At Tuesday’s Selma City Council meeting, Mark Myles, an organizer for the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation (CNTR) spoke to the Selma City Council about the ongoing conflict between the council and Selma Mayor Darrio Melton and he urged them to set aside their differences in the best interest of the city.

A story published Wednesday included the following exchange:

“Selma City Councilwoman Angela Benjamin bristled at Myles assertion that there is ‘beef’ between the mayor and the council and asked Myles to clarify what conflict he believes needs to be addressed.

For his part, Myles noted the laundry list of lawsuits stacking up between the two entities, the failure to bring the laid-off workers back to work and the need for citizens to pick up the slack for services their tax dollars are meant to pay for.

‘There is always going to be a conflict that needs to be resolved,’ Benjamin said, noting that conflict is inherent in politics. ‘You wouldn’t need representation if there wasn’t a conflict that needs to be resolved. The city’s best interest, the whole of the people, is always going to be on my heart.’

Similar to Benjamin, Selma City Councilwoman Jannie Thomas pushed back on the assertion that the council should extend an olive branch to the mayor.

‘I have always fought for the people,’ Thomas said. ‘We know our duties, just like the mayor knows his.’

Myles said it was “hypocritical” for city leaders to call for an end to conflict in the streets when there seems to be endless conflict in city hall.”

And he is absolutely correct.

How are we, as citizens, supposed to resolve our own conflicts when the conflicts at city hall are not only unresolved but their existence denied by members of our city council?

Yes, there is always going to be conflict and, yes, disagreements are bound to happen in every type of political setting.

However, what we have covered recently in the lawsuits and back and forth between the two entities in the council and mayor’s office shows a clear disagreement that escalated to having to go to court. What followed the end of this lawsuit was a vote of no confidence against Melton, the failure to bring back laid-off workers and the conflicting statements between members of the council if there is actually money to bring them back.

All the talk of a need for a positive image for Selma is fine and well, but if the leaders of our community behave like this, what message is that sending to the rest of the world?

No wonder people and businesses are leaving, trash is piling up and the grass is knee-high.

“I believe we have a unique opportunity to set a new standard of how to resolve conflict. In fact, as a result of our history and the movie ‘Selma,’ people across the world are watching and waiting for how we transform…after all, we are the city that has helped shaped this world through the power of nonviolence. Let us be reminded, history has already given us a blueprint of how to deal with conflict,” said Myles on Facebook Wednesday morning.

This is an opportunity for our government to do better and let us hope they take it, but denying the conflicts even exist will get us nowhere.