In a civilized democracy, dissent and disagreement are registered at the ballot box, not by spewing insulting and ideological rhetoric. It seems to me that the "facists" in this town are the ones who want to ban cigarette smoking in public, for example. But that's not what I came here to say.
In my 55+ years in this town, the mayor's party affiliation has usually been unimportant. We've had republican mayors and democratic mayors over the years, and most people in the city voted for the person who they thought would simply do the best job of managing the city. Vavolous, Byrne, Latimer, Schiebal, Coleman, were all good mayors in their own ways, had the peoples' support, and did a good job. If they had a new idea for making the city better, great. I voted for Norm Coleman when he was a democrat, and I voted for him when he was a republican. It made no nevermind to me. I liked his ideas for revitalizing the city and gave him my vote. Most people in this town call themselves "democrats" because that's what their parents said they where, but it really shouldn't mean anything in a jurisdiction this small. If you plow the streets, fill the potholes and keep the hookers out of sight, most people are happy with your performance. But in the past few years, certain groups (unions, business people) have started making ideology a litmus test for the office, and things have gone downhill ever since. So now, with most republicans escaping to the suburbs, the remaining residents (taxpayers) now have a choice in their city elections between democrats, and left-wing nuts. It illustrates how far we've fallen that Randy Kelly, a life-long democrat, is facing a recall petition simply because he's not a left-wing nut. If anyone has any questions about why the school enrollments are dropping, the office vacancy rates are climbing, businesses are hurting, and taxpayers are leaving, it's because you haven't been paying attention to this devolution. This brouhaha over Kelly endorsing Bush (who gives a bleep?) and the reaction from "some people" will only exacerbate those numbers because human nature says that normal people want to avoid extreme environments. Dennis Tester Mac-Groveland St. Paul ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andy Driscoll" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "St. Paul Discuss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2004 2:01 PM Subject: [StPaul] Re: Stpaul Digest, Vol 8, Issue 49 > Thank you, Pam - for me and many others. > > Fascism and fascist are real words for real systems of governance and > economics. Tim is way off base on this. > > Andy > > on 8/21/04 12:00 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > I think we are all entitled to our opinions, but if an individual cries foul > > at the current leadership and is attacked for doing so, however un-eloquent > > or uncivil his claims, then we are heading down the wrong road. Dissent is > > one of the main ingredients that makes a democracy work. When the ability > > to disagree with current leadership goes away, we are on the road to > > somewhere I do not wish to go. > > _____________________________________________ > To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > _____________________________________________ > NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: > http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul > > Archive Address: > http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/ _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
