Letter to Editor-Cheboygan Tribune December 27, 2013
Boards only deserve earned respect
Oliver, who at the Township Board Meeting tremblingly comes forward,
question in hand, and makes his famous request: 'Please, sir, I want
some answers'. Answers? Answers?, the Board parrots Oliver's plaintive
plea. Have you submitted a question in writing using the approved form,
30 days in advance of the meeting? In black ink? No? Sorry. Township
Boards are not here to provide answers.
As a Township Board we
are elected to do as we see fit. We don't answer questions from the
public. It's not required by law. We checked with our legal counsel.
Obviously we are smarter than you. We got elected, not you. You may
comment, but like Charlie Brown, all the Board hears is
'whaa-whaa-whaa'.
We are elected Township officials and want
decorum at our meetings. You have three minutes to go 'whaa-whaa-
whaa”, but we insist you bow and grovel before us. We will question your
right to free speech. We will question your residency and ask if you
are a registered voter. If you dare to speak out or criticize us, we
will censure you. Our intimate cronies, the people we really work for,
will roll their eyes knowingly and titter amongst themselves. Those
supportive cronies will spread anonymous malicious gossip and innuendo
attacking “naysayers” by any means available including the internet.
With apologies to Dickens and Schulz, Township Boards, all elected
officials, work on our dime and serve at our behest. Not the other way
around. If any of this sound like your Township Board and your
interactions with them; stand up on your own two legs, grow the
proverbial pair, get some attitude, and don’t cower to the people you
employ. Our elected public servants deserve the respect they earn,
nothing more.
Carl Muscott
Indian River
