Dear Source:
It should come as no surprise to anyone who can fog a mirror that our local politics would be viewed by most of the United States as a mixture of buffoonery and larceny. With Senators voting themselves hefty pay raises and changing the retirement system so they can retire with full benefits after having done nothing useful for a couple of terms, while the rest of the Government employees have to work twenty or thirty years to get a fraction of their salary, larceny is about the most polite term that can be used. In the rest of the free world, politicians who perpetrated such an egregious act of selfish thievery would be not only recalled but also run out of town on a rail. As well they should be.
When a radio pundit brings these issues before the public, he is doing precisely what should be expected. His job is to gain listeners by raising controversial issues for debate and opinion. Where is the crime in that? When those same Senators raise issues about misuse of funds, inequitable treatment of constituents by government officials or other causes, they pat themselves on the back and say they are doing the people's business. When Roger W. Morgan does it, they call him a Klansman, a bigot and a liar, and attempt to interfere with his livelihood through misuse of their powers. Those Senators are the bigots and liars, and should be thrown out of office for attempted coercion by misuse of official office.
Make no mistake – I don't listen to Morgan's radio show, I have never met the man as far as I know, and have no great fondness for talk radio shows in general. However, the gentleman does have the Constitutional right to free speech, and Senators and other elected officials are specifically exempted from the protection of slander and libel laws for very good reason. In this shameful instance, our so-called "representatives" chose to stoop to the basest form of personal attack in an effort to still a voice that was bringing to light their shoddy and self-seeking practices.
Now our Senators' shameful activities have been published by one of the most respected and trusted newspapers in the States. Are they going to try to get the Wall Street Journal's printing privileges revoked? Or perhaps accuse the WSJ of being the propaganda machine of the Ku Klux Klan? Nothing would surprise me when it comes to such buffoons as Russell and Figueroa-Serville have shown themselves to be. It is probably too much to hope for that they would have the good sense to just keep quiet and let the issue fade away with time.
Rich Waugh
St. Croix
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