Greg Roach's Berkshires Blog
Sunday, October 22, 2006
  Cojones? What Cojones?
I have found myself slightly torn over Peter May’s and Eric Buddington’s proposed City Council resolution calling on our Congressional delegation to impeach and remove President Bush from office. May and Buddington have a point – the President has admittedly broken the law regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act with impunity and continues to do so. One might think that Congress would have the courage to live up to their Constitutional duty to check and balance the executive branch. But no. The GOP congress is cowardly. And for that matter, so are the city councilors who have wavered about introducing May and Buddington’s resolution.

I do not agree with the wording of the resolution, nor do I find that it achieves anything more than tilting at windmills. However, it is a sincere attempt by residents of North Adams to access the levers of government from the ground up. Those councilors who say it is not the purview of a City Council to vote on such matters should simply abstain or vote against the resolution. But these citizens deserve to be heard by their elected officials. Sadly, that will not be the case.

So why have all the councilors shied away from introducing the resolution? Easy. They don’t want to make waves. The city and the mayor in particular hate bad publicity and anything that gums up the “friendly” nature of the current council. The mayor has gone out of his way to mention that when compared to councils of old, the current council sees things through the same prism as he does. Chris Tremblay actually was elected to the council last year because he challenged the sitting councilors as “bobble heads” who simply rubberstamp the mayor’s policies. Strangely Chris has not found much to argue about for the past year and seems quite chummy with those whom he used to oppose.

Sigh.

I guess that we can expect more of the same for the predictable future.

Billings will continue to be the blowhard pseudo intellectual dean of the council who likes to pretend that he is rough and rugged when in actuality he just lobs gratuitous and vile insults. Gail Ann Cariddi will remain a pleasant and affable president who smiles for the cameras. Tremblay will complain about traffic (actually the only real issue that he has done anything about). Alcombright will stick his fingers to the wind to figure how forcefully he should speak out. The others will remain virtually silent.

And North Adams government will do what it does best- maintain. (It does that fairly well) But it will not do anything dynamic or controversial. God forbid…..
 
Comments:
Hey genius?? just for your information Councilors are not allowed to abstain- unless there's a conflict of interest-- so declared by the Councilor and excused by the chair or vote of the Council----chbpod
 
gratuitous and vile insults?? not on the Council floor-----e-mail?? blogging? maybe even my TV show---but not on the Council floor--- where I am a City Councilor---you seem to blend all of my peronna together and group it under City Councilor---I guess there's nothing wrong with that-- but I thought a man of your education could make a distinction-----oh that's right--- what education do you have???? Hash Slinging 101??
how's that for gratuitous-- certainly not vile---chbpod
 
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When you address civic matters or insult residents on your show or on the local blogs, your comments are absolutely part of the public record. Keep that in mind the next time you go off the deep end with the personal cracks.

For the record, I am a graduate of the University of Michigan and the Culinary Institute of America.

[edited for clarity]
 
however i have recently been labled one.

Whatcha gonna do about it?

You have brought a couple of fresh ideas to an otherwise stodgy body. Please continue to shake things up, if only a little bit. New proposals and vision are rare from your colleagues.
 
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