It's Starting Already? It's Going to Be One of Those Fortnights.

One of our sadder BP election traditions is the election eve drive-by screed.  It's on one or both sides of a piece of paper typed and photocopied for all of us, and it's unsigned.  It features a spate of allegations, usually of nefarious and scandalous "facts" about the candidate referenced.

The two distinguishing features of this communication are that it is anonymous, and that it is presented at a time when the victim cannot address any of the allegations: the night before the election.  In this sense, it is both cowardly (and illegal, interestingly enough) and underhanded.  I have also never seen one of these in which I had confidence the assertions were true.

I fully expect to be the subject/victim of one of these myself this year.  I doubt anyone will allege that I am a drug addict, child molester, or former embezzler, but I would expect, based on the kind of material typically presented, and the bent of the person who I think is behind these, some quotes from this blog.  The fact is, I was going to mention to you just before the election that you should expect this screed, and you should consider 1) that it is unattributed/unsigned, and 2) that it is strategically circulated at a time that it cannot be responded to.  So take it for what it appears to be worth, and the fact that whoever initiates it does not have the courage, honesty, and decency to tell you who he or she is.

But this year, we apparently have a variation on the theme, as they say.  This year, there is an e-mail circulation (I'm not sure how wide the circulation was-- two people sent it to me) about Roxy Ross and an anti-bullying Resolution.  The e-mail says that Roxy Ross "doesn't seem to comprehend the severity of this [bullying] problem," that she "refused to support an amendment to the Resolution against bullying of adults and...[Village] employees," that she "only supported efforts against bullying of children!" (the author adds the quotation mark, showing how outrageous he/she thinks it is that Roxy Ross objects to bullying of children), and that she "fought against [an] amendment that would've resulted in a win-win compromise."

"She absolutely refused to compromise, " our guerrilla tells us, "thereby undermining...efficiency in government."  Had Roxy Ross acceded to amendments and "compromises," we're told, "it would've saved our citizens tax dollars which must now be spent on Village staff and legal counsel which will have to hear another Resolution on bullying."

If you attended Village Commission meetings, you would know which Commissioner nurses grudges about irrelevant details forever, who is terribly hung up on the concept of imagined bullying of Village employees, who very typically distorts and perverts the positions of others to contort them into their precise opposites, and who is seemingly in love with wasting Village money on legal wild goose chases.  It was in fact Roxy Ross who introduced the anti-bullying Resolution, it was Roxy who championed it, Roxy wrote it herself, using her legal skills and training and saving the Village the cost of having our attorney do it, and Roxy who attempted to consider amendments, until the amendments required wholesale reworking of the entire Resolution.  It was at that point that Roxy suggested to the obsessed Commissioner that he redo her Resolution himself.  As you can see from his comments, he is fond of criticizing, but not fond of work.

So I'm sorry to have to observe that it has apparently started, and almost two weeks in advance.  Unfortunately, but not at all atypically or unexpectedly, the e-circulation is not revealed, so Roxy can counter the distortions and dishonest implications, but she cannot communicate this to the people who received the e-mail.  She has no way to know who they are.

I suppose we should assume there is more to come.  Our brave and honest correspondent calls him- or herself biscayneparkpride@yahoo.com.  I'm not sure where "pride" comes into it, but at least we're provided with an anonymous e-mail source for this pathetic nonsense.

By the way, as I told you regarding vandalism or theft of campaign signs, circulating of material like this anonymously and without a permit is not legal.  If you happen to see the distributing rats scurrying around with the paper version, see if you know who they are, or get any description you can, and call our police.  They will very much want to know.