Editorial

Some recent disappointments

Friday, June 9, 2017

I’ll have to admit that I’ve had trouble deciding what to ponder this week. We’re sort of in a lull right now with not much going on locally. Maybe it’s a post-Memorial Day malaise. I’m sure it will pick up speed as we move on through the lazy days of summer, and we’ll have a week where there is too much to write about, but that is not this week.

So, I thought I’d write about recent disappointments. There have been a few of those lately, and I might as well get them off my chest.

Let me begin with my disappointment in the Comey hearing on Capitol Hill. Man that was let down. It was built up as the best thing since Watergate. I’m old enough to remember the day after day cancellation of “General Hospital” and “The Young and the Restless” for those hearings. They made household names out of folks like Sam Irvin, Howard Baker and John Dean. I read that 319 hearings were telecast over the major networks (no CNN or Fox in those days) and 85 percent of Americans watched at least some portion of them.

Now that was a party! There was nothing like that Thursday. Oh the media wanted that so bad. Alas, it was only a man who appeared a bit on the whiny side calling the president a liar. That really is no worse that presidents get called every day. There were no major breathtaking headlines coming out of the hearing. President Trump came out of it looking no worse than some find him already, and Comey shared nothing that appeared criminal.

I did decide during the hearing I know why Democrats wanted Comey fired last fall and Republicans this spring. I’m glad he’s gone and maybe after a few more days of the news cycle, we will no longer hear from him. But I said that last November about Hillary, and she’s not gone yet so . . . stay tuned I guess.

At any rate, the Comey hearing was a disappointment – Watergate is still the undisputed king.

My second disappointment would be that impatient and may I write “idiot” (I don’t use that word lightly) drivers are going to cause the Street Department to close off streets and intersections while road work is going on. At the City Council meeting Tuesday I was appalled when Street Commissioner Randy Carter reported that some crazy drivers were going through the one lane open at Ninth and S. Jackson at 30 to 35 mph. One driver apparently was so wild he wound up in somebody’s yard. All that while a crew was working at that intersection.

Because of the few, when work is done elsewhere, they will close the entire intersection instead of trying to leave one lane open. I don’t blame them for closing the intersections. Road crews must be allowed to go home to their families safe and sound after doing a job here. They always tried to leave a lane open because, as Carter said, they want to limit our inconvenience. But as usual, a few screw things up for the majority.

We had people driving through wet concrete when the work on First Street and the South By-Pass was going on. Now people driving through an intersection 30 to 35 mph.

There is nowhere in Kennett, Missouri that you can’t get to in just a few minutes, even if you have to slow down or even stop for road work? Where are you going in Kennett, Missouri that you need to get to so quickly that you endanger road crews?

Hey crazy driver – can you just slow down? Can you keep others in mind for just once in your life? Can you think of someone other than yourself for just a second?

Whew! I feel better now.

One more – Yes I’m bitterly disappointed in our Redbirds. Going 0-7 on the road this past week was bad enough, but do we have to make a name of Scooter Gennett? Did we have to make him Babe Ruth for a day? Hey Matheny – can’t you just walk him that last time up? Doesn’t something have to happen when our guys make Scooter Gennett the lead story on SportsCenter?

There’s still plenty of baseball season left, of course, but it’s not fun being a Cardinal fan right now. The best thing about all this, if there is a best thing, is the Cubs ain’t that great either. They proved they were better than we are last week, but can they brag a lot about that?

Until next week . . .

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