Big Question – Are we better off?
August 8, 2012 PLYMOUTH VOICE
OPINION
Are Tuesday’s primary election results a vote of confidence for a job well done or proof that money and misinformation can buy results? We think the latter.
Are we as safe as we were four years ago?
Is our Township as financially sound as it was four years ago?
We think voters were split over what to believe when the popular press, catering to big advertising dollars for the Township’s public notices, helped them paint pictures of bliss and tranquility and purposefully missed significant stories of exorbitant spending, botched land deals and out of control expense accounts.
The average voter had no clue of real picture of the Township’s health and their personal safety, nor of the board’s questionable political maneuvers.
It was an apathetic race and name recognition played a large part.
Tuesday’s election was further proof the good-ole-boy system is still alive in Plymouth Township when the electorate was once again hood-winked with big dollar donations spent on advertising, slick maneuvers and the works of a pseudo group of elected officials and township employees.
Since last spring the Township board has consistently mailed out election propaganda disguised as newsletters and paid for with taxpayer funds; the supervisor personally mailed various letters with pleas for help.
One pathetic and contemptuous unsigned letter that was rumored to come from township officials said, “It is very important that everyone votes in the August 7th primary to prevent special interest candidates from taking over the Plymouth Township Government and raising our taxes. “This group wants to rehire the laid off firemen, raise our taxes and take over ambulance runs from the private Huron Valley Ambulance. We need everyone to vote to prevent these candidates from taking over the Township election.”
As they berated the people who fostered, promoted and fought to bring the public service issue to referendum in order to maintain a fully staffed fire department, they continued with, “Candidates with personal grudges, including former employees, firefighters wives and other people…with the idea of promoting their own selfish interests.”, clearly showing their contempt and ignorance.
The letter also erroneously stated, “A group of taxpayers formed the Friends of Plymouth Township…this group made its mission to bring out the truth and inform the citizens the true facts.”
The friends group they described as taxpayers was in reality an ad hoc committee, entirely made up of Township board members, two employees and a retired police chief with political aspirations.
“After the cheers have died down and the stadium is empty, after the headlines have been written and after you are back in the quiet of your room and the championship ring has been placed on the dresser and all the pomp and fanfare has faded, the enduring things that are left are: the dedication to excellence, the dedication to victory, and the dedication to doing with our lives the very best we can to make the world a better place to live.” –Vincent T Lombardi
