The column that wasn't published

For more than two years it has been my pleasure to write a column titled "Footprints" in the Cabot Star Herald.

The column has been "retired" in the paper but will appear here regularly as a news and commentary blog.

Comments? Ideas for column fodder? Just let me know at gsid143@gmail.com.

A wise country philosopher once said, "Words with which I do not agree deserve their moment in the sunlight just as much as words with which I do agree."



But Eddie Joe,
beer is just
liquid bread!


Cabot Mayor Eddie Joe Williams can’t win for losing.

Williams must enjoy getting the political snagglewads knocked out of him, because he keeps playing his same one-sour-note song: “Alcohol, legal or not, ain’t got no place in Cabot. Can I get an ‘amen?’”

Last week the Cabot city budget and personnel committee met to discuss several items, including a proposed tax on the alcohol sold at two Cabot restaurants. While the three city officials who had a hand in shepherding the controversial ordinance – Alderman Lisa Brickell, City Attorney Jim Taylor and Mayor Williams – were no-shows, the four members of the committee – Eddie Cook, Jon Moore, Rick Prentice and Tom Armstrong – did show up.

And courageously they faced the chin music played by two different bands: The Silent Firs and the Ragin’ Agins.

The Agins (as in “agin” the tax) had the loudest horn section … two emotional trumpet solos with some chattering wind instruments as background. Former Alderman Becky LeMaster and Karen Elrod, owner of Fat Daddy’s Restaurant, decried the ordinance from different perspectives: LeMaster from the standpoint of accusing Taylor of overstepping his bounds in preparing an ordinance before public comment, and Elrod, who tongue-slapped Mayor Williams for being “petty” and “vindictive.”

The Firs, for the most part, didn’t have much to say.

This issue is not about taxing alcohol served in restaurants; it’s not about family values, community morals or what’s right or wrong. It’s about fair play, equal treatment and common sense.

Until these two law-abiding and rule-following eating establishments received a wine and beer permit from the state Alcohol Beverage Control Commission, there was no issue.

Despite the fact that Lonoke County had four such alcohol-supply stations in the county prior to Kopan’s receiving its license, it was not an issue. It was not an issue when Mayor Eddie Joe Williams joined one of those private clubs.

It was only after Mayor Eddie Joe Williams went before the ABC twice to protest the lawful granting of private club status to these two good restaurants and was handed his ego in a basket both times did this become an issue.

The ordinance (which is so full of legal holes as to be laughable) was aimed at making it, at the very least, exasperating for good businesses owned by good citizens and good taxpayers to continue to do business in Cabot.

Don’t expect Mayor Williams to take this defeat – he’s 0 for 3 in the fight – in good spirits. Count on the issue will be brought up again by a fellow evangelistic aldermen … and the fight starts anew.

One thing is certain: Mayor Williams doesn’t know when to quit, doesn’t care that he is giving the city a black eye in regard to city/business relationships and will keep creating avoidable brouhahas until he no longer has the platform from which to perform.

The owners of Kopan’s and Fat Daddy’s deserve an apology from the city leaders.

Don’t expect that to happen. Petty politics can be counted on to keep good people from taking an unpopular stance.