OK folks, the ethics committee met this afternoon at 2:30. It was held in a public forum in the common counsel chambers. There were 3 of the 5 members of the committee there. It was said that even without the whole committee being there for this stage of the complaint 3 was enough to make a decision if it should move forward or not.
They went through the complaint point by point. It was done in a very polite and respectful manner and I appreciated that. They diligently discussed every point.
The end result was they did not find any ethical violations. I was asked after the meeting how I felt about it. I simply said I am not thrilled by it but I respect the decision, and their deliberation there of. I also stated that I am appreciative that I was able to exercise my first amendment right of freedom of speech, and my 14 amendment of due process.
So while I do not agree with the "verdict per se" I am OK with it. I repeated to the two that were asking me questions after the meeting that my choice to file the ethics complaint was in no way a vendetta or vengeance against alderman Vrana regarding his vote at the counsel meeting. It was simply about some of the comments that were made in a public forum. I understand that there are guidelines for these things and according to the ethics committee he did not violate them. I may not agree, just as others do not agree with the decision the library board made, I can and will accept it and move forward. I went up an shook everyones hand and told them thank you for their time and careful thought that went into their decision.
I am grateful for the opportunity to at least voice my opinion and respect the decision even if I do not necessarily agree.
We shall see what take the papers prints. I am sure I will have questions from people and am now free to discuss it. I would not do so while it was still pending because I have seen what can happen when things continue to be talked about either on blogs or media and how things can be spun to suit what each person individually believe about what ever the issue is.
So if there are question regarding the ethics complaint I will address what I can. However, please remember that the library issue and the ethics complaint are two very separate issues. Like I have said before I can differentiate between the two.
Sure I have opinions about both, but while the comments were made at a counsel meeting about the library issue it was not his vote that prompted me to file. It was the comment that was made immediately after with about 10 or so citizens gathered around him. Which was my last point on the complaint. That was the main point that the paper missed when they wrote about it being filed.
If you would like to see the complaint in it's entirety it is posted here further down on my blog. It is even titled My ENTIRE ethics complaint.
What a great country we live in hey? I mean we have people that are unhappy with the library and spoke out, and someone unhappy with a local official and spoke out. Democracy you've got to love it.
Showing posts with label democracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label democracy. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
Library, Humanity, Freedom, Democracy, Peace
Can I just say something here. I was watching a show on National Geographic tonight Locked Up Abroad. Basically people get in trouble in some other country for what ever stupid thing they may have done there. To see the prison systems there oh my.
It got me to thinking what our founding fathers must be thinking about our little tiny town that was not even on the map when they put pen to parchment all those years ago. I think they must be smiling down on us with pride. Not because the issue is the library or books, homosexuality or even constitutional amendments. They must be proud because we can have heated debated in public places, speak our minds freely, disagree with each other, our government and even challenge our government. That my friends is FREEDOM! It is the freedom that our founders hoped for the generations that would follow them in the dreams they had. I can hear them sigh Ah democracy we did our job all those years ago.
We could be in China. Remember this? BEIJING (Reuters) – China smothered Tienanmen Square with police on Thursday to prevent commemoration of the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters 20 years ago and the United States demanded Beijing account for those killed.
Tanks rolled into the square before dawn on June 4, 1989, to crush weeks of student and worker protests. The ruling Communist Party has never released a death toll and fears any public marking of the crackdown could undermine its hold on power. That's just a glimpse of the article here the link to the whole thing:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090604/ts_nm/us_china_tiananmen_17
We could be living there or under that kind of government where the mere mention of something that happened, or speaking the words freedom or democracy could still get you arrested, put in a labor camp for who knows how many years or even killed. We should be proud even though we disagree with so much passion, we have the FREEDOM to do it.
If I remember history correctly even our founders squabbled, fought, yelled, and everything else while they were trying to agree what should and should not be in the many of our countries most important documents. So I say thank you God I was born into a country with FREEDOM to disagree in public, fight for what we believe, protest against what we don't and in the end hold onto to our most basic similarities. HUMANITY and FREEDOM.
The prime example of our humanity at it's best was when tragedy struck the other view point from ours regarding West Bend Memorial Community Library, and hands were reached across the divide to offer some sort of solace to an occurrence that really has no words for. That my friends is because we have freedom to disagree but the humanity to still reach out to someone who may need it at that time. Temporary truce.
Suggestion: get a hold of someone you have a disagreement with or difference of opinion. invite them for coffee, lunch or even a walk in a beautiful park. Get to know the person and set the issues aside if even for just an hour. Don't talk about the differences. Ask them to tell you about themselves something you don't know about them. It could let to peace. I am not saying agreement on the issue (remember no talking about the issues) but common ground can leads to peace. Even if it is to agree to disagree and respect for their opinion and in any future debates the issue would be discussed not the people behind it.
Did you know that during some of the Civil Wars bloodiest battles the next day when the fighting had ended and the dead lay on the ground all over the place the "clean up crews" for each side came together and helped bury each others dead. They shared food and water, yes they at together.
World War I, the Christmas truce of 1914 between Britain and Germany. One side heard the other singing Oh Christmas tree" from the other side of the trenches each side dug in the same mountain, their opposition joined in. They came out of the trenches and exchanged food and what have you with each other. They played football with each other in what at the time was called no man's land because it was just barren land with some mountains with tunnels and trenches dug in them by both Britain and Germany. Many times just a few weeks away from each other. They celebrated Christmas together. Imagine the site. Two countries embattled in a bloody war. Each side hates the other and wants nothing more than to kill as many of them as they can. There were no orders for a Christmas truce. The commanders of each army did not order them to have a truce it just spontaneously happened.
HUMANITY! That is what I think our founding fathers hoped for us as a nation, a people, and the world. It can be good to disagree once in a while as long as humanity is the outcome.
I have absolutely nothing against he author or the WISSUP blog. NONE! I disagree with some things (mostly the library) that have been said or positions taken on some things but her as a fellow traveler on this wonderful earth nah. Maybe I would really enjoy her. Maybe we would have some things in common that we do agree on. Who knows, if not we will still at least 2 base line principles. FREEDOM and HUMANITY and PEACE.
It got me to thinking what our founding fathers must be thinking about our little tiny town that was not even on the map when they put pen to parchment all those years ago. I think they must be smiling down on us with pride. Not because the issue is the library or books, homosexuality or even constitutional amendments. They must be proud because we can have heated debated in public places, speak our minds freely, disagree with each other, our government and even challenge our government. That my friends is FREEDOM! It is the freedom that our founders hoped for the generations that would follow them in the dreams they had. I can hear them sigh Ah democracy we did our job all those years ago.
We could be in China. Remember this? BEIJING (Reuters) – China smothered Tienanmen Square with police on Thursday to prevent commemoration of the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters 20 years ago and the United States demanded Beijing account for those killed.
Tanks rolled into the square before dawn on June 4, 1989, to crush weeks of student and worker protests. The ruling Communist Party has never released a death toll and fears any public marking of the crackdown could undermine its hold on power. That's just a glimpse of the article here the link to the whole thing:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090604/ts_nm/us_china_tiananmen_17
We could be living there or under that kind of government where the mere mention of something that happened, or speaking the words freedom or democracy could still get you arrested, put in a labor camp for who knows how many years or even killed. We should be proud even though we disagree with so much passion, we have the FREEDOM to do it.
If I remember history correctly even our founders squabbled, fought, yelled, and everything else while they were trying to agree what should and should not be in the many of our countries most important documents. So I say thank you God I was born into a country with FREEDOM to disagree in public, fight for what we believe, protest against what we don't and in the end hold onto to our most basic similarities. HUMANITY and FREEDOM.
The prime example of our humanity at it's best was when tragedy struck the other view point from ours regarding West Bend Memorial Community Library, and hands were reached across the divide to offer some sort of solace to an occurrence that really has no words for. That my friends is because we have freedom to disagree but the humanity to still reach out to someone who may need it at that time. Temporary truce.
Suggestion: get a hold of someone you have a disagreement with or difference of opinion. invite them for coffee, lunch or even a walk in a beautiful park. Get to know the person and set the issues aside if even for just an hour. Don't talk about the differences. Ask them to tell you about themselves something you don't know about them. It could let to peace. I am not saying agreement on the issue (remember no talking about the issues) but common ground can leads to peace. Even if it is to agree to disagree and respect for their opinion and in any future debates the issue would be discussed not the people behind it.
Did you know that during some of the Civil Wars bloodiest battles the next day when the fighting had ended and the dead lay on the ground all over the place the "clean up crews" for each side came together and helped bury each others dead. They shared food and water, yes they at together.
World War I, the Christmas truce of 1914 between Britain and Germany. One side heard the other singing Oh Christmas tree" from the other side of the trenches each side dug in the same mountain, their opposition joined in. They came out of the trenches and exchanged food and what have you with each other. They played football with each other in what at the time was called no man's land because it was just barren land with some mountains with tunnels and trenches dug in them by both Britain and Germany. Many times just a few weeks away from each other. They celebrated Christmas together. Imagine the site. Two countries embattled in a bloody war. Each side hates the other and wants nothing more than to kill as many of them as they can. There were no orders for a Christmas truce. The commanders of each army did not order them to have a truce it just spontaneously happened.
HUMANITY! That is what I think our founding fathers hoped for us as a nation, a people, and the world. It can be good to disagree once in a while as long as humanity is the outcome.
I have absolutely nothing against he author or the WISSUP blog. NONE! I disagree with some things (mostly the library) that have been said or positions taken on some things but her as a fellow traveler on this wonderful earth nah. Maybe I would really enjoy her. Maybe we would have some things in common that we do agree on. Who knows, if not we will still at least 2 base line principles. FREEDOM and HUMANITY and PEACE.
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