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A vigilant, political watchdog
Published November 29, 2008
Along the river bank, in a quiet wooded area, he comes here a lot. Always with him is his trusty sidekick, BeBe.
It's peaceful here, looking across the river. There's so much history, he says. If only these trees and rocks could talk.
He comes here at least once a week to pick up trash to preserve the place. The history of it deserves that much, he figures.
He grew up here, almost in this exact same spot. Then, he left for the Army for over 20 years.
The Army saved him, so to speak, he says. Who knows where he might be if not for the Army?
Before the military, he ran around with a bunch that was not so upstanding.
"Some are dead," he says of those days and friends. "Some are still in prison."
The Army shaped him, taught the discipline he needed. The Army also gave him an education or at least helped. He has degrees from Baylor University in Texas to prove it.
When he decided to retire from the military, he chose to come back home, come back to here.
Well Known
City and county government officials in these parts know Garry Morgan well. He's not a politician. He's a man who simply cares about what's going on.
To many, he rubs the wrong way. They call him names, tell him to get a life and so on. They tell him he has way too much time on his hands.
"It's my time," he simply says. "I can do with it what I want."
In the Army, Morgan rose to First Sgt. He had soldiers under him he was responsible for. That discipline came with him from the Army. You take care of your people, he says.
In his mind, that's what he does.
Online Legend
It's on the Internet where Morgan is "famous." On a Scottsboro forum on www.al.com, Morgan is a key player. Most sign up with handles rather than going by their real names while discussing issues or anything going on in the city, county, state or even country.
Morgan, who does use a nickname, proudly displays not only his name but reveals something about himself in the profile section.
"I'm not ashamed of who I am or what I have to say," he says.
More times than not, most on the forum don't agree with Morgan and his thoughts.
"That's okay," he says. "I don't mind it. It would be a dull world if we all agreed."
In addition to the forum, Morgan has an online blog. No politician or issue is safe from his wrath if he feels it is justified.
Sometimes, it gets ugly online. Names get called back and forth.
"I'm not going to say I don't attack," said Morgan, "but I never initiate. I'm not going to stand by and see my name dragged through the mud or anyone else's."
After retiring and moving back to Scottsboro in 1991, Morgan managed a Burger King in Huntsville for awhile. He says the restaurant was in a high crime area where gun fights occurred and drug deals went down.
"I suggested to the owner he needed to beef up his security," Morgan said. "It was not received very well."
And that, in a sense, got in motion a lot of his feelings these days. The government, he says, is there to take care of the people, to protect the people.
A couple of years later, he went to work for the county in a supervisory role in the janitorial department.
"Politics raised to the front eventually," he says.
Morgan says the county was under order to make improvements to the jail in 1993. With a maintenance crew, he said he found asbestos. There were other problems as well, he said.
"I took it all to the county commission in a presentation," Morgan said. "The next day I was terminated."
He filed legal action against the county, however he said he was still under his probationary time.
"I was not happy with the treatment," Morgan said. "Looking back, I became the scapegoat by bringing up obvious problems."
Morgan claims he showed up at a secret meeting by the county commission five years ago. One, he claims, where he was not welcome.
"It's been downhill ever since," he laughs.
Unless something comes up, Morgan can surely be found at every Jackson County Commission meeting and every Scottsboro City Council meeting.
And following the meeting, he will post what happened on his blog. And if anything is on his mind, he will post that, too.
Recently Morgan gave fire and caught fire over his feelings of a partnership between Domino's Pizza and the Scottsboro Fire Department.
Domino's offered free pizza to anyone who had a properly working smoke alarm, which was checked out by Fire Marshal Chuck Bryant.
"My fire department being used to promote Domino's, I didn't like that," said Morgan. "I know how they work."
Morgan is against nuclear power coming to Bellefonte and has made his feelings known. And again, he has caught fire online.
"I'm against the lies to the people of this area," said Morgan. "Nuclear power is not safe, it's not clean and it's not cheap."
Morgan also says local leaders have much more important issues to worry about than talking about aquatic weeds on the lake.
He's also for the rezoning on Goose Pond Island.
"I'm not saying the home owners don't have a point," he says. "But that's the largest building in this area. It's always been used for industry. A clean industry will not interfere with the lifestyle there."
Garry Morgan is just a man, like any other man. He has a good heart, it seems. Sometimes, even he might admit, he gets carried away. He just says he finds himself disagreeing more than agreeing with local leaders a lot of times.
Yet, he says just because he might not agree, doesn't mean he doesn't have respect for them.
He doesn't act as if he's perfect, he says.
"If I'm wrong, I hope someone tells me," Morgan says. "I'll be man enough to admit it."
One way he admits being wrong is calling certain people socialists.
"I think I've been wrong about that," he says.
He's just a man, like any man, trying to make it. One day, he might even run for an elected office.
"It's an awesome responsibility," Morgan says. "Elected leaders are our stewards. We have the right to advise them and let them know what we think."
Morgan says many people think if they don't run for an office they can't have any input.
He proves, right or wrong, that's not true.
Recently, he sued the county commission over their meetings.
Go by the Jackson County Courthouse today, and you will see the commission meetings posted on the door.
"They met the requirement I requested," he says.
And so they did.
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