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Editor, The North Country Gazette:
Wednesday night, Bill O'Reilly took the lead in calling on New York voters to call upon their Assembly persons to use their influence on the Assembly Speaker and pressure him to stop obstructing tougher, more effective legislation to deal with New York's sexual predators and look at the story that came out Thursday. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/060706CivilCommitment.html
To the degree you helped expose the story and the role Silver's Assembly caucus can and should play in such situations, and what they actually did, you played hard ball with these lawmakers when most in the media lacked the balls to do anything at all. When it came to holding accountable the Assembly members who give Silver, every year, the power of Speaker to make or break legislation, you all know what you did, as do your listeners and readers who know how much you informed them of this issue.
You either talked about and/or took calls on the subject, and made an issue of it, or you did not.
To the degree you helped give these legislators reason to worry about exposure before their constituents you have earned bragging rights and the deep personal satisfaction of knowing how much you contributed to making this a safer state for all our women and children who live here and visit here.
Take a well deserved bow (if you deserve to), and thank those in your audience who may have pressured their legislator to do their duty at your suggestion.
Definitely give your listeners their due for any part they played in making this a better and safer state to live in and visit.
It is still not too late to get involved in this, if you have not, there is still time to encourage listeners to confront their Assembly person on whether or not they opposed or facilitated the abuses of Speaker Silver year after year, watching him and his cronies obstruct this legislation, which had passed the Senate with near unanimous bi-partisan support.
You have an opportunity to involve your listeners in holding their Assembly person accountable for praise or punishment on doing their jobs or going along with the corruption to get along. Maybe you can teach both legislators and voters about the power of the new media to perform the watch dog function on this most heinous corruption, a function that most of the old media has sold out on.
Andrew, right now you are the Number One talk radio host in the area on speaking out and drawing media attention to this issue. Suggest your listeners confront their Assembly person about facilitating, ignoring or opposing Speaker Silver on this issue, help them earn the pride of righting a wrong.
Paul, you and I were the lone voices on this issue years before anybody else, the audience has not forgotten, keep driving for the finish line, you have earned a big finish fighting for the lead. The audience remembers. Help them earn the pride of making this a safer better state.
Gut check time everybody, the clock is running out, your audience awaits.
6-08-06
Tom Chandler
Guilderland, New York
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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