Long Creek City Council Meeting August 11, 2016 Part 2 of 2

 Council moves forward in improving the end of West Main Street for future housing lot developments adjoining street and provide needed larger truck turn around area. Fire Dept. beings plans for live-burn fire training on three structures . More information shared on up coming 2017 Solar Eclipse event, large crowds expected. Video in two parts.
Part 2

Long Creek City Council Meeting August 11, 2011 Part 1 of 2

Council moves forward in improving the end of West Main Street for future housing lot developments adjoining street and provide needed larger truck turn around area. Fire Dept. beings plans for live-burn fire training on three structures . More information shared on up coming 2017 Solar Eclipse event, large crowds expected. Video in two parts.
Part 1

Long Creek's Appeal to Petty Tyrants

Long Creek’s Appeal to Petty Tyrants

For a small country community like Long Creek it is amazing to see so many problems which are to no surprise to Grant County residents. I was told by one county official how the mayor of Long Creek was one of the main entertainments at local city government / county meetings, as he spun story after story about the latest happenings in our small community.

Someone might want to brush this off as just smalls-ville type country life, but personally, having lived in several small communities from up and down the west coast and east as far as South Carolina, I beg to differ. Long Creek has several of what I would refer to as petty tyrants and there is a reason for that which I will address but first; just what is a petty tyrant. 

Way back in time — okay, the ‘70s — Author Carlos Castaneda coined the phrase “Minor Petty Tyrant” to describe, in anthropological terms, “Tormentors who are fearsome and inflict misery, but do not hold any real power over life or death of others.” Aka, locally that would apply to recently vacated Tom McHatton and Mark Steven O’Dell and now aspiring petty tyrant, James Norris.

Starting back in 2014 Tom McHatton , was our local paper hanger and MSO, that is Mark Steven O’Dell, was his assistant. They would slip into the Post Office or the local general store and hang paper on the bulletin boards with claims of all kinds, all made up B.S., with the intent of causing problems for someone. It got so bad that the Post Office was forced to install a locked glass case as a restraint. Their other activity was to attend the local city council meetings and read off their latest unsubstantiated and blatant defamations about someone or some organization.

O’Dell on the other hand was the impeccable example of a born fabricator/ deceiver, be it his military history or his life story. I personally acquired 296 pages of information from some 9 ex- wives, lawyer and court documents of his more than two felony charges and a recent fraud case in Oregon just before arriving here in Long Creek. Fortunately McHatton and O’Dell have moved on to be petty tyrants to some other community.

Our latest Long Creek’s petty tyrant is James Norris, who has over stepped common legal procedures and in one case actually stealing property to bully his way around this small community. Just recently his latest move is to block off the west end of Main St. and telling the city that he wants to turn it in to his private drive way. Although it has been mentioned that that part of Main Street needs to be left open for emergency vehicle access, there hasn’t been any obvious effort on the part of city government officials to correct the situation. A call to the sheriff’s office was to no avail because they have no jurisdiction on the city street. This leads me to the real problem with Long Creek.

At the June 2016 city council meeting, the citizens were told by the mayor and supported by the city council that they will not address any complaints filed against James Norris. This comes as no surprise as the city council hasn’t enforced any city ordinances for some time unless one of our past or present petty tyrants forced them into it. A history of letting individuals do as they please within the community with disregard to city law and without any regulation by the city government has completely killed any concept of community spirit.

A few months back I had the privilege of meeting a couple who have spent the last ten years traveling the world on their bicycles. They had been told they couldn’t stay the night in our city park and related that it was the first time they had experienced such an inhospitable attitude linked with clutter which they collected before leaving the park. I shared with them that it was likewise for me, in that of the many small communities in which I’ve lived; I’ve never seen so bad a community spirit and lack of hospitality.  I shared that I lived here for the country and not the community’s attitude.

So what has happened to Long Creek?  First, you add years of ignoring activity which has showed disregard for community law. Secondly, add a local government which will not enforce the city law that they took an oath to uphold. Thirdly, you have individuals acting disrespectfully and bullying others within the community and the lack of community members and/or spiritual leaders to speak out against such conduct, thereby giving their consent to such bad behavior. Fourth, you add a disrespectful debased conduct in which the use of foul language, threats of physical harm and slander are used against neighbors when disagreements arrive--because if you disagree with someone’s view in Long Creek you have to hate them and be disrespectful. Then the really weird thing happens, weeks go by and you find that same person who has threatened to beat you up and called you every sort of profanity, now smiling and waving “Hello “as if nothing ever took place.

There needs to be disciplined forms of life that enable people to transcend the chaos that drags down a community. Offensive, bullying, disrespectful behavior may be right according to some; but as stated in the closing scenes of the movie, “Dogville”, these people would be called dogs. And if they’re lapping up their own vomit, the only way to stop them is with a lash—aka: ‘correction’. But some might say they don’t know any difference, like dogs they only obey their own nature, so why shouldn’t we forgive and tolerate them?

Dogs can be taught many useful things, but not if we forgive them every time they obey their own nature.  So if we don’t acknowledge the tyrannical actions, if we don’t enforce law, if we don’t correct those who bully or disrespect others then we can only expect them to eat their own vomit and continue to spew their negative and hurtful attacks into the community. As citizens in a community we each have a responsibility to stand up in defense of proper behavior. It, at this immediate time, may be that it isn’t you personally, but your neighbor that is under attack, so the inclination is to look the other way. But be assured history has proven that the petty tyrant is not selective and anyone can come under attack even as the community as a whole suffers the consequences while they are allowed to function as petty tyrants.