader," as the North Koreans are forced to intone, will see to it that you remember who's boss around here.
It's a new day here, and your angry reign is over. You made your minority partners impotent, and you even drove away the masses. Bernard told us that. So did Cooper. But now that you're kicked aside, there are even fewer masses and supplicants than before. Hmm. Don't think you can let yourself off the hook, though. It really is your fault. Or if it isn't your fault, it's because residents don't like committees, so they won't come to Commission meetings, either. (I don't know, Rox. I didn't get it, either. But that's what Bryan told himself and us, for an instant. Until it was about satisfaction with how things are going in the Village. Bob Anderson said this once, but Cooper thought it was a weak dodge. It seemed to make more sense to him tonight. At least fleetingly. Until he decided it was my fault that residents don't come to Commission meetings.) They began to stop coming when Bernard got elected, fewer of them came after Cooper joined him, and now that it's Cooper and Jacobs, sometimes joined by Watts, it's only we very few unflinching suckers. Linda Dillon said something about internal warfare among the Commissioners, but what does she know?
His Majesty also cited the past disenfranchised minority, that he decided is now in power. They have raised their heads, and it's you they want to punish. Frankly, they seem to want little or nothing else. Cooper invoked what he imagines is a population of "new residents," who didn't like the old regime. Where they are now is anybody's guess, but he seems to be sure they're happier.
And Cooper repeated one of his favorite watchwords: "hypocrisy." Oh, my goodness, what a concept. Almost no one knows hypocrisy like Bryan Cooper. Linda Dillon says she has missed precious few Commission meetings in over 30 years. She's never seen anyone escorted out of a meeting, until Jacobs did it a few weeks ago. That's Jacobs, the Suppressor, who claims at times, like when he's running for office, to want more resident input. But Cooper, who has only lived here for eight years, and has been to Commission meetings only for the last four years, knows tales of many people who were driven out by the police. He even knows a reported tale of someone stalked and arrested by the police after the meeting. That Linda has no idea what he's talking about shows how out of touch she is. It certainly doesn't suggest Cooper is either not thinking straight, or making it up. And what about Jacobs' further swipe of you, when he decided that if a Charter Revision Committee was a lengthy process, then it didn't make sense to wait to begin it. This is the same person who decided that if minutes had waited this long to be passed, then they might as well wait longer.
And you, Bob Anderson. Don't think you're escaping punishment. You claim you haven't heard anyone clamoring for Charter change? No? Well neither have the rest of us. But Cooper has. Does the term "term limits" mean anything to you, old man? That's right. The new broom sweeps clean. You have offended certain powers that be around here, and you, too, will get what you deserve.
Yes, you two. Now you see. Now you know what it's like to be treated with disdain and dismissal. Like the infidels and witches you are, you will be cleansed by the purifying fire. You shall have your comeuppance.
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