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Picket Hamilton Green and Royston King
Dear Editor,
In the Stabroek News edition of Saturday 16, 2016, some disgruntled persons co-signed a letter that was addressed to the President. Their beef is the City Council’s arbitrary move to implement a parking lot in the East Street area. In his reply, not the President, the Mayor, said, “that the Council would be keeping the parking lot.” In other words, this is a done deal. Now if the Mayor had stopped there that would have been fine. Except he decided in his capacity, the right to talk down to the residents of the city. “People always want to drive everywhere. They want to go to the hospital, market, everywhere they want to drive.” And since the Mayor knows everything, he knows that “most of the signatures were from persons who weren’t even residing in the area.” This man is so full of hubris, it is overwhelming.
The unfortunate thing about this entire episode, however, is the ability of the Council to ride roughshod over the people of East Street. And the reason why this is done is because you people who live in a democracy still do not know what democracy means. Because if you did the letter you sent to the President would not have been sent. Citizens who have the franchise, do not beg in a democracy; they demand.
Democracy is not only about voting, then going home and going to bed. No, democracy is much more than that. Democracy is a process that you the citizen have to work at. Let me pull your coats to a few tenets of democracy.
1. Citizens involvement in decision making. (were you, people involve or included in this decision?)
2. A rule of Law
3. The freedom to dissent, without fear of reprisal.
4. Liberty and freedom
5. Education
6. Those with power (the politicians) are responsible to the people they govern and not the other way around.
7. In a democracy citizens do not beg they DEMAND.
Since parking in the lot is beyond your capacity to pay then ignore it. Leave it barren, in other words boycott it. Leave it for the personnel that the Mayor identified. There are several places you can park within the area, though you might have to walk two or three blocks to retrieve your vehicle. The next thing you need to do is to get your bodies into the street. According to the reports, all of you claim to have over a hundred followers, well have them picket (which is allowed in a democracy) the Mayor’s house and the Deputy Mayor’s house and the Town Clerk’s house including City Hall simultaneously. You will get their un-divided attention. Personally my feeling is that we should get rid of the present people who make up the City Council. I am happy that the LGE is coming soon.
Milton Bruce
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