Sacrifice is the currency of commitment

Because our power is exercised by and through public servants; it is important that public servants are accountable to us. It is our only control over the power we entrust to them.

Public forum is the only place where a community member can personally hold public servants accountable for their conduct and their competence.

When the public forum was removed from the public record; it was at the forfeit of its purpose.

Public servants have decided that they will not answer questions about their public service on the record.

We have lost control of our power. What more proof do you need than the fact that they can refuse to answer questions about what they are doing with it? And then get away with it.

It is unacceptable. We must regain control over our power. We do that by establishing accountability for its use; accountability to us.

With membership in a community comes dues; the obligation to fair share the burdens which must be borne in community best interests. Sometimes the burden includes standing in defense of principles that are important to the community.

Like the following principle.

The least powerful citizen should be able to hold the most powerful public servant honestly accountable for their conduct and their competence.

Those who believe in that principle have dues to pay in its defense.

The only proof of commitment to a principle is to stand up in its defense; even at some sacrifice. There is no equivalent gesture. There is walking the walk; and there is everything else.

Principles are protected only by those standing in their defense.

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King, Jr

Public forum died Thursday evening not by the words of its enemies. It died by the silence of its friends.