Letter to the Editor submitted for publication to the Brainerd Dispatch
mike.orourke@brainerddispatch.com
The title of your article, "Protest Leads to Abbreviated Little Falls Council Meeting" June 6, 2013) is highly misleading on several counts.
First of all; it was, according to your story, members of the audience who started the disruption and trouble, not Robin Hensel.
I have been to city council meetings all over Minnesota and in many other states where people frequently display signs setting forth their views and grievances--- people living in a democracy kind of expect to have these kinds of rights, eh?
Second; in addition to the very clear constitutional issue of the right to freedom of speech, there are the issues involved with this government spending trillions of dollars for wars killing people--- as the signs depicted, and no one is claiming the pictures are not what Robin Hensel claims them to be: the barbaric result of what happens in wars; children suffer and die.
Third; national priorities are linked to state and local priorities in that the more our government spends on wars the less is available for state and local governments.
Have we not all heard local officials complain their funding for this or that project has been cut?
We pay for wars with the result being our public schools are severely under-funded.
We fund barbaric drone warfare so there is no money for a fully funded Food Stamp program. Both of Minnesota's two U.S. Senators shamefully voted not to restore cuts for Food Stamps. I heard no complaints about this injustice of punishing the poor to pay for wars from the Brainerd Mayor, City Council members or these "concerned citizens" whose only "concern" extends to trying to silence Robin Hensel.
That any public body would exert so much time, resources and tax-payer dollars towards trying to silence a citizen who is hurting no one as she expresses her opinions is a disgrace and makes a mockery of democracy.
It is not Robin Hensel with the mental problems as some are slandering her; it is a government that wastes money trying to prevent a citizen from participating in the decision-making process and squanders our tax dollars on these barbaric drone wars and kills thousands of innocent children in these dirty wars while labeling their deaths as "collateral damage" which reflects the epitome of insanity.
I am thankful we have people like Robin Hensel who refuse to be bullied into silence. Anyone who doesn't like what she has to say, what she writes or what she places on her signs just like Ben Franklin and Tom Paine did have the right to ignore her pleas for peace, social and economic justice.
Second; in addition to the very clear constitutional issue of the right to freedom of speech, there are the issues involved with this government spending trillions of dollars for wars killing people--- as the signs depicted, and no one is claiming the pictures are not what Robin Hensel claims them to be: the barbaric result of what happens in wars; children suffer and die.
Third; national priorities are linked to state and local priorities in that the more our government spends on wars the less is available for state and local governments.
Have we not all heard local officials complain their funding for this or that project has been cut?
We pay for wars with the result being our public schools are severely under-funded.
We fund barbaric drone warfare so there is no money for a fully funded Food Stamp program. Both of Minnesota's two U.S. Senators shamefully voted not to restore cuts for Food Stamps. I heard no complaints about this injustice of punishing the poor to pay for wars from the Brainerd Mayor, City Council members or these "concerned citizens" whose only "concern" extends to trying to silence Robin Hensel.
That any public body would exert so much time, resources and tax-payer dollars towards trying to silence a citizen who is hurting no one as she expresses her opinions is a disgrace and makes a mockery of democracy.
It is not Robin Hensel with the mental problems as some are slandering her; it is a government that wastes money trying to prevent a citizen from participating in the decision-making process and squanders our tax dollars on these barbaric drone wars and kills thousands of innocent children in these dirty wars while labeling their deaths as "collateral damage" which reflects the epitome of insanity.
I am thankful we have people like Robin Hensel who refuse to be bullied into silence. Anyone who doesn't like what she has to say, what she writes or what she places on her signs just like Ben Franklin and Tom Paine did have the right to ignore her pleas for peace, social and economic justice.
In a democratic and civilized society people who disagree engage one another in discussion, dialog and debate they don't try to intimidate and bully others with views differing from their own into silence--- Joe McCarthy tried such tactics--- our society still suffers the consequences as the actions of these bullies badgering Robin Hensel attest to.
Robin Hensel shares her views and opinions using her own name; more than can be said of those who are engaged in a smear campaign against her who cowardly hide behind monikers and anonymity.
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Robin Hensel shares her views and opinions using her own name; more than can be said of those who are engaged in a smear campaign against her who cowardly hide behind monikers and anonymity.
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-5541
Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com
Blog: http://thepodunkblog.
Link to Brainerd Dispatch article: http://m.
Link to comments: http://m.
Link to Brainerd Dispatch article: http://m.
Link to comments: http://m.
