First of all, Thanks Patrick for the nice post to the Weak Weak thread. I think that really cleared things up and I guess I knew you would come along and straighten things out.

Second, I want to apologize to the Honourable Mayor of Oklahoma City, Mick Cornett. My post was not meant as a personal attack but rather my frustration with the complacency that many in Oklahoma City leadership have portrayed. I saw the article and I have to say I was extremely dissappointed. The rebuttals from SWAKE only made things worse in my mind.

Although my opinion remains the same in general, I do apologize and want to give Mick a chance. I hope the article was wrong, that our mayor did not just throw his hands up and give up on a key quality of life OPTION our big city enjoys.

In my mind, as long as he stands-up, and works his tail off (in the spotlight or behind the scenes) well, then he's a heck of a mayor and deserving of our support.

Please take no offense to my comments, as they were only my views - and as you can tell I hate the old complacent, conservative OKIE DOKIE CITY thinking. And bashing (or backstabbing) from Tulsey too.

You were citing your opinion. I do not know for sure, but I think the way xray approach it was what upset the Mayor. We just need to be careful. That phase is over. We learned from it.

Well, I didn't see my "approach" as being so horrible. A strongly held opinion (that is not shared by the majority) does not a bad poster make. I, too, apologize if I said or did anything in a way that offended anyone. This is politics. The mayor of a big city is also expected to have thick skin. He put his name on the ballot. For him, or anyone else, to suggest that criticizing him is a "personal attack" is not recognizing that all criticism of politicians as "weak" would be considered "attacks"....it's politics! If calling a politician "weak" creates weak knees and discomfort at a message board - that's something that the admin (who seems very reasonable) should think about very hard.

I think my criticisms were blown out of proportion and made to be somehow harsher than they were. I certainly don't think Mayor Cornett could possibly think being called weak and criticized for comments at an open meeting (I wasn't just going by the Oklahoman report) is something to get too upset about. Remember Harry Truman's comments about the political arena and the kitchen and what happens when it gets hot? This wasn't meant personally - I'm sure Mick is a fine man personally - in fact I know he is. I questioned his leadership and voiced my belief that he has shown some things that seem to be "weak".....that's all in a political context. It's rhetoric thrown around all the time in political contexts. But, again, if that was truly an "attack" that was more than what's seen in politics everyday - and was offensive to some (including the mayor - though I am sure he has thicker skin than to let a forum post shake him too much) -- I DO sincerely apologize.