Some folks have asked me what happened that prompted my apology to the folks that held the reception for the new Shawnee Magazine.
So, here is what happened. I was having a conversation with Sate Sen Jordan and Straub was standing there. Another member of the council came over and wanted Sen Jordan to visit with some other folks. So far so good.
Straub turns to me and says something to the effect that it was terrible what the Lenexa City Council did two weeks earlier. Sarcastic little twit. I asked him how he could say that? When that is exactly what he and his buddy Pflumm tried to do a month or so ago. They tried to slip a smoking ban in at a meeting. The Lenexa Council was almost as bad. They gave the public one day's notice and then it was brought before the council on July 3d, the night before a holiday.
Moving on he asks me if I really feel that Americans would give up their cars. Huh? He was referring to my proposal that if he and his buddy were really concerned about people's health they would support a usage fee for high polluting vehicles (SUVs, pick-ups etc). He says they already pay more (more gas=more taxes, higher registration fees etc). But, they do not pay anything towards a "health fund" which is what I proposed. He just doesn't get it. He doesn't believe that vehicle emissions are a health problem. Hundreds of millions of tons of pollutants being pushed into the atmosphere daily. He just wants to blame everything on smoking. The hypocrisy of his ways.
Then he says to me that I'm in favor of bans on perfumes and after shaves. I said no, that that is not what I said. I said that there are cities that have passed ordinances restricting the use of these items. I never proposed them, I mentioned them as examples of the "what next ?" theory. What will be next on the governmental control list? Again, he just doesn't get it.
Straub constantly would ask a question, then attempt to answer it for me, and then attempt to put words in my mouth. Anyway, that was when I blew, got loud and made some personal vulgar comments about him. And that is why I felt I owed the folks who held the reception, and their other guests an apology. But no apology to Straub.
As a side note, most folks are aware that recently the voters of the De Soto School District voted intelligently and did not give him a seat on the schoold board in the last election. Maybe the Ward III voters will also see the light and make sure he is a one term council member.
