As you likely have guessed from the title, writing my column for this edition of the magazine has been a little harder than usual. I’m not sure why. Normally, I have a couple of ideas, maybe a quote or two, and those things take root and a column comes flying out of my fingertips. Not this time. In hopes of getting some traction, I created an outline of each column I’ve written since becoming the executive director. Spoiler alert! I’ve written 55 columns. Spoiler alert number 2! Preparing the outline didn’t give me any ideas. Ugh. My second largely unsuccessful attempt at idea hunting was to turn to my trusty ol’ Google machine: “things executive directors of municipal leagues write about.” The hits included these scintillating topics:

Public policy
Regulatory guidance
Taxation
Organizational reports
Technical assistance

Snooze city! All those topics have merit if I was writing a white paper or a scholarly publication, but nobody is looking for that in a magazine unless the reader is a rocket scientist and the magazine is titled How to Build a Rocket or Quantum Physics Fun. On a whim, and in hopes of finding a good idea, I Googled “quantum physics fun.” Here’s what the AI search overview came up with:

“Quantum physics is the mind-bending, often humorous science of the very small, where particles can exist in two places at once (superposition), teleport through barriers (tunneling), and stay connected over vast distances (entanglement). It suggests reality is more like a, ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ game where particles explore all possible paths simultaneously.”¹

Fun, right?! Anybody? Anyone? I didn’t think so. I did, however, chuckle at the “humorous science” comment. I guess in a sense that does make quantum physics fun. See what I did there? I don’t hear a loud roar of laughter. Some eye rolling but no guffaws. Time to move along!

None of these Googles and readings loosened my writer’s block. With a deadline looming, I decided it was time to up my game and my Googling. I typed “writer’s block.” What I’m about to tell you is absolutely true, and The Local Controller² can verify. Take a guess at the first hit. Go ahead, I’ll wait. No takers? The first hit was an essay on The Center for Fiction website.³ I hope the irony isn’t lost on any of you. The “Center for Fiction” published an essay about the reality of writer’s block! I may have a sense of humor that’s a little peculiar but come on! That’s hilarious, or at least worth a smile!

The author of the essay, Dawn Raffel, opines that writer’s block is a product of fear. Specifically, fear of what’s produced if a person is writing honestly. She refers to this as “writing toward jeopardy.” She also notes that the “fear of the fear abates” over time. Said a little differently, writing over time means less fear of writer’s block. I just turned 66. At my advanced age I should have very little fear of writing honestly! Yet here I am, fishing for something to come through the brain blockade. Grrr.

Turns out other theories about writer’s block exist as well. I won’t go into these theories in depth but here’s a few.

Maggie Rowe, writing for Psychology Today, believes the block stems from a physiological state. She notes fascia, polyvagal theory, proprioception and interoception as being part of the problem.⁴ I…don’t know what any of that means.

The Purdue Owl (Purdue University’s liberal arts publication) has an entire section on its website devoted to writer’s block, including symptoms and cures.⁵ It’s a way more practical guide than understanding fascia and the like!

There’s also a book titled The Writers Block: 786 Ideas to Jump-Start Your Imagination.⁶ I haven’t read it, and I probably won’t. I did, however, consider skimming those ideas in hopes of an idea springing forth. Don’t worry, I didn’t.

That’s enough about writer’s block. Good news: The hint of an idea for my column has begun to germinate in the back of my brain! Or maybe it’s the front or one side or another of my brain. I don’t know brains so much.⁷ What I do know is that municipal officials and personnel are never off the clock and there’s always video being recorded.⁸ Always. And just like that, the block is broken and we’re off to the races!

Because police are some of, if not the most, visible municipal employees I’ll start there. We all know there are loads of “reality TV” shows devoted to cops. (Anyone care to join me in a chorus of “Bad boys, bad boys, what you gonna do? What you gonna do when they come for you?”⁹) I Googled—shocking I know—videos of municipal police officers and, of course, dozens of things hit, including:

A day in the life of a cop¹⁰
Meet our new officers¹¹
164 municipal police recruits begin training¹²
Class 212 Graduation¹³

Pretty benign stuff. Good PR for cities and police officers for sure. If, however, you add “behaving badly” to the search, the results become wild, electric and terrible. Before I go any further, let there be no confusion: I’m pro-police. I spent the majority of my career putting my law degree to work representing and training police officers throughout Arkansas. I taught big departments and small ones alike on pretty much any and every police-related topic you can think of, including “the camera is always on.” Always! A warning should you conduct such a search: There’s yelling, cursing and a whole lot more. I’m not condoning any of it.

As L.C. will likely soon point out, it’s time to make my point. I will, I promise.

Here are the titles of some of the police behaving badly videos revealed by Mr. Google:¹⁴

The most embarrassing public arrest of all time
Police officer behaving badly (I bet you saw that one coming from a mile away!)
When dumb cops ruin their careers in seconds
10 disturbing incidents that got cops fired
Cop instantly loses it
One of the worst behaved cops in America

Not one to leave a Google un-Googled, I flipped the script and searched for people behaving badly with police officers. Here are a few of the results (see previous caveat re: foul language etc.):¹⁵

When bad decisions meet the police
Lady tries ignoring the police, ends badly
Bad attitude, trip to jail
People behaving badly, ride along

There are also videos of other city officials behaving badly. Shocking I know. From texting while driving to cursing when the mic was hot.¹⁶ Google away and you’ll find any number of things. Mayors, council members and clerks behaving badly, you ask? Yep! Yelling? No problem. Name calling? That too.¹⁷

Not to be outdone, the angry, screaming discourse of people in general has reached what I believe is an all-time low, or high, as the case may be. Here are a few doozies, but again, don’t click if you don’t want to hear or see the ugliness.¹⁸ ¹⁹

Let’s all take a deep breath. Here’s a truism if ever there was one: People cannot take their eyes off a trainwreck, metaphorical or not. Videos of people being polite or kind usually don’t go viral. Unfortunately, the ugly always gets noticed. Dumpster fires are watched repeatedly.

An audio clip of a politician, preacher or entertainer saying something untoward will always get airtime. Add in an epithet, a curse word or two and some yelling and you’ve got yourself a hit. Catch it on video and it’ll be an internet sensation forever. Those are the things getting all the attention. These recordings are creating a culture of acceptance that threaten our moral fabric. We are becoming numb to name-calling. This volatile mixture is what I call the Jerry Springer effect. You’ll recall Mr. Springer had a TV show that essentially rewarded outlandish and angry behavior and commentary. That show ran for 27 years!²⁰ That’s a long time. I loathe this sort of “reality TV,” but it is, unfortunately, popular! Ick.

Kurt Ela Psy.D., wrote in Psychology Today that there are seven reasons people seem angry all the time.²¹ They are:

We are tired. I’m stunned by the number of studies showing how sleep deprived we are. The fallout is enormous in terms of productivity, lifespan and emotional tolls.
We are overwhelmed. Emails, text messages and social media, to name a few, are so voluminous that we cannot keep up. That failure causes immense stress, and stress manifests in many terrible ways.
We are afraid. Media is constantly telling us that crime rates are up. Videos show violence in our schools and neighborhoods thereby adding to the pressure cooker.
We are hot. Take a look at climate.gov and you’ll see statistics showing how much warmer our world is year after year. Research shows that heat plays a significant role in violent and aggressive behavior.
We are stuck in a zero-sum game. Try getting a last-minute reservation to dine out. It’s unlikely you’ll be successful. Show up at church on a holiday and you’ll likely find it hard to park and harder yet to find a seat.
We are broke. Inflation, rising mortgage rates and economic uncertainty all play into a lack of financial freedom. Poor financial circumstances often lead to depression, addiction and a whole host of things that breed anger.
We are in pain. New polling shows that nearly one-third of the world is in physical pain every day. Short fuses go hand-in-hand with chronic pain.

Dr. Ela also provides some solutions and methods to reduce anger:

Be kind to yourself. Self-compassion goes a long way toward stress reduction and likely lets you sleep better. Self-care in the form of diet, exercise and boundary-setting is very helpful in reducing anger.
Forgive yourself and others. I have a friend that routinely says, “Have mercy.” Mercy toward those around us helps lower the proverbial heat in the kitchen. Forgiveness is healthy. Forgiveness isn’t weakness.
STOP. That stands for: Stop, Take a breath, Observe, Proceed. In other words, let’s try to remove the flash points of anger that we face by slowing down and calming down.

In recent years I’ve written columns about compromise, the power of forgiveness, unity, respectful dialogue and listening to one’s conscience. There’s no better place for that to occur than in city hall. You are the connection between service and people. You are the gatekeeper to civility. At the local governmental level, you can make a difference every single day. You are the starting point, and your city is ground zero for making a positive impact. Does that mean every resident of your city or town will be satisfied and happy with you and the folks you work with? Absolutely not. What it does mean, however, is you can help put a dent in this anger problem and start to turn the tide toward civility.

There are multiple civility initiatives around the country.²² They all have merit. I’m most familiar with the program produced by the Municipal Association of South Carolina.²³ Heading that effort is my friend Todd Glover.²⁴ Todd is my peer, and I assure you he’s one of the finest humans you’ll ever meet. He has worked diligently in preaching and leading the charge of civility. I urge all of you to look at the program.²⁵

Arkansas cities and towns do indeed make for a great state. It’s incumbent upon each of us to turn down the static and tune in the civility. Anger be gone! And please take writer’s block with you!

Until next time, Peace.

Mark Hayes
Executive Director
Arkansas Municipal League

^[1] https://armuni.org/4vn5BDl

^[2] For the newly initiated reader, let me start by apologizing for some of the shenanigans I engage in throughout my column writing. The Local Controller (L.C.) appears frequently in my cast of characters. In reality she is Alison, my incredibly strong and talented wife. I would be lost without her. She’s “encouraging” me to cut to the meat of the coconut, so to speak. I shall.

^[3] https://armuni.org/4c3Wxfi The essay can be found here: https://armuni.org/4mnOhKn

^[4] https://armuni.org/4vn5gRb

^[5] https://armuni.org/4cenKun

^[6] https://armuni.org/41klJId

^[7] If you want to know brains, I guess Johns Hopkins Medicine is as good a place to go as any. Take a peek: https://armuni.org/3OgCr8n

^[8] My rudimentary search produced dozens of articles, blog posts and litigation regarding the recording of public officials. If you’re bored, use this search: “how much of a public official’s work is being recorded?”

^[9] This famous ditty was recorded in 1987 by Inner Circle. According to Wikipedia the band is still performing. https://armuni.org/4chlTVJ

^[10] https://armuni.org/3O9DGWY

^[11] https://armuni.org/4c1LS4H

^[12] https://armuni.org/4edpaYH

^[13] https://armuni.org/4slh2J1

^[14] https://armuni.org/4ssaecS

^[15] https://armuni.org/4tClLag

^[16] https://armuni.org/41JpQOh

^[17] https://armuni.org/4sXYD69

^[18] And I’m in no way condoning the behavior! It’s abhorrent, but it’s also, unfortunately, our reality.

^[19] https://armuni.org/4tJ2ZOJ

^[20] https://armuni.org/4tlzxyB

^[21] https://armuni.org/41sPp5V

^[22] Your League has multiple civility writings. https://cityandtown.org/?s=civility

^[23] https://armuni.org/4c0aL0C

^[24] https://armuni.org/4mo5nrE

^[25] https://armuni.org/4tvEAvU

1
https://armuni.org/4vn5BDl
2
For the newly initiated reader, let me start by apologizing for some of the shenanigans I engage in throughout my column writing. The Local Controller (L.C.) appears frequently in my cast of characters. In reality she is Alison, my incredibly strong and talented wife. I would be lost without her. She’s “encouraging” me to cut to the meat of the coconut, so to speak. I shall.
3
https://armuni.org/4c3Wxfi The essay can be found here: https://armuni.org/4mnOhKn
4
https://armuni.org/4vn5gRb
5
https://armuni.org/4cenKun
6
https://armuni.org/41klJId
7
If you want to know brains, I guess Johns Hopkins Medicine is as good a place to go as any. Take a peek: https://armuni.org/3OgCr8n
8
My rudimentary search produced dozens of articles, blog posts and litigation regarding the recording of public officials. If you’re bored, use this search: “how much of a public official’s work is being recorded?”
9
This famous ditty was recorded in 1987 by Inner Circle. According to Wikipedia the band is still performing. https://armuni.org/4chlTVJ
10
https://armuni.org/3O9DGWY
11
https://armuni.org/4c1LS4H
12
https://armuni.org/4edpaYH
13
https://armuni.org/4slh2J1
14
https://armuni.org/4ssaecS
15
https://armuni.org/4tClLag
16
https://armuni.org/41JpQOh
17
https://armuni.org/4sXYD69
18
And I’m in no way condoning the behavior! It’s abhorrent, but it’s also, unfortunately, our reality.
19
https://armuni.org/4tJ2ZOJ
20
https://armuni.org/4tlzxyB
21
https://armuni.org/41sPp5V
22
Your League has multiple civility writings. https://cityandtown.org/?s=civility
23
https://armuni.org/4c0aL0C
24
https://armuni.org/4mo5nrE
25
https://armuni.org/4tvEAvU