A Humbling Experience

Georgetown City Council Meeting 15 December 2008

 

I have to admit that my appearance during the “community concerns” segment of the city council was not my best outing in public speaking. For some unknown reason, I got a bad case of the “butterflies”; this is a rare occurrence for me. Perhaps it was the realization that not only was I challenging the mayor and a couple of city council members, but also a significant, if waning, and influential faction of Georgetown; to wit, the leadership of the Baptist churches of Georgetown. As I’ve written previously, when Georgetown’s City Council held its first reading of the proposal to permit Sunday alcohol sales, the principal opposition came from First, Gano, and Faith Baptist churches. Leaders of these churches presented many misleading and even false statements to the city council. I have written and been published in the Georgetown News-Graphic on my views of the issue and the falsity of the opposition’s claims. I have written the members of the city council, as well as the mayor, pointing out the deliberate deception presented by opponents to Sunday alcohol sales at the Georgetown City Council meeting that took place on the 1^st of December. At the city council meeting of the fifteenth of December, I spoke on those issues for my allotted three minutes, and, in my opinion, did miserably; but, I did manage to get the rebuttal of the previously referred “facts” in. I stuttered and sputtered and did the “chained-elephant” dance, and generally suffered a humbling experience at my own hands. For this, I must apologize to those who are hoping I am able to get the city council to revisit Sunday alcohol sales. Still, the council seemed to hear and believe what I had to say. Some appeared shocked as I went down, item-by-item the list of deceptions foisted on them at the previous council meeting. The mayor appeared uncomfortable with her mouth pinched as I explained the truth to council. As I left after my three minutes were up, I realized that a prior thought of mine was probably true. I have thought for the last week and a half that the Mayor set up the opposition appearance during the first reading and stacked the deck against passage of the Sunday alcohol sales proposal.

 

Now that I have chosen to engage the city on this matter, I realize that I cannot just drop it, despite initial apparent failure. While I may be dealing with a lame-duck council and a do little positive mayor, the issue of Sunday sales must be kept in front of the council, even if that means keeping it there until the new city council members take their seats.