How many times have our mothers said, “Cut it out or someone’s gonna get hurt?”
The anonymous author bullying Puslinch council needs to heed that sage advice too, because someone will end up hurt in this little game of cat and mouse.
Long time councillor Dick Visser broke the silence last week on the latest piece of hate mail circulating in the township during a meeting that he was chairing.
For months now, going on a year, individual staff and people on council have received, or been the subject of, smutty talk via anonymous letters. Since the content of those letters now forms part of a police investigation, we are not at liberty to reveal the details.
Suffice to say, the letters are cruel, and to describe them simply as “mean” does not begin to capture the vitriol penned on the pages.
Anonymous letters are akin to stalkers. Instead of fearing the physical presence of a stranger, or that sixth sense that someone is watching, anonymous letters work at the mind.
And we can state without equivocation, having received our share of nonsense over the years, that the recipients are themselves victims, often reluctant to show their anxiety. Instead, many suffer in silence.
On one hand we expect local leaders to be compassionate and thoughtful to others, and in the same breath, when they dare bark back in opposition to calumny, we say they should be thicker skinned.
Compassion typically showed to the distressed is reserved when a politician is involved. Peers can be the least kind, on one hand sympathizing and on the other hand rubbing their hands that someone is in trouble and they are not.
For most people, there is a point when the line in the sand is crossed. In our experience, personal and professional, that line often comes when family members are threatened or hurt by the aggressor. Such has happened, according to Visser, whether or not he is paraphrasing the contents of the recent letter he received.
Threatening innocent extended family is the domain of cowards and is perhaps the cruellest form of intimidation. When the threats trickle over into helpless family members there is a weight that rests on the shoulders and mind that eventually proves unbearable.
Let’s call this for what it is: psychological warfare.
At risk is local government, whether anyone chooses to believe it or not. As a community, Puslinch should turn itself inside out and figure out who the responsible party is and turn that person or persons in to police.
This form of local terrorism has to stop.
