Guest Commenter Nails It On the Head

A Guest Commenter named “I Know, Right?” submitted a very thought-provoking and beautifully written message regarding the state of local politics in Belleville that I felt deserved to be spotlighted here.

I hope you’ll consider writing some articles for the Watch in the future! And thank you for your very kind words.

Dear Mr. Griff,

I want to thank you, on the eve of the Belleville municipal election, for the very significant contribution to public awareness that this site, Nutley Watch, now presents to the citizens of Belleville.

For too long, local press has regarded conditions in Belleville government as unworthy of attention, more of the same, or even worse–comical.

If a concerned citizen wishes to seek an informed opinion on how and why they should cast their one vote, in an electoral landscape where a few hundred, or even a few dozen votes can make a mountain of difference, they would be hard pressed to find enough organized information to reach any kind of educated conclusion, let alone an opportunity for discussion.

Your site offers a chance at something better. Better than partisan antics and a smokescreen of aggression, evasion, and obfuscation. Better than the poison pills of politically mangled and secretly funded campaigns of disinformation. Better than the smug indifference of the appointees and “professionals” who feel that their bread will be buttered best if they can tell concerned citizens to simply shut up, sit down, and go home; because the plan, their plan, is in the works so never you mind.

We are supposed to take them on faith, while they lie, evade, deny, stonewall, maneuver, and dream their dream of ultimate conquest. Time and again, it seems to this citizen, we are met with low grade operatives, made fat in their indifference and outright contempt, by patronage hires and promises of more where that came from if they will agree to carry the ball for the team. A shadowy team.

Their disdain is impossible to hide. And yet they are charged with serving the people. This glaring contradiction fits into an all-too-familiar pattern of political conquest, not public service. Why, one might ask, do these types of people keep arriving in our faces to insult and deceive us?

Because big money and big power seeks people of poor ethical fiber to advance their agenda, an agenda that cannot tolerate sunlight. The growth of their plan is more akin to that of a fungus than that of flowers or fruit.

No insult intended to the humble and often troubling life of genuine fungus. No one will celebrate, in the end, the human fungus. Bringing forth the fruit of humanity, on the other hand, is a task we are all charged with tending to.

Thanks for providing a well lit space for people to converse and educate themselves. I wish you the best for you efforts, and for those of all your contributors, in the times ahead.

I respectfully suggest you might think carefully about how you are going to best draw Belleville traffic to a site so named; there is liable to be a lot of it.

Thank you again for your admirable service to the people of Belleville. May you, and your contributors, always rise to the challenge. With plenty of sunlight.

And vote! Let your voices be heard.