On Cowards and Politics

The mailer I received on the City Council Election is sickening. The sponsor and author shows his cowardice and what type of person he is by attacking the daughter of one of the candidates. My support for either team is not important. What is important is that I do not support below the belt, gutter politics that have become a staple of Plainfield over the past several years and of which too many of us by continuing to elect these people continue to tolerate.

This type of politics and campaigning is not only a reflection on the sponsor, author or people that are running, it is really a reflection on the community because such mailers and campaign talk clearly state that we the electorate will easily fall for it. This was the type of rhetoric that got the Grand Slam Team elected last year. They campaigned on lies and distortions against Dr. Gallon that can finally be read in the Executive Session Minutes that are now on Maria's Blog. The personnel matter can be now seen for what it is, something that the Minutes reflect Wilma Campbell knew all of the time. It seemed to had been the lawyers hand in the personnel matter and the South Plainfield enrollment issue. Both, to quote a fellow blogger, "rang hollow" but eventually accomplished their goal of getting the superintendent out of office.

So if personnel and ethics was the issue, why are we a year later facing a situation where a member of the Grand Slam Team is going to have to be removed because he is a convicted felon, a principal has been hired that did not meet the minimum qualifications while Campbell is the HR Chair, and the Board President has shown herself to be the most rude, uncouth person in a position of leadership? I dont know her but read her remarks to Olddoc and could not believe that they came from the person to be representing our district and students.

I could not resist using this as an example of how the electorate continues to be fooled by dirty politics, lies, and sensationalism. The mailer that implicated a candidates daughter that interned at PMUA was not fair, inappropriate and cowardly. There are some areas that should be sacred in politics and that is one's family and children. There have been well documented reports that even the lowest career criminals have established such codes of respect and honor in not offending one's family or children, i.e., the Mafia. They have a code.

In the Politics of Plainfield there seems not to be a code of honor  or respect among some politicians who will do, say, or mail anything to get themselves or their team elected.

We can no longer fault them when they are successful. We need to fault ourselves for falling for this silly games of lies, cowardice, and deceit. Their success in getting elected over and over again is our failure.

I thought I had seen it all last year during the school board election. After learning what I knew from my own research and seeing it confirmed in the Executive Session Minutes posted on Marias Blog, I had hoped that many, especially after seeing the district's decline in performance over the last year and rise in incompetence, cronyism, and politics, the electorate would learn and do better. I guess we will see this week. on Wednesday we will learn and know more about who we are and where we are headed. With  the high taxes, rise in violent crime, and rampant incompetence at both the City and the BOE, I am sure that many will be heading out of Plainfilelf if things don't get better in the Queen City.

This week will be a test. It will show rather or not Plainfield is going to rid this community of cowardly politicians.

The recent mailer attacking the daughter of a candidate shows that we have at least one that is still in power.