ALARM CLOCKS

      Pity the poor alarm clock, so necessary and yet so maligned and hated. It is slammed, cursed, thrown and yet where would we be without it. It gets us up for work or for that really early flight. It gives us that extra hour to cram for a test. And it also gives us warnings.
     You see, there are other alarm clocks - human ones - and we need to pay attention to them as well as to the little annoying one on our night table. It is the whistle blower who sets off the alarm and is generally not thanked for that effort, be it Erin Brokovich, or the cigarette suit or anything else that interfered with the daily lives of people, inconvenienced them. People just do not like alarm clocks, mechanical or human.
     We have alarm clocks here in the Village as well. These are the people who first began to call attention to what was going on here in the Village, with its harmful policies of careless spending, of the ignoring of process and procedure, of shoddy workmanship and hence the constant repetition of the same work orders and payment again as we tried to fix what never should have been. These people were the alarm clocks of CV and many people did not appreciate them for it bothered them to think that our administration was not doing right by us or they were comfortably ensconced within it so do not upset the applecart, they thought. Or there were people who did not believe us, could not believe us, for then it would have meant that they had been taken for fools all those years.
     Well, pop goes the weasel - again - as now we have the continued throw under the bus policy when Linda Graff was tossed out of her receptionist job - unpaid - at UCO. Why? Ostensibly it was to give returning snowbirds a position but even that does not make sense for it should and could have been discussed and why do temporary people take precedence over permanent people? In any sense, in any world, be it business or organizational, no one wants the temporary over the permanent unless there are nefarious motives behind it. Use of power. Hiding misdeeds and malfeasance. Threatening people and showing them how quickly they can lose their little fiefdoms, all part and parcel of the machinations of the David Israel camp.
     Actually there are usually other reasons behind and those reasons have to do with the fact that there are smart people who finally wise up, pull the cover off their eyes and see what is going on in UCO and then want to write about it, talk about it, fix it and then BOOM!!! They are gone. The weasel has waved his paw and off they go. Alarm clocks no more. And do not think that anyone is immune and beware the sudden "gift" of generosity from David as suddenly he appointed John Gregg to the Bid committee, the same man whose work with Channel 63 was rudely interrupted and forced his retirement on principle. Beware, John, for this man is not to be trusted. Keep a watch on your back.
     And as far as Lanny's ridiculous as usual paean of praise for Bob Marshall - well, let me force back my nausea for a minute - ah, better. This is the same Bob Marshall, who, along with those two stalwarts Ed Black and David Israel, who brought in people from Texas to fix the roofs and other damage in the Village and we all know where that went, what with Dover's roof falling over the side and just hanging there and other roofs which leaked more than not and all the rest of the fixable items that were not fixed and then, only recently, did David Israel and Ed Black laugh, yes, laugh, over the debacle of these Texas people. Sure, who knows what they got out of it and why should they have any empathy for others. That appears to be alien to them.
   Yes, alarm clocks are very important and when one knows how to set it properly, to pick a gentle tone or a gradually rising insistence, or one who knows that work has to be done, the plane has to be caught, the co worker picked up for the carpool - when reality sets in, then the alarm clock can be appreciated. So people, accept and appreciate the alarm clocks of the Village. It has not been easy for them as they were and are still being abused, maligned, mistreated, by our ostensible leader, David Israel, a man who does not play nicely with others, who does not go by the rulebook of decency, who indulges in temper tantrums worthy of the worst of the 'terrible twos" though he is well above that age. Be kind to the alarm clocks that point out the signs and strains of paranoia, of megalomania, of distaste and contempt for the principles of our country, of democracy.
     Bertolt Brecht wrote in one of his famous poems about "Poor B.B." lines which suggest that eventually all that will remain of our grand cities and works and our presence in them will be the wind that blows through their remains. Kind of like Ozymandias. So appreciate the alarm clock, that much maligned tool of life. And stay tuned for Alarm Clocks Part II for tomorrow's post.