One of the funny things about politicians is that they never accept blame for anything. I wish I could do that. I really do. It's always someone else's fault. When someone questions you or you're backed into a corner? Point fingers elsewhere. The beauty of most politicians though, is that they do it so gracefully. They use pretty words that befuddle most Americans and before long we're not sure what our problem was....but suddenly we're sleepy and we'd like a piece of pie.
Notice I said "most" politicians. The Mayor of Logan, Utah hasn't really grasped this concept. Might be because we rarely have news that matters. Let me give you a little back story... Logan recently had a mud slide, that resulted in homes being evacuated and 3 lives lost. Horribly sad and tragic. (But, please, don't settle too long on that part of the story or it will be impossible for you to find humor in the following.)
As is the case with most disasters...the "people" tend to blame "the man." In this case, "the man" speaks out.
The following are excerpts from the Mayor's interview with the local newspaper...
He starts out really well.... confuse the people....
"People are pointing fingers and people who are in the know aren’t the finger pointers."
Next up, he refutes any evidence of advance knowledge this may have been a problem. A 2008 USU report noted “landslides on Logan Bluff have affected residents of Canyon Road for over a hundred years. These residents are subject to two potential hazards. One is landslides, the reason for this study. Another potential hazard is breaching of the canal. ... The breach could happen because of a landslide or a failure of the canal, and subsequently, failure of the canal could initiate a landslide. All these events are putting these residents and property owners at risk of life and economic damage.”
The Mayor's response to the USU report?
"I don’t know what they call evidence."
He makes a fine point.
Here's where things get dicey for the Mayor. Typically, the best thing to do in these situations when "the people" are angry? Blame someone else that they can focus their rage on. Unfortunately....he chose a different tactic....
"They can say anything they want to say ... they add their little two cents and have no credibility. They’re angered and throwing stuff at us."
Then he digs his hole deeper...
“People saying it’s the mayor’s fault — that I care more about money than lives. Oh c’mon people, what’s that?”
Dude, when "the people" are angry at "the man" you deflect their anger by telling them someone else is to blame....you don't deflect their anger by telling them they are idiots who don't know anything and shouldn't point fingers at you.
To be fair to the Mayor... I read this in the Herald Journal. And their journalism practices range from the inept to complete fiction. So, this interview may or not have happened. And the Mayor may or may not have said any of this. Also, I don't think the Mayor of Logan Utah signed on for any actual problems. It's Logan. They thought they could sail through by doing a few parades and and making a few bold statements here and there about cleaning up the town, bringing people downtown and making change a good thing for Logan. Unfortunately, he got hit with a disaster.
Every disaster must have a fall guy. And instead of picking one out and deflecting "the people's' rage onto that person? You just drew a target on your arse. Best of luck to you!
3 comments:
Perhaps if the Mayor of Logan had a brain he would have used it, but alas.....he has not traveled the yellow brick road.
Nate likes to call the Herald Journal the Logan Liar.
Was he sitting down at the time? Maybe thats why he couldn't think, he was sitting on his brains!
I thought we (AZ) were the only ones with problems like this, just goes to show we don't have a corner on the stupidity in the world.
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