Citizen Wausau

Divisive is as Divisive Does

by Dino Corvino on May 26th, 2009

Yesterday I received a copy of a letter apparently sent to all of Wausau’s City Council members.  It is attached, and I encourage each of you to download it, and the envelope it came in.  It is my contention that this is about as divisive and deliberately intimidating a piece of mail one can get if elected.

The envelope has a return address that would indicate to some that this item came from the local VFW post.  But, in a Monday morning phone conversation with local VFW Quartermaster Bernie Guaerke, he said that they did not send the letter.  He was upset to be implicated in this, and said that when the VFW sends something they do it on their own letterhead and they sign their name.

One of the ideas espoused by Citizen Wausau is civility.  It is an idea that appears all over the place, in many of our materials.  This letter sent to each of our elected council members is depressingly uncivil.  I wrote a post about a lack of civility at a CISM Committee meeting, and it was met with a few less than civil comments.

Now, the world has this letter.  Sent anonymously (read chicken) from an address that was not theirs with the intent of intimidating the board into some action, and creating some further wedge for 2012.  This is sad, and someone should be ashamed of themselves.

I spoke to one of my mentors today, and he reminded me that if one wants to take part in the council process, you simply sign up to speak, and you stand in front of the council and speak.  He said you do not stand in the shadows, and send out anonymous letters from addresses that are not your own in the hopes of getting council members to vote out of fear rather than vision.  I may not dig everything all of the council people do all the time, but I do like the idea of having a vision and acting on that rather than voting out of fear of being targeted for attacks like this.

I wrote a post a while back about the concept of WORTHY-ness.  What we as citizens of Wausau are worthy of.  Well, we are worthy of far more than this.  I am saddened by the bullying tactics that seem to go on, and none of that comes from the council.  I am worthy of more than that from our council, and the people who seek to move and shake behind the scenes.  Our city is worthy of more than that.

I think that there is a cancer in the council, and that cancer is causing these voting blocks, causing this lack of transparency, causing this thought of conspiracy (and I am more than a little upset Rob gets to be in the conspiracy and I do not, as I like to join new groups, and I need friends).  Whispering in peoples’ ears, telling them how to vote on this or that issue.  Creating wedges about things like this statue, that some guy wants to raise the money for himself and donate to the city.  Council people live in fear of being targeted like others in the past have been, and as such they get bullied into bad positions.  It is bad politics.

We need men and women who have the strength of conviction to stand up to this sort of bad wedge garbage.  Seeking to be divided by forces outside and with their own interest is a mistake.  It is my understanding that all but two members of the council showed up to the goal setting meeting, and one was a long-time planned absence.  So, other member, where were you?

But, back to this letter.  It is my contention that this letter is intended to do one thing, to make it seem like the VFW is against the statue, to use the voting power of the VFW to intimidate councilmembers into voting against a free statue.  I think that this is a wrongly directed impulse given the fact that the VFW did not send this letter, and when asked about the statue, they had no opinion.

To use this sort of deception to bully the members of council into not voting to support an item being DONATED to the city, well that seems bad.  If you have an opinion, you should come to the council meeting tonight and state it, not send something inflammatory and anonymous to the members of the council.

Members of the council get enough input; they do not need anonymous intimidation.  It leads to fear, and that fear leads to bad leadership.  I hope the council can see beyond this, and vote for whatever they want to do.  I also hope that council members will make a comment about the letter, so it can be discussed as the bad thing that it is.  If you shine lights on cockroaches, they run away.

Letter

Envelope (Note the Return Address)

Sculpture