This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Let's Declare War on Intolerance, Not Each Other

The root cause of the divisions in Sudbury is that dissent is simply not tolerated by the apparent majority.

Last night's BOS meeting was an embarrassment. In today's aftermath, the cause as been attributed to a litany of vices from arrogance, to incompetence, to good old fashioned spite. The real culprit, though, is intolerance.

The root cause of the divisions in Sudbury is that dissent is simply not tolerated by the apparent majority. If you question the way we handle free cash, you're off the FinCom. Criticize the conduct of town employees, and your review isn't counted among the "super majority." Disagree on goals for the town, and the meeting to define the gets scheduled for when you're away. Advocate for a commitment to solve 40B with the Malone property, and be excluded from the deliberation on how to proceed. Question all of the above, and you can be damn sure you're not getting the Chairmanship no matter how many times your name comes up in the rotation that served us well for a few hundred years.

Being treated like that consistently might make you a little sensitive, especially if you really care about Sudbury. It's true Mr. Haarde gets surly once in a while, and if you catch him in a private moment at any of the many coaching and community activities that consume his weekends, he'll admit so freely. The wonder here isn't that... it's that after years of being systematically shut down he's still willing to hang in there and advocate for what he and his supporters think is right.

A few weeks back this quote was posted on the UU board at town center: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." John F. Kennedy

It's a timely insight. It's where we are now. And while things haven't gotten "violent," thankfully, they will continue to descend toward events like last night's fiasco if someone in the current majority doesn't step up and say it's wrong.

Mr. Woodard, you're the Chairman now. Congratulations, sincerely. If you really want to serve Sudbury - and I believe you do - start the process of healing the town by changing the way it does business.

Until that happens, no matter what you can achieve by more expedient means, your legacy will be the same as your predecessor's - a town so polarized and hostile it's unable to maintain the civility of even a BOS meeting.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?