It was with interest that I, like most Americans, watched the whole Russian Collusion accusations play out on the national stage a number of years ago in our Nation’s capital. I do not really care what side of the issue you were on, this was big news. Or so we thought. It turned out after all the investigations were completed that it was all a hoax. Will the same hold true on the corruption accusations that are being thrown out there now? Who knows, but what is being done similarly is that the accusations of corruption that supposedly took place are a matter of fact. We are expected to believe or not to believe a narrative if it is pushed hard enough, whether it is a hoax or not.
How does this relate to New Gloucester you ask? There has to be something wrong with our appointment process because some have said so. I would guess that it would be less than two tenths of one percent of our population that believe this, but if you keep laying out a narrative long enough and hard enough people will stop looking at facts and start believing a hoax. Our Charter mandates a “fair and transparent” process.
The process for appointments are held at a public meeting and everyone fills out the same paperwork. That means the threshold for the Charter has obviously been met. Like the events that took place before and now at the national level, the media ignores the facts but actually starts taking part of the possible hoax. A recent editorial by the local on line outlet goes into detail on how Board members are voting for appointments, further feeding a false narrative that there is something grossly wrong. This hoax has gone so far now that present Committee and Board members may be removed without a valid reason.
Do I blame any of the Board of Municipal Officers? No of course not. When someone from the community puts a very forceful in your face narrative that there was a wrong committed, no matter if the narrative is false, any responsible Board member dutifully listens.
We are better than this in New Gloucester. We all live in this town as neighbors and should be able to work together on any Board or Committee and we need stop the “appointment hoax”.
Don Libby
*This is a guest post by Don Libby. The views expressed by Don Libby are not endorsed by the New Gloucester GOP. Anyone wishing to submit opinion articles may do so at newgloucestergop@gmail.com
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