Commentary: Stupid things

Should boorish behavior force an alderman to resign?

People do stupid things.

In Friday's paper, the "In the news" column gave a brief account of a moment of stupidity in the life of David Pressley, 32, of Walton County, Ga.

There's an explosive mixture called Tannerite that's all the rage for some gun enthusiasts. The substance explodes when it's shot with a high-velocity bullet. It can be used for its intended purpose reasonably safely when handled by reasonable people.

Then there are always the David Pressleys of the world.

Pressley and some friends put 3 pounds of Tannerite into an old riding lawnmower because, well, one can never overestimate the looming threat of a broken-down piece of law equipment. And, naturally, someone making such wise decisions had to make a video of the entire incident.

Pressley fired several times at the doomed lawnmower as he moved toward it, then, as advertised, the Tannerite reacted to a bullet. In a sudden cloud of dirt and debris, the camera shakes violently and Pressley is heard shouting the results of his little experiment: "I blew my leg off," followed by a plea to "call an ambulance."

Indeed, he had lost his leg. It turns out if you surround an explosive substance with metal then set it off, the metal goes flying. Who knew? And now, Pressley will spend the rest of his life with half a leg gone.

The Walton County Sheriff's Office posted this comment to its Facebook page: "Yes, it is legal and no, we can't make people stop doing it. But why, folks, just why?"

Doing stupid things seems to come more naturally to some people than others, but can any of us say we've never done anything stupid in our lives? One could argue never having done something stupid means a person isn't living much of a life at all.

Fayetteville Alderman John La Tour did a stupid thing the other day that's gotten him lots of news coverage, plenty of social media commentary and some calls for his resignation. La Tour, who got elected in part because of his opposition to the city's civil rights ordinance advocates said was needed to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination, asked a female barista at a local coffee hangout to dance.

Sounds innocent enough, right? Except La Tour apparently had, or feigned, some difficulty in determining the employee's gender and asked the employee whether she was a woman or a man because, he said, he didn't dance with men. He went on to say "I am a man and I can prove it."

It was just one more time when La Tour attempted to use his form of humor to make some social commentary. After reaction to the incident exploded on social media, he explained to a reporter that "we live under an ordinance which lets me choose my gender based on how I feel that day."

All that was after-the-fact rationalization. In the moment, he was just being a jerk. I'm usually hesitant to resort to name-calling, and in this instance, I don't think I'm doing it. It's just the best description of his behavior.

La Tour was elected in 2014 from a crowded field of six candidates. La Tour earned 43 percent of the votes, but the next-highest contender came in with just 20 percent of the vote. That was enough of a lead to earn La Tour a four-year stint on the City Council.

Ward 4 voters cannot at all be surprised by his jerkish behavior. La Tour has never shied away from an abrasive and confrontational style. His attempts at humor in the public arena often fall flat, except perhaps with those who share his ideology and his tactics. He campaigned on a message of less regulation, and he's a fairly consistent "no" vote on measures most of the City Council supports.

My suspicion is the calls for his resignation come mostly from people who have never supported him to begin with, who have never agreed with his political philosophy and who don't live in the ward he represents.

Forcing his resignation would be a big victory for his opponents, but it should take more than hurt feelings and jerkish behavior to result in overturning the public's will. At one time or another, the comments or actions of several alderman could also be considered "jerkish" to those who oppose them politically. None of them should resign over it.

If someone commits a crime or fails to perform the tasks of an elective position at least to some minimal degree, calls for resignation might be appropriate. But resigning over acting like a jerk? Heck, a lot of Americans are trying to elect a guy who specializes in such behaviors to the highest office of the land.

As for La Tour, maybe he's had an opportunity to learn that doing stupid things can sometimes blow up in your face. And he didn't even need a lawnmower to find out.

Commentary on 03/28/2016

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