This past week the Malheur Enterprise did a news report about Charlotte Fugate tearing down and taking a vote no sales tax sign in a downtown store owned by Tracy Hammond.
Friday evening I asked a long time resident Kim Lopez to post a link to the news article on our site.
In the news article Councilor Justus said “we want you to know we acknowledge the poor behavior of Charlotte Fugate. We have expressed to her in no uncertain terms that that kind of behavior is not and will not be tolerated.”
Then Saturday morning Councilor Justus posted on his site under a bold header “Marty Justus is with Charlotte Fugate.” In it, he posts a demand, “#kimlopeztakedownthatpost” and a tag link to her personal Facebook page and asks others to flood her with his demand.
In my opinion, I see little difference in either of these events, essentially both Charlotte and Justus seem willing to deny anyone with opposing views their 1st Amendment constitutional rights – Charlotte by physical strong-arming and Justus by verbal strong-arming. I believe this cyber bullying or any type of bullying is very wrong.
Now we learn Councilor Justus has done something similar involving the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. More will surely come out on that.
These actions of Councilor Justus are attempts to punish and unfairly bully any person or organization that opposes his views. Why would he and his group want to divide our community with such behavior? At any rate none of this is the type of ethics I believe in.
Jackson Q. Fox
Ontario
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Letters can be up to 250 words. Send to the Malheur Enterprise, PO Box 310 Vale OR 97918 or to [email protected]. Please provide phone or other contact information.