A couple of weeks ago I was walking on Center Street when a pleasant looking fellow stopped me and asked me if I was Allen Abrams. Having never been paranoid about being approached by strangers I immediately admitted that, yes, I am indeed Allen Abrams. He then introduced himself as Mark Russell.
I knew that our City Law Director's name is Mark Russell but, I had no idea what he looked like. What could I do but accept his claim that he was indeed Mark Russell. We had a nice little chat and exchanged e-mail addresses. Over the course of the next couple of days we exchanged a few messages and agree that he would be my guest on "The Voice of Reason" radio program on August the 16th. The purpose of coming on the program, obviously, is to discuss his re-election campaign.
Wanting to provide equal time to his opponent, I immediately set out to locate John Doyle. I know so little about John Doyle that I'm not even sure I have spelled his name correctly. Even so, I talk to an awful lot of people every day and I felt sure that it wouldn't take me long to track him down.
I began to ask people if they knew John Doyle. A few said they knew he was running for office but, they didn't know him or anything about him. One guy did tell me that he thought he was an attorney. Duh! It was clear to me, that to anyone who expected to get elected to public office, this degree of anonymity was not a good thing.
Yesterday, I got a lead. The news director at WDCM told me that he knew a guy who knew a guy that might be able to put me in touch with Mr Doyle. After several phone calls and a few left messages Mr Doyle called me this afternoon. Just in the nick of time! I had been hoping all along to get him to come on my program this Thursday.
Mr. Doyle and I had a nice little chat. I explained who I was and why I had been trying to reach him. Not knowing me or my motivation, Mr. Doyle seemed a bit cautious. To be truthful, his caution was an indicator to me that Mr. Doyle might be a pretty sharp guy. After a few minutes of conversation and no committment from Mr Doyle, he told me that he had to check on a few things and he would get back to me before the end of the day. Well, I wasn't born yesterday either! This told me that Mr. Doyle was going to check around quickly and see what he could find out about me. Another indicator that Mr. Doyle is a pretty sharp guy.
A few hours passed and Mr Doyle called to say he would be happy to come on the program.
I learned in our two brief conversations, and the time that elapsed between them, that John Doyle is an intelligent charming man. He has a good sense of humor and refreshingly, not a tremendous ego. Also he's a guy that isn't likely to let anyone slip a fast one by him. Oh, and by the way, he is an attorney.
Join me Thursday, August 9th, at 7PM on WDCM radio, 97.5 FM to further answer the question: Who is John Doyle?
