Lawsuit against Ogden mayor is fueled by hatred and cynicism
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No comments [ Add Comment ]By Rick Safsten
Guest commentary
T
he recent lawsuit filed by the usual suspects against Mayor Godfrey goes beyond any political justification and crosses into a territory that neither Ogden residents, nor politicians, can accept.
The lawsuit complains the mayor did not comply with nonexistent requirements to file names of the people in his campaign committee.
We have seen on a federal level that often when people cannot get the votes for an issue, they resort to the courts in hopes of circumventing the legislative or other democratic processes.
While this group of plaintiffs will no doubt drape themselves in the flag of ethics and "good government," the emptiness of their lawsuit belies their real intent which is to circumvent elections, discredit candidates and get themselves into the media.
Their fuel is hatred and cynicism.
The plaintiffs' cynicism is also displayed by timing their lawsuit at virtually the very same time as the mayor's father's funeral. What type of people would do that? Couldn't the suit have waited a day? Or even two?
The type of people who would do that are also the type of people who have attempted baseless lawsuits before -- one was even filed in the wrong court. They have learned that winning or losing the lawsuit doesn't have to matter if it can at least effectively delay something important, embarrass someone or gain publicity.
So, they file lawsuits -- any lawsuit will do.
What they can't win at the ballot box, they attempt to win through the media and the courts.
Ogden residents, especially all political candidates, must publicly refute the politics of hatred and ignorance because good government, no matter what your political bent, will suffer in the end.
Hatred and cynicism are never appeased -- they do not create, they destroy. No matter who is in office, if the politics of hatred and cynicism are not pushed back by a loud, vocal majority of Ogden residents, every future government and the city will suffer.
The usual political process of debate, good will and compromise usually generate good, rational results. Hatred and cynicism destroy any hope of these things.
Someone once said, "Appeasement is hoping the tiger eats you last." Appeasement or lack of reaction to this kind of despicable motivation and hatred cannot be tolerated by anyone in government or interested in good government.
The lawsuit is not based on ethics or politics, it is based in hatred.
Safsten represents Municipal Ward 4 on the Ogden City Council.
