This is a fairly disturbing piece, and it made me think of another local blogger to boot. It comes from my blogging friend Bob McCarty, who tells the tale of a tea party organizer in Quincy, Illinois being denied the right to speak at a Quincy City Council meeting. I presume the passage on his blog is missing a word, since the key sentence reads:
“In a 7-6 vote down party lines, members of the Quincy City Council voted to (deny) him his right to speak, despite the fact that he had taken all of the proper steps required of a citizen to appear on the council’s agenda.”
I think my slightly edited version is correct. The other possible error is in the chart McCarty uses, the party affiliations are either reversed or incorrect since both he and Steve McQueen (the organizer) say that the 6 Republicans voted in his favor yet the chart shows a 7-6 GOP majority.
In either case, the question is whether these tactics are going to spread to other jurisdictions, particularly ones where Republicans do not have a majority such as Salisbury City Council. I worry less about the Wicomico County Council since as currently composed it’s 4-3 GOP and the three Democrats generally seem amenable to honest debate.
We all know that there are local bloggers who swarm like flies to these meetings, particularly those involving the Salisbury City Council. Certainly I’m sure that many would love to see such a rule applied to one in particular because his camera is ever-present.
This brings up an interesting legal question. Let’s not look at this particular person as the press representative he purports to be and instead see him as a private citizen. Do free speech rights cover photography, a form which isn’t in words but does express thoughts and ideas, along with the possibility of finding a subject in an unflattering pose?
Or, to use another example, would the Tea Party organizers need to undergo this treatment if they wanted to express their disgust with our government’s free-spending ways? Here in Maryland, aside from a protest in front of Government House for Governor O’Malley’s edification, there’s not the opportunity for influencing the wheels of state government since the Maryland General Assembly isn’t in session again for another 8 months.
To be perfectly frank, I’m not completely convinced that our current Administration will continue to have a hands-off approach to internet writers like myself. Perhaps I’m a little bit too small-time to pay attention to, but what could happen to larger investor-owned sites like Red County if government leans on them as they apparently are making an impression on Chrysler bondholders?
Seeing this example in Illinois should remind us that government does not always attempt to be of, by, and for the people but rather dictated to the people, who simply exist to be worker bees for maintaining their hives. If you extend the analogy to what the producers of society pay for taxes (hint: theirs aren’t going down) you can see why many of us won’t go quietly.
I’m glad I read your blog or I would have never seen this. From reading the news reports about this incident, I think I can clear one thing up for you — your confusion about the Quincy city council composition stems from the fact that at least one of the Republicans on the council, Mike Rein, was absent from the meeting.
In an interesting personal note, I know Mike Rein pretty well (although we haven’t spoken in a couple years). He was active on the board of directors for the organization I used to be CEO of when I was in DC. I even had him out to my parents’ house in Idaho for some hunting. He’s a great guy and it’s funny to see him getting a little bit of national attention.
In turn, I’m glad I get occasional updates from Bob McCarty. Since he’s a full-time blogger he can get into stories like this and once in awhile I find something useful and worth commentary in the regular e-mails I get from him.
On principle I think our local government wouldn’t place these restrictions; however it sort of goes in with the beef that we locally have with the statewide GOP in regard to voting and power-sharing.
I can only hope that the “silent majority” is for real and not just wishful thinking on the part of conservative voters. This is another bone chilling assault on free speech. What is really curious though is the amount of Obama supporters that will enable any manner of behavior…………
….just like Republicans.
So when will both teams wake up and realize that the current crop of neocons as well as the current crop of socialist democrats are NOT good for us, our children or the constitution.
I can only hope that the “silent majority” is for real and not just wishful thinking on the part of conservative voters. This is another Orwellian assault on free speech, something I warned of after 9-11.
What I find amazingly curious though is the amount of Obama supporters that will enable any manner of behavior, so long as it comes from who THEY voted for…………
….just like Republicans.
So my question is a simple one, with a second follow-on. When will both “teams” of voters wake up and realize that the current crop of neocons as well as the current crop of socialist democrats are NOT good for us, our children, or the constitution. It is imperative that we all begin to see the past and current political landscape for what it really is. Neither of these “sides” is taking us to a place we want to be. Although I will grant you that one side takes us a bit longer to get there due to incompetence.
Michael and Marc, I know that in truth you are my Compatriots, but when will you realize that if we don’t all begin to band together very closely and truly educate potential voters using the power of the ‘Net and local grassroots community efforts, we could well lose this Republic.
Those at the DNC are not our friends.
So now, my final question to you both is, what do you think the RNC is?