Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

After reading this site for some time I am disturbed by the level of discourse. For too long Pickerington has been the wild west of politics where any practice is tolerated. People spread rumors anaonymously, send materials around town anonymoulsy and render anonymous statements of ''fact'' without any effort to discern the truth.

People who are interested in good government do not need to hide behind anonymous postings or engage in ad hominem attacks against those who disagree with thier views. They certainly do not need to send anonymous packages to newspapers or attack the families of those who do have the courage to step into the arena of public discourse.

As a particular example, I give you the recent attacks on Bruce Rigelman. Whether you agree with Bruce or not, there is no reason to call him a crook (without evidence) or to disparage him through silly and juvenile attacks on his character. I would Also give you the example of Heidi Riggs, who has been called almost every name under the sun and accused of all sorts of wrongdoing by ''anonymous'' individuals.


At a personal level, it does bother me to be the target of anonymous posting and often libelous statements about my character. Like many people who get into politics, my desire has to been to create a better community. Also, like many people who enter the political arena I am becoming tired of being the subject of anonymous attacks and unfounded rumors. If you wish good people to become involved in politics, you need to recognize that one of the barriers to participation is that many simply do not wish to have thier names dragged through the mud or have their personal lives subjected to rude and tasteless attacks. It is particularly irksome when these attacks come from people who do not have the courage or common decency to identify themselves.

If you wish to have a better city, I would start with simple civility in political discourse. I would also start with a simple dose of courage. If you want to express an opinion and be taken seriously, then use your name.

I Agree!

Road Runner & Coyote need to step up to the plate!

DELETE ANONYMOUS POSTERS! EXCEPET THIS ONE!

Thanks a lot.

By Sponge Bob

Not the Point

You've missed the mayor's point, absorbent one.

No one should have to expose themselves to libel and personal threats simply to express their opinion, to run for local office or to manage this web site. This is why hardly anyone wants to be webmaster, and no one wants to run for school board. We should be grateful to those, such as our Mayor, who have braved this gauntlet.

We're probably dealing, here, with no more than a half dozen bad eggs, perhaps less. Some of the perps may actually be children. Anyone know what we should do about them?

Should the webmaster adopt some ground rules for posting here, and then disclose the actual names of violators? Should postings that break the rules be deleted? Should someone sue one of these perps?

One thing's for certain: libelous speech is not protected by the First Amendment, nor is speech that constitutes an invasion of privacy. So lets not tolerate any more of this ''let freedom ring'' stuff from the perps.




By Yosemite Pam

Question for the Mayor

What exactly do you hope to accomplish by either forcing people that post here to use their real names or deleting those postings from the individuals that don't?

What do we gain? I'm pretty sure that I know what we'll lose. Then what happens? Whose postings do we target next? I think you'll find that once you up Pandora's Box, you?’ll find it quite difficult to close it again.

Quite frankly sir, and with all due respect to your office, I will fight to protect the names of those that post here, as well as what they post here, to my dying day. Whether I agree with what is posted or not is not the point, I took on this responsibility, and I will carry it out.


By Coyote