When various issues are being discussed, flowery rhetoric and heavy verbosity sometimes prevent cutting to the chase and making the right points. That was no problem for Paul Silver, owner of a club and restaurant in Austin, Texas.
Triggering the matter was a proposal to ban smoking in bars, bowling alleys and pool halls. Proponents of the issue said they were interested in lessening the "honky-tonk" atmosphere in the Texas capital. Silver's response:
"A honky-tonk has got smoking and dancing and drinking. You take one of those away, and it's not a honky-tonk."
No sense beating around the bush. You're for it or against it, and Silver left no doubt where he stood. Lawrence with its smoking ban has done its part to reduce the number of Austin-style "honky-tonks."
Then there was an eastern delicatessen owner, Marc Brummer, who wanted to "do something for the boys and girls over there." He and his brother decided to send salamis to all 23,000 members of the 42nd Infantry Division in Iraq. No attempt to look noble or glorious for the patriotic Brummer and no effort to gild the lily. His explanation:
"You have to do something. I can do salamis."
As they say, everybody has to be someplace, and the deli fellows saw a niche they could fill and did it with a minimum of flamboyance.
How great it would be if such directness and candor could be contagious enough to infect many of our politicians, academicians and ideologues.
A little plain talk never hurts anyone.
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