veiled4allah: lessons from a small town

My mom is from a small town in northern Minnesota called Ely. Some of her family still lives there including her 95-year old mother, her two sisters, and various relatives of an older generation. My mom had gone back to Ely during the first two weeks of March to talk with her sisters about the care of my grandmother.

As it happens, Ely was in the midst of a big debate. In late February, a women's group in Ely presented the city council with an antiwar resolution, which the council passed. At this point the local veteran's groups got involved. As detailed in the Christian Science Monitor, they lobbied for a new city council meeting. On February 28, the council rescinded their previous resolution.

But there story hasn't ended there. According to a story in a local newspaper, two members of the council had voted not to rescind the antiwar resolution. Now some citizens want to recall those two council members, that is, have them removed from the city council.

I find this latest development troubling. Clearly there is support in Ely for the antiwar position or the council wouldn't have voted for the resolution in the first place. So the two council members are just representing the views of some of the people of Ely, which is their job. But even if they weren't, why should they be removed from office for holding a particular political viewpoint?

I don't understand the need of some people to stifle and supress voices of dissent. Freedom of speech, and specifically freedom of political speech, is one of the things that has made America great. I don't want our country to end up a place where you get punished for criticizing the government. That would be a betrayal of what we stand for and what we founded this country for.