To the Editor:

The fiasco that occurred at Berne’s town hall, last Wednesday, Aug. 14, was an unnecessary, orchestrated attempt to bully three town board members with whom the dissenting town board members disagree [“Veterans rally for Berne councilman after Dems skip meeting over safety”]. 

The basis for the event was a request by council member Joel Willsey for security measures to be instituted before town board meetings. His request was the result of repeated angry, vehement threats against him by another town council member.

Mr. Willsey’s request was simple. He asked that his safety and the safety of all those in attendance at meetings be ensured with the use of a metal detector, which is already in place and used on a regular basis for court proceedings.

How are we to interpret spontaneous, angry outbursts, which are accompanied by threatening physical gestures? How can we trust such behavior is innocent, with no inherent danger? Should we just write it off as the tantrum of a disgruntled individual, harmless in its intent and simply superficial rhetoric?

That is hard to do when you’ve been subject to incidents designed to instill fear: bullets shot through your campaign signs on the lawn of your home, your livelihood and retirement challenged by false accusations, being told that you’ll get yours if you continue to report unsafe conditions.

Can you ignore it when your wife and children are so concerned they can’t sleep, and cry on a daily basis because they fear for their safety and yours?

What would you do?

In addition to the safety measures he requested, Joel contacted our town supervisor, Sean Lyons, in a confidential email. He wanted his concerns to remain private, but realized the need to address the situation. In its entirety, that email expressed Joel’s concerns for the individual making the threats, speculating why he might be doing so, and suggesting perhaps he needed help.

Joel contacted Mr. Lyons in good faith. He trusted Mr. Lyons to address his concerns responsibly and with integrity. He expected the confidential label to be respected. He hoped for a reasoned discussion about the situation and how to remediate it. He shared his email with no one except Mr. Lyons.

Instead of acting with integrity, Mr. Lyons took isolated segments of Joel’s email, segments that altered the full meaning of the email, and shared them on Facebook and with an out-of-town radio-show host. That personality inflated what was said in Joel’s email, characterizing it as a slam against all veterans.

By doing so, both Mr. Lyons and that radio personality, for whatever reasons, went out of their way to incite animosity, anger, and sympathy for the very person who was causing such strife at meetings.

They went out of their way to escalate an already difficult situation in service of their inflammatory rhetoric. Their suggestion was that veterans and motorcycle clubs swarm the town board meeting, lending their support to a person whose character they said had been slandered.

Those who responded did not know the real situation. They did not have all of the facts. They had not seen Mr. Wlllsey’s full email. Mr. Lyons chose to share with them a biased, skewed representation of the facts, and to incite prejudice against a colleague who asked for help.

Who was really slandered by this episode? It certainly wasn’t Mr. [Dennis] Palow, whom Mr. Willsey tried to protect by issuing a confidential email. By virtue of their attendance, his behavior was endorsed and validated. It was endorsed by those attending who simply accepted the falsehoods presented to them on Facebook.

No, if anyone was slandered, it was the three town board members who were accused, without evidence, of being anti-veteran. These are the same three individuals who voted to have Beaverdam Road designated the Pvt. First Class Glenn R. Gilbert Highway, who voted to put flags on veterans’ graves, who supported the effort to put flags with veterans’ profiles on light posts throughout the hamlet.

These are three individuals who among them have numerous veterans in their families, who possess purple hearts for those members, who have family members buried in national cemeteries and on foreign lands, who possess many medals and commendations for those family members.

Yet, they stand accused of being anti-veteran by, among them, an individual who refused, despite a unanimous town board resolution, signed by the same three, asking that Stage Road remain open throughout the winter so a 90-year-old World War II veteran, Mr. Willsey’s father, could receive emergency medical services in the event of a medical catastrophe. That request was denied by our highway superintendent who said he wouldn’t jeopardize his men for “that.”

No. They are not anti-veteran.

Mr. Willsey’s concerns are about Mr. Palow’s current behavior, not his former service to our country. His concern is for someone who, red-faced and jumping from his seat, vehemently shouted threats accompanied by hostile physical gestures. All this in public meetings.

In the end, who is benefiting from this hullabaloo? Who is benefitting from a contrived situation meant to thwart attention from a serious matter? It most certainly has not been the town.

Moreover, the issue of threats has not been resolved, and the town supervisor, whose first role should be overseeing the well-being of the town, continues his refusal to use effective security measures. Instead, he invited those in attendance at Wednesday night’s rally, to come to the September town board meeting, creating another fraught and contentious gathering.

The question must be asked. Why would he do this? To what end? Why would he refuse to use the metal detector? I can think of no good reasons.

Mr. Lyons had several options open to him. He could have met with Mr. Willsey and discussed his concerns, he could have met with Mr. Palow to discuss his behavior, he could have met with the two men together to discuss the situation.

Or, as he chose to do, he could call an out-of-town radio host and publish an inflammatory passage from a confidential email simply to elicit a “mob” response.

How sad that we’ve come to this. I’ve spent the better part of eight years working to improve and contribute to the town. I have respected those individuals with whom I’ve worked, and for those eight years, civil meetings produced good works which benefited the town.

We now have an administration more intent on fomenting division than on continuing to move the town forward. I am saddened, but I am also worried. Where is this behavior taking the town? Where is it coming from? Out-of-control meetings, threats, invitations to public disturbance?

I am saddened and worried, but I am also disturbed that there are individuals who work so hard to disparage and condemn anyone with whom they disagree. Berne has always had citizens who work tirelessly for the town. They do so because we are neighbors, friends, and caring individuals who value our community.

Where has our civility gone?

Karen Schimmer

Berne

Editor’s note: Karen Schimmer is a member of the Berne Town Board. Joel Willsey was not on the Berne Town Board in 2016 when the resolution was unanimously passed, asking that Stage Road remain open through the winter. Schimmer was on the all-Democratic board at that time.