During the August 9, 2010 Middleboro Board of Selectmen meeting, Chairwoman Marsha Brunelle caused a bit of stir with the listening audience when she effectively shut down freedom of speech at a public town meeting. Click here to read more about this in one of my earlier posts about this event as well as catch some video of the actual proceedings.
I don’t particularly care about Mrs. Brunelle’s reasons for these changes in Board of Selectmen policy but I do care very much about the rights of the public being stifled at these meetings. There are many things that politicians at a local, state and federal level do that irritate the bejeezus out of me, but the one thing that I will not tolerate is our elected officials telling us we have no say in how our government is run. We do currently still live in a democracy and freedom of speech is a guaranteed right in our constitution.
In the August 19, 2010 issue of the Middleboro Gazette, Middleboro resident Allin Frawley is encouraging all Middleboro residents to attend the Board of Selectmen meeting scheduled for Monday, August 23, 2010 at 7:00 PM. Mr. Frawley believes that there is an abuse of power being wielded by the Board’s Chairwoman. I happen to agree with that opinion but will go one step further and tell you that I believe that the majority of the board members are enabling this abuse. Not one person on the board stood up to defend the right to speak at a public meeting or to challenge the Chairwoman’s policy change. If our elected officials won’t defend our constitutional rights, who will?
Yup, this is where you come in. The average resident and registered voter in the Town of Middleboro. Stand up. Take a stand. Tell your elected officials that you will not allow them to silence you. Along with Mr. Frawley, I am urging everyone in town to attend Monday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting. You don’t have to speak. You just have to be there. Your presence will alert your elected officials that you know what they are trying to do and you won’t allow them to do it.
Middleboro Board of Selectmen Meeting
Monday, August 23, 2010
7:00 PM
Middleboro Town Hall, 10 Nickerson Avenue
According to this article in The Enterprise, many people are planning to attend this meeting on Monday. I’m making every effort to attend this meeting. Are you?
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