Richard Drake's letter to the Morning News online

Bottled Water At City Hall

With all the debate about Mayor Dan Coody’s accomplishments in office, the Great Bottled Water War should never be far from anyone’s mind. On June 12, with great public fanfare, Dan announced that not only would there be no more bottled water in City Hall machines, but that the city would no longer use public funds to buy bottled water.

This, of course, is just going along the lines of a much larger trend. Dan was hailed as a true friend to the environment.

Like other (foul-ups) in City Hall, we can all understand that, hey, it’s not Dan’s fault that those pesky machines never actually stopped stocking bottled water until some months later. That the water only seemed to be removed abruptly after several local bloggers took delight in calling attention to it is just some sort of cosmic coincidence.

I think we all understand how the universe sometimes conspires against Dan.

A little harder to explain might be Dan’s performance when he spoke to the U.S. Conference of Mayors a few months ago, and informed the crowd that Fayetteville had discontinued the use of bottled water several years ago.

Several years ago? Was there some sort of time travel involved here? Was Future Dan telling the present of Fayetteville’s glorious future — under his continuing leadership, of course?

Or was Dan — who was also co-chair of the Conference’s Water Council — stretching the truth to make himself seem just a little bit cooler in the eyes of his fellow mayors?

Oh, Dan, do you think that nobody in Fayetteville knows how to use the Internet, and can read what you tell folks when you are out of town?

Richard S. Drake
Fayetteville