Sunday, September 28, 2014

NOT "Mayflower-esque"


Some of you may brush this off as trivial but then you may take pause and think: "Wait a minute...!"


It's a little story I ran across in a regional newspaper published in the area of the Natick, Massachusetts Township.


The newspaper story, in itself, said that "somebody" told "somebody" that somebody else had told the first somebody that they saw a man "in Town Hall"  with "a big bulge in his pocket like, maybe, a gun... Like !"

The third or fourth somebody went to a constable and then the constable and the last somebody went to the "Chair" of the selectmen, one Martha White.

Now it is important to recognize that Natick is in the area where all of the "Mayflower"  families still remain. They have simple monosyllabic or di-syllabic names like White, Smith, Rogers, Rolfe, Bradford and Allen.

These people do not have to call for a vote on anything. They are endowed by their redolent 17th century  airs with higher credentials than any referendum can bestow.

At any rate,  Ms. White canvassed her Selectmen and announced a rule, or ordinance, or law prohibiting any attendee at a Natick  town meeting from being armed with a weapon, with heavier sanctions in the case of the weapon being concealed from plain view.

Citizens of the Township did not need to wait for print publication of the new legal prohibition.  The checkout line grapevine and tavern talemongers sufficed to spread the word.

In two days, Ms. White was suffocated by protesting mail and her computer inbox was frozen with even more and angrier rants and threats.

"I was dumbfounded !" she was quoted as saying. "Shocked I tell you ! "  (She didn't know there were that many people in the Township, let alone that many people who even knew that guns existed anywhere near Natick.

One selectman reportedly said he "didn't understand the question".  At the last update, it lookked like Ms. White's gambit was doomed.

One of the complaining Natick townsmen reportedly said:
 "I own an ancient shotgun with Damascus barrels that will split if it's shot... But I'm familiar with the second amendment in the Bill of Rights and I know what this present Supreme Court said about that. The selectmen are ripe for the silly farm!

Now this blog is not about guns.  That is settled law. We present these Massachusetts happenings simply as an insight into how people can get a hold of a lot of authority without getting a hold of a smidgen of wisdom or information. And people who have been elevated to positions loftier than their IQ or ability to reason may be as dangerous as media liars...Or traitors !