Since 1993, I have been blessed to regularly submit a column to ST. MARYS TODAY. I was not a St. Mary’s County Commissioner at the time and from December1998 to November 2002 when I returned to not being a commissioner, you could still find my commentary positioned on the back page giving the rest of the story about local politics.
Regardless of my stature in life, County Commissioner or lumber stacker, I will always attempt to speak and write for the regular guy or gal. The wealthy have more than enough paid advocates.
There were a few eulogies that I was honored to author. Bob Hutchinson and Charlie Ball were two special citizens whom I deeply miss. John Vernon Nagle was a brave young man who courageously bore the cross of Muscular Dystrophy. Each year, his Mom and Dad with his friends and neighbors raise thousands of dollars to combat this debilitating disease.
Of course, I have tweaked my share of Big Wigs. My introduction into the political realm began with battling Congressman Hoyer’s brother-in-law over permits to dump shredded garbage from Baltimore into Patuxent River creek ravines. As a community, we won. Today, the same area is a Rural Legacy protected zone.
On the first all Republican Board, we had to develop an alignment of three conservative Republicans, Frances Eagan, Chris Brugman, and I, to lower property and income tax rates while fully funding education much to the chagrin of the two liberal Republicans who denigrated our efforts.
Most everyone in the County is familiar with my lone votes on the present Board against higher tax bills, and the bad deals that have been approved by a 4-1 vote. The stinky Hayden Farm Deal and the Christmas Eve public meeting will long be remembered by knowledgeable taxpayers.
Time will tell if there is a place in the newspaper formerly known as but still known as ST. MARYS TODAY for such a parochial view. Last week’s somewhat slanted article by Chuck Mason regarding the Town Hall Alliance may be a harbinger that my day is done within these pages.
Defining two losses as a “string of political defeats” does not do justice to the four slate members and two Town Hall recruits who successfully passed through the Primary Election. After giving a forty five minute personal interview and fifteen minute welcome in our headquarters, Chuck was asked to leave so we could discuss upcoming strategy. No team lets a reporter review their playbook. Chuck’s reference that no media were allowed at that strategy session was a subtle negative spin on the events.
As the Town Hall Alliance evolves into a political forum and ST. MARYS TODAY decides if regular people just trying to survive in the Obama Nation are valued customers, you can witness what track the new staff is taking.
Should I not be on the back page of whatever SMT might be named this week or next week, take a trip over to the CHESAPEAKE for a monthly review of fishing, fun, nonsense, and political commentary that will be found nowhere else.
Capt. John Paul Jones fight may be done, but I have not yet begun.