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Mayor Elia clearly does not understand the U.S. Constitution.
Most of us are aware of the document that gives written protection of citizen rights. High up on the list is free speech, which has been repeatedly interpreted to include freedom of the press. But Madam Mayor disagrees with our founding fathers and a whole lot of Supreme Court justices. Fully understanding the bully pulpit of her position, she chastised Niagara Falls Reporter advertisers for running ads in a newspaper that has made more of a community effort in its brief life than the Niagara Gazette has in 40 years. But, of course, the Niagara Falls Reporter is, how shall we put it, honest about the incredible inadequacies of the Elia administration. And the mayor doesn't like that.
Having been raised in a small town, I recognize the syndrome: Elia and her Gang of Seven family think because they have run things for so long they are above criticism. And entrenched small-towners will do anything to strike back at the source of what threatens their power with whatever weapons at their disposal -- in this case, the coercion of the mayor's office.
The only thing that should restrict the flow of information in our society is whether it is factual. There's been some whining about community standards, but since Hustler magazine is still available, I reckon the Reporter doesn't have a problem. Besides, the Niagara Gazette violates my community standards when it charges 50 cents for stories that they initially miss, then report a day or so later by lifting whole segments of the competitor's story.
Mayor Elia's vendetta against the Reporter is due to the fact she's apparently incompetent, not to mention she has the interpersonal skills of a tree, and we're supposed to ignore it. In fact, I found it very telling that the Elia administration is restricting the access of the City Council to information on what exactly is going on in government. I'm quite sure the Niagara Falls constitution states it is the right, even the duty, of the City Council to monitor what the administration is doing. And since it's our taxes, why shouldn't we?
The first time I saw Mayor Elia, I thought: Sister Madeleine somehow got cloned. The pinched expression and condescending manner toward her inferiors -- everyone -- was a savage flashback to the fifth-grade scourge of Our Lady of Good Counsel School. Whether her argument was with students, priests or quite possibly God, Sister Madeleine knew she was right. She once rulered the knuckles of Tommy Henderson because at the end of free reading period he was too slow closing his book -- on the life of a saint, for pity's sake. When Tommy protested he had just been finishing a paragraph, she said she knew that was untrue because of his eye movements as he was reading. Even in fifth grade, I didn't swallow that.
When I came to class with my hair unbound instead of in the single braid I usually wore Ð it was school picture day Ð Sister Madeleine took it upon herself to plait my hair into two braids so tight I looked like I'd had a rather bad face lift. When a priest protested, being familiar with my mother's need to reassure her non-Catholic in-laws that I wasn't being groomed for the convent, Sister Madeleine blithely assured him she knew best. We have no fifth-grade pictures of me, thank God.
I have no concrete proof Sister Madeleine disputed with God, but she did tell our class that all transgressions would not be forgiven by our Lord, Perfect Act of Contrition or not. In Sister Madeleine's eyes, Jesus Christ could have spared himself the effort.
So in fifth grade, I learned to distrust people who always know what is right, what is best, what is correct. These people cannot fathom the difference between what is right and what they believe or want. They cannot acknowledge criticism because their arrogance prevents them. I also learned that our founding fathers were so wise they affirmed it was a citizen's right to criticize the government if it was in the wrong.
Mayor Elia, please read the U.S. Constitution. Then instead of harassing a newspaper that has brought more liveliness into the Niagara Falls public debate since the Schoellkopf power plant fell into the Rapids, try getting a handle on how to run a city government. And make it a government that serves its residents instead of pandering to business interests who really don't care if most of the city looks like Berlin after World War II. Do that and you may have a second term. I doubt it, but miracles do happen.