I Disagree With You, So Shut Up!

A couple of years ago, I attended a City Council meeting to see how the Counil would vote on a new ordinance. This was the first time I'd been in Council Chambers to see my city government in action.

I found a seat in the second row and before the meeting started, I saw one City Councilor approach two people in front of me, supporters of the measure in question. "Don't worry," she whispered to them with a wink, "it's in the bag."

Later in the meeting, after many members of the public got up to speak in favor of and against the ordinance, the City Council finally got around to taking a vote. It passed easily.

Now, I'll admit to being a bit naive back then about how much drama is really involved in a vote that comes up before the City Council, but I was really disturbed to see, up close, how the game can be so rigged sometimes.

Which brings me to the drama unfolding in Amherst, where Dr. Catherine Sanderson, Amherst College professor and School Committee member, keeps a blog where she deliberates very openly on the issues. At the most recent School Committee meeting, a member of the public scolded Dr. Sanderson for keeping a blog, saying that it made her uncomfortable to hear (or read) public officials giving their opinions. (You can see video here, on another Amherst blog).

I find this shocking. It's clear to me what the speaker meant is that she's uncomfortable with the fact that Dr. Sanderson doesn't agree with her. It's not the medium Dr. Sanderson is using to express her opinion that's the problem; it's the opinion. The implication is that people should keep dissenting or disturbing opinions to themselves. The implication is that blogs are somehow evil because they allow people to express their opinions.

It's chilling to think that people can believe that an appropriate way to respond to someone who disagrees with you is to find a way to silence that person.

The same principle applies, by the way, to people who maintain but don't allow people to comment.

I want my public officials to be open about how and why they vote they way they do, and a blog can be a perfect platform for sharing that information. I applaud Dr. Sanderson's blogging efforts and hope that she'll continue to show how effective a good blogger can be.