>>Valley Patriot>>
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Please! Just Shut Up and Vote!
The
grandstanding, self praise and speech-making at Lawrence
City Council meetings have got to stop!
Too often these meetings go on for hours with no end in
sight because certain councilors have a deep personal
need to speak on every single issue whether they have
something relevant to say or not. Then, these same
councilors ask questions that have already been asked and
answered numerous times … only to have yet another
clueless councilor ask the very same question (while
taking ten minutes to do it).
In short, certain councilors are compelled to speak on
EVERYTHING while it is clear they are listening to
NOTHING, even the answers to their self serving
“questions.” 
While the Board of Selectmen in North Andover and the
city councils in Methuen and Haverhill actually talk TO
each other, discussing relevant items on their agendas,
Lawrence councilors talk to the cameras, themselves or
the audience as if a council meeting is their own
personal soap box.
This consistent droning on, ad nauseam, only serves to
bore the audience and is unfair to every member of the
public, not to mention the city workers, developers and
business people who must sit through these ridiculous
lectures after a long, hard, day at work.
Speeches, platitudes, self praise disguised as praise for
others, and juvenile bickering about how slighted someone
feels, have no place at the council table.
And, while a certain amount of pontificating,
grandstanding and speech making can be witnessed at any
local government meeting in the Merrimack Valley, the
Lawrence City Council seems to have the market cornered
on self-serving dribble and mindless droning while the
public at home wonders, “are these people actually
going to VOTE on something?”
Please, councilors, for the love of God, when an issue
comes up at the council table, nobody wants to hear how
much you care. Nobody gives a damn what the motive is
behind every single vote you take, (really!) and nobody
cares about your personal issues with other city
councilors. What they care about is how you are going to
vote.
So, for the sanity of the people of Lawrence, stop the
campaigning, stop making speeches masked as a question
and control your need for public recognition and
television time.
The city of Lawrence would be much better off if you
would just shut up and vote!
Tom Duggan is the president of Valley
Patriot, Inc., a former Lawrence School Committeeman, and
hosts the Paying Attention! Radio Program on WCAP, 980AM,
every Saturday afternoon from noon-2pm. You can email
your comments to Tdugjr@ aol.com.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The December, 2006
Edition of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2006, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 10,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover,
Methuen, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Groveland,
Boxford,
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury, Hampton & Salisbury
Beach, and Lowell.
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