An awful lot of people in Brockport don’t like it when someone calls a spade a spade. They’d rather call a spade a shovel, or a digging tool, or a digger, a scoop, or even a trowel.
They are fine with what you say, as long as you don’t call a spade a spade.
And if anyone has the audacity to call a spade, some people in Brockport shoot the messenger.
If you have the audacity to say that something is wrong with the pro-village leadership because it has suffered two crushing defeats in the fire district and code enforcement referendums, some people in Brockport shoot the messenger.
But first they publicly criticize the messenger for publicly criticizing one of their friends.
That’s just a little bit hypocritical, but that’s the way politics is. As Harry Truman said, "If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
If the pro-village forces in Brockport want to get back to where they were after they won the dissolution vote two years ago, then they have to change their tactics, and get mean.
"When things look bad, and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb mad dog mean. Cause if you lose your head and you give up, then you neither live nor win, that's just the way it is."
Clint Eastwood
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Unfortunately, after Tuesday’s defeat of the code enforcement referendum, some of Margay Blackman’s friends were very indignant that an Examiner.com column that said the Brockport code enforcement referendum was defeated because of no leadership.
They particularly disliked the following statement:
“Blackman’s decision to run a low key campaign was ill-timed. For the referendum to pass, the candidates needed to run a high profile campaign that would counter the police state smear tactics used by the landlords. Instead, Blackman choose not to run an active, door-to-door campaign, and as a consequence of that decision, the referendum lost.”
Even though the statement is true, some vocal Brockport residents were very upset that it had been made in public.
That’s like not mentioning the fact that the Bills lost the Super Bowl because the great Thurman Thomas fumbled the ball and cost the Bills a touchdown. Thurman Thomas is a Hall of Fame running back, but his fumble still cost the Bills a Super Bowl victory.
One reader went so far as to criticize examiner.com columns that call a spade a spade, because, “You praise in public and discipline in private.” Then that same reader went on to criticize the messenger in public.
Not only is that hypocritical, it doesn’t make any sense.
There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and there is more than one way to motivate your teammates to do better.
Bills coach Marv Levy didn’t yell at his players on the sidelines very often, and maybe that’s one of the reasons Marv Levy never won a Super Bowl.
Because Thurman Thomas fumbled, the Bills didn’t win the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which is given to the Super Bowl champion.
What do you think Vince Lombardi would have said and done if he’d been the Bills’ coach that day?
Lombardi, possibly the greatest coach in NFL history, was famous for chewing out his players in public, on the sideline, during a game, if they messed up.
As Hall of Fame defensive tackle Henry Jordan once said of Lombardi, “He treated us all the same — like dogs.”
The NFC championship trophy is named after another great NFL coach, George Halas, who was also famous for shouting at his players in public.
But Halas and Lombardi aren’t the only great football coaches who would criticize their players in public.
Mike Ditka screamed and yelled at his best players all the time and it motivated each and every one of them to do better the next time. His sideline arguments with quarterback Jim McMahon are legendary.
Bill Parcells was another great coach who would chew out his players in public, and he won two Super Bowl rings with the New York Giants.
Bill Belichick has led the New England Patriots to five Super Bowl victories, and he is another coach who will scream at his players in public when they do something stupid.
It’s no wonder that the pro-village forces in Brockport keep losing. They have the majority of the Board of Trustees, but they can’t seem to get anything done, and when somebody points out the leadership failures, their supporters go ballistic.
As Baseball Hall of Fame manager Leo “The Lip” Durocher once said, “Nice guys finish last.”
If you want to play Pollyanna, it is your right to do so. But please don’t shoot the messenger who points out that Pollyanna leadership has just led you into two straight referendum defeats.
How many more times are the pro-village people going to lose before they realize they have to do something different?
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