Through my eyes

RON DAVIS

I hate it when the phone rings during the middle of a television

movie. In this case, I had an even greater reason to hate the

interruption. The caller was Bobo, my fine feathered canary friend, who

treats my column with the respect deserving of a paper towel.

“Hey,” he chirped, “I see that the Independent didn’t run your column

a few weeks back.”

“Did you miss me?” I wondered.

“Not your ranting and raving,” he said, “but the bottom of my cage was

certainly in need of some new thought-absorbing material.”

I started to explain that I had changed my column and missed a

deadline, but he interrupted and said, “So are you really running?”

“Running?” I asked, sounding quite confused and innocent.

“Yes, you knucklehead,” he retorted. “Running for City Council in the

upcoming City Council races.”

“No,” I stated flatly.

“You’re not?” he replied in apparent shock. “So what have you been

doing this last year and a half by writing a column if you’re not

running? Lots of people think your column has just been posturing so that

you can run.”

Then he continued, “You probably meant to say, ‘No comment’ rather

than simply ‘No,’ didn’t you?”

“No, I meant to say ‘No, I’m not running.’ ”

“Why not?” he queried. “Don’t tell me that having run for the city

attorney’s office, you haven’t given a thought to running for City

Council.”

“To be truthful with you, when I started writing this column a year

and a half ago, I did have some thoughts about taking my shot at the

office.”

“What happened then?” he asked.

“Well, after a while, I started wondering whether I was really writing

on everything I should be writing about, and not just expressing opinions

on certain subjects for fear of alienating important political figures or

potential voters.”

“That happens,’ he responded. “Whenever you express an opinion on any

subject, half of the people will disagree with you and the other half

will agree. Then, the next time you express an opinion, 50% of those who

agreed with your earlier opinion will think you’re a blockhead on the

next issue. And by the time you’ve written five or six columns, you’d be

lucky if your approval rating was as high as 10%.”

“I am aware of that, and that is what troubled me.” I agreed.

“It’s easy,” Bobo said. “You just write a bunch of nice stuff about

everyone--in particular those political people and groups who might be

able to do you some good.”

“But my column’s an opinion column--my opinion, whether accepted or

unaccepted, approved or disapproved. My function as a columnist is to

express my honest opinion, not some convenient opinion forged out of some

fear that I might make someone angry.

“So, with the concurrence of this newspaper, whether editors agree

with me or not, I do what few people are given an opportunity to

do--publicly express my opinion in a newspaper on any subject.

“And it occurred to me that if I couldn’t be honest with the newspaper

and the public by expressing my honest opinions for fear of losing

something politically, then I could be neither an honest columnist nor an

honest politician.”

“So, you decided to be a columnist?” he wondered. “Does that mean that

you plan on writing this column for the next couple of years if the paper

lets you?”

“That’s what it means,” I replied.

“Well, that’s good news and bad news,” he stated. “The bad news is

that I’m in for a couple more years of reading your drivel.”

“And the good news?” I asked.

“Well, at least that’s 104 fewer sheets of paper towel we’ll have to

buy to line the bottom of my bird cage.”

*

* RON DAVIS is an attorney who lives in Huntington Beach. He may be

reached by e-mail at o7 RDD@socal.rr.com.f7