Rodney Curtis

Dear Maureen and Dane,

I can’t wait to be bored again.

In my career as a journalist, I’ve covered countless city council meetings, discussions, conferences and planning sessions. They rarely make for good pictures and unless the topics are splashy, they don’t generally hold my interest.

I should be deeply invested in my community. I should be civic minded and a responsible citizen. Normally though, I leave that to other people, better people. Now that I’m no longer what you’d call a practicing member of the news media (I like to say I’m a recovering journalist) I find it hard to be interested in the normal, day-to-day goings on behind the scenes in my own town.

That was until our mayor made national headlines. For the past year I’ve had to be interested; my whole family has. My friends have been interested and people I’d never met were interested. I can’t wait until I’m not interested again.

You two — Maureen McGinnis, then Dane Slater — will take over for the mayor and hopefully bring a sense of calm and normalcy back to our town. Troy needs that. We’re “The city of tomorrow, today.” For about a year, we were the city of yesterday.

I want to thank you for stepping in. I don’t know your politics or your backgrounds and I don’t really care. As long as you do what you feel is best for our fair city, that’s all we can ask. Well, that and you don’t let your ideology get in the way of your governing. You’ve seen what insanity happens then.

I am looking forward to hearing about Monday night council meetings where someone is given a proclamation or a citation and that’s that. I don’t want to hear they were lectured or debated as they were handed their award.

I would love to wake up Tuesday mornings and hear that if the Federal government wanted to give Troy millions of dollars, Troy accepted that money. And it would be fantastic if, when either or both of you take the oath of office, you don’t make up your own oath and refer to the city’s charter as whimsical.

One of the great things to come out of this whole affair was it woke citizens like me up. It galvanized a widely diverse group of people across all political spectrums and brought them together over a common problem. Yes, I know that sounds a bit highfalutin, but it’s true.

I want to pretend I’ll go back to sleep and not pay attention, but I’m guessing we’ll all be a bit more tuned in. That doesn’t mean we’ll be watching your every move. God no! We want nothing more than to sit back and let others do the work for us; isn’t that the American way?

Obviously I’m kidding Maureen and Dane — excuse me — Madam and Mister Mayor. We all wish you well and are happy that you’ve taken on the task of healing the rift and reminding us why we all choose to call Troy home.

Good luck and godspeed. May the wind be at your back and, uh, about my latest water bill …