Letter: Tiverton committee’s ban on public comment is un-American

Posted 3/22/17

To the editor:

Members of the Tiverton Budget Committee would like to remove the public forum from their meetings and therefore ban the public from giving its thoughts and input to the committee …

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Letter: Tiverton committee’s ban on public comment is un-American

Posted

To the editor:

Members of the Tiverton Budget Committee would like to remove the public forum from their meetings and therefore ban the public from giving its thoughts and input to the committee and to those who attend the meetings. This is a slap in the face to not only the townspeople of Tiverton, but to the foundation of our country.

Our forefathers made it a point to allow the public to freely share ideas and be able to speak out when they disagreed or agreed with their elected officials. That is why freedom of speech is our First Amendment. It was that important to our founders.

By removing this public forum, it makes this committee no better than Stalin, Lenin or even Kim Jung Un. Members of our town have fought and died for our right to speak out at meetings and give our elected officials our opinions on decisions that affect our daily lives. Removing the public forum is not only wrong, it is anti-American.

Andrea Souza

Tiverton

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