There’s always gotta be one guy willing to shake up a perfectly good game of town-hall buzzword bingo.
And at Wednesday night’s open mic at the AFI Silver Theatre, that guy was Buddy. (His true identity has been altered to protect — well, me.) Buddy was a well-groomed guy from Long Branch, and was the first person to pose a question to the county council.
“For two decades, this area [Long Branch] has been under rapid decline. It’s been a harbinger of crime,” he said with much deliberation. “We’ve been waiting to see something, but nothing’s happened.”
Valerie Ervin (D), who represents Silver Spring on the county council, began to respond with something about Long Branch’s planned economic revitalization. But Buddy wasn’t having any of it, and he stammered away from the mic and up the auditorium aisle.
“It’s about public safety, not economic revitalization!” Buddy barked over his shoulder at Ervin. “Public safety! Public safety!”
At some point, a seated audience member threw a comment at Buddy, though what was said is unclear. Buddy’s response, on the other hand, was crystal.
“What’d you say to me?!? Did you say something to me?!?” Buddy yelled back as his long fingers curled into a fist.
Ervin began her response again. “There are a lot of issues of revitalization that have a direct impact on crime,” she said, drawing attention away from Buddy, who was already near the rear exit.
The rest of the council began to chime in. The third district’s Phil Andrews gave a shoutout to the county PD’s 89 new cops, and George Leventhal (At large) applauded efforts to beat back public drunkenness in Long Branch.
Suddenly, Buddy appeared again, this time marching directly in front of the tall aluminum bar stools on which the council members sat. How he got there so fast and without notice is unknown.
“Bullshit! Bullshit!” he snapped only feet away from the council, and directly in front of two County Cable Montgomery television cameras. “That’s bullshit! Let me outta here.”
He grabbed a small black duffle bag from a front-row seat and stammered again toward the rear exit, all the while grunting, “Bullshit! Bullshit!”
The rest of the evening without Buddy was uneventful, which put a damper on The Penguin newsroom’s game of town-hall buzzword bingo. No one made use of the phrase “Wayne Avenue alignment”, and there wasn’t a single mention of “Birchmere”.
However, the newsroom is adding “bullshit” to its list of buzzwords for the next town-hall meeting.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Altered Nate.
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The “Save the Pool” kids were cute though.
I wanted to punch the guy with the Hillary Clinton sign. Booooooo!
I felt one hour was not enough for the town hall meeting and several people near me voiced that same concern. Direct democracy can be interesting.
IHY: Were you there to speak on a particular issue, or were you there as an observer?
Dang, I missed that?! Ol’ concerned-about-crime Buddy seems to have committed a wee bit of assault and disorderly conduct. Maybe he’s the criminal mastermind in Long Branch.
Editor’s note: Whoa! My man Buddy did NOT commit assault, and disorderly conduct would be a stretch. — JD (Jan 31, 2008)
Ms. Penguin, allow Black’s Law Dictionary to speak in my defense:
Assault is defined as, “Any willful attempt or threat to inluct injury upon the person of another, when coupled with an apparent ability to do so, and any intentional display of force such as would give the victim reason to fear or expect immediate bodily harm, constitutes an assult.”
Ol’ Buddy did curl his fist towards his critic after acting a little bit loony, and a hardcase judge could stretch that to assault. True, it’s a stretch just like the disorderly conduct charge would be, but never underestimate the nasty inclinations of either prosecutors or judges.
Now “battery” does require “unlawful touching of another,” but we can’t accuse Ol’ Buddy of that, at least not that we know.
Just so you know, Black’s Law Dictionary sometimes spells things funny. Case in point: “inluct” instead of “inflict.” Go figure.
Funny, I felt obligated to write about the same guy. If that kind of wackiness is a regular occurrence, I’ll have to go to more of these things.
Editor’s note: Yeah, there’s always some crazy shit going down at these gigs. There was almost an international incident involving child labor laws at Leggett’s budget forum last week, according to Penguin photog Ron Pace. I’ll have to wring the full scoop out of him some day. — JD (Jan 31, 2008)
Springvale:
I didn’t say Buddy curled his fist towards his critic, as you wrote. What the article states is this:
In fact, Buddy’s arms remained at his sides during that brief exchange.
Okay, it looks like you got Buddy off this time. But really, the guy sounds like he needs to relax.
In response to The Penguin, I was just observing. I learned a few things last night. For starters, I was not impressed with Valerie Ervin. I didn’t like some of her answers and she was always getting in distracting little chit-chats with Duchy when a question from one of her constituents was asked. Kinda rude if you ask me.
Marc Elrich was on top of his game. Leventhal was good too.
“Buddy” was the highlight of the evening! Wish we had more like him to stir it up. The guy in the audience was behind me and said to Buddy: “I was with you until you started all the shouting.” – that set Buddy off even more.
Unlike IHY I thought Val Ervin did a fine job – esp after holding up to the Buddy barage.
The abrupt ending leaving 20+ folks who had waited an hour+ standing to ask their question was UNcool in my book. The event was treated like a TV show production and NOT a town hall. Every questioner in line at the start of the event should have gotten a chance to voice their concerns about downtown SS. I think questionnaires should have been screened though — and non-SS issues to take it to ANOTHER town hall mtg.
PS I was not in line – just happy to lend my support and applause for my friends who were.