The recent changes in Martinsville’s government should raise some alarms among the city’s citizens. It is ordinary that when there is a change in a city’s administration, things change. Every new manager brings their own touch to the administration they were hired to oversee. They always start by saying the budget needs improvement and that the city’s personnel do as well. They want their own niche?
It seems like Martinsville is in a B-movie, a low-budget black-and-white; it could be horror, sci-fi, comedy, or a mix of both. It is obvious that they don’t like full-featured modern color productions. They like the old, back-in-time, black-and-white; they can relate to it. Also, in those low-budget productions, you find the same characters in every movie.
The new Martinsville administration looks like the old administration from years ago. Also, it seems they are bringing back the same actors. There was an old B-movie where a northerner came to a small southern town and was arrested by the sheriff. When they were taken to the judge, the sheriff just took off his badge and put on a robe; now he was the judge. The northerner wanted to complain to the mayor, and the sheriff/judge took off his robe, and put on a top hat; now he was the mayor. The northerner never had a chance.
In Martinsville politics, that seems to be commonplace: resigned today, back tomorrow with a similar or better deal, maybe not benefits, you are at will, and you know to whom?. Will the city of Martinsville ever get out of its cultish behavior? The short answer is maybe? When the behavior is in your DNA, it persists until a new dominant gene arises. That’s not on the horizon?
Lawrence Mitchell,
Martinsville
