Thank you, Ailene. You are so wise. This is why everyone reads you – you write some truly great columns.

I honestly didn't realize that the proverbial feces were going to hit the proverbial fan this week when I kicked off my silly "Save Our Kings" campaign on Sunday night. I had a feeling deep in my loins that something was brewing, but was as surprised as everyone else when I picked up Wednesday's Bee.

Now, Grant and Mike can't get a caller to talk about the loss to the Warriors or the Heat game coming up tonight. None of the Bee's sports columnists can avoid the subject. You can't talk to anyone about the Kings without the arena issue coming up almost immediately.

Everyone has ideas – let's pass a bond, let's charge a user fee for all arena events, let's build a brick wall – surely ideas that aren't foreign to all the businessmen involved.

But what are we stuck waiting for? A deal between landowners and the city and the Maloofs. We're relying on them. I've been around long enough to know that when you rely on someone else, you stand a fair chance of getting burned.

I said we need to rise up and scream from the rooftops before this crap happened – needless to say, I think that's still the best course of action.

You can sign the petition I created – and tell your friends to sign, too. Pass the word around. The more signatures we have, the more pressure we can put on everyone.

Also, here's some contact information for the people involved up close and personal in the arena issue:

Sacramento City Council:
District 1, Ray Tretheway – 916-808-7001, email
District 2, Sandy Sheedy – 916-808-7002, email
District 3, Steve Cohn – 916-808-7003, email
District 4, Robert Fong – 916-808-7004, email
District 5, Lauren Hammond – 916-808-7005, email
District 6, Kevin McCarty – 916-808-7006, email
District 7, Robbie Waters – 916-808-7007, email
District 8, Bonnie Pannell – 916-808-7008, email

(If you don't know whose district you live in, here's a handy map from the city's website.)

Mayor Heather Fargo: 916-808-5300, email

Maloof Sports & Entertainment:
John Thomas, President – 916-928-3630, thomas@arcoarena.com
John Rinehart, Senior VP of Business Operations – 916-928-3636, rinehart@arcoarena.com
Mark Stone, Senior VP of Arena Services – 916-928-8174, stone@arcoarena.com
Danette Leighton, VP of Marketing & Brand Development – 916-928-3610, leighton@arcoarena.com

AKT Development:
Angelo Tsakopoulos – 916-383-2500

Be courteous with these people, but let them know that it's important to you and the people of Sacramento that the Kings stay here! Ask what they're doing to make sure that happens, ask what they will do. The public officials report to us, and the business people from MSE and AKT need to know this is important to us.

Even though we've done more than our part the last 20 years, it's apparently up to us to save this thing. Kicking and screaming, ladies and gentlemen. Kicking and screaming.