I encourage everyone to tune in tonight at 7 PM.
Megan ‘Patron’ Luther gave us a tease today in Sioux Falls’ ONLY free online newspaper 🙂
UPDATE: Okay, I am a big piece of dog poo-poo. I planned to speak at the council meeting tonight, but took a nap and my alarm did not go off. So all I have to offer is my written script 🙁
I have addressed the city council many times, but one issue that will always drag me to this podium is First Amendment rights. I’m not a fan of 5 minute rules and this guy everyone calls ‘Roberts’ – I guess I never saw his signature on the US Constitution.
But one thing I won’t tolerate is when elected officials TELL citizens, who pay their wages and elect them, to sit down and shut up, or for that matter to remove their hats. Things haven’t changed that much in our democracy when it comes to our rights as citizens. We elect you, we pay you, and guess what, you have to listen to our grievances, we also afford you the same right in responding to us – essentially a two-way street called debate and discussion which makes democracies healthy. I wish you would engage citizens during public testimony. It occurred during the last mayoral administration, and I am curious why it ended in this administration.
Is it uncomfortable? Damn right it is, change and progression is never easy or comfortable. If you have a problem with that, I will gladly accept your resignation. I want my elected officials to be uncomfortable and challenged. If you want an easy job with the city, I heard there is a vacancy for a downtown parking attendant.
It is one thing for elected officials to gripe about public testimony, it is something entirely different when hand-selected board appointees shut down testimony. They are not elected, and as our good mayor and councilor Entenman have pointed out, they are not paid for the work they do. All the more reason they have ZERO authority to tell a citizen they cannot have public input about public policy.
Not only do I think some people on the Charter Revision Commission should resign, I think they owe a public apology to the citizens of this city for their blatant disregard for 1st Amendment Rights. As a citizen of this city and the United States, I am embarrassed they behaved in such a fascist manner in a democratic nation.
Whether the Charter Revision Commission is a stacked deck in favor of the mayor’s agenda is for the public to decide, personally, I think they are. Some of them hold city contracts and have contributed to the mayor’s mayoral campaign. Coincidence? I don’t think so. But that argument is for another day. Today we are talking about the 1st Amendment rights of citizens, and I think they have been violated by the Charter Revision Commission and I encourage and applaud any citizen who has the courage to talk about it publicly, as I have often argued FREEDOM IS FREE – FREE SPEECH – SPEAK OUT! Corruption lurks in silence.