Salem can't tolerate this. "Tough guys" trying to take over a neighborhood association meeting, pushing people around and creating an uproar.
I've gotten two reports of how supporters of the Salem Bridge Solutions group that wants the Third Bridge billion dollar boondoggle built disrupted last Monday's meeting of the West Salem Neighborhood Association.
Read the mildly edited reports below. (I've taken out information that could identify the people who contacted me, given that the Salem Bridge Solutions goons are so nastily uncourteous.)
I think you'll agree with me that this kind of behavior can't be allowed to take root in Salem. Or anywhere, for that matter. Salem Bridge Solutions already has very little credibility, given the "alternative facts" it's been spreading.
The behavior of the Evans brothers, who are leading the group, is totally unacceptable. They need to apologize to the West Salem Neighborhood Association and vow to behave like decent human beings from now on rather than goons.
Read on for the reports about what went on at the WSNA meeting.
FIRST REPORT:
Quite an amazing story developing here in West Salem's neighborhood association: The Chamber has put together a goon squad who at the last meeting hi-jacked the meeting and, very stupidly, voted to build a third bridge.
Nothing on where, how much, how in the Hell do we pay for it. Just build one.
The latest meeting was even more interesting as their tactics escalated into what can only be characterized as thuggery. They started off by reviling the chairlady of our planning committee, charging her with conflict of interest – she is a licensed Real Estate agent who ironically is also a committed environmentalist.
Then things got really rough with the Evans brothers shouting at the [West Salem Neighborhood Association] co-chair Steve Anderson for not answering all their email. From there it degenerated into a shouting and shoving match between the Brown Shirts and WSNA officials including our parliamentarian.
Another interesting aspect is the type of thugs the chamber has recruited for their takeover of the association: they clearly are not Chamber members (ie business owners), but possibly employees of members with several looking like pretty rough sorts. Whatever, thought this might be of interest to you, and the story plot is rapidly "thickening" awaiting the Chamber's attempt to actually takeover the association at our annual meeting.
Room was set up for 205 people at Roths [originally I had 500 people, but have learned it was 205]. Room filled up. Meeting started at 7.00.
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Time for police presence at WSNA meetings?
The idea is to force good people to stay home so that they can take control of the organization. It has happened before, so sad to see in such a good system meant to give citizens a voice in their community.
An interesting point you and your audience might find helpful: employees of chamber member businesses are members, themselves.
Some or all of the goon squad may live in West Salem but they still must obey the parliamentarian, allow the Chair to run the meetings and display common courtesy, most especially first time attendees. There are plenty of people in Salem who are sick and tired of the Chamber running roughshod over the wants and needs of the entire city population, raising huge amounts of money to throw elections their way. But it hasn’t helped them win council seats, they have lost big lately and may be getting desperate. Maybe we are about to see torrents of cash supporting Chamber candidates so I urge people to make up their own minds, check candidates interests and involvement and be skeptical of who in Salem can afford to fill your mailbox and TV almost daily with their shiny ads.
The values we cherish in a civil society are reason and respect. These are secular ethical and moral values upon which a democracy rests. We cherish a hope that the collective decisions we make are made in the best interests of the polity – be that polity a neighborhood association, or the city, county, state, or nation. Not all of us are willing to show that respect. The nature of politics amidst a population willing to subvert the ethics or the moral values of this hope have produced what we are enduring and will endure as we watch be broken the fetters of reasoned discussion the Founders hoped would bind us into an open and civil society.
There is an explicit problem here – some are tempted to use unethical or immoral processes to influence the collective judgments that drive public policy. When we stop being ethical or moral in the tools and methods we use to develop public policy we then undermine the foundation of civil society that can exist only so long as we respect each other.