A needless law

One might rightly say I write today to discriminate against a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance in the city of Fayetteville.

Alderman Matthew Petty's rather self-serving law would enable the city to investigate and punish local businesses and landlords when someone (I suppose anyone for that matter) makes accusations of pretty much any imaginable form of purported discrimination.

We're talking: Marital status, gender identity, sexual orientation, veteran status, how much wealth one has accumulated ... yada yada ... perhaps even one's sour attitude. In other words: Better straighten up and act right, people, or city government will smite you!

Talk about opening a needless can of wriggly worms in what is arguably the least discriminatory and most liberal-minded flagship university city in Arkansas (nod to Eureka Springs).

Under Petty's misguided plan that, by design or not, certainly makes him appear the town's most tolerant public servant, the city would appoint a municipal civil-rights administrator to investigate complaints. Some might call that local-government overreach at a time when government everywhere is extending tentacles into every American's private life.

Petty's been quoted as saying: "The reason I'm bringing this forward is just because I'm against discrimination."

I'm not sure how to even respond to a statement like that from an elected official who found himself a few years back in trouble for admittedly snapping a chain and taking a tricycle that wasn't his.

Is he then saying that his fellow council members (or anyone in the community, for that matter) who don't support his very public, even grandiosely self-serving gesture are somehow for discrimination? Er, the issue is a tad more complex that that level of reasoning.

Making matters worse, Petty's proposal would have the mayor assign this commandant of propriety in a town that already values propriety. And apparently, there would be criminal provisions in this new city ordinance to punish businesses determined to have been less than tolerant.

Asked how many instances he could cite of Fayetteville folks being offended or treated intolerantly, Petty said there wasn't a specific one. But, he added, such bad things do happen elsewhere.

The answer to ending discrimination, bigotry and intolerance lies just where it always has, Alderman Petty: In the human heart, mind and spirit. It most assuredly does not reside in a back office down at City Hall where yet another well-compensated, small bureaucrat placed in a big job is given legal authority to subjectively punish perceived intolerants and political opponents under the guise of erasing the supposed evil men do.

Good grief, compassionate and tolerant Matthew, get a grip on the nature of human tolerance.

Now it's our mail

Anyone else notice that story the other day about mail from 16 Fayetteville homes being dumped after thieves had taken it from the mailboxes?

It appeared the mail had been stolen from personal mailboxes in the Copper Creek and Hearthstone subdivisions in north Fayetteville, likely sorted for checks and anything else valuable, then dumped in an undisclosed location.

While the mail is to be returned to the proper addresses, it was yet another reminder of just how many truly crummy people are out there waiting for any opportunity to enrich and enhance themselves at the expense of others.

To give you some idea, a total of 14 people have recently been arrested in Fayetteville and Springdale for that very crime: Mail theft along with forgery. Authorities weren't saying as of last week if they could link those crimes to the latest dumped mail.

The lesson here is, yet again, enhanced awareness that the safest way to mail letters and packages is in a U.S. Postal Service mailbox or to wait until the mail delivery person is headed for your private mailbox.

What a way to have to live because of the lowest functioning among us.

Pausing to listen

Why not close today with a gentle reminder?

This stressful life we briefly share gets so easily sidetracked nowadays. Hundreds of reactions demand our choices each day. And that means, increasingly, that we have neither the interest nor inclination to stop, listen, look and smell the genuine priorities of existence that also scream for our attention.

For instance, I've noticed on my daily morning walk that at a certain time the same mockingbird is singing its heart out in the very same spot on the very same transmission line in the very same cul de sac. It's the highest point he can find to welcome each day.

"Cheee, chee ... chirp, chirp ... pretty birdie, pretty birdie ..." His continuous repertoire is truly amazing.

Sometimes I'll pause beneath and just watch, listen and wonder how and why he sings so happily and with such a remarkable range and variety. What's going through his little Mockingbird heart and mind?

That's about the time I often notice how the street teems with large, wriggling nightcrawlers following a night's rainfall. It becomes a big job to gather and toss them back in the grass.

There's lots to see, smell, hear and do that enrich this life.

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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.

Editorial on 07/26/2014

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