On Tue, 22 May 2007 10:16:33 EDT [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: ... You're a friend of the Councilwoman, Al. Are you trying to get to the bottom of it for us? - Melani Lamond
Some rhetorical questions are worse than pointless. The above implies guilt by association and reminds me of local flip-flops. Once upon a UC Village it was cool to be seen with Jannie. The folks who are rushing to distance themselves now, may not have looked at the bigger picture. The 16th division came back 80% Nutter (competing against 4 others) and was pointedly dismissive of the uncontested Councilwoman who netted 40 fewer votes than Nutter, but her larger Councilmanic District was more forgiving. Personally, I am hugely disappointed that Jannie backed Knox for Mayor. But, I am certain she will find ways to make peace and progress with Nutter and for us, her constituents, and the city. I remain honored to have a friend like Jannie. I find it easy to forgive her flaws. I do not demand perfection and I feel free to express unhappiness to her in the interest of working toward understanding, mutual education or change. In the plus column, Jannie Blackwell is successful, intelligent, hard working, long working, courageous, resilient, optimistic, faithful, makes a good appearance in a generally timely manner, keeps her promises and has made superhuman sacrifices on behalf of more fragile friends, her many step children and her dying (recently deceased) mother. She is someone who listens with two ears and speaks with one mouth. Few elected officials retain such close relationships with their row home base. One of her more frequently visible flaws is a quality that some describe as a virtue. Sometimes she lets her compassion gets in the way of an expedient solution. She is becoming more adept at balancing the needs of people against the needs of local institutions. In this arena, I have had many disagreements with her choices, but the learning curve for this process is huge, and I don't believe any of her challengers could do a better or more thoughtful job on the sum of the decisions. I trust her as my Councilperson because I have seen the effort she makes to research, understand and anticipate the consequences of her choices. I would be proud to have Jannie as family and would be honored to hear that she admires me as much as I admire her. John Fenton has consistently won accolades for his work ethic, cheery helpfulness and EFFECTIVENESS. (So, I can not imagine him as pro-Knox. wink! ) I know my Nutter sign faced Lewis Wendell's Nutter sign across Springfield Avenue, so it is hard to imagine a Knox rally being run by UCD. I saw Abby Wendell volunteering outside the Polls, for Nutter, and watched her feed all of the other Poll volunteers, including those working for other candidates, from her own kitchen with sandwiches she made. I do not think it is fair to describe the community party at Black Oak Park a Knox rally. Jannie also dragged Knox to the "Party for the Park." And there was definitely little applause or approval of that choice. The good news about our democracy is that it is hard to keep folks out of public spaces or charity events where entrance is only a ticket away. The bad news is volunteering your space can lead to visits that feel like intrusions. I believe that politics should be kept off the Altar and out of the work place. I have mixed feelings about election signage. On one hand, I wish signs were limited to private property and reflected their owners choices, on another, I recognize that many unpopular candidates have important messages, and some minority (in this neighborhood Republicans or those who chose Knox) voters might be afraid to reveal their party or choice. Even though I was assertively Pro-Nutter, I was offended that my boss made repeated pro-Nutter announcements on our company voice mail system. I did not consider it fair to the office Republican, or to anyone who was committed to some other choice. These are my opinions-du-jour. All the best! Liz In a message dated 5/21/07 11:11:27 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: John ... <has> worked too hard and built up too much good will to lose his job over something like this. In a message dated 5/22/07 7:06:38 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: He's a good guy, and whatever the circumstances of the whole election thing were, I hope he gets back to his job as soon as possible because he's the one thing at UCD we all _like_. In a message dated 5/22/07 7:40:05 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: sad news.
