"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Friday 18 January 2013

Oh Dear, what can the matter be?

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "I Call B.S. has left a new comment on your post "M...":

Anyone that has read Evelyn Buck's writings over the years, be it here or in the countless letters to the editors, you will notice a similar trait. 

She writes things in a way that places certain things into the sub-text that while she can claim "I did not say that - you did" clearly the intimation is from her. 
This is how she can claim to be as pure as the new fallen snow in her yard but still be the accusitory thorn in every council that she has been a member.
 Why would she say that Pirri doesn't pay taxes in a discussion about spending tax dollars unless she felt that he is not worthy of the discussion? Then she further states that he lives at home with his parents, as if that is something that dis-qualifies him. 
Regardless that he lives there, someone in the household pays property taxes. As someone who earns an income, he pays income taxes which at some point in time are trickled down to the municipal level. 
Paul Pirri has every right to suggest a crossing regardless of the cost because he is a resident of this Town and is a duly elected councillor. 
What this Town needs is more Paul Pirris. Maybe then we will stop trying to run this place like it is the mid-60s.
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It's interesting to speculate the author of this comment.There are  clues. 
How many single, twenty-four year old, unemployed  university graduates living at home in Aurora  with parents might empathize  so completely with the Councillor as  to feel compelled to provide such  impassioned  support for more like him to serve on  Council to bring us out of the dark ages.
And less  like myself. "trying to run this place like it is in the sixties"
Speculate is our only option. . Because  despite such strong convictions, the braggadocio is completely  unwilling to disclose his identity.
If  our speculation  is correct thus far and the writer is of an age with  the Councillor, he  has  read few of my letters  to the editor written over years more than he has lived.
Even less is he likely to be familiar with  relationships to literally  hundreds of Council associates on numerous councils since 1967. 
Did anyone notice a second candidate with the same credentials  in the last election ?
The Councillor is not the first single candidate, living at home with parents, without family responsibilities , to be elected to office in Aurora and elsewhere.
Former Mayor George Timpson was a bachelor living at home He was elected a number of times  as Councillor and Mayor.
He was  twenty-four years old when he approached me soon after coming to live in Aurora and asked  for advice about how to get elected
The question of not being a  property owner  was obviously
per-occupation however.  George made an  issue of informing people  he paid the  property taxes on his parents' home. 
Clearly, it was not an obstacle to his election and re-election. George served a number of terms before being defeated  from the Mayor's office and again in 2003 from Council.
Being a bachelor not having responsibilities of raising a family or not owning property or paying taxes, clearly did not hinder George. 
I too have served as Mayor and been defeated. I did have  a family, paid a mortgage and property taxes while I was a Councillor.
As noted by the comment author, I have written numerous letters to the editor over a period of fifty years. I also wrote a weekly  column for eleven years .During the last five years I have published a daily blog.  
My name has always been attached to my scribbles. People are  accustomed to my face and how I thinkI daresay they do find traits and consistency. It might even  have something to do with my being  re-elected so many times.
I believe I may claim equal  right as the youthful Councillor to occupy a seat at the table, having been elected under the same process.
sincerely hope  the commenter does  not suggest my views should take second place due to the difference in our years and  life experience or I should be less respected. 
Yet I fear that is the point being made.
It's just great shame, we don't know who is making it.
Who launches such an attack without  the courage to attach his name to a  political argument? 
        
 
  

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