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Animals have, if you’ll pardon the expression, dogged me throughout my career. I have written in the past about rats fighting their way through the sewers and into people’s toilets, only to become the responsibility of the city manager. I have been called on a number of occasions to deal with deer, both dead and alive.
The most tragic event was
City managers generally hate to admit that they don’t know everything there is to know about city finances. I am guilty of this hubris and will proudly tell you that during my career the cities I have worked for have enjoyed good financial health during my tenure as city manager. Life has a way of getting even, however, when pride overshadows humility.
Current international
It was my privilege earlier this week to attend a forum sponsored by the City’s Human Relations Commission, Linn-Benton Community College, and Oregon State University. I go to a lot of meetings and gatherings; so I rarely describe my attendance as a privilege. What made this meeting different were the personal stories told by Derron Coles and Diane Taniguchi-Dennis, our Public Works Director. I was unable to stay for the third speaker whom I’m told was equally articulate.
I have been reading editorials, columns, and blogs for many years; and I do not recall ever seeing an admission of what may be the most important fact regarding opinions that appear in print. Everyone has stupid opinions. I do not mean that all written opinions are stupid or even that most are ill informed. My message is simply that we all hold ideas, thoughts, beliefs, prejudices, and views that are either not very smart or just untrue.
My Christmas present this year was a VCR that plugs into our computer and allows me to convert VHS tapes into digital files. I also received software for editing the new video files. I didn’t understand until yesterday’s “holiday” that these gifts are a sentence to spend my remaining leisure hours on earth immersed in my family’s past.
I’ve already viewed hours of children’s