Historical October 1984 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Dear Editor: In the September, 1984 issue of The TIMES, Mr. McGuire claimed that I incorrectly told residents they had to pay dues in order to vote at meetings of the Washington Heights Neighbors.
By stripping my statement out of its context and omitting the major portion of what I said, the alderman cleverly attempts to dodge the real issues confronting our community.
The July meeting of the Washington Heights Neighbors was packed by 80 to 100 supporters of McGuire who appeared to have come solely for the purpose of disrupting and destroying the organization. Despite the fact that I recognized only a few of them as living in Washington Heights, I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. So, I introduced myself as Treasurer and invited them to join Washington Heights and pay dues so they could vote.
In his September article, McGuire claims I was at fault because “. . . the WHN bylaws . . . state that all residents of Washington Heights may vote on any issue at any meeting, not just those that pay dues.” After scrutinizing the bylaws, I found that the alderman is indeed better than me at memorizing rules and that he quoted them correctly. Though outstanding at legalistic quibbles, Mr. McGuire fails somewhat at common sense because he himself pointed out that voting without paying dues is a privilege restricted to Washington Heights residents, and, as the alderman is well aware, virtually all of the people he used for packing the meeting were not residents of Washington Heights and would have had to pay dues if they had had the slightest bit of concern for joininng with us to build a stronger community.
The rule he chose to quibble over was largely irrelevant.
It was appauling to read the way Mr. McGuire slurred the Washington Heights Neighbors, claiming that it has “degenerated” to where “a small but vocal radical group” has “gained control.” Personally, I am proud to be one of the small group of 829 degenerates who signed the petition to remove the Des Peres barricades.
It is disgraceful that the alderman is so afraid of his own constituents that he must stoop to such McCarthyite tactics. —Don Fitz 57xx Waterman (Editor’s Note: The meeting of which Don Fitz’s speaks was in August and the 80 to 100 supporters of Dan McGuire were present because they had received a flyer inviting them to attend. See the September issue of The Times for further background.)
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, October 1984.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1984_10.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
