Take it as a Challenge

It was an interesting council meeting tonight. Afterward, as I was getting ready to go, the Mayor approached me, angry with me and making a request that he found completely reasonable.

I didn't. I told him so.

His request was that, if I had any questions about his family, I should take them up with him. I should not blog about his family. He was the publicly elected official, not his family. They should not be mentioned on the internet. He wanted me to agree not to mention his family.

I responded that, first, I had only mentioned them as existing (not even by name) and not said anything negative about them. (I don't know anything negative about them, and am not about to invent something.) They were mentioned in passing only because I was stating I respected him as a family man. For reference, read this. Unless somebody else can point out a problem here, I do not see that there should be a problem. Sure, had I criticized them, I could see his point. I would not agree to him to never mention them again.

That didn't satisfy him. So he called out loudly to everybody present to listen to him ask me again not to write about his family. I gave him the same reply, told him goodnight, and walked out.

But there's a part of me that considers that kind of confrontation a challenge. So it's really tempting for me to blog about how nice his wife is, having met her on several occasions, or how cute his older son was back when he played with my granddaughter, and how well they got along, or how adorable the new baby is. I could even mention how helpful his wife's father was a few years back when Paul and I wound up buying his used RV at an auction: not only did he take us through what was where and how it worked, but showed up that fall to run us through the process of winterizing it so nothing would get ruined. Last spring he even showed up with an extra tire for it that he ran across when he was cleaning his garage, way beyond the call of a "mere" business deal. It helped a great deal when we had a freeway blowout on vacation last summer.

But I've been asked not to mention his family. Apparently it doesn't matter that I like them and have only nice things to say about them. They are not allowed to exist in my blogging world. It's a pity, really, since my "real" world has been enhanced for having known them.

I guess I'll have to resist the challenge.

Oh wait....