Back in April, after the hoopla regarding the O'Zone's publication of the Arbitration decision in the case of Jonathan Jacobson, I conducted a poll of readers regarding whether the current principal of Southbridge High should stay or go.At the conclusion of the article reporting the results of the poll, I wrote the following; “My prediction; I’ll end up being the villain in this black comedy.”
Yesterday I encountered an old friend (I’m talking a friend of over 40 years). We share a number of friends, many of whom are intimately involved in this affair.
He criticized me for going after my friends and trying to hurt them. When I tried to explain the situation his attitude was that you shouldn’t be disloyal to your friends.
Now, I know that this friend doesn’t have a computer, so he doesn’t read what I write. He gets his information from people who talk to him and from the local paper. He was told that I was being manipulated by “the other side” in the school committee controversy.
Today another acquaintance active in school affairs warned me that I was going to lose a lot of friends over this.
It is clear that a number of people with whom I’ve enjoyed a close relationship over the years are now decrying me as being disloyal and seeking to hurt them in the upcoming election.
I am disappointed by this. I challenge any of these critics to show where I have expressed an opinion on these issues. I have published the facts as I have come to know them. I have repeatedly offered a forum to those who disagree with me or the factual nature of what I have published.
What I have expressed an opinion on is the right of the public to have this information, especially prior to an election. Good government should not be a function of the buddy system – in fact it rarely is. Someone who would make a friendship contingent upon agreement over matters of policy is insincere and shallow. Such people have no place in government or public life, because their conduct eventually comes to be dominated by venality and vindictiveness. Neither of these fosters the well-being of the community.
I most certainly have not engaged in character assassination, a matter that Brent Abrahamson has addressed with stark irony. If anything, that is precisely what I am being subjected to.
I hope that such people will realize that I take responsibility for what I write. I do it openly and publicly, not in whispered undertones behind closed doors to coffee shop and bar patrons. I do not take responsibility for the opinions expressed by others, except to the extent to which they violate the guidelines I have laid down for them.
Anything more that needs to be said on this subject I’ve written in an earlier article titled “Let’s Kill The Messenger”.
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