{"id":11258,"date":"2015-10-08T03:33:30","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T03:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=11258"},"modified":"2015-10-08T03:33:30","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T03:33:30","slug":"positive-message-goes-out-on-mpev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=11258","title":{"rendered":"Positive message goes out on MPEV"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Paul Matney is a positive man.<\/p>\n

He spent his lengthy and distinguished public life telling the community that our glass was half full, not half empty. I’m sure he’s said a negative thing a time or two — or maybe three. In public, though, he offers a serene sense of optimism.<\/p>\n

Taking the high ground<\/a><\/p>\n

A group that Matney chairs has begun airing a 30-second spot on TV and on social media extolling the virtues of the proposed $32 million multipurpose event venue — which includes a ballpark — that Amarillo voters will decide on Nov. 3.<\/p>\n

I’ve heard Matney say — again in public — that Vote FOR Amarillo will not resort to negative campaigning to sell the MPEV to the skeptics out there.<\/p>\n

I believe he intends to be faithful to that pledge.<\/p>\n

My hope is that the other side can do the same, although realistically it is impossible to argue against<\/em> something without saying something negative about it.<\/p>\n

I heard Matney over the course of many years stand before audiences and sing the praises of the educational institution he led. Amarillo College has enjoyed a remarkably high public standing in Amarillo while other public institutions — Amarillo City Hall, Randall and Potter counties, even the Amarillo public school system — occasionally have taken broadsides from constituents who are disaffected at some level.<\/p>\n

Matney, of course, doesn’t deserve all the credit for AC’s high standing.<\/p>\n

Look, I’m not a Pollyanna. I get that politics can be tough. It can get negative. The late U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen called politics a “contact sport.”<\/p>\n

I do hope, though, that the MPEV campaign that’s unfolding doesn’t drive a huge wedge between disparate community elements.\u00a0 I am heartened to see\u00a0that one\u00a0side of that\u00a0campaign\u00a0has pledged to take the high ground.<\/p>\n

If the other side is destined to go negative, then my hope\u00a0is that they do so with honesty and integrity … and with an absence of demagoguery.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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Paul Matney is a positive man. He spent his lengthy and distinguished public life telling the community that our glass was half full, not half empty. I’m sure he’s said a negative thing a time or two — or maybe three. In public, though, he offers a serene sense of optimism. Taking the high ground … Continue reading Positive message goes out on MPEV<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[295,1436,3153,3522],"class_list":["post-11258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-amarillo-college","tag-downtown-amarillo","tag-mpev","tag-paul-matney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11259,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11258\/revisions\/11259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}