Bye, bye Messenger

Hello Mr. and Mrs. Century Village and all our residents around the globe.

“Don’t bring me bad news! This is Century Village!”

I played the role of a messenger at the last Delegate Assembly meeting.  I addressed an issue that is highly significant to  the up coming UCO elections.  My concern is with  the road blocks that have been devised,  to impact, and manipulate  the outcome of the March 2016 UCO elections. The disinterest on the part of UCO to make any effort to establish a so called “LEVEL PLAYING FIELD,” is consistent with this administrations policy schemes. We cannot guarantee a fair election process that is acceptable to all candidates when UCO officials are able to spin their wheels to their advantage.

I was the messenger and I carried a message to the delegates that the current administration has supported actions that have made it impossible to create an even playing field for the upcoming UCO elections.

My message was simple enough.  UCO has no intention of creating an environment which would produce a fair and impartial election process. When David accused me of “lecturing and talking down to the delegates,” he was using a euphemism to veil or disguise the unpleasant facts about the election process  and  chose to sneer at  my message to the Delegates.

UCO and WPRF have made a clear cut  decision not to allow a time honored tradition here in the Village to continue. This was to allow candidates to use the club house and pool areas for “meet and greet” activities. The election committee will continue using their biography system as the key format for candidates to communicate to the voting delegates.  With the constraints of putting the Reporter together for publication, the collecting of the Bio’s along with the accompanying photo,  leaves very little time for the Delegates to read and digest the qualifications of the candidates.  The election committee also suggested that a forum be planned where delegates will be able to meet the candidates and have an open dialogue with them.  This takes planning and the reaction to holding  a forum did not seem to win many supporters.

Channel 63 as a Village communication medium is “iffy” to say the least ,some suggested, to interview the candidates, then broadcast these interviews.   There is no tentative schedule to set this in motion, no interviewer has been selected, and lastly who is going to tape the interviews. When they will be broadcast and how advertised?

As a last resort, placing campaign posters on bulletin boards is the least efficient method of campaigning here in the Village.  It is time consuming to put them up and are most vulnerable to many mean spirited Villagers who rip them off the boards because they dislike the candidate, and want them to lose.

What Dave Israel did at the November Delegates meeting was to “Shoot the Messenger” and completely ignore the message. “Shooting the messenger” is a metaphoric phrase used to describe the act of lashing out at the (blameless) bearer of bad news. This technique was used  as far back as 446 B.C in Antigone by Sophocles as “No one loves the messenger who brings bad news”.

The problem with Dave Israel is that he believes everything he thinks. I want the freedom to express my views.  This is not a totalitarian dictatorship.  Articulation of one’s views,  exemplified  Dave Israel’s response toward me.  As a Korean veteran, I served to keep the First Amendment for everyone so I am entitled to voice my opinion.  Dave Israel has no right to be offended by free expression of ideas.  What we need is more ideas, not less.

Dave Israel thinks it’s the “Big Game” vs. the “Little Game.”  He thinks he has the right to admonish speakers, tell every one at the Executive Board that he is the only person endowed with some special insights to understand the history of Century Village.  He also had the audacity to use the president’s column in the UCO to proselytize to one and all his so called accomplishments.  No one else is allowed to have access to the same venue. 

This whole administration is up side down and topsy-turvy.  We need change, we deserve change, and we will get change this March.

Finally I will end my column with some food for thought."Speak not into the ears of a fool; for he will despise the wisdom of your words.”

— Proverbs 23:9