To say that Monday night's Muncie city council meeting was packed with emotion would be an understatement.
After three hearings on the topic, the time for the city council to make a decision on whether or not to rename Broadway to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard had come.
But before the decision came several final pleas from the public.
"God gave those people the courage to prevail, and so shall we," Phyllis Bartleson, a Muncie resident, shouted from the microphone stand.
One of the last members of the community to speak in favor of the renaming of the street was Randy Seals.
In his address to the council, Seals explained that he was confident that he could protect his three daughters from racism and reality under the roof of his own home.
Seals also explained, however, that he brought his daughters with him to the meeting so they could "see reality" when the council made its decision.
The "reality" that his daughters got to see was that the Muncie city council is run by a bunch of mentally defective buffoons.
Once the comments from the public, both for and against the topic, were heard, it was time for the council members to add their two cents. Only two council members said anything, one of which was Monty Murphy, 6th district, the councilman who originally proposed the ordinance.
Murphy explained that he didn't have much to add to what the public had said, but that he did, however, wish to make an amendment to the original ordinance. The original reading of the ordinance stated that the name change would be effective Jan. 1, 2004. Murphy proposed that the council change it to 2005 in an effort to give business owners more time to adjust to the address change.
The council then held a role call on the amendment and passed it.
After that, stupidity overcame Chuck Leonard, council president, as he called for another role call minutes later. This time, he did not explain what the role call was for.
Not knowing what they were even voting on, a role call was taken. And it, whatever it was passed 5-4.
Well, come to find out, "it" was the ordinance.
Not knowing what they were voting on, the council had officially voted the ordinance into effect.
That was until they realized what they had done when a good majority of the crowd in favor of the ordinance began to applaud.
Realizing what had just happen, the council's lawyer who is there for reasons just like this, read the rules on taking a re-vote.
One member of the prevailing party had to ask for a re-vote. To make a long story short, one member did just that, forcing the council to take a re-vote. This time the vote was 7-2, opposing the ordinance.
With that vote, the ordinance was denied.
Needless to say, the residents who attended the meeting left displeased with the dysfunction of the council.
It wasn't that the ordinance was voted down. Most entered the meeting expecting just that.
I attended the meeting as a journalist, to look at the events that unfolded from an objective standpoint.
I left the meeting as a resident, thoroughly disgusted that multiple elected officials had no idea what was going on when it came to voting on one of the more heated issues this city has seen since I've been here. This issue mattered to a lot of people. My stance on the issue matters not; whether in favor of the ordinance or not, it at least deserves enough respect to be handled correctly and without error.
Not only should the council be ashamed of its action, but it should be force fed the proper parliamentary procedures when it comes to holding a formal meeting.
Write to Greg at gmfallon@bsu.edu++2'-¬*]?!
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