FRANCIS, FIGHTING, AND FINANCE

A COMMON THUG M AKES GOOD

By

Jimmy Joe Meeker

First Published in The Wilson County Advocate, Vol. 5, No. 29, ©August 10, 1993 by Donald W. Gillette

What kind of man does it take to physically attack the referee at an elementary school basketball game?

What kind of a man does it take to go belly up and have his salary garnished for failure to honor legal debts?

What kind of a man would take a job teaching at a local high school and then marry one of his students?

No one is really sure, but evidently the answer to all three of these questions is: the same kind of man who could be chosen as chairman of the county Finance Committee.

This whole thing makes you wonder what’s going on around here.

James Francis is a county commissioner, a teacher at Southside Elementary School, a basketball coach, and the chairman of the most powerful committee in Wilson County government—the Finance Committee. And yet his conduct indicates he should be tossed off the commission, fired from the education system, and throw in jail with the other thugs on the hill.

Most of us can understand getting caught up in the moment during a particularly intense sporting event, but come on…an elementary school basketball game? When your team is ahead by eight points?

Francis was thrown out of this game after accumulating three technical fouls. Three technical fouls. For those of you who don’t know (or don’t give a damn one way of the other), a technical foul is usually called against a coach for not playing by the rules—cursing, getting on the court, etc. And Francis got three.

Not only were the kids on the team watching all of this, the stands were full of other kids who’ve been taught (supposedly) to respect their elders, especially their teachers, and use these teachers as role models for future behavior. Next time Little Johnny pops one of his classmates in the mouth, you won’t be able to get on his ass about it because he’s likely to turn around and say, “But Coach Francis says it’s okay.” Is it any wonder some kids act like idiots? We give them idiots to emulate from the minute they open their eyes.

There’s not much respect left in the world for someone who wants to play Mr. Macho. At least not from where I sit. As a matter of fact, I’m sure the rest of you have seen loud-mouthed punks pull this kind of crap so much that you’d just as soon have them all bound together with baling wire and put adrift on Old Hickory Lake.

Francis, of course, has denied that he did anything that could be construed as unsportsman-like, stupid, or out of line. Now, keep in mind that everyone I talked to who was at the game said he’s lying; they claim he was in a rage when he attacked the official. Keep in mind that the principal of Knox Doss School had to jump between Francis and the referee to keep fists from being thrown. And keep in mind that the referee was asked to prefer charges against Francis but declined out of the goodness of his heart.

This behavior would be bad enough if it were just a coach blowing off steam. But it wasn’t just a coach. It was a combination coach/teacher/commissioner/committee chairman who probably shouldn’t be doing all these things at once in the first place.

From time to time, the other yahoos at the Wilson County Advocate make me sit down and read things before I make a fool of myself in print and one of the things they’ve had me read is the contract teachers sign when they take a job with the Board of Education. This contract says that teachers can’t moonlight in another job that could benefit themselves. So what the hell is Francis doing as chairman of the Finance Committee? Every time he votes on something for schools, he’s benefiting himself. That’s kind of like letting the prisoners run the jail.

I’d be interested to see which job Francis gave up if somebody actually made him abide by the letter of his contract. Teaching brings in the largest portion of bucks for him, but being on the county commission…that’s another story altogether. That’s power. From his position as chairman of the Finance Committee, Francis can hold the ax over anybody’s head he wants to. And that is sad.

It’s sad because over the past few years, we’ve all come to realize what kind of man it is who holds this ax.

Didn’t anybody else want the job? Why, oh why, did this guy get elected to the county commission? Was it just for laughs? Because if that’s the reason, no one is laughing anymore.

Francis says he welcomes an investigation into the incident to clear his good name. Well, I’ve got news for you, bub…it’d take more than an investigation. It’d take an act of Congress. You acted like a moron and the only investigation that’ll find otherwise is an investigation carried out right here in good old Wilson County.

You’d expect more from a county commissioner that this. And you should expect more from an elementary school teacher. And you should expect more from the chairman of the Finance Committee. And in any other county, you’d get more.

So we’ll keep electing thugs with the emotional stability of Amanda Plummer on Dexedrine and we’ll keep bitching about our county taxes and keep wondering where the money’s going. And nothing will be done to Francis for showing his ass because that’s normal procedure. And in a couple of months, we’ll have forgotten all about it.

No one here gets out alive.

XXX