HURRAH FOR FELIX KINSLEY, THE LONE VOICE!

Finally, someone showed some real guts at a Cape Girardeau city council meeting. After listening to a woman who disagreed with the recommendation of a council task force badmouth the city council without interruption for several minutes, Felix Kinsley was moved to leave his seat in the audience and disagree. Calling the woman's words "a bunch of bull," Kinsley undoubtedly voiced the sentiment of many in the audience and at home. And, he showed more gumption than those officials who sat quietly while their integrity was challenged.

Here's the crux of what the woman charged: the city is controlled by a conspiracy involving four council members. As her proof, she cited the recommendation of a citizens Solid Waste Task Force, which she did not like.

It sounded more like a case of sour grapes to me than an example of conspiracy.

In fact, members of the task force were astounded at the woman's charge. They explained that they were independent from the council, and that no one on the council had tried to influence their decision in any way.

Earlier, these task force members had even explained that most on the task force had entered into the study with a bias against the city's current practice. But after studying the situation they realized the Cape Girardeau city government was all-in-all doing an "efficient," "credible" and "responsible job," especially when compared to the costs and services in other cities.

The complaining woman clearly did not like their report. And, in a way, who can blame her? If I were nine months pregnant and staring at an overturned trash can with a missing lid, as she said she was not too long ago, I'd not be totally happy with the city's services either.

But that doesn't mean I'd be right to indiscriminately charge that an independent city task force, which held open meetings and was reported on in this newspaper, was secretly controlled by four city council members. In fact, that would be kind of ridiculous. And it would be kind of irresponsible. You might even say such anger, coupled with a wild stream of unsubstantiated and false charges, would be demagogic.

Anger and outrage change people, though. They can cloud judgment and make a person more selfish and more spiteful.

What mystified me about this most recent council meeting, then, was not this woman's outrage. She was a little melodramatic, yes, and her anger, true, was misdirected. But what actually struck me more was the council's lack of response to her comments.

After she finished speaking, council member David Limbaugh properly asked the task force representatives if anyone on the council had influenced them, which they said absolutely not.

"I don't rubber stamp anything," task force member Sarah Holt said.

But where were the other council members? For example, where were you, Mr. Rhodes?

I mean, Mayor, this woman, in effect, was calling you a patsy. She was saying that you have no power; you're just a stooge. Is this true? Do you just sit there as others on the council establish rubber stamp committees, which railroad through their agendas? Tell me it ain't so.

And Mr. Gately and Mr. Richards, did you two agree with this woman? Are the four she listed just out for their own gain? Do you honestly believe that they don't care for this community? I can't believe you do.

Yet, Mr. Gately and Mr. Richards, if you don't believe this, why do you have so little respect for this city's government (of which you are key players) that you remain quiet while it is maligned? Are you not inviting more demagoguery?

The fact of the matter is that the city task force on solid waste has made its recommendation. It will be studied by the council. At least one woman does not agree with its findings, and she says she will lead a petition drive to recall four council members she doesn't like: these members are David Limbaugh, Mary Wulfers, Mel Kasten and Al Spradling.

Somehow the petition drive against these four connects with the task force's report, though this appears to be more a marriage of convenience in the mind of the woman than a matter of fact. Meanwhile, the city government plot thickens, and the holiday of brotherly love draws near. God bless everyone, I say.