For me, a red flag goes up when a politician responds to criticism by victimizing himself and making it sound like everyone is picking on him.
In our last blog post, we criticized Dale Kerns’ alarm about an extra $48 being in the budget and challenged both teams of candidates to run on actual issues. Since that post, people supporting Ralph Orr’s team told us that we are picking on Dale and his ticket. Questioning an elected official, and the actual comments that come out of his mouth in a public meeting, is not mudslinging. It is not mean-spirited.
It is being an informed citizen. Like many others, we have been aware about the budget report for months, even before Kerns decided to make $48 a central issue. We decided that making a stink over $48 was not something that we wanted to waste our time on.
One person who was well aware of the budget report Kerns now holds as his central piece of evidence is Ralph Orr. Mayor Ralph Orr, in his duties, oversaw all of the occurrences listed in the report, signed off on a monthly report, and said nothing publically about any of the issues. When everything happened, he was silent. 36 months he was silent, mind you. It’s not like he missed one meeting and something was snuck in. The report Kerns’ is talking about covers 36 months, and Kern’s running mate (Orr) said nothing during that time.
Not that we have a problem with Orr’s silence. Orr must have come to the same conclusion we did. $48 is not a big deal. And, even though it is election time, 36 months of silence is a big action that Kerns’ words cannot take back now. If Kerns wants to question Councilwoman Reeves’ decisions on the budget, then he needs to also question Mayor Orr’s decision to remain silent for 36 months on the ‘alarming’ $48 excess because Orr sat there silently for 3 years and raised not one question.
At the end of the last blog, we challenged both teams to pick real issues to run on. Since that time, Allen Reeves Jr. has talked about his desire to make fighting drugs a primary issue. This platform goes along with Reeves’ history of being a D.A.R.E. police officer, one who regularly requested an increase in drug enforcement training while on the police force, and who suggested that the Borough hire and train a K-9 officer to work with a narcotic detection canine. The leaders or the police force during the last 6 years denied these requests.
This goes along with Bill Stewart’s work to hire more police officers. Kelly Butkus has talked about wanting to increase home values. Beth Gross is talking about uniting the community toward a common goal and stopping the bickering. Even Karen Reeves and Despo Tatiscoire reached out to those who most fervently challenged them in the past, looking to bridge the gap for a better Eddystone.
I once read that people who continually blame others suffer from a sense of worthlessness or low self-esteem. These people wreak havoc on other people’s lives, as their own self-loathing festers inside of them, rendering them incapable to make objective decisions.
Low self-esteem, a human wrecking ball, and unable to be objective are not characteristics I want in those leading my town.
Just sayin….