A man and his horse: Give councilman credit for quest to know before he votes

We hope the irony isn't lost on Councilman Bevan Foster ---- now that he knows who Don Quixote is.

Foster held up a vote by a day on approving a piece of art for the downtown area while three other works were approved, because he said he needed to research who Don Quixote was before agreeing to allow the artwork depicting the fictional character to be displayed publicly.

Given the recent events in Charlottesville and the long-running debate about pro-Confederate statues and monuments displayed in public locations or funded with public money, we get that. And there is nothing to make light of in his doing so.

Nor are we poking fun at him for not knowing about Don Quixote. We're sure he is not alone there.

No, the comedy only arrives in hindsight, after his having learned who the fictional character was.

The character in Miguel de Cervantes' early 1600s novel -- lauded by the literary world to be among the finest works and generally accepted as a classic -- was so bent on doing good deeds and embodying chivalry that he ended up on a heroic quest across the Spanish countryside fighting windmills he imagined were giants and other perceived enemies.

So how does that relate back to Foster?

Well, back in December 2016, when one of our reporters sought comments from each of the city councilmen on their goals for the coming year, Foster was contrite and offered one sentence, via text:

"My only goal is to continue running around the city helping people until I catch a Charley horse," Foster said.

Now, the council has been very active this year in addressing issues having to do with crime, diversity and youth programs. All fine work.

But Foster's "quest" to assure that Don Quixote was respectable enough to be posted downtown was -- in retrospect -- a bit quixotic.

We hope he finds the humor in it, too.

Published in Editorials on August 23, 2017 10:55 PM