My final Donald Walker column

It has been quite some time since I mentioned Warner Robins mayor Donald Walker’s name in this column. It’s been years, I suppose. But it wasn’t always that way. When I first started writing this column in 1998 for the now-departed Daily Sun, Walker was a constant presence in my work. And as far as I can remember, every single column I ever wrote about him was critical.

I disagreed strongly with Mayor Walker’s vision for the city and the surrounding area. He represented everything that bothered me about local politics in these parts. Walker and his contemporaries seemed to have an insatiable desire to build, build, and then build some more, and the faster the better. I always felt that there was a very small, select group of politicians and real estate tycoons who were getting rich from all the rapid-fire development that was taking place while the rest of us “enjoyed” higher taxes, choked roadways, overcrowded schools, and flooded back yards.

And yet like everyone else who lives in Houston County I was horrified by Mayor Walker’s sudden passing. It’s difficult to imagine Warner Robins without Mayor Walker and every time I drive by city hall the same thoughts hits me again – “I can’t believe he’s really gone.” But he is gone, and since the mayor was such a big part of my early writing career, I thought I would devote one final column to his memory.

I spent some time reflecting on the reason I stopped writing about Mayor Walker. I can remember how angry I used to get when I looked around the city and saw another strip mall going up. I remember arguing against every penny sales tax increase that was proposed to prop up our over-taxed infrastructure when it came up on the ballot. It was all too much, too fast, and I couldn’t understand why people kept sending the man most responsible for these “injustices” back into office.

But send him back they did. As it turned out, a lot of people in Warner Robins thought he was doing a great job. They enjoyed all the new restaurants and stores that were coming into their city. They liked the fact that city taxes seemed to keep going down instead of up. And, frankly, a lot of people just liked Donald Walker. I never had a chance to meet him in person, but people who knew him well all seemed to think he was a fine person who genuinely cared about the people he represented.

Eventually it became obvious to me why I stopped criticizing the mayor. It was just pointless. It was a battle I could never win because I was completely overmatched. This was a man who knew how to get what he wanted and was willing to do whatever he had to do to achieve his goals. It is very difficult to win against an opponent like that, and I never really had a chance.

It is always a tragedy when a man takes his own life, and we are right to mourn the untimely end of Donald Walker. But we should remember one thing when we think about his life – he accomplished what he set out to do. He had a big vision and he made it reality against some very long odds. How many people can say that, even if they live to be 100? Not many of us, I’m afraid. I’m 43 now and I am still just trying to figure out what I want to do with my life.

I think everyone leaves a hole in the world when they depart, and the size of that hole varies depending on how many lives you have touched. Donald Walker left a hole the size of a city when he left us, and we’ll all be feeling that loss for a very long time.