At best, you're a bore, interminably going on and on about stuff that no one else cares about. And at worst, you're the Ancient Mariner, forcing people to listen and learn. In government, yesterday's mistakes don't simply disappear into a kindly bureaucratic vacuum. Instead, they're amplified by time.
Trivial errors become substantial mistakes, and substantial mistakes become monumental.
For a couple of examples, let's look at the Fine Arts Center and then at the City of Colorado Springs. In the early 1970s, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center was approached by the American Numismatic Association, which wanted to buy several lots along Cascade Avenue, then part of the FAC's grounds. To all but two members of the Board, the ANA's proposal seemed attractive. They liked the idea of having another similar institution next door, the financial folks were offering a good price, and it seemed unlikely that the FAC would ever need the land for expansion. Longtime residents May Mullett and Ann Galbraith were alone in opposing the proposed sale.