Letter: Condemn Trump/Bannon

To the Editor:

My statement to the North Adams City Council: Nov. 22, 2016

I stood before this City Council in 2003 to ask the council to stand with other communities, to pass a resolution requesting the federal government to revise the hastily written and adopted so-called Patriot Act, an act that eroded many of our civil liberties and paved the way for further erosion of them. The good members of that council sat by and did nothing.

I stood before this City Council in 2006 to ask the council to impeach Bush and Cheney for acts of treason; for purposefully and willfully lying to the American people to take us into an illegal and ongoing failed war of aggression. A war that continues to kill untold thousands, foment terrorism and is bankrupting our country. The good members of that council sat by and did nothing.

Our country has elected a dangerously incompetent demagogue as our as next president.

I stand before you today as an American and I salute you: Seig Heil!

And, I ask you how did that make you feel? That is the hateful salute of a growing Neo-Nazi movement within our country as unleashed by Trump.

If that salute offended you, then you, as a council must condemn the appointment of Steven Bannon, an avowed white supremacist neo-Nazi, as trump's chief strategic adviser. There is no place for neo-Nazis in our government, period.

This condemnation must happen at every level of government, in every house of worship and in every community. Failure to condemn this appointment, normalizes it and allows the evil reach of the Neo-nazis to expand.

As civic leaders you act as a moral compass for our community and our children. If we tacitly accept racism, bigotry, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and Islamaphobia in the White House, we are teaching them to our children.

To say that it is not within your purview as city councilors to condemn a presidential appointment is cowardly. It is every citizen's responsibility to condemn racism, bigotry and hate. It has been said: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." (Edmund Burke)

Today, on the 53rd anniversary of the assassination of President John F Kennedy I quote: "My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." As in no other time in my lifetime, has our country needed us more.

Peter May
North Adams, Mass.

Cost, Access to NBCTC High Among Concerns North Berkshire Residents

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
06:15PM / Thursday, April 25, 2024

Adams Select Chair Christine Hoyt, NBCTC Executive Director David Fabiano and William Solomon, the attorney representing the four communities, talk after the session. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Public access channels should be supported and made more available to the public — and not be subject to a charge.

 

More than three dozen community members in-person and online attended the public hearing  Wednesday on public access and service from Spectrum/Charter Communications. The session at City Hall was held for residents in Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg and North Adams to express their concerns to Spectrum ahead of another 10-year contract that starts in October.

 

Listening via Zoom but not speaking was Jennifer Young, director state government affairs at Charter.

 

One speaker after another conveyed how critical local access television is to the community and emphasized the need for affordable and reliable services, particularly for vulnerable populations like the elderly. 

 

"I don't know if everybody else feels the same way but they have a monopoly," said Clarksburg resident David Emery. "They control everything we do because there's nobody else to go to. You're stuck with with them."

 

Public access television, like the 30-year-old Northern Berkshire Community Television, is funded by cable television companies through franchise fees, member fees, grants and contributions.

 

Spectrum is the only cable provider in the region and while residents can shift to satellite providers or streaming, Northern Berkshire Community Television is not available on those alternatives and they may not be easy for some to navigate. For instance, the Spectrum app is available on smart televisions but it doesn't include PEG, the public, educational and governmental channels provided by NBCTC.