Shut Terri Cole up!

In the 1990s there was an Australian exercise fanatic, Susan Powter, whose catchphrase was “Stop the insanity!”

It was a good and entertaining line that I'm sure motivated at least a few people to get off their asses and start working out.

It turns out that here in Albuquerque we need to start screaming Powter's line constantly with a modification that says “Shut Terri Cole up and get rid of her!”

Cole is the longtime head of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of commerce and a dinosaur who should have gone extinct 30 years ago. She reached the height of infamy last year when she gave then-Mayor Richard Berry a public safety award in the midst of the greatest crime wave the city has ever seen.

It was an insider award and the most insulting thing anyone could have done to this city's residents. And it was the height of contempt for every single resident of this city. Berry presided over the greatest increase in crime the city has ever seen, and Cole gave him an award for his crime-fighting skills. Insane.

Now Cole seems to have gotten religion and is talking about how we need to be fighting this out-of-control crime that started in Berry's administration. This truly mediocre lady surfaced again on Thursday when the Chamber hosted the opening session of a public safety task force that was created by the state Legislature to find ways to fight the crime wave.

The Albuquerque Journal quoted Cole as saying, “We have to find a more intelligent way to fight crime.”

The paper added: “Cole said the Chamber has started to field more questions about crime over the last two years. Safety concerns, she said, are interfering with efforts to grow the economy.”

No shit!

But where was Cole two years ago when all those calls and concerns about crime started coming in? Where was Cole for the last eight years when Berry and his policies gutted the Albuquerque Police Department and started this epic crime wave?

And why did Cole give Berry that award last year? Why didn't she say anything publicly over the past two years about the need to fight crime more intelligently?

She was nowhere and said nothing because she's been part of the clique of dinosaurs – and totally inept dinosaurs – who, through their bumbling and incompetence for the past 30 years, have ensured that Albuquerque and New Mexico have remained pathetic economic backwaters.

Cole and many other so-called business leaders who have been part of the clique have failed and failed totally. They represent a lot that is wrong with this place. We need to get rid of them.

So let's use Powter's phrase and once and for all stop the insanity that has gripped this place for so long. And let this be our new slogan:

“Shut Terri Cole up and get rid of her!”