Councillor removed “point” of offending letter : The Auroran : http://www.newspapers-online.com/auroran

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Councillor removed “point” of offending letter

I would like to take this opportunity to “out” myself. I'm the writer that hurt Mr. Gallo's feelings in an email which was sent at his invitation.
What he did not share was the background of my email and, more importantly, he edited my email when he submitted it to The Auroran, leaving out the main point I was trying to make.
It certainly was not about how ridiculous his hairstyle is. That was simply my opinion.
He indicated that us big, bad bullies hide behind anonymous postings. However, I sent my email from my personal email account, signed my name, address and phone number. Short of sending him a DNA sample, I am not too sure what more was expected.
Now, for the background: Mr. Gallo wrote a letter regarding the Accessibility Park regarding the redesign of a park in Mr. Gallo's neighbourhood to make it fully accessible. He was debating the money spent to consider such a thing and at the end, he asked the community to send in our thoughts.
Here it is:

“I read your Letter to the Editor in this week's Auroran. Are kidding me? Were you not part of the 3 stooges that thought it was a good idea to spend $150k to fight against a cell tower being erected - when the bloody thing was already there????? Amongst other mindless ideas you and your two buddies come up with.
“I am so sick of [you three] publicly challenging and being disrespectful to your fellow colleagues - if this Council is not working at the highest of standards, then you should be looking straight in to the mirror, because you three are 80% of the problem on this council.
“And for gods sakes do something about your hair - you look ridiculous!!!!!”

You can now see what he took from my email and posted in The Auroran. So, here was my response to him and all Councillors regarding his letter:

“I would like to thank you for publishing my email to you and all councillors in The Auroran. It has given my voice the ability to be even stronger and I appreciate that. As I know you are a councillor that is always looking to do what is best for the people of this town. I will say I am disappointed you edited the email which certainly changed the tone and the serious point I was trying to make but I suppose when you are posturing to run for Mayor that is what you have to do.
“My apologies if I hurt your feelings so much you felt you had to write an entire half page article about it – it was just an opinion and I am sure there are many in this town that think your hair is fine as it is! (and for the record I never hid behind anonymous postings, you knew exactly who it was coming from) and I can certainly identify myself in the Auroran as the one whom you quoted.”

I find it quite concerning that this is where his mind is focused vs., oh, I don't know…town business! I also find it scary that, as a public figure, he still does not understand that the very public who voted him in have every right to express their opinions as, after all, he does claim to wholeheartedly believe in the public's right to free speech.
Anyway, in hindsight, maybe I should not have shared my opinion about his hair, as I too have fallen victim to bullying regarding a very bad hairstyle. I even cried a little. I was five.

Kelli M. Collins
Aurora

(Editor's note: portions of Ms. Collins' initial response to Councillors have been edited)

Post date: 2013-10-24 00:10:01
Post date GMT: 2013-10-24 04:10:01
Post modified date: 2013-10-24 00:10:01
Post modified date GMT: 2013-10-24 04:10:01