CARLTON FLETCHER: Bloviation sure sign of dead-horse beating

This killin’ time is killin’ me.

— Clint Black

This really happened.

I was at a meeting of one of the 10 commissions/boards/authorities/committees I cover regularly for this newspaper (no exaggeration, see below), when a couple of the members got to what I (and a member of one of those commissions/boards/authorities/committees, who shall remain nameless) call “bloviating.” What that means is that they were going on and on and on and on about an issue that had already been covered thoroughly for no other apparent reason than to hear themselves talk.

I’d long since stopped taking notes and was doodling on my agenda copy when inspiration hit me. I drew a picture of a dead horse (mind you, most people would have trouble telling that’s what it was, given my lack of artistic skills … I was one of Mr. Ford’s failures at Irwin County High) and, as the conversation continued unabated, added a guy (stick figure) with a whip, standing over the animal and beating it.

I was a little stunned — and I actually started laughing out loud — when the head of the board I was covering said, “OK, guys, let’s move on. We’ve beaten that dead horse enough.”

(Oh, by the way: Mondays — Dougherty County Commission, Albany-Dougherty Payroll Development Authority, Albany-Dougherty Aviation Commission, Dougherty Library Board; Tuesdays — Albany City Commission, City/Utility Board Long-Term Financial Planning Committee; Wednesdays — Albany-Dougherty Inner City Authority, Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission; Thursdays — Albany Utility Board, Albany-Dougherty Planning Commission. Whew.)

Now, don’t get me wrong. I have great respect in general for the elected (politician) and appointed (civilian) officials who make up these boards. Most in the public have very little appreciation for agencies of their government, choosing usually to lump them into a group called government so that they won’t feel so bad about talking about them as part of an ineffectual whole.

I’ve said before, I’ll say again: No matter what elected or appointed office one holds, that office-holder is still a person, most with families who love them. (I did say most.)When you get to know some of these people, you realize where their hearts and their interests lie, and even if you don’t agree with them you appreciate their genuine interest in making their community better.

Also, I’ve been to enough meetings (see above) to know that there are times when an issue must be broken down and discussed at length. The board members have been, after all, entrusted with taxing their fellow citizens and determining whether a funding request is worthy of using their friends’ and neighbors’ money as payment. Some of the decisions that are made are life-altering, and that’s a big-time responsibility.

My complaint, though, is about those who take pleasure in the “power” their position grants them, even if they’re just one of seven people on an “authority” that has no true authority. These are the people, generally, who engage in bloviating, who make a point of making a point, even if that point has been made several times before. They’re the ones who grandstand when the TV cameras are turned on, who insinuate themselves into the middle of an issue as a way of inflating their already substantial egos and of trying to curry favor with potential voters.

Hey, you can only afford so many yard signs.

I may never feel so strongly moved at a future commission/board/authority/committee meeting that I’ll be led to doodle one of my unintelligible symbols as a means of easing my frustration or expressing my disdain at the nonsense going on around me. Or it may happen as soon as tomorrow.

If I do, I’m thinking that I may write a few “dead horse” columns to grace the pages of this newspaper, complete with dialogue that supports my label. If nothing else, maybe it’ll make some of those drawn-out-too-long meetings pass by a little quicker.