file photo Boyd Loving
Anonymous Blogger says Civility you can start with :WHO SENT THE ANONYMOUS EMAIL TO COUNCILMAN SEDON’S EMPLOYER??????
Many people are intimidated from speaking up using their own name. They fear retribution and so they stay silent. And why would they fear retribution? – because it happens all the time. You complain about (this is a random example) garbage collection, and suddenly your garbage bags are breaking open in your driveway. You read such stories all the time. A parent fears complaining about his child’s teacher because the child may be made to suffer in the classroom. Yes, it happens. You complain that your mother’s caregiver in the nursing home is being rough with her, and then you get sick with worry that the caregiver will be angry about the reprimand and God-forbid somehow take it out on your mother. Years ago I reprimanded a paper boy (back when The Record came later in the day and was delivered by local teens) for taunting my elderly dog who was sitting on the porch. The very next day I had a flat tire, and a line of nails was seen in my driveway. The police officer who came to take the report asked if anyone in the house had been in a recent dispute with anyone. The officer was almost saying “well, what did you expect.” We learn early that complaining out loud can be disastrous.
Then along comes the internet, and we now have a chance to state our opinions loudly and clearly without fear of retribution. This is a huge benefit to the average Joe and Jane who have a right to an opinion but a fear of stating it. LONG LIVE THE BLOG !!!!! In terms of our own elected officials, we know they read this Blog every day and we know they act upon some of the comments. Or sometimes they react to some of the comments. But it does get their attention. It is a wonderful thing. As a regular reader of, and anonymous poster on, this Blog, it is glaringly apparent that some of the anonymous posts come from mission control. The language, the defensive tone….. at times you know exactly who from the Village Council is posting. They cannot have it both ways – they want to eliminate anonymity when they practice it themselves. Seriously.
Moreover, when you go in person with your face in plain sight and make a comment at the Village Council meetings, you might get severely reprimanded. Heck, they even reprimand their own elected colleagues, village employees, and the chief of police. This council in particular has been hideous with their behavior at times, just embarrassing, and in fact The Record has published a couple of articles and editorials chastising their inappropriate behavior. The put a timer on when someone steps up to the microphone and you are not allowed to ask any direct questions of any person and the speaker is often met with a “thank you for your comments” sort of response which accomplishes nothing. One person I know told me she was watching on TV (which many of us do) and got so mad that she jumped in the car to go speak her mind, but then she got afraid and slunk back home instead of going in to the meeting. Of course she was afraid. Who would want to chance being publicly humiliated?
All of this makes it all the more disingenuous that THIS mayor is trying to pose as a civility in public discourse guru. A leopard cannot change its spots. We see right through these elaborate smoke and mirrors.
And yes……WHO SENT THE ANONYMOUS EMAIL TO COUNCILMAN SEDON’S EMPLOYER?????? Care to step forward and identify yourself?
With our own Alien and Sedition acts, which expired after a four-year period of operation upon Jefferson’s being sworn into the President’s Office in 1801, we have experienced the baneful effects of excessive legal restrictions on free speech against governmental behavior and public figures.
Fast forward more than 200 years to today’s Turkey and you can see a modern example of the ridiculous ways these laws end up playing out. This is where the likes of our mayor would have us go if they had a free hand to mold and shape public policy:
Turkish model faces jail term for ‘insulting Erdogan’
news.yahoo.com
Ankara (AFP) – A former Miss Turkey beauty queen faces up to 4.5 years in prison on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the latest in a growing number of such cases, reports said Wednesday.
Turkish prosecutors said an investigation had been launched against model Merve Buyuksarac after Erdogan’s lawyer lodged a complaint in November 2014 against a satirical poem taken from a magazine and posted on her Instagram site, state news agency Anatolia reported.
The prosectors stated the charges carry a maximum penalty of 4.5 years behind bars.
The 2006 Miss Turkey, who was briefly detained last month, told an Istanbul court that she did not intend to insult the president.
In her testimony, Buyuksarac said she may have quoted a poem called the “Master’s Poem” from weekly Turkish satirical magazine Uykusuz.
But the 26-year-old said she later deleted it after one of her friends warned her that such posts could bring criminal charges in Turkey.
The “Master’s Poem” — which was shared by the model while Erdogan was serving as prime minister — criticises the Turkish strongman with verses adapted from the national anthem.
Erdogan, who was elected president in August after steering the country as prime minister since 2003, is often dubbed “Buyuk Usta” (the Big Master).
“I did not make the adaptation. I shared it because I found it funny,” she said.
Prosecutors said the posts could not be considered “in the context of freedom of expression” and were guilty of “exceeding the boundaries of criticism” and “overtly humiliating” the president.
The court is due to decide whether to start full legal proceedings and a trial.
Erdogan, then mayor of Istanbul, was himself imprisoned for four months in the late 1990s for reciting an Islamist poem that was deemed an incitement to religious hatred.
But after consolidating his power in Turkish politics, he has repeated the verses again and again.
In a statement posted on her Twitter account, Buyuksarac said “if there will ever be a trial” it would be on charges of “insulting a public official.”
She also appeared to defend her conduct.
“If you google the poem I shared (the one that does not include any insult), you will see 960,000 more people shared it… it’s interesting, isn’t it?”
The case is the latest in a string of recent incidents in European Union hopeful Turkey, where protesters as well as journalists have found themselves facing criminal lawsuits or jail time after being accused of insulting or slandering Erdogan.
In a case that attracted wide attention, teenage schoolboy Mehmet Emin Altunses will go on trial on March 6 on charges of insulting the president in a speech in the conservative Anatolian city of Konya.
Four young people were arrested in four days last week on different charges of insulting the Turkish strongman during street protests this month.
Erdogan has long been accused by critics of being increasingly authoritarian and intolerant of criticism.
In the past, he sued a newspaper cartoonist for portraying him as a cat entangled in a ball of wool.
The Mayor and his cohorts have not been civil for the last 2 !/2 years of the term. They got their way by badgering the public, former colleges and employes intimating wrong doing and now they want to be civil. Why now? Well I will tell you its because they want another four years in power. They have brought this on themselves by their past action and now they want to play it off as its the public fault. One only has to go back and watch the Council meeting to see them in action. Wake TFU Ridgewood. We need a change in the next election to break up this voting block.
#1 – 608 words…? No chance that I’ll read your response.
One more year, just one more year. Even if all three of them run again, they will not all win. Even if Gwenny Girl’s big daddy Duke takes out full-page ads again of his blue-eyed beauty, sanity will rule in 2016 and the sensible people of Ridgewood will break the terrible triumvirate. The voters spoke loudly and clearly last year and trounced the candidate chosen by the three amigos.
Did you catch the action last night on TV? Mike and Susan were arguing heavily that it was not fair to increase parking rates AGAIN from 50c to 75c an hour. Gwenn was seen on the dais paying little attention, as usual, and suddenly she perked up and agreed that it would be wrong to increase parking rates. Then Paul spoke sternly to her, and surprise, surprise, she voted with Paul and Albert to increase parking.
It is SICKENING. I just hope Mike and Susan do not lose heart and hang in there. They continue to try and do the right thing. Next year they will finally prevail.
Alright 10:21am, here’s the extent of the actual comment (the rest is a news article):
With our own Alien and Sedition acts, which expired after a four-year period of operation upon Jefferson’s being sworn into the President’s Office in 1801, we have experienced the baneful effects of excessive legal restrictions on free speech against governmental behavior and public figures.
Fast forward more than 200 years to today’s Turkey and you can see a modern example of the ridiculous ways these laws end up playing out. This is where the likes of our mayor would have us go if they had a free hand to mold and shape public policy:
Turkish model faces jail term for ‘insulting Erdogan’
…do you agree that this is the final destination the Mayor and his like-minded friends are trying for?
Agree with you 10:47. Thats how they are when you disagree with plans.
Stop the Block Voting by these three. We need a Clean Sweep in the next election.
Speaking of voting O Tool has lost my vote because he has become to chummy with our Mayor in the last 4 years. I know the Senator is there to help but his relationship with our Mayor goes beyond that.
Very good question in the headline. Who did write that e-mail? Not a peep from the Council majority on that one. And that little breach of civility had real consequences unlike most of what these 3 are complaining about. Also, not a peep from our Deputy Mayor or Mrs. Hauck about their beloved Valley Hospital, its most uncivil attorney and even less civil lawsuit. How do they reconcile their support of Valley while sitting on the Council as defendants? How do they sit through these silly civility hearings knowing that Valley is the biggest bully in town next to them?
Things getting hot again?
The deafening silence for the three of them, most notable the large-and-in-charge Mayor speaks volumes. They want the MIke Sedon email forgotten. Sorry, Sir Paul, you keep sweeping it under the rung and we will keep pulling the rug back.
I suggest that this topic follow up should be left up to Mr. Sedon to pursue and not be left to some with their own personal “trouble wasting” agenda.
It’s a waste of this Blog’s time and of it’s contributors of valid NEWS of real interest.
will the same standard go for the Mayor Dom?, btw its a Felony in NY State