Signs have begun appearing throughout Whitehall which list the three incumbent council members all together, as if they’re part of one voting block. You vote for one, you must vote for all of them. It is wrong on several levels, here is why I feel so:

a) All three seats on our city council are individual seats. They do not come as a set, they are to be won separately by individuals competing for those individual seats. In this case it is Bob Bailey, Gerald Dixon, Karen Conison and Wes Kantor. It is our individual fight to engage in, candidate to candidate, to ‘win’ that seat by how well we present our case for it, to the citizens, who we’ll then represent. That’s it, bottom line. When you go to ‘fight’ someone, a fair fight, you don’t bring your big brother or a gun to a knife fight. Honorable adults fight honorably. With that honor, you bring your best skills for the fight that you can. You don’t put brass knuckles in the boxing gloves, you don’t knee them in the crotch, you fight your best fight, honorably, as men and women and, may the one with the best skills win. That’s it.

This sign, however, doesn’t align with what could be considered an honorable match. This sign is the chloroform in the handkerchief, it is the person who crouches behind the person while the other pushes him over them. It is, simply…an unfair fight. It is ‘3 against 1’. We have a word for that where I was raised but I won’t use it here. How am I, one person, one citizen, trying to do their civic duty, able to fight against that giant? It reminds me of this meme I made last year:

I’m doing the best one man can but, the beast they’ve unleashed is massive.

Of course, the one behind this is Mayor Kim Maggard through her political committee: ‘Citizens for Kim Maggard’. Apparently she doesn’t believe strongly enough in Bailey’s, Kantor’s and Conison’s ability to fight for themselves to allow them to do so, solo and alone. The participation of her position of power here acts as the brass knuckles in the boxing gloves. She’s using her influence to tip the scale for ‘her’ fighter, plain and simply.

Mayor Maggard’s self-interested inclusion into this fight, which is not hers to engage in, has made this an unfair fight. The council members incumbency alone makes it difficult enough for any outside comer to make it in as it is. Her wrongful insertion into this ‘fight’ makes it damned near impossible, and she knows it. That’s why she does it. She counts on the voters not paying attention, that’s why she does most of this stuff and, even when it is brought into the light (usually by me) too many citizens accept the wrong and poo-poo the messenger. I’m sorry but, I thought morality, ethics and honesty was valued in society but, I’m beginning to think that was nothing more than a fairy tale, taught to me by decent, honorable people.

And, this isn’t the first time she’s done this. In 2017, when Chris Rodriguez was doing little to nothing for his campaign for Ward 1, making my efforts seem victorious by comparison, along came a letter, last minute, from the Mayor herself (paid for by ‘Citizen’s for Chris Rodriguez’ but, really, herself. On her 2017 annual campaign finance report, it shows her committee made a $250 donation and a $115 in-kind donation (stamps, paper and envelopes), which means she, ostensibly paid for her own letter distributed!) to put the kibosh on all my efforts. Of course, what this did was throw the win to her pick, rigging the fight in her favor to win. She got her way, ( a Maggard win) and her guy won by 52 votes.

b) There is something set up in our government to ensure that no one person can obtain too much power. It is no less important on the local government landscape than it is nationally. I’m talking about the checks and balances set up in our government between the three branches. Mayor Maggard has circumvented the cautionary spirit of that direction by exerting her will on so many offices (appointments, elected officials) that City Hall should really be called ‘Maggard Hall’ set up by her own political party: ‘The Whitehall Maggard Party’. Her participation in their fight clearly shows her lack of confidence in their strengths and worth as candidates for office. That only with her help would they actually be able to win. Its might over right. Its like bringing a tank onto a debate stage.

People of reasonable and agile minds should be able to sit on councils and make reasonable independent decisions based on nothing other than the merits of the issues set before them, not on whether they’re beholding to another branch of our government for help in getting them into these positions of power in the first place. It is not what our founding fathers intended for our government. If her plans and legislation offer meritorious cases for approval, that is all that is required. It is then up to critically thinking legislators to discern the right of that brought forth to them, by her. Her constant stacking of the deck suggests her plans are only worthy when judged by self-interested yes-people who owe debts to her. Ultimately, they’re all afraid of being exposed for whatever it is they are. Why would anyone ever be afraid of critical analysis if the plan/legislation truly is sound and for the best interests of their community? Her constant need to keep critical analysis at bay speaks volumes about how she truly feels about that which she’s doing. If its value cannot stand under the weight of true scrutiny in order to test its true merits, then it must be flawed to begin with. Sense and reason tells us this is so.

c) What of candidates for office (in particular, ones who have been there for at least 8 years) who don’t speak out against this wrong and continue to look away and silently ignore that which the Mayor does while simultaneously reaping the benefits of her influence? What honor is there in allowing your Mommy to show up at the schoolyard and insert herself between you and the other who you’ve come to engage in with? I would think, at least, it would be embarrassing and at most, a dishonor to your character to allow someone else to fight your fights for you. When one has to rely on undue influence in order to win, it doesn’t speak confidently of their ability to best an opponent fairly, with their own merits. To not speak out, to not utter a word about her wrongful presence says more about their reliance on her to keep their seats for them than it does the merit of their own individual intellectual capacities to do so. Their silence in the face of this wrong speaks volumes about them. Silence is consent.