written by Barbara Smith,
Blogger and Social Justice Activist
https://www.facebook.com/HWdemocrats/
Below are screenshots from an article in the Salem News….. The article is titled “Diversity a Must for Fair Housing.” However I am adding my thoughts below….
Please scroll to the opinion page to read the online edition. The Salem News (newsmemory.com)
Residents all have equal opportunity to impact town policy through town meetings and voting….
In direct democracies like ours in Hamilton, the PEOPLE who live here and pay taxes here and live here for a long time will of course step up to serve…..what are they thinking that this is a bad thing? Insulting long-time citizens who have built what we have is the ultimate insult. By the way, People of Color actually do live in Hamilton and Wenham. They have the same opportunity to participate in Democracy as any other resident.
When people vote, and the outcome is not what they want, the Salem News is now going anti-democracy?? The majority by necessity must rule in a direct democracy; that is just how it works. Period.
The people who are elected must serve the PEOPLE…all of them who live in that Town. We don’t vote for leaders and then expect them to solve state and national problems!! We work to solve our local issues together and the majority rules.. The Salem news, just like the faith-based, political lobby called the Hamilton Wenham Human Rights Coalition are dissing folks who choose to live here for decades, they are dissing our form of direct democracy.
Anna Siedzik calls senior citizens such as myself who have lived here 25 years and pay outrageous taxes “CLASSIST”…. as an atheist, I have always been unwelcome and I have long wanted to leave just like many other parents whose children have graduated…. but I have family complications and will leave when I choose. I refuse to be bullied to leave because Anna and her cult hate me….
The faith-based Cult led by Anna Voldemort who now controls all elected and appointed Hamilton Town officials, as well as the Hamilton Wenham FB media and the Democratic Town Committees. As a lifelong Democrat and former chair of the Hamilton Democratic Town Committee, I have always worked for social justice. However, when I requested that the Coalition and town Commissions respect and protect the classes of “women” and “atheists”… Anna turned me into the enemy. She called me a “racist”, “bigot”, TERF and “classist”. She is a self righteous , control freak and has unduly influenced the Salem News editorial board . Newspapers love controversy and creating “bad guys” to pit against “good guys”.
Towns can move forward on promoting diversity without bullying, threatening, lying and worse ….Why does someone like Anna who earns income from selling housing units have outsized control of all things Hamilton???. Hamilton officials DO want diversity, but this can be achieved without harming the environment and calling people who do NOT obey Anna nasty names. We need to have a conversation without lies and bullying and I learned a year ago that that the Coalition Cult is unable to do that. That is because CULT FOLLOWERS WITH CULT BRAINS DO NOT LISTEN.
Hamilton officials are not required to take on the world to fill Anna’s dream.
Elected leaders must work for the people who live here already and the taxpayers who support the municipality. If one does not want to live in such a community, then they should go somewhere else that meets their needs and righteous demands.
One other obvious feature of this article in the Salem News is that the editorial board probably consists of mostly middle-aged white, self-righteous, and performative people who lived here on the North Shore for decades in upper class neighborhoods….do as we say not as we do…..I think Salem News is “pro-development regardless of consequences” just like AS (aka Voldemort). They are destructive and anti-democratic. People can live where they want in the place they love. I am really pissed off at these people who should know better.
An Easy Fix…
Anna S. Voldemort has an obvious CONFLICT OF INTEREST. She needs to work for her faith based, political lobby and QUIT the School Board. She is not working for parents or the town, she is working for herself and her cult followers. She should resign from her job at the faith based, Development company HarborLight. She needs to choose who to answer to ….. because currently she is not working for the people of Hamilton….