Editor’s Note: Mike Tupper copied us on this letter to Hubert Smith regarding his recall petition.
Mr. Smith,
I have purposely stayed out of the fray you have created over the past few months. Even when you stopped my wife and me on one of our walks with your recall petition, we were as polite as possible as we sidestepped the discussion with you.
But now, with the recent numerous e-mails that are clogging up my inbox, it’s time for me to put a stop to this as it relates to me. I have just put a block on incoming e-mails from you, which I’m certain other citizens have already done.
I spent several years as a volunteer fireman in fire district 5, where we always had a very fast first response by the small cadre of professional firefighters (usually only two) we had, but often it took quite a while for us back-up volunteers to get from our homes to the station and then to the incident. And I can’t imagine what it would have been like without the professionals being a guiding force with their training and knowledge.
But for me the fire department stuff is a side issue, and one to be determined in a more reasonable way than a senseless and costly recall attempt. When I took government classes in school, I was taught that when you didn’t agree with public officials you voted them out of office, and that the recall process was something rarely used, and only when an official did something illegal, such as stealing or using public funds for personal benefit. Obviously, you must have felt this threshold was crossed with the officials you attempted to recall; but I am among the throngs who do not think there was any justification for such wasteful action. And that group would include people whose basic views on the fire department coordinate with yours.
With your recent methods and insulting vitriol, you are no doubt losing the support of some in the community who would agree with you on the basic issue which drove you to such an extreme approach, but who have been turned off by that approach. Indeed, those very people would be the ones who feel you are currently damaging their case. The rest of us should be thanking you for turning a complicated issue into one that is quickly appearing black and white.
It might not be fair for me to not allow a retort from you to reach me, but that’s what’s happening any way. Your e-mails will no longer be reaching my inbox. Just as with my friend Terry Erdmann, this is my last comment on this. I have plenty of other things to do.
Mike Tupper