The debate raged during my youth whether you starved a cold and fed a fever, or the other way around.
In reality, it is best to supply ample nutrition and hydration for both ailments.
When it comes to curing an attention whore, there is no debate. Just starve him or her. That is, deny them the attention they so desperately crave to make palatable their otherwise shallow existence.
Along that line, I went to the Monday meeting of Southmont Borough Council looking to blend into the background. No sense giving any added attention to those craving same. I would not avail myself of the five-minute window council provides to interested spectators to make a statement on items under consideration.
But, after watching the customary blend of profane bullying alternating with playing the victim card, I felt compelled to join into the discourse. Borrowing a page from the usual antagonists, and with the customary pre-meeting signup sheet seemingly having been dispensed with, I maneuvered myself into the final speaking slot.
I highlighted outright conflicts in what I had heard by some earlier speakers, dispensed a personal experience or two, and sat down.
Back home, in the calm of night with others asleep, it’s time to embark on dishing out the starvation diet. The blog entry will attempt to avoid totally providing specific attention to the addicts.
Blog metrics reveal quite a few checks of the home page already in recent hours, without actually viewing a post. Perhaps anticipating this offering as an attention snack?
Sorry. No soup for you.
The meeting began with a rare moment of agreement as all seemed to participate in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
This was a curious meeting, with some members phoning in, and being delayed in voting because of the communications lag, or commenting late, thereby providing some light diversion.
There was a lot of back and forth on semantics regarding an ordinance, such as what exactly is a large truck.
In a bit of unintentional amusement, there was an attempt by antagonists to portray themselves as people of peace and love.
Mostly, the big news was the passing of an ordinance designed to quell parking abuse as a sort of vendetta for some lost court cases regarding claims to ownership of a paper alley.
Whether or not this will resolve the issue and return the neighborhood to a more tranquil existence remains to be seen.
What is clear is that residents aggrieved by outrageous actions went through the system to address their concerns and perhaps received some redress.
The borough solicitor, after the official meeting had ended, advised those in attendance to do something similar in urging our district attorney to take an interest in addressing ongoing disruptions of the meetings in a bastardization of free speech.
I wrote my email to the DA before compiling this post. Hopefully, he will follow the path of Southmont Council and get on the right page, eventually.
Sam Ross Jr's site 