SPEAK OUT!

Bad things have happened to our town of Ashfield. They must be replaced with good things. For this to happen we must become aware. This is a good thing. To be aware of wrong-doing and not speak out adds to the problem.

For most of us this has never been about the chief of police as an individual. This has been said over and over again, yet it has fallen on deaf ears. It is tedious and tiresome that some still characterize this fight as support for the chief and nothing else.

This fight is about free speech for all, participatory government for all, fair process for all.

This is about standing against backroom deals, mob boss directives, and repression by petty dictators and their uniformed enforcers.

Tanks rolling through the square may be the grand acts of repression, easily identified and condemned. But subtle acts are no less repressive and may be more insidious - such as a newspaper shaming private citizens into silence by calling their legal democratic acts, maybe even their duty, "spiteful" and a "bit of nastiness;" public meetings where some are allowed the floor and others denied or shouted down; where some are denounced for release of information, but others encouraged; when supposedly public meetings are held in private establishments where all do not feel welcome or feel ashamed that they may not have the money to buy that coffee.

This upheaval has taken on a life of its own and it will not go away on its own. Every citizen of Ashfield has a right and a duty to speak out. Reclaim your town! Use your freedom of speech to ensure that Ashfield has solid, open and honest government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Many years ago I was in combat fighting in WW II . This very day our kids are fighting and dying to preserve this freedom for ALL people.

This very day join them in spirit. SPEAK OUT.

Don Lesure, you're not alone in this foxhole.

Jim Maloney

(Editor's Note: See Freedom of Speech, Etc. by Don Lesure)