In June 1998, the mayor of my hometown was none other than “Silver Tongue” Dick Bland. When he first ran for mayor in 1994, his campaign slogan was “Everybody’s Friend” and that seemed like a pretty good description of our leader.“Silver Tongue,” as just about everyone called him, did pretty well as mayor. Sure, there were a few folks who got on the wrong side of Bland over the years, but overall he was loved by just about everybody.I suppose I should have said that he was loved by just about everybody before 1997.