Why Choose to Divide Our Town and Inspire Hatred?
The following letter appeared in local newspapers and is shared with us here by the author John Goodman.
It seems that every time there is an election, the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee (CDTC) finds some issue to vociferously argue about. Indeed if Charelstown Citizens Alliance (CCA) advocates for civility in town government stated that the sky was blue, the CDTC would find some way to compare the CCA to Adolf Hitler and make a convincing argument that the sky was green.
With the upcoming June 1st Financial Referendum, that is quite literally what the CDTC is doing on their “hate blog”, comparing environmentalists to Hitler and spending funds to defeat ballot measures which, if passed, would allow Charlestown to receive millions of dollars of matching funds from public and private sources to preserve natural and open spaces for future generations.
As Senator John H. Chafee, a long time advocate of land conservation often said, once these lands are gone, they’re gone forever. Not once, he would note, did he ever have anyone come up and tell him that they wished Colt State Park or one of RI’s beautiful National Wildlife Refuges was home to a condominium development instead. (That being said, I’m sure local land owners and developers hoping for personal profit may have thought exactly that!)
Regardless of whether you support efforts to preserve and protect open space for recreation or habitat preservation, I would hope that the majority of people in Charlestown, as well as anyone who lost family members to Hitler’s genocide of the Jews, would take GREAT offense at any comparison between local environmental advocates and Adolf Hitler.
I encourage everyone in town to vote their conscience on all ballot measures, but also once again make their voice and vote heard in rejecting these mudslinging tactics of the CDTC.
The voters of Charlestown resoundingly rejected each and every one of the CDTC endorsed candidates in November’s election in part due to these dirty tactics of slander and libel, which the voters realized could one day be turned upon them should they ever disagree with the CDTC. One would have hoped the local Democratic Town Committee would have taken note that such revolting tactics remain unwelcome in Charlestown, yet they persist in trying to divide, rather than unite town residents.
I strongly advocate voting YES on ballot questions 1 & 2 on June 1st at Charlestown Town Hall and once again call on Charlestown Democratic Town Committee Treasurer Tom Ferrio to shut down the offensive and divisive blog he owns.
John J. Goodman