Our Town Council is convening a special meeting tonight to consider a mask requirement for everyone in Town to protect “the public health and safety” of the community.
Downtown residents like me are already dealing with another grave threat to the “public health and safety” that the Town Council declared last November: the “dangerous blight” of the Springs property. That property is about one city block (in urban renewal terms) from my house. The Town Council told me it is a sinkhole of unsanitary conditions that threatens the public health, safety and morals of my Town. The seemingly lovely riverside acres my children used to play along are apparently plagued with dumped refuse, unsanitary and unsafe conditions, scalding water and underground caverns that are life threatening. The Council formally declared much of the geographic heart of our Town a “dangerous blight.”
To be fair, when the Town Council was discussing and passing its phony determination of “dangerous blight” no one was aware that a genuine blight upon our community’s health and safety was coming by a fast plane from China.
That’s why “honesty is the best policy”. Because you can’t foresee the consequences of playing games with words and issuing very formal, very dishonest declarations to help a local real estate scheme grab a $79.6 Million tax break.
When responding to a genuine public health threat, a local government proposing mandates and penalties needs credibility and a reputation for plain speaking and fair dealing. The entire mask issue was terribly confused by the tactical lies from public health officials early in the crisis in order to preserve limited supplies for health care workers.
The “boys who cried blight” on the Council have sacrificed some of that crucial credibility with their “dangerous blight” declaration.
They — and we — really needed all that credibility tonight.