With the primary election poll-opening less than 24 hours away, we begin this week's discussion with the text of a wonderful Standard-Examiner letter to the editor appearing in yesterday's edition. It's brief ; so we'll incorporate it in full:
It's election time, and suddenly our mayor has decided to listen to residents who've told him the sale of the Mount Ogden Park would seriously damage Ogden's trail system -- an astounding and puzzling change of heart considering that on Sept. 28, 2006, an Ogden resident asked Mr. Godfrey why he was trying to "force the gondola project down our throats." Mr. Godfrey said it was "...because everybody I talk to thinks its a really good idea."We couldn't have said it better ourselves. And we'll add that a promise from Boss Godfrey and a couple of bucks will get you a cappuccino at Grounds for Coffee this morning, tomorrow morning, or any other morning.
I guess he meant everybody but the questioner and all the other Ogden residents who opposed the project.
Again, on May 16, 2006, at the Weber Center, our mayor declared he would be there promoting the Peterson project until he died.
I can't imagine a more clear declaration of intentions.
Heavens knows why Mr. Godfrey chose to push this highly divisive issue as far as he did. With so many projects we can agree on, why did he fight so hard for one that pitted neighbor against neighbor? The reasons may be hard to discern, but his single-minded devotion to the issue was not.
And now, with elections looming, he's changed his mind.
It's just too convenient. I beg you, citizens of Ogden, consider carefully what this man might do to our open space if we put him back in office. The recall process is long and difficult. It's time for someone who listens to all the people, all the time, to be our mayor.
Catherine Gerwels
Ogden
On the same topic, we're going to again highlight Dan Schroeder's excellent guest commentary, which also speaks about mayor Godfrey's true priorities.
We're calling it a guest commentary, although it really isn't that at all, because the Std-Ex editors declined to print the article in the first place, under circumstances that would have made Joe Stalin's propaganda minister blush. Professor Schroeder provides the details at the foot of today's article insert:
"This commentary was recently submitted to the Standard-Examiner. The editor agreed to publish it before the upcoming primary election only if Mayor Godfrey would write a companion column on a similar subject to run alongside. Godfrey declined to write such a column. I have therefore chosen to print and distribute this commentary at my own expense."
Shame on the Standard-Examiner, we say. Boss Godfrey has found a new way to impose press censorship, by simply "hiding out in his bunker" -- and the Standard-Examiner is complicit in this tactic.
Undaunted, the Dan Schroeder has on his own nickel now distributed this piece as a paid insert in this morning' Std-Ex edition; and we hope all Std-Ex readers have taken a good long look.
And we reiterate: Shame on the Standard-Examiner.
Boss Godfrey's pathological "gondola obsession" is a matter that brought the citizens of Ogden together like no other matter within recent memory. For two straight years, the Little Lord tormented the citizens of Emerald City with this lunatic pipe dream, a project that he arrogantly informed us "would happen," regardless of our objections. He labeled us "naysayers," "oppositionists" and "anti-progress." His Gondolist thugs demeaned us, mocked us and shouted us down at community meetings. We lumpencitizens nevertheless stood our ground. And then -- on the eve of an election -- Godfrey pretended he was listening to us.
We tremble with eager anticipation at the prospect of tomorrow's primary.
Time to show Boss Godfrey we're not a mere flock of gullible and forgetful sheep.
Adiós, Boss Godfrey. If all goes well, you won't make it past the primary.
