Civility should be followed
Children can be cruel. They don't know better. Adults, who should know better, can be rude. A prime example was the recent city commission meeting where emotions prevailed over proper upbringing and resulted in nasty, rude remarks hurled at Marion's mayor, Eloise Mueller.
People should be able to have contrary opinions without being rude.
Many lesser people would resign in indignation following last week's public controversy. Those in the audience say they were embarrassed.
It takes a strong person to continue to be exposed to vicious attack. It is our hope that Mayor Mueller will not succumb to the easy way out. She will be tempted.
Those who have served on the school board, city or county commission, been editor of the newspaper, or in other capacities where they need to assume the mantle of leadership, know the feeling: there's a sudden hush when they walk into a social event; they find themselves alone in a crowd; it's a heavy burden to accept and learn to live with it.
But public rudeness should not be tolerated.
Let's have no part of such behavior.
Continue to disagree, but do so peacefully and try to arrive at eventual agreement.
Mayor Mueller was proper in not "closing the door" permanently on the possibility of a regional landfill being sited at Marion. She would have been wrong had she closed the door. Her stance, following defeat at the polls on the issue, has been to take the non-binding election results seriously and not "pursue" the issue. That's what the City of Marion has done. They are not "pursuing" the matter. Mueller is right in stating that the city should not "burn bridges." Let's keep our options open. And let's keep our manners.
— BILL MEYER
