Published: July 25, 2009 11:05 pm      

How can you silence those you serve

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

— The First Amendment

to the U.S. Constitution



Our founding fathers certainly had many things right, chief among them being The First Amendment. The roots of those words provide the very backbone for the wide range of opinions available on pages such as this one. Pages such as these offer the basic fundamentals of a free society, one that asks questions and holds our elected officials accountable for spending our money.

That's why it was especially disheartening for us to learn that Meridian officials were considering the removal of the citizen's hearing and citizen's forum portions of the City Council meetings.

Currently, citizens are able to speak at council meetings by either signing up ahead of time for the citizen's hearing, or simply showing up and indicating that they want to speak during the citizen's forum.

Councilmen tabled a motion last week to remove these two public opportunities. According to the amendment in the council's agenda packet, the council was to consider removing the comments because the council "desires that its meeting should be conducted in an orderly and meaningful manner."

While we understand that some of the comments can become repetitive and time-consuming, we also believe that those can be remedied with more stringent time limits or guidelines ... not by shutting them out completely. We encourage our elected city officials to remember that taxpayers are the ones who put them in office. The ones they wish to silence are the very ones they're meant to serve. And while order is most appropriate, removing the portion of the meetings in which citizens can speak is certainly not.

Councilmen recessed their meeting until Monday at 1 p.m. at Union Station. We expect them to remember what the founders of this great nation so eloquently wrote into the fabric of our daily life in constructing the U.S. Constitution. We demand of them to honor that in their service by allowing, in any form necessary, citizens the opportunity to address them at some portion of each meeting.