Rush to Judgment

Rush to Judgment “Mr. Blue,” I believe this is yours,” yelled the man standing outside my porch. Just a moment before on this quiet late Saturday morning, Ihad been startled by a loud and furious banging on the porch door. Sticking my head out from the kitchen doorway, I saw Bill Kane standing there, his face red and full of rage. “What’s the problem?” I asked at which he dropped a heavy, large black garbage bag on my lawn. “This is the problem,” he said. You left your garbage in the garbagecan at the clubhouse. I barely knew Bill. At the time he was still living in Taconic Shores (where I live) and once or twice we had had abrief conversation. "Well," I said, trying to stay calm. "First of all, that's where garbage is supposed to be left - in garbage cans. And secondly, it's not my garbage. "And I told him where it had come from. Earlier that morning I had been riding in Taconic Shores when I passed a friend picking up some garbage that someone had strewn all over a grassy public area. I stopped and she expressed annoyance about the situation. "But I don'tknow what to do with this bag now," she said pointing to the garbage that she had accumulated. It was too big to fit into the small town County bags that I had bought , but I volunteered "I'll take it over to the clubhouse for you. "At the clubhouse office I described the situation to Joanne who works there. "Dump it in one of the garbage cans in the back," she said. And that's what I did. I quickly told all this to Bill,. "Well I'm having a party in the clubhouse later today, and I don't want to have to deal with your garbage, he replied. And he stormed away, leaving the garbage behind,and leaving me with the impression that he had not heard a word I said. No good deed goes unpunished. Now Bill is running for Town Justice against an incumbent, Brian Herman, who also has years of experience as a trained attorney. Let's see, who do I want as a town justice? Someone trained in the law who has the capacity to listen and reason things through? Or someone who makes snap judgments and ignores the facts? Hmmm. Howard Blue