In the story, play, movie,

or even the DVD video game, "Hamlet," the character Hamlet is

angered because he fears his father's brother, Claudius has murdered his

father so he (Claudius) can marry his father's wife, Hamlet's mother,

so he (Claudius) can take control of Denmark. Further confusing the nepotistic

story, Hamlet's madness involves Claudius' adviser Polonius and his daughter,

ending in tragedy for everyone. Whew! Why does this suspiciously sound

like our Fayette County government?

No matter the event or the

situation, anytime we read the complete details of any news report on

any branch of Fayette County government, the list of characters and their

relationships reads like a tragedy (or better yet, a comedy) that only

the Bard himself could write.

Each time I finish reading

a story on the infighting and squabbling among our representatives, I

am always shocked at how many city and county officials have connections

and relationships that extend beyond their government affiliations. I

fear that if I were to write all their names on a chalkboard and connect

all the dots, I would have fashioned an illustration more complex than

the human genome.

You don't have to go any further

than the presidency to see an overly-familial situation, yet locally it's

hard to tell the difference between our sovereignties and an August family

reunion in Alabama they're not just kin, they're really, really kin!

The way you can tell our government

is "really, really kin" is in the way they fight. You see, families

fight better and meaner than any of us regular, working folk. When the

rest of us have a problem with our boss or our company, we don't pick

up the phone and call the paper. We don't drop our lawyer's business card

faster than they can kill a pig in the outback. Yet, our government bodies

fight dirtier and in more embarrassing ways than your aunt Myrtle and

your uncle Clyde ever did after Thanksgiving dinner.

The saddest side of our elected

officials' constant, continual, chronic infighting is their obvious contempt

for the people; normal, real, sane, logical people. At least the king

who wore no clothes didn't realize he was naked. Our public officials

in their public bickering, don't seem to see any problem in parading around

in their frilly whites week in and week out.

It wouldn't take much stretch

to fit some of Shakespeare's titles onto our recent government scandals.

Would the recent sexual harassment case, be called "King Leer"

or was it "Romeo & Juliet"? Or, would the offended parties

who saw the case get settled consider it "Taming of the Shrew."

Anything surrounding Peachtree City Council meetings could be titled "The

Tempest." And pretty much all the rest could really be lumped under

the title, "Much Ado about Nothing."

In the end we can blame all

this on the free press and the endless access that we have into our government

agencies. But, that's what makes us the greatest nation on earth. That

is, we can blame all our problems on the freedoms we have been given.

I don't seek to pour poison in the ears of anyone, just point out again

the absurdity we accept as the norm. After all, someone put these elected

officials into office. And like someone might say at an Alabama family

reunion, "them is us."

[Visit Billy Murphy on the

Internet at https://www.ebilly.net.]