NutleyWatch contributor and resident wordsmith “espalier” has put his quill to work again, with another timely and thought provoking open letter to the community.
And thank you espalier, not only for your kind words of support, but for your considerable efforts to help keep readers engaged in this all-important fight to restore Belleville to its former glory.
NJ.com/forums/Belleville can get pretty seedy. The discussion there gets shot through and roiled with pure ugly. Decent people don’t always have the stomach for that kind of thing, and who can blame them? I have a pretty good sense for who is behind the ugliness, and why they like it that way. Depressed public interest serves the purpose of voter suppression, which opens the door to small time thugs. And who files in behind them? Hmm.
NutleyWatch, a.k.a. Green Griffon, among other notable forum participants, challenged that ugliness on a sustained basis and has proven to be a serious obstacle in the path of some political operator’s plans. We’re far from done, however, and it would be fanciful to think it is all sunshine and lollipops from here on out.
The service to the community which this website presents to the Belleville taxpayers is a serious one. I read the papers. I even see a few of our local elected officials mentioned in major media outlets. I’m thinking of the more disquieting news stories from the past year in particular.
I received a few of the campaign mailers which were released by the Burke/Longo/Freda campaign this past election, and I have to say—again—they were vile. Absolutely bald faced lying beyond the pale vile, and disgusting in their shameless disfiguring of information for the express purpose of sabotaging the candidacy of the opposition ticket. What struck me, then, was the attitude on display that this kind of poison was, by some twisted sense of reason, just another example of fair game, rough and tumble politics. My feeling at the time was that it indicated diseased minds at work, and I have not seen or heard much since then to suggest that I was mistaken in that impression.
Now I totally respect that people have to make up their own minds and do their own thinking, particularly with regard to things which trouble them. I think that they also need to be free to voice the result of that effort, and express their own opinion. To that end, I have the following to offer.
I would like to share a few words of caution, if I may, about the remorse which can follow on the heels of a heated battle. I appreciate that there are people of conscience in our community who feel it might be their proper moral duty to forgive and forget the transgressions of Councilwoman Burke and her associate in politics, Councilman Joe Longo, for things they have done to screw with the employees and residents of the Township of Belleville. The people whom Burke and Longo targeted were singled out for being unsympathetic to the particular brand of nasty and high handed righteous indignation that Ms. Burke, in her unique way and Mr. Longo in his, made readily apparent in public meetings, forums, and promotional materials.
It was not that long ago that they felt they had a clear path towards running the entire township—in the name of whomever it is that they answer to—with an agenda which was distinctly not to the benefit of the entire citizenry of the township. I believe they answer to an individual in league with a small cadre of individuals, and I believe they all speak the language of coercion, defamation, and raw political power. Anyone who thinks that those days are over and done better think again, and take a close look at what type of people these two represent. Does anyone think, for even one minute, that this crew would take their shoe off of your throat if, by some cruel twist of fate, they found themselves to be officially in power again? Have we already lost sight of what it means to be constantly harassed and threatened in the course of our day-to-day activities and responsibilities? Have we glossed over the threats made to our livelihoods, our reputations, our families, and to the atmosphere of our streets and schools and public offices?
The newly contrite Ms. Burke, and the suddenly meek Councilman Longo, confirm some of my worst concerns about their essential natures. They are rank underlings. They answer to their handlers, not their own conscience, and certainly not to the public at large. This makes them very dangerous people, in my opinion, and unfit for public office. It also appears that they commit substantial time and energy, along with their partners in deception, towards a demented attempt to talk smack on local online discussion forums, and haplessly at that, which is really unseemly. But their intention to corrupt and demolish the discussion is unmistakable.
The nonsense on NJ.com seems to suggest that they, or their supporters, believe they just need to interfere with a few people whom they assess to be key threats to their program, and eliminate a few more, and they will be able to get back on their game of sabotage, meddling, and intimidation, in order to prepare the way for their big boss people to rise again and raid the payroll and services pool of the Township of Belleville.
I’m with you on this one, Griff. I say no effin’ way.
I appreciate the need for some of us to cleanse ourselves of the ill feelings we might have accumulated towards these two operators, and their Belleville BOE associates. I completely support that sentiment as an act of conscience. But I also believe it to be equally important to keep it fresh in our minds exactly how those feelings came to reside in many of us in the first place. Part of it is the ugliness of the politicians and their appointees, and the abuses they visited upon our community, but another part of it is the mistake some of us have made of letting them into our heads, which is a really bad way to prepare for a confrontation. I urge anyone to be more careful going forward, because sadists and bigots love messing with your noggin. It turns them on.
Just because Burke and Longo go belly up and submissive when overmatched, does not make them reformed. It reveals them to be servile and without genuine courage or character. They are in the positions they are in because of their malleability as proxy fighters for machine bosses. This makes them both unelectable, in my opinion. I can accept them as people, however troubled, but they are impossibly suspect as sitting councilpersons and a former board member of the recent BOE and its very public scandal and fiscal implosion. These two would be best advised to return to their private lives—and if they simply can’t help themselves, the world of online screen names—and leave the big responsibilities to people who can best handle the oath.
Belleville is not the Kingdom of Silver Lake, Ms. Burke is not our queen, and Mr. Longo is a long, long, long way from proving himself reliable to anyone but his family, friends, and the private business associates he is fortunate enough to have. Let them both return to smaller shoes and ones that fit, and we’ll all be happier for it.
You have grit, Green Griffon. And you put in the time. That kind of effort is what will make a difference in this town. I also like what I am seeing from a lot of people, citizens and voters in particular, who are willing to go the distance and do a whole lot more than these two wayward officials as they continue to agitate and obfuscate and complain about their current predicament, even as they are driven, a little, to kinda sorta maybe apologize for what they can’t evade or even recall having done and still deny ever happened. Huh?
We’re not talking about minor indiscretions here. Yet Burke and Longo continue to portray themselves as folk heroes and innocent victims. This truly is a bizarre picture, and it needs to be taken down off the wall.
Ya know, I’ve heard people hurl epithets before, and blow through obscene sums of other people’s money, but this kind of conniving is off the charts in and of itself. The infamous 85% verifiable tape recording is becoming the smaller element compared to the outright mania now on display. Not that anyone can minimize the issue of bigotry and racial insensitivity which, by now, is an indelible stain on Ms. Burke’s reputation, and with her, the reputation of our governing body. No matter what her defenders may argue about the commonplace “normalcy” of loose language among familiars.
“We all do it, so what, gimme a break. It’s not really racist.”
This seems to be the most common argument among those speaking in the Councilwoman’s defense. That is frightfully little to go on. Ms. Burke is, after all, an elected official of the township, and not just Marie from Silver Lake. This past May she had dreams of being Mayor Burke, and a number of people from around the county and state put down a substantial chunk of hard cash to back her play.
We’ll be requiring more resolve, more commitment, continued vigilance, and ever increasing savvy from within ourselves, as one of many civically engaged townships— with rather less of this megalomaniacal mini insurrection now on display—to keep things on the mend. Like true boot polishers, some party loyalists might think outing a few screen names, or brandishing “menacing” acronyms at NJ.com (which I totally get, BTW, how silly), or a strategic decapitation or three, will fix their busted dream of the political promised land. They are wrong, and may someday be able to face it.
Engaged voters don’t require heroes and self-appointed saviors to rescue us. We support elected representatives. We, as voters, will continue to see better for our very own selves, based on all available facts, opinions, and inputs, and we will continue to rise to the challenge of making informed decisions. Open discussion, in all of our available venues, feeds that growth. We are best led as we seek to inform and educate ourselves, and in doing so, we each discover our own leadership qualities and can then bring them to bear as a self-respecting community. We will grow even stronger as we continue to thrive with the help and information we provide to one another.
Predatory operators would be well advised, from here forward, to not underestimate the voters, citizens, and public servants of Belleville, NJ. We now have in common a stark experience of the hazards of voter disaffection, and how that gives rise to campaigns of targeted confusion, deliberate intimidation, and finally, the wanton abuse of the township offices and treasury. We are back, for now, from the brink. And we have a lot to be thankful for.
Thanks again for the air time, and for the venue here at NutleyWatch. We should all have more important things to do than mess around with this brand of very costly same old same old, as much as it might disappoint the few desperate hearts who are now lost to twisted dreams of the big time.
espalier
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