PRODUCING A CHORUS “LINE”…..FROM THE “GANG OF 3” ON THE DAIS…
(Mel Brooks…The Producers..”Springtime For Hitler http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K08akOt2kuo )
Dear Readers….The Gang giveth and the Gang taketh away……your freedom of speech…your ability to come to the podium and speak to the dais… They cannot deal with what they themselves dished out with such zeal while in their glory days …..The onslaught of the opposition squarely aimed at them with no end in sight has rocked them to their core…..Their answer is to silence the residents… in order to control the BULLY pulpit…and use their “Gang of 3” majority vote to turn their backs on what they themselves insisted would never happen when they took over the dais……HYPOCRITES…
At the July 14, 2009 Commission meeting a CIC member and columnist for the Mc-Furth times came forward and called those who came to speak for Scott Gooding “carpetbaggers” and asked the Commission to return to requiring speakers to state their full address….The Mayor in her comments countered the carpetbagger claim and read the names of those who spoke…BUT ….she did put it on the agenda under new business for this meeting to discuss….The Vice Mayor stomped on his past endorsement of policies for open public commentary…signed up or not…resident or not…He must be running scared…..really, really scared that his days are numbered…As well he should…the writing is on the wall or in this case …from the public speakers computers… such as the one he went after claiming it was NOT freedom of speech…..
PUBLIC COMMENTS…from Resident Scott Sasser…July 28, 2009…
‘I have been unable to attend the last couple of meetings but wanted to express my complete dismay and utter disgust at the firing of Chief Scott Gooding. I pride myself on trying to understand all the aspects of an issue before rendering an opinion and this is no exception. Let me assure you that nothing given thus far substantiates the actions taken to tarnish a good man’s reputation. Senator Joseph Welch said it best in 1954 when he said “ Until this moment I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness”. I cannot think of a better way of saying just how I feel. You have tarnished that which a man holds most dear to further your own personal gain. This action was clearly taken as a first step in removing the Broward Sheriff’s Office from our town and to feed the narcissism and lust for power of a few evil doers. Those of you who will take the advantage of your 3/2 vote to advance your own personal agenda must take notice that you do so no longer in disguise. You have made your intentions clear and, as one concerned citizen proclaimed, “you have gotten our attention”. You who think you can hide behind the protection of the 3/2 vote do so at your own risk and without regard to the future. If there was ever a doubt to the intentions of you 3/2’ers it was made clear by your utter disregard for the people that came before you and spoke their heart. The icing on the cake was the Town Manager’s complete disregard for any accountability to anyone but the 3/2’ers including the people who live in this town.
Fellow townspeople, in the audience tonight, those watching and those sitting on the dais let it be said that you can no longer feign naivete to what is happening in our town. Nothing less than your safety and freedom are at stake. The boots of totalitarianism can already be heard marching down our streets. The windows are breaking in LBTS. Achtung! Marchello brothers. Achtung! Chief Scott Gooding. Achtung! Broward Sherriff’s Office. The Gestapo is poised and ready to take over the policing of this town. They think their ideology is what is best for you and I and that includes their insatiable lust for power. It has been said that all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Well I, for one, say no more. The time has come for you to feel the accountability of the people. You will no longer be able to take refuge behind your 3/2 vote. I am here tonight to insist that one of the following need to occur:
1. The immediate re-instatement of Chief Scott Gooding
2. The immediate resignation of the Town Manager as well as each member of the dais except for Stuart Dodd and Mayor Roseanne Minnet
I began with a quote from Senator Welch and I conclude with one as well. “Have you no sense of decency? At long last have you left, no sense of decency?” This is your chance to do the right thing. We patiently sat through your existential discussion regarding rules of etiquette as if it really meant something. Let me tell you, you do not need to know Robert’s Rules you simply need to know the Golden Rule. For those of you who obviously don’t know what this means and certainly did not afford such to Chief Gooding, it says, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Do the right thing or step aside.’
THE VICE MAYOR’S “BITES OF THE APPLE”….continuation Commission meeting 7/29/09
(The VM began with times up to the podium to speak…signing up to speak….and then freedom of speech)….
VM-“OK, we also have to control when people say that sitting dais members are Gestapo and Nazi members, Storm Troopers. That’s over the line, that’s decorum. As a sitting Mayor you have an obligation to control the decorum. That’s, that’s not freedom of speech. That’s losing decorum of a meeting and to say somebody up here is a Storm Trooper and a Nazi.”
BC- The above brought to mind for this former North Shore of Chicago resident the following recollection …Skokie Ill. VS the Nazi’s right to march…It was front page news and the number one topic for those of us who lived in this area and were Jewish… in dealing with freedom of speech…and the effect of allowing for that right to be for everyone…
Excerpt…
‘It is useful to consider the three primary arguments set forth by Skokie in support of its effort to forbid the march. First, the village argued that the display of the swastika promoted “hatred against persons of Jewish faith or ancestry” and that speech that promotes racial or religious hatred is unprotected by the First Amendment. The courts rightly rejected this argument, not on the ground that the swastika doesn’t promote religious hatred, but on the ground that that is not a reason for suppressing speech. After all, it the Nazis could be prohibited from marching in Skokie because the swastika incites religious hatred, then presumably they couldn’t march anywhere for the same reason, and movies could not show the swastika, and even documentaries could not show the swastika. And if the swastika can be banned on this basis, then what other symbols or ideas can be suppressed for similar reasons. What about movies showing members of the Ku Klux Klan? News accounts showing Palestinians committing suicide bombings in Israel or showing Israelis attacking civilians?
Second, the village argued that the purpose of the marches was to inflict emotional harm on the Jewish residents of Skokie and, especially, on the survivors. Certainly, some residents would be deeply offended, shocked and terrified to see Nazis marching through the streets of Skokie. But they might also be offended, shocked and terrified to know that Schindler’s List was playing at a movie theatre in Skokie, or in Chicago, or in Illinois, and African-Americans might be offended, shocked and terrified to know that the movie Birth of a Nation was playing in a theatre in their town or nation. And so on. Moreover, it is doubtful that the actual intent of the Nazis was to inflict emotional harm on the residents of Skokie. Initially, the Nazis sought to march in a totally different community in Chicago, one with almost no Jewish population. But they were denied a permit. They then decided to march in Skokie in order to get publicity for their grievance. Indeed, the signs they planned to carry in Skokie did not say “Bring Back the Holocaust,” but “White Free Speech” and “Free Speech for the White Man.” Making First Amendment rights turn on judgments about a speaker’s subjective intent is a dangerous business, because intent is very elusive and police, prosecutors and jurors are very prone to attribute evil intentions to those whose views they despise.
Third, the village argued that if the Nazis were permitted to march there would be uncontrollable violence. But is this a reason to suppress speech? Isn’t the obligation of the government to protect the speaker and to control and punish the lawbreakers, rather than to invite those who would silence the speech to use threats of violence to achieve their ends? If the village of Skokie had won on this point, then southern communities who wanted to prosecute civil rights marchers in Selma, Montgomery and Birmingham could equally do so, on the plea that such demonstrations would trigger “uncontrollable violence.” Moreover, once government gives in to such threats of violence it effectively invites a “heckler’s veto,” empowering any group of people who want to silence others to do so simply by threatening to violate the law.
The outcome of the Skokie controversy was one of the truly great victories for the First Amendment in American history. It proved that the rule of law must and can prevail. Because of our profound commitment to the principle of free expression even in the excruciatingly painful circumstances of Skokie more than thirty years ago, we remain today the international symbol of free speech. (Ultimately, a deal was worked out and the Nazis agreed to march in Chicago rather than in Skokie.)
As Justice Louis Brandeis once explained, the Framers of our First Amendment knew “that fear breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces stable government; that the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies; and that the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones.” The opening today of the Holocaust Museum and Education Center proves the profound wisdom of the principle that “the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones.”’
full text link…. http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/faculty/2009/04/remembering-the-nazis-in-skokie.html
BC- The Mayor made a point of order that the Town Atty. wanted to speak.
VM- ” Well that’s fine but that’s, that’s a step that is not acceptable, just isn’t acceptable and I took Abrundage (VM’s word) to it. I think it was completely wrong and you let it fly by.”
( The VM went off the freedom of speech topic to discuss Marc Furth…will post later)…
VM-” Town, Town, I have a question for the Town Attorney. If somebody has a discussion about accusing dais members of being members of the Nazi organization, Storm Trooper can we say that’s inappropriate cease and desist?”
Town Atty.- ” I think that’s definitely on the line in terms of what’s at the edge of freedom of speech rights as we I believe advised you previously. The line was…”
VM- ” Was that Town business, accusing the dais of being Nazi members?”
TA- ” That’s what I’m saying, I think it’s approaching the line. In essence the way the law reads people can come to the dais and say that I’m a bad attorney and they can come up with every way they can think of with saying I’m doing a bad job as an attorney, but if they say I beat my dog that’s a personal, it has nothing to do…”
BC- this same example was used by previous Town Atty. Dan Abbott the last time the VM wanted to quiet his opponents….
VM- ” If they said you were a Nazi Storm Trooper would you be upset?”
TA- ” Of course and I understand what you’re saying…”
BC….The Vice Mayor went on…….
VM- ” When the Mayor sits there and let that happen and said nothing I was upset. But she let it go on and on and on and that was a step that I lost it and complete decorum and any respect I had for the Mayor right there.”
Mayor Minnet- ” Oh I’m so happy. You are the last person that I want to have respect from.”
VM- ” Well, that’s fine Mayor, but this is a business to run.”
BC- in the end a vote was taken…All speakers must now say their full addresses when at the podium separating out the resident from the non resident……
It remains to be seen if the “Gang of 3” will attempt to apply “cease and desist” to the next speaker who comes to the “edge of freedom of speech”…
No doubt ….. it is only a matter of time….UNTIL MARCH 2010!…
more to come….
Tags: freedom of speech, LBTS Agendas/Meetings, local government, Local Politics, Scoops
