[img]1|left|Ari Noonan||no_popup[/img]I hope the four members of the City Council who played itchy-kitchy-coo last night with gadfly Tony Pappas felt a streak of shame when they awakened this morning.
Reading from left to right on the dais, Jeff Cooper, Mehaul O’Leary, Chris Armenta, Scott Malsin.
Gentlemen, where was your character?
The gadfly demeans your office and you, and the best you can do is reply with a limp wisecrack?
Where is your pride?
Where is your self-respect?
Did you bargain away those principles to your tormentor, too?
You are solid hometown boys. Your character would not have been questioned if you had not, foolishly, committed an act of self-flagellation by treating Mr. Pappas as a serious interrogator.
You let down the community.
He has been begging for that status all of the years I have been watching him, with a grimace.
Playing footsy with a name-calling intimidator who blows spitballs in your faces and mocks your offices whenever he addresses, the Council not only disappointingly displayed a rubber spine but a disturbing lack of will.
Not one of you stood up to Mr. Pappas and repudiated his spoiled-kid behavior.
If someone means to harm you, you don’t crack jokes, boys. Poor judgment.
Plainly, you are stumped about how to react to a wise guy.
This is an unbelievably naked, vulnerable Hit Me Again It Feels So Good position for gentlemen otherwise respected.
The preceding City Council was no smarter. They did not know how to handle or shut down the schoolyard comportment, either.
At least they did not overtly coddle him and stroke his forehead as you gentlemen did for no defendable reason last night.
For purposes of this essay, Mr. Pappas’s topic was irrelevant, as it usually is.
For the Council to accede to his latest whimsical stunt will only encourage him, further forestalling the inevitable day when one of you is going to have to play grownup and confront him.
Hopefully when the ailing elder statesman of the Council, Andy Weissman, rejoins you, he will take charge and commend you to formulate an effective response that is superior to a schoolgirl giggle.