This letter to the editor appears online today at the Independent, it was written by former Middletown Library Board of Trustee President Randal Gabrielain. The letter contains a few harsh words critical of the Township Committee and the circumstances that lead to his resignation from the library board earlier this year.
I left the Middletown Public Library board of trustees after 25 years’ service following a campaign of vilification by the mayor. Some wonder why, especially in view of the denial of wrongdoing.
One hopes the new board realizes that library trusteeship is about the public, not themselves, requires advocacy for the library, not the governing body, and is about service, not politics. I wish them well, not merely for their sake, but for the well-being of the library so beloved by the people of Middletown.
I expressed my thoughts in these remarks at an honors ceremony at the April 18 meeting of the board of trustees:
Since many have commented on why I am not on the board, often in craven anonymity, I add my word on the accusations about conduct: They are preposterous. With respect to the cited statute, it is ambiguous. With reference to its interpretation, it is ridiculous.
Anyone who really knows anything realizes I am no longer on the board as a consequence of political retaliation for opposing the township’s takeover of library funds.
Why did I leave? When an all-powerful governing body, one in office for a generation or more, which operates as if might makes right, is out to get you and will stoop to tactics as low as spreading innuendo with one’s employer, let alone what other dirty stunts they could employ, discretion may be the better part of valor. The Township Committee was not satisfied with getting the money, they had to eliminate an independent voice on what is ostensibly an independent library board.
At one point, my first thought was that voting against giving away the library’s money, which was not municipal appropriations by the way, was my finest hour in over a quarter-century’s service. But then I realized my finest hour was Oct. 23, 2004, when I was the first to speak in this room at the dedication of the new Middletown Library.
My legacy is this library, a legacy shared with key colleagues and supporters who planned and built it, and foremost among them is the director, Susan O’Neal. So, we forgive our tormentors, not for their benefit, but for our own so we can move on.
I will close with a paraphrase of Benjamin Franklin, who, on leaving the Constitutional Convention in 1787, was asked what type of government was being given the people. He told them, “You got a republic — if you can keep it.”
Randall Gabrielan
Middletown
12 comments:
This town would be a far better place to live if we had FIVE RANDALL GABRIELAN'S on the Township committee.He has his priorites
in proper perspective, while none of the five now seated have a clue about integrity !!
Check out his acceptance speech at:
http://archive.org/details/4-18-12LBM
He couldn't have said it any better.
I wasn't able to attend the meeting/presentation, however I did view it online. Great job.
My heart goes out to the dedicated library board members at their loss as well as Mr. Gabrielan.
To the TC, what goes around comes around, sometimes you just have to be a patient waiter!
Thanks! Only the thumbnails are viewable for me. Who was it, Stephanie?
Based on his self serving and arrogant comments, it would seem apparent that Mr. Gabrielan had overstayed his time on the Library Board. Whatever good he did there was beginning to be overshadowed by his ego.
There probably should be term limits for a board like this - maybe for all boards. Members tend to lose perspective and start thinking that they represent the staff at the Library and not the citizens of the town...
Good luck to him in what he does next, but the town and the Library are apparently better off with new blood.
Legion,
You are full of Horses--- !!!
"New blood" full of divisive bias,prejudice,hatred,bigoted political idiocy,not fit to serve a town of very diverse citizens that exceeds a population of over sixty eight to near seventy thousand residents.
The Middletown republicans are a very sick bunch of characters....very sick,socially and politically. They fail to serve all that reside in this town. Fail miserably.
Disgusted -
You are free to move to a town more in line with your political perspective at any time you want.
Broadly brushing any group of citizens who essentially volunteer to serve is disingenuous at best.
We need people who can work together. Like I said, don't let the doorknob hit you in the butt on your way out!
Seems to me that the library will have its funds pilfered and then will cut back on services and hours. We need independent thinkers not lackeys that will do anything the big man tell them to do.
Legion,
We do need citizens who put the town first,not their political party.. we don't need AH's like you ,who spout hate,divisiveness,bigotry,and who serve only themselves.
Volunteer at the ASPCA where dogs who don't like your sorry a-- will bite you in retaliation for your sorry conduct.Don't need volunteers like you and your kind.
BTW, not going anywhere , so go spout your asinine BS somewhere else.
Not affiliated with any party but know jackasses when I see them and Middletown is full of sorry,self serving republican slop !
"There probably should be term limits for a board like this - maybe for all boards. Members tend to lose perspective and start thinking that they represent the staff at the Library and not the citizens of the town..."
Oh ye of forked tongue. Spoken like a future inhabitant of an easy chair at the Sewerage Authority. Will yours come with the heated shiatsu massage option, Legion?
Yeah..Legion, you jackass..
You mean the only successful institution in this one-horse (political speaking) town stuck in 1950's inside trading, bid rigging, old-boy club, Republican White Male Patriarchal political time-warp?
The library is the only successful thing in this town. It's been described as the "jewel of the Township", and "the best Library in Monmouth County"...
How do you think it got that way..Legion?
In case you're too ignorant to figure it out. It got that way by having an excellent board of trustees that looked out for the betterment of the library for it's Township residents. Not by electing "new blood" who are nothing more than "lackeys" to an over-reaching power hungry group of egomanical idiots (led by the outsider, Shitembrino) who are trying to impress the Corpulent One who thinks he's king, sitting up in Trenton, NJ...
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