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We regularly see readers who give their own meanings to words. Perhaps it makes them feel better, but it doesn't help communication in a real world.
Now the U.S. government may be changing the definition of "metropolitan." Florence and its surrounding area may soon become "micropolitan." Did you know that the town of Florence itself is properly labeled "rural?"
The first time we saw Florence called rural was by a New York social work group. We weren't pleased, but we didn't publicly object and insult an organization that was helping us, unlike certain Muscle Shoals City Council members.
About two years ago, we discovered that Florence is indeed rural. A rural town is defined:
1. The town has a population of less than 50,000.
2. The town is greater than 50 miles from a metropolitan area (over 100K).
What makes the above definition interesting? Florence is defined as rural, but Athens isn't. Our U.S. government at work.
Apparently it isn't just word definitions that some have trouble with; a local group has been manipulating political history as well. During the last Colbert County elections, one candidate claimed to have organized the Shoals Republican Club. The club had been around for decades, but that didn't seem to stop the man from making false statements on campaign literature. (He was defeated.)
This week, we see that the club is claiming it's two years old. Why? We do see that the club, which had been active for many years, had no published mentions of meeting from sometime in 2015 until sometime in 2018. Our guess, and it's just a guess, is that there was some kind of power struggle that led to a temporary disbanding of the group.
If the current members of this club wanted to claim some minor fame for creating an organization, one would think they would have at least tweaked the name. Then again, considering how easy the voters are to manipulate, they probably just thought it wasn't necessary.
