When Enough is Enough

On June 9, 1954, Army counsel Joseph N. Welch confronted Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy during the Senate-Army Hearings over McCarthy's attack on a member of Welch's law firm, Frederick G. Fisher. Said Welch: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

Welch exemplifies the long American tradition of standing up to tyrants, those in power who rely on demagoguery to maintain power. When you see it, speak out. When others speak out, don't try to muzzle them.

Tyrants rely on a docile public, a citizenry that will accept the easy lie and thus allow the tyrant to maintain a stranglehold on the facts. Those with access to the facts, but who continually throw up smoke screens and other irrelevancies to obscure them, are treating their constituents in arrogance and with contempt.

And the citizen or politician who tries to muzzle the truth-teller bears, perhaps, the greatest stain, for they enable the tyrant to no just cause.

It is clear that Messrs. Coffey, Kochert, and Schmidt are dependent on such enablers and emboldened to continue to obfuscate and obstruct progress in this city. Faction lapdog, 3rd District Council Member Steve Price, seems to admire this troika and follow their lead on every issue.

It is time for New Albany's people to stand up and declare their loyalties. Be a Joseph Welch and challenge the regressive faction by asking "Have you no sense of decency, sirs. At long last, have you no sense of decency?"

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Randy Smith, destinations@sbcglobal.net