Don’t Repeat History Here

As we gear up for the campaign to elect four city councilpersons, let us break the norm in politics and government practices –

As a community in dire needed of elected officials that represent all the people, respect all the people, rebuke those in their charge that denigrate people, and protect all the people, let’s see if we can start a road to these noble goals by having a campaign that is devoid of personal attacks, slurs, and character assassinations.

There must be no room for this ignoble behavior in the process leading up to the method by which we implement the greatest form of government ever to be conceived.

A campaign where the marketplace of ideas are in of themselves debated is what we desperately need, is what we urgently deserve. Challenge the ideas and plans on their merit, irrespective of who brought them to our attention. But challenge them with facts, as slurring the idea with vitriol and hate quite accustomed by the select few on this island and their organs in the press is tantamount to slurring the individual.

And there is a special plea to those souls in the blogosphere that put forth whatever of certainly dubious value under the disguise of anonymity. While this author affords no worth to anything posted by anonymous keyboard mechanics, it seems that others do.

You can instill credibility in our form of government by simply ceasing to look at anonymous or fictitiously assigned postings – rest assured that you will miss nothing since these nameless folks are not Ernest Hemingway, Gabriel García Márquez, or other Nobel Laureates in Literature, nor are they Madisons, Jeffersons, Jays or Tocquevilles.

For proof that the character assassinations posed by hacks afford no value whatsoever to the democratic process, consider the following makeup of our history:

• “Our President has lied to us.”
• “He has falsely led us into this war.”
• “He has abused our civil rights.”
• “He has exceeded his Presidential powers.”
• “Americans are dying because of this war that should have never been fought.”
• “He was overstepping his role as President and violating our civil rights.”
• “He is a dictator and a tyrant.”
• “A slangwhanging stump speaker.”
• “A half-witted usurper.”
• “A mole-eyed monster with soul … of leather.”
• “The present turtle at the head of the government.”
• “Unfit.”
• “A political coward.”
• “A dictator, timid and ignorant.”
• “Shattered, dazed, utterly foolish.”
• A speech by the target of all the above smears was branded as “ludicrous, dishwatery and silly” by the London Times.
  

Don’t repeat this history here for you may be preventing an Abraham Lincoln from even seeking office. And if there was ever a community that needed a Lincoln, and a “ludicrous, dishwatery and silly” Gettysburg Address, it’s here.