I'm a doodoo head...

And the sabers were rattled … or maybe thrown at me, as I suppose that's a matter of opinion.

As an opinion columnist for both newspapers and magazines for many years, I'm quite accustomed to coming under fire, especially when I write about the things people are most passionate about: religion, politics and the U.S. justice system, just to name a few.

And, as a former publisher once told me, if I'm not making someone in the community mad, well, then I'm not doing my job correctly.

Unfortunately, the lines between reporting and writing opinion pieces has become quite blurry in the past few years, or at least that's what I'm hearing from a select few within the Crossroads community. That line, however, is extremely important to journalists such as myself and deserves a bit of attention here, I believe.

First and foremost, a news story should always be as unbiased as possible. When I'm writing a news article, I try very hard to be sure the ideas and opinions I'm presenting are those of the people in the story, whether I agree with them or not. After all, everyone is entitled to their opinions.

An opinion column, on the other hand, is just that. It's my opinion. It's a piece written from my point of view, reflecting my thoughts and ideas. And, for the most part, columns come as a very welcome part of my job, allowing me to break away from the struggle to present unbiased news and speak my own mind on the topic.

For example, if I didn't like the way a trial ended up, I can't very well call the defendant a muck-raking criminal who deserved a much more harsh sentence. No, I have to put my personal feelings aside and give people the details, including what other people — namely, court officials, victims and anyone else directly involved in the trial — think about it.

In an opinion column, however, I can write most anything I feel — within reason, of course — about the trial and its outcome. I like to think of it as something of an emotional release valve, a way to get my head around some of the more emotional injustices of the world.

As a recent letter to the editor pointed out, I've written several columns during the past couple of years regarding Big Spring Mayor Tommy Duncan's plans for the city, as well as campaign finance issues and his ongoing effort to convert the Big Spring Economic Development Corporation into a Type B entity.

Those opinions — remember, we're not talking about news articles — have been condemned as being malicious attacks on Duncan himself. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

First, for something to be malicious they have to be accompanied by malice, a desire to cause harm to someone or something. That's per Merriam-Webster, you know, the dictionary guy.

I have no desire to harm Duncan or his loved ones. In fact, I'd like to imagine Tommy is a pretty nice guy, when you're not talking about politics. My opinion pieces aren't meant to harm him — or anyone else, for that matter — they are meant to encourage readers to question their elected officials and do some research on their own.

My grandfather used to tell me, “Son you can please some of the people some of the time … But you can't please all of the people all of the time.” That's true for me as a writer and I'm sure it's true for Duncan and every other elected official who donates their time to try to make where they live a better place. Again, that's just a fact of life.

Of course, as seems to be the norm in these situation, the reader who is upset by my supposed character assassination of our mayor then goes on a bit of sniping of their own, judging me by my likes and dislikes on the social networking site Facebook. Oh, sweet irony.

Truthfully, however, I imagine a lot of things about me and my life might seem a bit odd, especially if you don't know me. True, some of the music I like my be considered questionable — at best — by some people. My taste in movies is, well, definitely a different shade of weird, especially when it comes to the zombie genre. And my friends are just about as weird.

What can I say, my third grade teacher told me I was unique and I just ran with the idea.

And while some readers may think I drown kittens in my off-time because I like to listen to Slipknot or because I'm a fan of Rob Zombie's B-type movies, those who know me know that isn't true.

Another thing I want to clarify is my questioning of Duncan's political directions should not reflect upon the city's administration. The employees of the city of Big Spring are some of the hardest working people I know, giving freely of their time and energy not just for city endeavors, but also for charity and other good causes.

The city council makes the rules and the city administration — like it or not — has to do the best they can with it. I like to think of the administration as a running back who gets the order to run the ball up the middle on fourth down with 30 yards to a first down … uphill … in the snow.

Regardless of what people may extract from my columns, I love Big Spring. I was born here. And while I may not like some of the directions our local government is taking, I stand by the Crossroads area.

As for running for city council, well, that's simply not going to happen. There are two things I simply can't do, under nearly any circumstances: make a decent gravy from scratch or keep my mouth shut when someone asks me my opinion. Those may be great qualities for a writer and columnist to have — well, maybe not the gravy, but thank goodness my daughter likes the ones that come out of an envelope — but they are damning for the majority of politicians.

Maybe, when this is all said and done and the dust settles, we'll be a better city for all of this and I'll be a better writer. Or maybe it will simply do what my Facebook habits are going to do and not change at all.

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.