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Editor, the Asbury Park Sun:

Some people are trying to inject race into what happened on July 1 at the swearing in of Asbury Park’s new city council and mayor. But race has nothing to do with it. Nothing, that is, unless those responsible for the coup d’etat succeed at changing the subject.

I was there. I booed. If I could go back in time and be there again, I would boo even louder. Did I show disrespect for the new mayor and her two conspirators? You bet. Did my disrespect have anything to do with race? Shame on (or I should say, MORE shame on) whoever makes such a suggestion.

Imagine this: Sue Henderson and John Loffredo convince Myra Campbell to rob a bank. Afterwards, they claim that it is an historic day for African American women. Who are the racists in such a story? You decide. I rest my case.

But I am not finished resisting. What’s at stake is Democracy itself. Am I overstating the matter? I think not. Politicians will always try to drive those with purer motives out of the democratic process. Like the walking dead in a zombie movie, they are relentlessly driven by lust for power (ie. eating other people’s brains). Like the pretend mother in the Solomon story, they would rather see the baby cut in half than give up their false claim.

The wife beater always says, “lets get back together… for the sake of the kids… I’ll never do it again…” And so it is that those who have perpetrated this mess say “lets move on so that we can do what is best for the city.” Really? Do the people who would do such a thing seem to you like people who are going to turn around and do what it is best for the city?

Sometimes the abused wife needs to take the kids and get out of there. Because staying in such a relationship teaches the wrong lesson to everybody witnessing it.

The next time somebody says to me “politics as usual” I’m going to scream at the top of my lungs. I refuse to be that jaded. Perhaps I am just setting myself up to be disappointed again and again, but to paraphrase an old adage, all that is required for Democracy to fail is that people of principle remain silent while everybody else goes around saying “politics as usual.”

— Jeffrey Seeds, Asbury Park

[This letter represents the opinion of its writer and is not representative of any opinion of the Asbury Park Sun staff. All readers are welcome to submit Letters to the Editor to news@asburyparksun.com for our consideration. For guidelines on letter-writing and submission, click here. Do not send attachments.]

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