Having endured for a few years that which was known as “the Army way” (some of you know it as the Navy way, or Marine Corps way), where, if one guy screws up, the whole platoon gets punished, I am loathe to see blanket reprisals for the antics of a few.
On the other hand, it has become a dinnertime ritual in our home on Tuesday nights during the “City Council Follies,” to have my wife say, “My God, is he going to speak again?” Or for me to say, “How many times do we have to listen to that [person] tonight?”
This has always been unfair to the many good citizens of Glendale, who, having a truly pressing concern in their neighborhood, or local business, come down to voice their concerns. Most have worked all day, they have families, they are tired and really do not enjoy standing in front of a microphone and addressing City Council. To condemn them to a two- to three-hour wait is manifestly unfair, and will no doubt have a chilling effect on participation, and rob the council of what oftentimes is vital information for the betterment of the entire city.
I am not the slightest bit concerned about “the six-figure club,” our beloved municipal employees, who get paid a ton of money to lounge around all day, and on rare occasions, at night; it is part of your job, so quit whining. So, is this Drayman’s fault? Is he trampling on the Constitution? Absolutely not.
First of all, the First Amendment does not exist in a vacuum; for all the rights guaranteed, there are equal responsibilities as well. To have the same crowd (you know full well who you are), get up week after week, and go on and on, on just about every item on the agenda, abuses a precious right. We can do without your faux intellectualism, your endless apocalyptic graphs on obtuse issues, your stultifying slide shows or floppy hated, malaprop-filled disjointed phillipics.
If you have a substantive, legitimate issue on the agenda, go for it, but then do not get up again and bloviate to your ego’s content in oral communication, making a travesty out of a vital time segment. You are all joined at the hip (or jawbone), so have the decency to work it out among yourselves; pick an issue, or oral communications, and not every week; enough is enough. Give the rest of Glendale a chance to be heard at a reasonable time.
JIM WELING
Glendale
