[Newspoetry] Re: [Imc] Dirty Tricks Newsflash

[Mike Lehman]

Esther,
I can understand how you feel about this situation. I am sure they are
not officially employed by the Dems to do this and I apologize if what I
said was taken to imply such a thing. There is no evidence of that.
However, I feel stongly that whoever is doing this is guilty of bullying
behavior and attempting to impose censorship on political viewpoints
they disagree with. They certainly do not seem to be visiting such a
fate on Dem yard signs in close proximity to Nader's.

I will not be bullied or censored. That is exactly the nmessage being
sent when this kind of "selective vandalism" occurs.

It took a certain leap of faith to put out those signs other than
Nader's, something which I have not done before. If this is the thanks I
get, even unofficially, I will not trouble myself with keeping those
signs up, or "risk" that they may suffer "vandalism" also. I don't feel
it is simply vandalism because of the systematic, specific, selective
nature of these occurances, of which I am only the latest victim. I
pledged when I heard about the last case that if this happened here, I
would be forced into taking the action I did.

Unfortunately, the systematic occurance of this sort of behavior has
risen in the last two weeks at the same time as the Gore people launched
a scorched earth campaign against Nader. I certainly do not believe that
this is something that any thoughtful member of the Democratic party
would engage in or tolerate. But we all know there are loose cannons in
any group whose counter-productive behavior is at odds with the interest
of the larger group.

Whoever these young hooligans are, they clearly are targeting Nader
signs. I think that it would be helpful if those of good will would
isssue a declaration condemning this sort of behavior in the wake of
repeated occurances that have plagued this election season. And I hope
that they also pledge that they will hand over to the proper authorities
any information they might become aware of in regards to these crimes. I
intend to write both Jim Buell and Gerrie Parr about this. Something
needs to be done to remind those who may go astray that there are limits
to what some may foolishly disregard as "fun and games."

Mike Lehman

patt esther b wrote:
> 
> I don't see the value of taking down signs you have for other candidates
> because someone stole one of your signs.  Do you really think your Nader
> sign was taken by Gerrie Parr or Chub Conner or anyone working for them
> (or whoever you have signs for)?