Last year, my little town made national headlines when our mayor claimed that a mysterious, sticky yellow substance on her vehicle was evidence of a “hate crime.” The investigation—which involved a Darlington County Sheriff’s deputy looking at the car—revealed it was pollen.
At the time, I thought that the mayor was pandering for headlines (even though what I wrote at the time was more generous). But the likelier answer is she’s just stupid—sweet, to be sure, but stupid.
Also, it’s sad that many black Americans exist in a world so haunted by race-hustlers that they see hooded Klansmen committing acts of racially-motivated pollination around every corner. That’s surely the vast minority of black Americans, but that such blinkered conspiratorial thinking is so prevalent is disconcerting (and that’s coming from someone with a conspiratorial cast of mind).
I decided to revive this piece for TBT because filing opens tomorrow for an open Town Council seat in Lamar. One of our local councilmen resigned, so the town is holding an open election on 12 May 2020. The filing fee is just $31.
I’m still a newcomer to town, but for $31, my thinking is, “Why not run?” I see a great deal of potential for my adoptive home town. I also believe everyday citizens—not just well-heeled businessmen and attorneys—should run for public office.
We’ll see. Regardless, here’s 2019’s “Hump Day Hoax“:
It’s that point in the semester where everything is coming to a head all at once, so today’s post is about 12-14 hours late to the party. Indeed, it was only about fifteen minutes before writing this post that I stumbled upon an article with a local flavor.
It seems the mayor of my adopted hometown, Lamar, South Carolina, believes that a racial hate crime was committed against her. Her vehicle was covered in a sticky yellow substance that resembled spray paint, she claimed.
After a brief investigation—it probably involved running a finger across the hood of the car—the Darlington County sheriff’s deputy determined the mystery substance was—GASP!—pollen.
You can read the full story here: http://www.gopusa.com/hate-crime-against-darnell-mcpherson-s-c-mayor-turns-out-to-be-pollen/
I’ve met Lamar’s mayor—my mayor—before, and Mayor McPherson is a pleasant and welcoming lady. I met her when I went to town hall to setup garbage and sewage service at my home.
Lamar is a very small town—the population, according to the 2010 census, was slightly less than 1000—and it still functions on a timetable that is even slower than the rest of the South. In true, old-school Southern tradition, local government offices shut down on Wednesday (as do some local businesses, if I’m not mistaken), and many folks get their mail at the Post Office, rather than a mailbox (my mail wasn’t delivered for about two weeks, until a neighbor told me I had to move the box across the street, otherwise our rural route carrier wasn’t going to stop).
Needless to say, it runs on a small staff, so Mayor McPherson was in there with the town’s two administrative assistants, processing water bills and the like. I appreciated her dedication and friendliness, and she encouraged me to get involved in the community.
As such, it’s disappointing to see this kind of hysteria from her. From the tone of the article, she sounds like she sincerely believes some misdeed was done against her—although I’m probably being overly generous. The Jussie Smollett hoax was clearly too ludicrous to be true; maybe the Case of the Hooded Pollinator is the same situation.
The Portly Politico 