from the Barrington Taxpayers Association comes this disturbing report.
Voting day should be a day to rejoice and renew our faith in the American people to decide who wins and assumes control of our government. Regardless of one’s political party affiliation all aspects of the event should be fair; unfortunately I must report that such was not the case on November 2, 2010 in Barrington.
As the current president of the Barrington Taxpayers Association I had made arrangements with our town moderator for our non-profit association to have a table to display our sign, operate a 50/50 drawing, greet our members and recruit new members.
I set up the sign and the table displayed our non-political materials. The town moderator came to the table, I handed him a copy of our guidelines for all members working the table to follow. He looked over everything and agreed that we had met his criteria, and we were good to go.
But not so fast – about 90 minutes later the moderator approached the person working the table and stated that we would have to cover up three lines on our sign as someone had complained. Not wanting to be confrontational, the three lines were then covered. A short time later I returned to the voting place and was advised about the incident.
The town moderator was approached and challenged about his decision to have the non-profit’s freedom of expression and speech (in written form) denied solely because someone had complained. He was informed that I would be filing a formal complaint with the Attorneys General’s office as this was unfair and unjust. The formal complaint has been filed, and it will not be dropped.
Now the part that just might blow your mind. Listed below is the exact language of the three lines of text that we were forced to cover up because someone complained.
* Less Spending = Lower Taxes
* Property Tax Reform
* Limited Government
The aforementioned is not political, does not endorse any candidate, campaign, or political party. I can only assume that the person (and I know who it is) does not share my conservative views and must like high taxes, thinks the tax structure is just fine, and would expand the government. And, because I believe so strongly in our capitalist, republican form of government I endorse a person’s right to have those views, because that is their right.
But I have rights too. The BTA has rights, and we will not be denied, we will not be silenced, as those who fear us do not understand our mission and goals. We spend an enormous amount of time watching out for our taxpayers’ rights, we are not a hate group or extremist.
On our applications to join our group (which now numbers in the hundreds) it reads:
“The Barrington Taxpayers Association will promote lower taxes, tax reform and an honest limited government.” The almost exact same wording as was on our sign.
In any event, at the polls, I elected to then remove our sign outside to be in full view of all entering to vote. (This was apparently okay). Further, I had handouts prepared in anticipation and handed out over a thousand miniature copies of our sign to citizens as they entered to vote, promoting our cause and organization.
Finally, an exact copy of our sign is below for your review. The Attorney General has the complaint and we will let justice take its course. I will keep you informed as the situation dictates.
Barrington Taxpayers Sign Found Offensive
Doug Call, President of BTA