Can’t we all just disagree?

Once you asked me, “What do you think?”

So I went and told you

Now you tell me

That I can’t speak

I am the first to admit it. I am a disagreeable person. And I’m proud of that. Being disagreeable is not what most people think it is. It is not negative and a disagreeable person is not the same as a jerk or sociopath. Admittedly, some people in my life might disagree with this.

Rather, we disagreeable are people who tend to be assertive, competitive and skeptical. We are not afraid to question the status quo, to speak our minds or to challenge norms. We are not afraid to take risks for the things we believe in. When presented with an idea or statement we believe to be wrong, we do not hesitiate to, well, disagree. Put into a pretty common stereotype, we are not sheep.

As a disagreeable person, I’ve long been drawn to iconoclasts and outsiders in literature and music. There is a songwriter who is one of my favorites, but who most people have never heard of, by the name of Butch Walker. (You probably don’t know his name but, if you have listened to any popular music in the past 20-ish years, you have heard his work as he’s written or co-written and produced big hits for a range of artists, from Taylor Swift to Pink to Avril Lavigne to Fallout Boy to Train and dozens of others.)

More than two decades ago, Butch put out a song called “My Way.”

So you grew up in a town where everybody’s all the same

Like a city full of zombies going by the same name

Saying “Eat this,” “Wear that” think you know just where it’s at

When everybody’s just alike, now tell me how you deal with that

And then he hits the bridge with, “I don’t want to. Be the one who. Does everything like I’m told to.” See? Disagreeable.

There was a short story I read as a teenager that stuck with me as a… let’s just say, a “seasoned” adult. The story was written in 1957 and is called “Let’s Be Frank.” (If you hit that link, you’ll find the story on page 187 of the PDF.)

The story line follows the genetic line of a pretty anonymous British nobleman in the 16th century. His name is Frank. Well, probably Francis, but you get the idea. The shtick is that there is a chromosomal mutation that makes some of his progeny him. Not just looks like him but is an actual vessel for his ego. Frank 2, Frank 3 and 4 and so on. He and his offspring literally live all of each others’ lives all at the same time, even after death. He is functionally immortal.

Over the centuries, all through Europe and Asia, the Franks slowly become everyone. Except in the Americas, where a different mutation has risen up and created a second hive mind. Tellingly, the two groups still can’t get along and one develops spaceships and leaves the planet so they can live perfectly in a world where everyone agrees about everything.

It probably stuck with me because, like Butch, the idea of a world where “everybody’s just alike” horrifies me.

So what does this have to do with a hyper-local newspaper?

Unanimity above all else?

In the past year there have been several incidents in local government (which just happens to be my beat) in which there has been pressure for unanimity even when it is obvious that there is real disagreement among members of the city council.

In September of last year, a group proposed a memorial to Shane Patton, a kid from Boulder City who became a Navy SEAL and was killed in Afghanistan in 2005. Everyone was supportive of the memorial, but there was a serious split when it came to the location.

The resident group who had raised the money for the creation of a statue was pressing to have it placed in Wilbur Square, the jewel of a park at the very top of the town. And three council members were in agreement.

But two, Councilman Steve Walton and Mayor Joe Hardy said that they felt like Veterans Memorial Park was a more appropriate location. Walton, especially, was passionate in his comments about inappropriately valuing the sacrifice of one vet over that of another by giving one a more “featured” location. He said he had lost sleep over the implications.

But then Hardy, before the vote, made a plea for unanimity and everyone fell in line. The final vote was 5-0.

Recently, Walton was the only member of the council willing to stand up and stick by his previous statements as he was the lone vote against yet another re-write of the city’s leash law. After voting with the majority in a 3-2 vote in November instructing city staff to amend the current law to remove the exception for “voice or visual control” — which lets pretty much anyone have their dogs off-leash in city parks and, according to both the police chief and the recently retired animal control supervisor, makes enforcement impossible — Councilwoman Sherri Jorgensen caved to a vocal minority of residents who think that having their dogs off-leash is their birthright.

She changed her vote and, seeing that the majority was now on the side of not reforming the law, Hardy changed his vote as well. (City staff reports that the issue will go back before the council at some undefined point in the future after yet another version of the law is written that will likely provide exemptions for a leash law during certain hours. Because we all know that everyone reads and obeys things they read on signs. That is why everyone, without exception, actually picks up their dogs’ poop in the parks and there are never dogs accosting the bighorn sheep in Hemenway Park…)

Most recently, Councilwoman Cokie Booth read a scathing statement into the public record about City Attorney Brittany Walker and advised that she receive a 0% merit raise only to turn around and vote with everyone else for a 6% raise with no explanation. In a comment after the vote, Booth claimed she was being a “team player.”

Why the ridiculous overvaluing of unanimity above all other values?

Hard to say. Some people are just “go along to get along” and don’t have the moral fortitude to stand up for what they believe in when there is any pushback at all.

As I’ve gotten older, a bit of the fight has gone out of me. That may also be the root issue on the city council as all of them are retired or of an age where they could be. (Booth still works in real estate.)

But I am still proud to be disagreeable. Once upon a time, I used to fight with people online, but now I just write songs about it. That is where the words at the top of this column come from. I put out a new single last week called “My Battle to Belong” and those words are the bridge.

But I still can’t get behind the “unanimity over everything” mindset that appears to have taken hold with this particular city council. I find myself missing former councilman Matt Fox, who was never afraid to be the lone dissenting vote.

Having an opinion or a strong belief is only a real thing if you are willing to stand up and dissent even when everyone else is on the other side. Otherwise, your “belief” is pretty meaningless.

Here’s to more 3-2 or even 4-1 votes. “I don’t want to. Be the one who. Does everything like I’m told to.”

Everybody sing it.