Small town view of the chaos around us

I currently live in a small predominantly white town. I have friends of all colors, shapes, and sizes. I have had my share of misfortunes and acts of rebelliousness.  I am speaking as someone who knows the moral rights from wrongs, why there are laws, and why there are people the protect and see that those set laws are followed. I have been reading the headlines and blogs, watch the news,  watching protests and seeing a display of ridiculous human acts. I am disgusted by all of these acts of violence and plain disrespect that people are showing. The public is making it hard for police to do their jobs. Police are there to help protect you, and in doing so they also have to protect themselves. There are of course those few police officers that may be corrupt but most of them are not. They work day to day dealing with ignorant people that do not appreciate them. Why? Because they give you a ticket when YOU are speeding or when YOU run a red light?  Maybe they get in the way of your illegal activities.  It is their jobs to help keep everyone around us safe by making sure you follow the laws that are set in place for a REASON! Everyone that gets killed or hurt by police officers doing their jobs to protect themselves and others, have family and friends that are always going to tell the media the "good things" about those people. You my friends were not in that police officers shoes when he/she saw the gun, had a gun pulled on them, or got in an altercation with someone who was obviously out to hurt them because they are a "5.0." "Po po" whatever you call them. They have a split second to decide whether to possibly be killed or shoot to protect themselves. They are underpaid and deal with situations we can't even fathom. Protesting and acting out over a situation that you don't have all the facts to and want to pull the racist card every time something happens, you show your ignorance and plain lack of respect.  Respect your police officers, do not break laws, and just be a decent human being. If you show respect, you get respect. If you have issues with police officers and disrespect them, then don't call them the next time someone hurts you, or disrespects your property. Let them help the ones that do respect them for the job they do and for the idiots they have to put up with on a day to day basis. They are protecting us and keeping us safe with a selflessness that you and I only pretend to have. Look at the big picture,  look at all the facts, respect another human beings life, and follow the laws set in place to help keep our communities safe.

City council and the City administrator

http://www.masontoday.com/news/mason-city-council-elects-new-mayor-and-mayor-pro-tem/

On Monday the city council voted a new mayor and mayor pro-tem, however I feel as though this should be up to the residents of our city. There are a few members of our council that do not have the best interests of our community at heart. A couple of them should not be on the council at all. They are always choosing no to any executive sessions that may take time and energy into looking into important matters involving the city. The council has also been corrupt in a way that does not look at the best interest of the employee's of the city. There is a certain group of employee's that have been targeted and have been unfairly treated by the City Administrator himself.  They were paying almost 20% of their checks into retirement while the city payed NOTHING. When the city administrator was getting 20-30% getting paid BY THE CITY into his retirement while also having a better retirement than the other city employees.  He set up the contracts and bullied them into signing each contract. He figured out a way to manipulate contracts of city employee's for the most profitable gain on his part. He is a political manipulator of everyone around him and now has most of the city council in his back pocket who are about to vote on his contract again at the next meeting. Something needs to change within our system and the city administrator ends to be looked into deeply.