Mary Cedeno, who has been leading the charge to facilitate an informed vote for the Middleport library tax, has sent us a letter to the editor as a follow-up to Monday's library board meeting.
SMUG
By Mary Cedeno
Some of my co-workers were surprised that I would take a vacation day for "politics". Well, it can certainly be called "politics", but to me, this is not simply a fight over a new tax. This is a fight to maintain my freedoms and liberties, afforded to me by the people who fought in wars, and died, or came back maimed, and many mentally scarred for the rest of their lives; my father and uncle among them. My father buried his brother twice, once in Guadalcanal when he died on the battlefield next to him, and again after they brought his body back to the US. I never got to meet that uncle, uncle John, but there is a memorial to him at a small park in the Town of Niagara.
And the more I thought about that, the more disgusted I became as I stared at those smug looks on the faces of the Library board members as they peered over their glasses and down their noses at us, the taxpayers, the voters, the Americans whose freedoms and liberties they so disregarded.
The library board refused to answer any questions from the taxpayers who took time out of their lives to attend this "public" meeting. They simply stared at us as we scolded them, and explained to them that according to the NYS Dept. of Education, THEY are supposed to be the advocates for the taxpayer in this case. But it was painfully obvious to all of us sitting in this crowded, tiny, upstairs room of the Village library, these people apparently have only one cause in mind and that is THEIR OWN.
While it is still debatable whether they have indeed followed the letter of the law or not, it is clear that the intent of publishing the notices in the paper is to alert the community to the vote. From the facts surrounding us, I think we all can see that this Library Board had no intention of alerting the community at large about their plans for expansion and taxation. The fact that they hide behind the letter of the law makes that obvious. They didn't want discussion or opinions, before or after the vote...they simply wanted your money.
Let's face it, newspapers are becoming as obsolete as libraries and there are already two other larger libraries in the vicinity (Medina and Lockport). Computers have taken over, and kids don't go to libraries to do research for papers anymore, they do it from their laptops in their bedrooms, or at the school library.
I encourage every patriot who has had a loved one serve, die, or come back maimed from a war, to get behind our cause...our cause is just, it is the VOTE that we are fighting to maintain; it is NOT about a village library.
SMUG
By Mary Cedeno
Some of my co-workers were surprised that I would take a vacation day for "politics". Well, it can certainly be called "politics", but to me, this is not simply a fight over a new tax. This is a fight to maintain my freedoms and liberties, afforded to me by the people who fought in wars, and died, or came back maimed, and many mentally scarred for the rest of their lives; my father and uncle among them. My father buried his brother twice, once in Guadalcanal when he died on the battlefield next to him, and again after they brought his body back to the US. I never got to meet that uncle, uncle John, but there is a memorial to him at a small park in the Town of Niagara.
And the more I thought about that, the more disgusted I became as I stared at those smug looks on the faces of the Library board members as they peered over their glasses and down their noses at us, the taxpayers, the voters, the Americans whose freedoms and liberties they so disregarded.
The library board refused to answer any questions from the taxpayers who took time out of their lives to attend this "public" meeting. They simply stared at us as we scolded them, and explained to them that according to the NYS Dept. of Education, THEY are supposed to be the advocates for the taxpayer in this case. But it was painfully obvious to all of us sitting in this crowded, tiny, upstairs room of the Village library, these people apparently have only one cause in mind and that is THEIR OWN.
While it is still debatable whether they have indeed followed the letter of the law or not, it is clear that the intent of publishing the notices in the paper is to alert the community to the vote. From the facts surrounding us, I think we all can see that this Library Board had no intention of alerting the community at large about their plans for expansion and taxation. The fact that they hide behind the letter of the law makes that obvious. They didn't want discussion or opinions, before or after the vote...they simply wanted your money.
Let's face it, newspapers are becoming as obsolete as libraries and there are already two other larger libraries in the vicinity (Medina and Lockport). Computers have taken over, and kids don't go to libraries to do research for papers anymore, they do it from their laptops in their bedrooms, or at the school library.
I encourage every patriot who has had a loved one serve, die, or come back maimed from a war, to get behind our cause...our cause is just, it is the VOTE that we are fighting to maintain; it is NOT about a village library.
