The Geraldine Amato beat down

In the Journal, link, we find that the APS Board Members,
City Councilors and County Commissioners soon won't have
Geraldine Amato to kick around any more.

Amato was a fixture at public forums at public meetings of the school board, city council and county commissions. She availed herself of her Constitutionally protected human right to petition her government to the extent that rules were drafted to limit her impact.

I have listened to Amato on a number of occasions. I found her difficult to understand. Part of that has to do with the inherent difficulty anyone would have in expressing complex positions in two minutes allowed at the podium. Part of it has to do with Ms Amato's affect which many find off putting.

The trouble with enabling citizens to freely exercise their Constitutionally protected human rights, is that you enable people to do everything they want, up to the point where they have broken the law. There is no clear line between comfortable exercises and uncomfortable exercises. The only clear line is the law. I never saw Amato break the law. I never saw anything anywhere close.

I never saw her do anything that justified the disrespect she was dealt at the hands of politicians and public servants.

Amato owns whatever part of her
image she creates at the podium.

The rest of her image, some of the
worst parts, were created or
exacerbated by the politicians and
public servants she annoyed.

Government is not permitted to be
"annoyed" by any citizen's lawful petition.

Government is not permitted to act on that annoyance by limiting the free exercise of Constitutionally protected human rights. There is no pay back permitted.

Photojournalist Mark Bralley snapped this shot of "County employees Paul Evans and Sherri Olsen, who work in the Public Information Office, and Deputy County Manager John Dantis, right; expressing disdain for Amato on election night in the County Commission/City Council chambers, when they passed around a bottle of water she had left from the City Council meeting the night before".

In Bralley's experience, he wrote, link, "It seems the greatest contempt for those who make public comments comes from public employees and elected officials".

Mohandas Gandhi drew conclusions on the consequences of speaking truth to power;

First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they fight you
then you win.

Watch school board members, city councilors and county commissioners during public forum. Are legitimate petitions being given due process, a good faith response of any kind? Or are board members, councilors and commissions buried in their laptops?

Amato has taken more than her fair share of abuse, as much for standing up to speak truth to power as for the manner in which she went about it. She has been ignored, she has been laughed at, but she didn't make it to the fight. There still is no place in government, where government will sit still and respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly, to questions and complaints about the public interests and about their public service.

Upon her leaving, Amato "... wishes she received more respect in the chambers ...

“Instead of being treated as a respected elder,” Amato said, “I’m treated at those meetings with contempt and disrespect. I’m badgered, annoyed, harassed for what I say.

As I get older, the aggravation is harder to endure.”

The clear loser here; honest accountability for politicians and public servants, to the citizens they serve.




photos Mark Bralley