It always comes as a bittersweet, ironic surprise to me that citizens of our once proud community seem to be taken aback at the powers that be when those "movers and shakers" finally do exactly what we all knew they were going to do from the very beginning.
Case in point...the recent hullabaloo surrounding the announcement that a "temporary" one-cent sales tax is being considered (promoted) by our bought and paid for city administration. To help pay for a museum that was going to be be built by private donations. That has been nothing of the sort. And now, they wants $17 million MORE to finish what they have already started.
The only thing that surprises me is they didn't wait a little longer to allow their intentions (which were their intentions all along) to be known before springing the "surprise" on us.
The bottom line. What we're dealing with here is pretty simple. Draw a circle. Use a ruler and make a pie chart of six pieces. Those six pieces, which each represent an entity and/or family in this community, are all separate but yet connected. And they control everything., The whole ball of wax. The kit, the caboodle and everything in between.
Other than the mundane, day-to-day small time matters in Fort Smith, there is NOTHING that happens in his community that is not controlled by, profited from, allowed to happen, and cleared through this six-headed monster. A six-headed monster that has bony, repulsive fingers of corruption that has reached inside the local, county, and even state government to the point that most of their cronies don't even attempt to hide it anymore.
On a local level, it is not and has not been about what the "citizens" want for the better part of the last decade. Well...at least not the "citizens" who are not part of the tightly-controlled cabal of puppet masters who pull the strings that make the clowns dance at their behest.
It's almost as if some of the local "politicians" just show up a couple of times of a month and kiss which ass (or asses) that need to be kissed that week to appease their masters.
And the whole process is like a Siegfried and Roy Las Vegas show gone bad. While they have your attention riveted over here by a scantily clad downtown park bench, they are going to turn a tiger loose on the other side of the stage that will jump through a hoop then maul you and present you with a Marshal Museum souvenir mug at the same time. It's all fun and games until someone gets eaten by a tiger.
Maybe we expect too much. Millions of dollars in taxes over the past four decades, and we're dealing with crumbling sewers, imaginary recycling, million-dollar plus gifts to politicians to not build ball fields. an out of control policy of shaking down people to get control of their property and city employees who do what they want, when they want the way they wants without any repercussions.
That is our lot in life. And we have enabled it.
If you are part of the agenda, you get to taste an occasional crumb. If you're outside the loop, you're screwed. Hell, even the halfway honest politicians are extorted, framed and treated like pariahs...which explains why they are only halfway honest.
Elections have been rigged. Favors have been curried. Good honest, people have been fiscally gang-banged. Smoke and mirrors. People who have been elected to look out for your best interest have decided to decide what your best interest are. And that's to not shake the sugar tree or bite the hand that feeds them.
I know, You want names. LOL. Recently a "representative" of Scylla contacted me trying to play me for a sucker. See....they know that I know what I know and they also know that I know that they know about what I know.
So this "friend of" says he heard I had been making claims about certain entities around town the time had come for me to either release the names of the individuals I consider to be controlling things or to shut -up. "Put up or shut" was the phrase. Just like that. Kinda of threatening like. But see, as soon as I name names the lawsuits, personal attacks and harassment and other assorted Spy vs. Spy bullshit starts up all over again.
So we're going to play this game. But we're going to play it by my rules this time. On my timeline.
I posted a meme last week that said I'm always three moves ahead in chess while the rest of the world is still playing checkers. I got all but one of your pawns, both bishops, a rook, and a knight and your queen is getting nervous.
If you are reading this and thinking "is he talking about me and mine?" I probably am. If you are reading this and thinking "COULD he be talking about me and mine?" maybe I am and maybe I'm not, but shame on you for doing whatever it is you have been doing that gave you pause. And if you know you're not part of the evil trust then you have nothing to be concerned with....do you?
I've been playing nice. But "Nice" and his cousins "Quiet" and "Contented" are all wintering down on Grand Cayman. And they left me here. To fester.
We're on the cusp of a new year. I'm a year older and this congestive heart failure apparently ain't going nowhere. My kids--save for one--have transplanted out of the community. For the most part, the remainder of my quality of life doesn't hinge on decisions made by these thinned-skinned lackeys whose only goal in life is to keep greasing those wheels and bring us all around to "their" way of thinking.
Prop me up beside the jukebox when I die and play me a little Ozark Mountain Daredevils.
If you want to get to heaven....you gotta raise a little hell.
