Decisions, decisions, decisions

People who know me pretty well will gladly tell you I don't make some decisions easily or quickly.

Ask me where I want to go to eat? You should ask me about 24 hours beforehand. That way, I can literally sleep on the idea and spend my waking time thinking about it.

Does it literally take me that long to decide where to eat? Well, I can decide immediately if I have to. I just don't.

When it comes to a lot of small decisions, I waffle more than the South's most popular all-night diner. It is not that I have a problem making decisions. Like you, I make decisions constantly throughout the day.

Unlike you, I make decisions on a regular basis that can affect a person's life for the rest of their life. I am not a judge (except for food contests) and I do not want to be. Yet I wield a lot of power and, as Stan Lee wrote, "with great power comes great responsibility."

It does keep me up at night.

MEET VAL

You do not know Valerie, this one at least. She and I worked together for a while at a newspaper. She wrote a story and the main source in that story committed suicide shortly after the story came out. Was Val's story the main reason, the proverbial straw on the camel's back or it had no effect at all?

The only person who knows exited this life intentionally.

Val was torn up. 

While the details are obscured by decades, what happened sticks with me. 

Every day I make decisions on what to write, how to to write it and so forth. Frequently, I am conscious of what Val went through. I do not want that to happen to me.

So yeah, it keeps me up at night.

MAKING A DECISION

Over the past couple of weeks, I made a decision. It was finalized around 7:30 a.m. Sept. 16, 2024, when I typed the last period into The Wiregrass' editorial for the week. That editorial was not a matter I took lightly.

In fact, the whole matter started in Jun 2023. I sued the local City Council and won. Going to court kept me up at night; some of the Council are people I truly call my friend. I appreciate the Council and the hard decisions they have to make. But dammitall, right is right. Gotta stand for something or fall for anything.

As of the last period on the editorial, some individuals on the Council did not do some of what the Judge ordered and the whole Council did not do at least one thing the Judge ordered.

In the editorial I gave the Council until Noon Friday to comply. Then, I'd file papers to go back to court. I called out by name the 2 Council members who defied the Judge's orders. Gonna hear about that one.

That part I can handle. Bring it on. I'm justified and have the Judge's order to prove it.

Still, it was not fun. Fortunately, it was not a decision that required instant action. I sat back and waited for a while. I even wrote a news story the week before saying 2 Council members, unnamed at that time, refused to comply.

INSTANT DECISIONS

I am not one who is paralyzed by the need to decide instantly. I can. If lives, damage, pain and so forth are on the line, I am moving.

I can make decisions when they have to be done.

IMMA PASS

But I keep going back to the decisions I make as a reporter, editor and newspaper publisher. I make calls that can change lives. So, when it comes to the little things, Imma pass.

The pen is mightier than the sword; it is an old axiom that still holds true.

The late Sheriff Lamar Whiddon told many people, don't worry about the ones that attack you physically. You can get over that. Worry about the ones who come after you with barrels of ink. 

I buy ink by the barrel.

So grant this cynical old reporter some relief. If I want to pass on making a decision, please let me. I have enough weight on these pain-wracked worn-out shoulders and even a straw is more weight I'd prefer to avoid.