Footnotes on Anger.....

"Anger is an index of our discontent that needs to be heeded and carefully channeled. We should find the difficult middle way between uncontrolled anger, which erupts in violence and oppression, and suppressed anger, which may result in silencing individuals to avoid confrontations, ultimately amounting to a greater violence to all involved." Baltimore Yearly (Friends) Meeting, 1988.

There’s a great deal of anger flowing around our little town of Lindsay. From the citizens’ side, I can attest that the source is long-suppressed anger with the lid blown off by the findings of the audit. Even citizens who were not involved before have become angered by the revelations of waste, fraud, and the plain ignorance of those who led us to this place. The citizens’ speech has more power now, and they continue to make their points known.

Most of the council members appear to be taking it personally, as anger directed against their persons rather than their behavior, not as anger directed against their actions or inactions, which it truly is. Mayor Murray was even quoted in the Recorder as saying that the citizens are spitting hate. And yes, it is hard to keep the venom out of these statements, especially when nothing seems to have changed despite Wilkinson’s declarations that they have.

One of the things that continues under Wilkinson’s command is retaliation for criticism. This newspaper has suffered loss of all advertising from the City and McDermont; Wilkinson is reported to have said that anyone walking into his office with a copy will be fired. The day after we published HomePage #144 ("On Hate and Love,") I experienced attempts of police intimidation and City harassment at one place of employment. But at the last city council meeting (Oct. 11,) we got another reason to fear: the amendment of the city’s business license ordinance.

Yolanda Flores, one of the more dedicated citizens working for reformation, picked up on it. "I noticed on the agenda that you are amending an ordinance on business license violations," she began, speaking in a clear, strong voice. The amendment that passed 5-0 adds criminal penalties and fines up to $1,000 for being out of compliance with the ordinance, including being late on payment of each year’s fees. The public hearing on the amendment was unattended, not challenged by one member of the business community or anyone else.

"Perhaps we thought that since all these business loans are being forgiven," she said referring to the microenterprise loans that were given to McDermont employees when their Proteus contracts were up, "fraudulent home loans are being ignored, and pending foreclosures stalled," referring to the blatant housing boondoggle that Scot Townsend constructed to try to make his brethren rich, "that maybe, just maybe this city would work (with us on) business license fees. I guess I was wrong. I am not one of the privileged."

She noted that her family’s business is $280 in arrears on its license, then began detailing the retaliation they have suffered for her participation in the citizen uprising of the past year.

"Before I decided to speak out we were doing business with the city. The day I took a stand and became vocal against waste, abuse, fraud and corruption is the day that this city stopped doing business with us."

"This city administration and city council members and their families have continued (to make) slanderous statements against me and my business, including last year’s email blasts to boycott our business because I dared to question the Great Scot Townsend."

"I have said nothing until now. First, because I know what this city - prior and current administration - did to Gary Babcock when he became concerned over illegal employment practices and started whistleblowing. This city has also continued slandering and attacking the credibility of Tim Daubert by viciously spreading rumors that he was not a Vietnam veteran. Why? Because this man had the courage long before we came along to question this city."

"Retaliation is a strong word...but that is exactly what has been happening between this city and my business and many that have had the courage to speak out. Yet you ignore the people that have brought this town to the brink of bankruptcy, sometimes even defending them! Has anything been done about the fraudulent home loans? Has anything been done about fraudulent business loans? Where are this city’s priorities? Maybe what this administration wants to do is sweep everything under the rug, hoping that its citizens will forget." She concluded firmly "You are wrong."

Knowing Yolanda, you can take that to the bank. Yet watching the Council, I have little hope that our continuing 3-minute speaking engagements are going to turn them around and head them off in a better direction.

In my small volume of Quaker thought, where I found the opening quote, I found another that seems helpful. "Some people can’t understand why their actions hurt others; explanations confuse them, but saying what it is they shouldn’t do can be helpful."

What shouldn’t the city council and staff be doing now, in the eyes of the citizens? It shouldn’t be persecuting the few businesses that have survived. It shouldn’t be pursuing more grants and loans when our indebtedness is so large and our financial situation so shaky that one wrong move could put us into bankruptcy. It shouldn’t be paying exorbitant salaries to unqualified city staff. It shouldn’t keep hiring new employees without competitive job searches to find the most qualified people we can afford. It shouldn’t be retaliating against citizens exerting their rights to free speech and a say in the future of this community. It shouldn’t keep trying to cover up past mistakes so that we can "go forward" in exactly the same wrong direction we’ve been going for years.

And here are a few of the things the Council should do. It should issue a formal apology to the citizens of the town for its ignorance and/or negligence in oversight. It should issue a formal expression of gratitude to the citizens who have brought this situation to light at great expense and risk to themselves. It should, as the Times-Delta recommended, hire a real city manager to put us on the right track. It should be asking the businesses that have survived what the City can do to help. And it should be weeding out those staff members who have been part of the disastrous party of the last 8 years and replacing them with people who intend to serve the public.

What is the "greater violence to all involved" that accrues from suppressed anger? Loss of democracy is my first response. In this particular case we have also suffered loss of loved landmarks and landscapes and a sense of place. We now inhabit a less egalitarian townscape than before the carpetbaggers came to town, creating city-owned commercial environments out of public spaces that some, but not all, can enjoy. I think you can count the loss of self-esteem for not speaking up against things we didn’t want as a form of violence, the senses of guilt and complicity that come from keeping silent.

And what will be the result if this evidence of malfeasance is allowed to just pass, to disappear? The prospect that the people whose voices have been suppressed will now pay monetarily for the malpractice of those we paid dearly to keep us quiet - that is an act of violence that is hard to accept.

And here is a thought for the City fathers and mothers who feel so abused by this unsuppressed anger (again from my Quaker journal:) "When people are unkind to you, listen for the portion of truth your friends might not articulate."

So let me ask you, dear readers, what are you doing with your discontent? Are you heeding it, or letting it stay suppressed? Would you be willing to give it some credence, maybe even honor it? Would you be willing to join us at the city council meetings, simply to bear witness to the process? Would you be willing to put a bumper sticker on your car that says "Hope for a New Lindsay"?

These things could help. It is time to push for change.

Love, Trudy