Don't Tase Me, Bro
For the past few weeks, I have been made aware of e-mail transcripts from the elected officials of the Southern Platte County Ambulance District (SPCAD) that have disparaged yours — and America’s — favorite newspaper (The Parkville Luminary).
Naturally, there are plenty of people who have seen the documents – made public by a Sunshine request of Deborah Hammond, the ambulance district initiative organizer and the board’s chief critic since its inception.
Of the requested documents released was a January 29, 2007 e-mail from board member Fred Sanchez to all the Board members with an attached story from the Parkville Luminary. Sanchez marveled over the story’s content and stated in the e-mail that he had “been involved in politics for 26 years and have never, ever seen anything like what has happened to this board in terms of yellow journalism.”
You’re welcome, Mr. Sanchez.
For those of you who’d like to read the story, head to http://www.parkvilleluminary.com/news/platte_county/ambulance_district_chooses_mast.php.
After a quick read through, you can see that it was hardly the sort of dissonance that would have merited getting tasered over. Interesting that it should have a local taxlord who has been picking through your wallet for the past quarter century – someone like, say, Mr. Sanchez – in such a tizzy though.
The Luminary has been the only newspaper in America covering the ambulance issue in southern Platte County for the past several years. When the board voted to raise taxes excessively (14-cents per $100 of your assessed valuation), the Luminary was quick to shine the light on the board’s bloated budget, faulty reasoning and conflicts of interests. I’m not narcissistic enough to say that we lowered your taxes with our coverage…but we lowered your taxes with our coverage. In response, Mr. Sanchez apparently conspired to propose “an addition to the language that speaks to the public/comment segment (of the Board agenda)…..the words’ except for members of the media’ should be added…”
Mr. Sanchez apparently neglected to remember that Martha Zirschky, the secretary of the SPCAD, writes for the Kansas City Star and is a “member of the media.” And while a journalist seeks to never become a participant in the story they are reporting on, I am not aware of any politician in the last 26 years who ever tried to censor them outright like that.
Look, I get it…with the amount of editorializing I’ve done in this space and the amount of headlines the SPCAD has provided us over the past year, I’d be a little worried if members of the board didn’t call us a few names here and there. And we would never ban a member of the board from commenting in our public forum – please read board president Bobby Kincaid’s mea culpa in the space at right.
I suppose it’s plenty appropriate to hear about things like this during a week that will be remembered for the tasering of a college student who appeared just a little bit too “uppity” at a question and answer session with Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. Either way, the Luminary soldiers on…shedding light wherever and whenever need be, for just pennies a day. Run the numbers on community newspapers yourself and find out for yourself…it’s a very wise investment indeed.