Public Challenge To Franklin McCallie

Here is my speech to the City Council tonight. In it I publicly challenge HAK committee member Franklin McCallie to do what he has proclaimed he has wanted in Kirkwood for so many years.

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Tonight I wish to talk about the one key element that has been missing in Kirkwood when it comes to the two smoking ban proposals we have faced and are facing. It is the core aspect of the word “community” that was ignored in 2006 by the proponents of the smoking ban, which lead to their proposal’s defeat by Kirkwood’s voters. This core aspect of “community” has once again been ignored by Healthy Air for Kirkwood (HAK) as they try to force a rehashed smoking ban on all of Kirkwood.

The One Key Element Missing – The Core Aspect Ignored – Is Dialogue.

I find this fact interesting when I review the list of HAK committee members. The new list is not much different than the list of residents that forced the 2006 proposal on our community. What is most surprising is the one name that shows up on each list. Both lists contain the name of our publicity seeking former Kirkwood High School Principal, Franklin McCallie.

Who can forget Franklin’s various calls for community “dialogue” about issues over the years? Who can forget his whirlwind publicity tour after the City Hall tragedy where he was referred to by an adoring local press with such glowing statements as the, “Lincolnesque ... self-appointed … liberal conscience of a conservative community” (St. Louis Magazine, May, 2008). As a founding member of CFUH he was the community activist “promoting respect, acceptance, and reconciliation among all citizens in our Kirkwood community through reflective dialogue.” Franklin has constantly proclaimed to the media over the years how our community needs “dialogue” to solve issues.

Yet, in 2006 there was no “dialogue” offered for our community by Franklin and his cohorts with their dictatorial smoking ban. They had the help of numerous State-wide anti-smoking groups with lots of money for advertising and lots of campaign workers from around the state to force their “duke it out” battle on Kirkwood. Even after stacking the deck against our entire community in this manner, Franklin and his cohorts still lost with their uncontested 2006 proposal.

Here we are less than 3 years later and Franklin and his cohorts are forcing another dictatorial smoking ban on our entire community. This time their proposal will be contested by the citizens of Choose Kirkwood and their proposal. We are working to engage all interested parties in Kirkwood in the process.

Franklin’s pattern is demand – Dialogue, Dialogue, Dialogue … Except – where it does not suit him.

I have twice privately reached out to Franklin for dialogue on this issue and was rejected. On Saturday, as HAKs event crumbled before them, with no one showing up for their big kick-off, I privately went up to HAK President, Mary Murphy-Overmann and asked for dialogue on this issue and was rejected.

From Franklin’s private rejections it is clear, his very public proclamations that dialogue is how we need to resolve issues in our community were just empty, hollow words – just sound bites – for consumption and regurgitation by the press. It seems dialogue is only for certain issues in Kirkwood, but definitely not the dictatorial proposals Franklin and his cohorts want to force on our entire community.

Tonight, I publicly challenge Franklin to live up the press he has created about himself. I challenge him to act like the image of the “Lincolnesque ... self-appointed … liberal conscience of our conservative community” he has fashioned. I challenge him to put his smoking ban issue where his mouth has been for so long – sit down with other interested parties to find a solution from our community – for our community. I challenge him to lay aside his monologue and prove dialogue is the way to resolve issues in Kirkwood.

I have since June 4th tried to keep our community from having to unnecessarily waste time, energy and ever tightened financial resources on another pointless, political battle over the smoking ban issue. I hope you, our City Council, will work with the members of Choose Kirkwood and other interested parties to provide our community the dialogue Franklin has proclaimed he has wanted for so many years.

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I can only hope Franklin and the rest of HAK will decide to work with the rest of Kirkwood and come to a solution - from our community - for our community.

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