Stifle your critics

Silencing the opposition

"Comments on that blog** are for TEAM MEMBERS" only.  **(David Israel's private blog.) This is democracy in action? In all totalitarian regimes, the first thing "the leader" does is to stifle the critics. This is their democracy in action. Free communication advocates have always supported the following maximum "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it" .Voltaire 

 

Once this blog became committed to the course of silencing those who were at odds with its readership, it had only one way to go. That is, down a path of silencing the opposition. What this blog fears most is that they were constantly under the threat of correction, judgment and criticism. What they fail to understand is that everything we do is observable and recordable. People in leadership positions must have thick skins. This is a prerequisite for being under public scrutiny. When your views cannot stand the light of criticism, you just turn the switch off. That is just what the "blog" did. 

 

''You can't see change until you change the way you see." I read this quote some time ago and as all good readers do, I copied it onto a post-it and stuck it on my refrigerator door. I wrote an article in the UCO reporter about term limits. I felt that since the reservoir of candidates was nil, the most reasonable solution would be to end term limits and allow current office holders to run again. This solution seemed reasonable and would, at the very least, fill the positions with experienced leadership. I have to admit that I made an error in judgment, but to adhere to it would be a worse mistake. 

 

We have all heard the expression, "If I knew then what I know now, I would not have, in my case, supported any term limit extension.

 

Reading the blog postings by the current president is chilling enough. However, reading the latest rash of outrageous rants by some of the low information Blogger's, I have concluded that we definitely need a change at the top. I was appalled at those references made about the information sign posted on the fence on Haverhill Road. So, as Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State, violently remarked, "who cares?" Only those who are looking for something to sink their claws into when there is nothing else to grab. If you want an issue, why not respond to the Pope's uninformed attack on the American economic institution of capitalism. This is a real issue. If the other blog had the guts to handle criticism with intellect and class we would truly be able to have a discourse on the issues at hand and resolve them like adults do in a civilized environment.

 

Posted byStewart Richland

Vote for Democracy and Freedom of Choice. Vote for Esther. Vote yes, absolutely, and finally for Term Limits.