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“A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.”
The ‘no confidence’ petition, Article 4 on the May 20 Special Town Meeting warrant, was a watershed moment for Sudbury.
The petition criticizing the SPS School Committee included itemized allegations of “potential” violations of laws including the Massachusetts conflict of interest law (M.G.L. c. 268A) and the Open Meeting Law. (Article on page 14)
When our Town attorney was asked about each of these ‘violations’ at Town Meeting he was clear that there were no such violations as alleged, but the damage was done.
Since then, the Attorney General’s office has declined to review two of the relevant Open Meeting Law complaints because they had nothing to do with the Open Meeting Law, or because it was so obvious the committee hadn’t violated the law. Furthermore, there is no evidence of the existence of an ethics complaint nearly three months after the Special Town Meeting.
The so-called complaints, like the allegations made at the Special Town Meeting, were frivolous. They were distortions concocted for different political purposes.
This was a watershed moment not because of the outcome of the non-binding vote, but because Sudbury was duped into tarnishing the reputation of its own school system over unsubstantiated allegations. Worse, it was a watershed moment because it opened the door for an organized political faction to normalize deceptive political tactics that can tear a community apart.
The proof is in what followed the Special Town Meeting. Most notably, the campaign against development at Camp Sewataro. While the ‘no confidence’ article twisted and distorted issues to fan the flames of outrage, the Sewataro campaign unfolding in Sudbury simply manufactured the issues. There is no proposal on the table to develop Camp Sewataro. Not one. It is a classic strawman argument.
In fact, the only people who can authorize such a development are the voters themselves. The “No Development at Sewataro” campaign stands in opposition to a proposal that doesn’t exist and an outcome that our elected officials can’t impose on us anyway. The organizers claim that elected and appointed officials are advancing an agenda “against the will of the people” when they are merely collecting public input via public meetings and public surveys. And the same organizers are fundraising based on those false claims.
The ‘no confidence’ petition combined unsubstantiated accusations of “potential” violations of law with political differences of opinion, and served it up as a ‘no confidence’ petition. The Sewataro campaign takes it a step further and manufactures the nonexistent development proposal that it wants to fight against.
This is a cautionary tale for every Sudbury resident. Town Meeting accepted blatant distortions of facts as legitimate political discourse in May. By July, we were subjected to a completely fabricated campaign about a housing development proposal that doesn’t exist.
Here’s a question that everyone in Sudbury should be asking themselves: If the school committee didn’t violate the laws it was accused of violating, and there is no development proposal at Sewataro, then why are people so outraged?
I think the answer is obvious. These campaigns are a coordinated effort to turn every issue, real or manufactured, into an opportunity to attack and damage the elected officials that are serving the town today. It’s a power grab by a faction that has to use fearmongering and manufactured controversy to gain support because their positions on real issues aren’t popular enough to get their candidates elected.
This is dark politics, and it’s difficult to combat. A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on. But there is a way to fight it:
- Don’t believe what you read on social media.
- Contact credible primary sources like Town staff for accurate information.
- Ask for credible evidence that supports the claims people are making.
- Don’t trust anonymously authored posts, characterizations or claims.
Misinformation depends on the delta between how fast a claim spreads and how slowly people verify or debunk it. Now that the ‘no confidence’ petition has opened Pandora’s Box in Sudbury, it’s incumbent upon all residents to seek the truth with vigilance.
Democracy’s foundation is truth. We can restore that foundation even in the face of deception and manufactured controversy. We owe it to each other, and our courageous neighbors who volunteer to serve, to insist on honesty, accuracy and the truth in our political discourse.