Page+8+September+2011+THE+WORD!!!+with+Scotty+Seal

By Scotty Seal

MEET A YOUNG MAN WITH AN OLD SOUL-- JUSTIN NICKELS

**Two years ago, at the age of 22, Justin Nickels was elected mayor of Manitowoc, making him the youngest full-time mayor in the country for a city with a population over 30,000. His election was greeted with skepticism and apprehension due to his youth, but his energy and commitment to his word has won over some of the doubters.**


 * Because Justin is continuously in the public eye, Manitowoc citizens learn plenty about mayoral life on the surface, but there is more to him than holding public office. Our mayor agreed to open up more of his life to us. Questions posed to Justin appear in //italics// with his responses following. **


 * //How much do you think popular opinion has changed of you within the community since taking over as mayor, especially with older generation?// **


 * “I think the view of me has changed drastically. I’ve gained respect by earning it, showing the citizens I’m a hard worker, and trying to do what’s in their best interests. If you do that, it doesn’t matter what age you are. I have gotten a lot of compliments from people who said they didn’t vote for me because of age.” **


 * //What do you want to be when you grow up?// **


 * He laughed a little, “President of the United States.” **


 * //When did you realize this? Is there any moment or event that inspired you?// **


 * “I saw //Independence Day// when I was nine and loved Bill Pullman’s role as president in the movie. Since then I was always first in line, first to raise my hand, and assume the leadership role in whatever I may partake. In my first year at UW-Manitowoc I was vice-president of the Student Senate, the following two I spent as president. I am signed up for summer classes at UW-Milwaukee continuing the three year plan I am on to finish my degree in political science with an emphasis in law.” **


 * //Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten years?// **


 * “In five years I want to still be mayor, I’m not looking past the ten year mark because I am unsure as to whether I will go to law school.” **


 * //Name some of your favorite musical artists. What is on your iPod?// **


 * //“ //****Metallica, Nirvana, Soundgarden, and my all-time favorite are Guns N Roses. I like 80’s and early 90’s music but prefer pre-90’s. I was named after Justin Hayward, the vocalist and lead guitarist of The Moody Blues. I give credit to mom for that,” Justin jokes. **


 * //If you were forced to choose a song to listen to, what would it be?// **


 * “November Rain by GNR.” **


 * //What are a couple movies you like?// **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“Of course //Independence Day,// and the Will Ferrell movies, especially //Anchor Man.”// **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">//Favorite Food?// **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“Ice Cream.” **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">//Any pets?// **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“A kitty, Athena, named after the greatest Greek Goddess.” **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">//What is your sport of choice?// **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“College basketball. Michigan State I like because of Tom Izzo, their coach, he has great leadership qualities I have watched as much of the NCAA tournament as possible, my bracket is busted already. I also referee basketball games when I can.” **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">//If you were commissioner of the NFL for one day how would you handle the lockout?// **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“I would recommend all teams follow the model of the Packers and be publicly owned because the teams now are owned by millionaires who hold everything up. I do agree that there should be a rookie salary cap.” **


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">How do you spend your free time? //**


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“I attend an event almost each night and on the weekend whether it is at socials, hospital events, school functions or wherever I may be requested or needed, so my free time is limited. But if the opportunity arises I love to play the board game Risk.” **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">//Is it difficult in finding a potential Mrs. Nickels?// **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Justin smiles, “Very. With my demanding schedule and obligations there isn’t time. This isn’t a complaint because I love my job, which comes first, and the city. In time the pieces will fall into place.” **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">//Is it hard separating Justin from Mayor Nickels? How do you balance running a city and being one of us?// **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">I believe I have done a good job separating my personal life from professional. I can go out, have fun, and not let it influence my professional life. It’s not an easy task to do at times but I’m just Justin in my free time, jeans and a tee shirt. In a professional setting I am the mayor, outside of that I’m just another guy.” **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">//If you had one week to live, what would you do, with who, and where?// **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“That is a great question. I would stay in Manitowoc with friends and family, and spend a little time at Bud’s Bar because I love the music on the jukebox.” **


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">If you could meet three people past or present who would they be and why? //**


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“JFK, who I have read about for getting involved in politics young and his idealism, Martin Luther King, Jr. for his inspiration and being such a great motivator, and lastly Gandhi just to embrace his wisdom.” **


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Describe what it was like to meet President Obama and how you felt being in the presence of our leader. //**


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“I was thrilled the President was coming, and he is a democrat”, Justin kids. The experience was surreal, when President Obama walked into the room I lost my breath. With my love of presidents this would have happened with President Bush, regardless of party. Our President is very down to earth and didn’t walk with his head in the air looking down on everyone. He spoke to me as I am to you, like two old friends.” **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">//What changes do you want to see happen in Manitowoc economically, internally, and physically?// **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“We need to keep young professionals here. The age demographic is getting older and young people are just leaving; that is our biggest problem. The million dollar question is, ‘How do we keep them here?” It’s a simple answer with a workable solution; bring in more high tech jobs. People are getting degrees in specific fields which don’t apply to jobs in Manitowoc, like Orion, which are jobs of the future. We need those engineers and inventers. Tower Tech is another example of the skill set we need. I want being elected at my age to inspire the young to stay, and that Manitowoc has faith in their generation to take over as our elders move on.” **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">I would like to see more opportunities for young people and not just in the job market. An example would be quality of life here. We have great parks and infrastructure, but we need to do a better job of emphasizing our best asset, Lake Michigan. It’s not being taken care of like it should be and I hope soon to see that change. **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">We have an excellent education system and are very lucky to have Silver Lake College, LTC, and UW-Manitowoc. Manitowoc is a great place to live, raise a family, and we are safe. My job is to let those outside of Manitowoc know this and to give those who grew up here reasons to stay.” **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">I grew a new respect for Justin after speaking with him. I’m a little older than him but his drive and aspirations are to be complimented and should set an example for many. I was one of the skeptics when he took office but he has shown he has some moxie and is on the right track. **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 27px;">THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">My friend Eric is a liar. Plain and simple. He lies. About everything. Eric and I used to be close, but nowadays speak maybe once a month. My life has taken a different path than his; I stepped out of the social scene that Eric is still embedded in. I didn’t grow to dislike Eric, I outgrew him.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Our friendship was spent mostly in an alcohol based state. We had dart and pool teams, went to different cities to investigate their women, and shared a love of fishing. While searching my brain for a subculture topic I became frustrated with finding nothing I cared to learn about or know. Then…a few days ago on Facebook Eric began a chat with me and immediately in his ‘Eric Way’ began to speak of his latest conquest with the ‘hottest girl’ he has ever met. Blah, blah, blah…whatever. I told him I was busy (which in itself was a lie) and had to go when in truth I just wasn’t in the mood for him. He can be a lot to take at times and I have to be in a certain mind-frame to tolerate him. I shook my head with a half-hearted laugh thinking, “he is so full of shit.” Then the idea hit me…people lie… there is a whole subculture of people who lie. I want to know why Eric and those like him lie.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">I called Eric and said we should get some food. I didn’t tell him why. In my mind I figured his ego would take over and the boasting would begin, though a part of me worried he would take offense at my interest in this lunch being to quiz him on his twisting of facts and reality.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Eric wanted to talk. He was thrilled that I wanted to pick his brain on his ‘character flaw’. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">My only condition I instructed him was he couldn’t lie about lying. He laughed. Over the next couple of hours we reminisced, laughed, got caught up on our lives, and instead of it being an interview, this time with Eric turned into analysis on both our ends of him and a sort of soul searching for Eric.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">I found actually that I knew a good portion of what we talked about, but just never spoke logically on the subject. Eric and I established all people in general lie. It’s in our nature, but… it’s the level some take it to which distinguishes the lying classes. We were intellectualizing over the lie, and could have passed for a couple of guys talking about sports to a stranger passing by. But this conversation wasn’t to compare or rate the severity of the lie, or the types of lies. It was to find a connection between a person/people and the reason(s) they lie.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">It will start with childhood… a kid will eat a whole bag of cookies, then when confronted will blame it on a sibling even though the chocolate from the Oreos is still lodged in their little fibbing teeth. The lying progresses to the teens… trying to explain the dent in the car. The lie… “When I came out from the school dance it was there”. The truth… The kid was showing off for the girls by doing doughnuts in the snow after the dance and hit a parked car.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">As college students… “I didn’t make class this morning professor because I was up consoling a friend whose girlfriend had dumped him.” The truth… you and your friend had a shot contest with a bottle of tequila and lost. Working adults have flat tires, imaginary injuries and illnesses, family emergencies, sick children, etc. when they don’t feel like going to work.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Eric was matter of fact in speaking, “no one wants to hear the truth, and most of it is boring and many times just sucks. What will you find more interesting Scotty? —“hey, last night I went out and got hammered, put on my beer goggles, was taken home by a whore with one tooth, and snuck out before the sun came up. Or... I met this girl last night with the body of a goddess who totally dug me, took me home and did things to me I thought weren’t possible, then made me breakfast in her panties. You have known me to do both so anything is possible.”

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“Sometimes I lie not only to please the listener but for the benefit of myself. What I mean is my story not only entertains but somehow washes away the ugliness and disgust of the truth I don’t want to remember”, he justifies. In a way I find some sort of dignity in this statement and the way his logic is dispelled he sound like some sort of warped romantic.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">As we talk further I begin to see my friend in a different light, feeling almost sympathetic toward him. I discovered Eric was more human than I gave him credit for. He continued on, “I can lie my way into anything--- money, bar tabs, materials, girls--- it makes me feel better. Charm and sincerity are my allies. When I meet a girl I feel I don’t have a chance with I create a persona to fit my need, especially when we go where no one knows me. I failed out of college because I partied too much, but I’ll tell you this, I learned while I was there and use knowledge to my advantage. I wanted to work with wildlife management or the DNR. I know how to fish and hunt and the regulations that go with them. To finish my point about creating a persona, I am now a game warden because I know the field. Seriously, what am I supposed to do, introduce myself as a loser? “Hi, I’m Eric—I’m unemployed, don’t have a car, and I’m about to be evicted’. Screw that! I’m a game warden and I’m taking you home.”

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">He told me another story but I believe this is taking the lie too far. Eric, it seems, researched all there was to know about bone cancer. He looked up symptoms, treatments, doctors, hospitals, everything. He became one with the knowledge and portrayed himself as a dying man to women in order to get what he wanted from them.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Driving him home I almost felt like I had learned too much. I felt sad, but like I understood Eric. I’ve seen him in action and gone a long with his charade at times, but also realized it wasn’t always a game to him. The insight I gained into Eric’s self-esteem issues led me to one conclusion at least--- there are people who lie because they don’t like themselves and who they are. It’s always better for them to be anything but who they are. Eric stepped into his personalities he created like an actor into character. He became the lie. The truth was the lie and to him, lying is the truth. When he became the lie, he was more convincing. He came alive when he spoke about his ‘character flaw’, eyes dancing like he was teaching a class. Maybe he was going through withdrawal talking me because the lie was his drug.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">I knew I wouldn’t need to research anymore or do another interview because personal experience and this one eye opening meeting was more than enough. I believe we all know an Eric, and after reading this may want to ask them a question or ten.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">When I pulled into his driveway he said humbly. “I’ve never talked to anyone like this.” I figured as much but got the point, this was between men.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Before he closed the door I let him know the obvious, “good thing you ain’t ugly Eric.” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">He smiled and walked away.