Firefighter Tells It Like It Is
My friend JimmieLee Smith had her letter to the editor printed in the Salem News in Ohio on June 19, 2005. They tried to fire her when she transitioned from male to female, but she won a big court decision. Now they are trying to get rid of the whole fire department just to get rid of her! YOU GO GIRL!
Here is what she wrote in Your Side, The Readers Take Over, Firefighter expresses views on proposed joint district:
To the editor:
I am quite sure that by now most citizens have at least heard something about me. My name is JimmieLee Smith. I am the firefighter who sued the City of Salem due to the illegal actions that other city employees were taking against me.
I am writing this letter to express my feelings on the issue of the fire district. I know that there are many people that agree with me about dissolving the City of Salem Fire Department even if they are afraid to stand up and say so. It is my personal opinion that the fire district has nothing to do with financial problems within the city. If it did, perhaps the city council could explain how they suddenly found one million dollars? The city was able to hire a part-time secretary, did not take cost cutting or savings measures elsewhere in the city's departments and are able to negotiate wage increases and savings in other city department contracts. This is not to mention appropriating thousands or hundreds of thousands in attorney fees to do things that could be considered shady at best. Does that sound like financially strapped to you?
There is much misinformation coming out of city hall these past few months. The council says that a firefighter's wages are between $70,000 and $73,000 per year, but that figure starts to increase in an attempt to incite the public and make "their case." To use one councilman's phrase, "Who is doing all the 'spin doctoring?'" Does it sound to you like they are controlling spending when they are willing to expend all of that taxpayers money to try to get them out of the trouble they created?
There are many more questions. When will the city really be in fiscal emergency? At first it was could be within 10 years and now it will be within this year. Are the city managers and fiscal officers so inept that they cannot determine when the city will be bankrupt? Adding insult to injury, the State Election Board stopped our city council from using an arbitrary figure of $600,000 in cost savings (or could it be the $700,000 that was mentioned in court) to the city in their campaign because it could not be substantially proven and was deemed misleading the public. Remember the signs and how fast they dodged the issue once the information was discredited.
I feel this does have to do with the personal biases, petty prejudices and misguided moral ideals of some, if not all, of city council and city administration. Consider that on June 2, 2004, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a decision which placed people with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) under the protection of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On June 16, city council announced their intention to eliminate the fire department and form a Joint Fire District with Perry Township. In my eyes this amounts to a "vendetta." Does anyone need a picture to understand what this vendetta is all about? I personally do not find this very amusing.
Since I took the city to court, and through the courts stopped the city from infringing on my rights, the City of Salem's only alternative was to eliminate the entire fire department. In order to accomplish that goal they could not risk having public opinion go against them. They had to infringe on your constitutional right to vote and repeal the two ordinances that you overwhelmingly voted for to protect the will of the voters. Now, not only are they trying to infringe upon my rights, they are trying to infringe on the rights of every citizen of the City of Salem.
It is my opinion that city officials overwhelmingly proved that they do not care when they directed only fire department personnel to attend the diversity training ordered by the court. Instead of requiring all city employees, as well as the elected officials to attend this training, they only did what the letter of the law demanded, not what the spirit of the law was: to help people that I work with understand the prejudice of people with GID is not appropriate or legal. This demonstrates how the council feels about the law and supports my contention that this administration's track record on discrimination is improper.
It is my understanding that there were several employees who requested to be able to attend this training but were not allowed to do so. Instead of city employees and officials learning about GID and what it involves, they would rather just ignore the issue. The way people see those afficted with GID is not any different from the way that people with cancer were thought of a few decades ago. The same applies to diseases like polio in the days of F.D.R., people born with extra or without certain anatomical body parts, or people born with mental deficiencies. People are always scared of what they do not understand.
The biggest issue is that they seem to be willing to sacrifice the health, safety, and well-being of the city residents to accomplish this end. Not only are they willing to destroy a complete city department, but also risk destroying your entire city, just to satisfy their petty prejudices. Do the words, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness," -- the very principles on which this country is based upon, mean anything? One of our most famous presidents once stated, "That this nation shall have a new rebirth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Every time government infringes on the rights of any of its citizens, it erodes the very foundation of this great country and especially our right to vote. Every citizen must stand up for every other citizen's rights. Not to do so makes our constitution and laws nothing more than a piece of paper with a bunch of words on it. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Gettysburg Address, and other important historical documents proclaiming freedom were not written just to be decorations in a display case somewhere. Millions of soldiers and citizens have fought and died to protect these values and the ideals of these documents. For citizens to stand idly by and let government dictate to them is intolerable. A citizen that turns their back on these concepts and lets government get away with it is just asking for trouble. That is one of the ways that dictatorships are started. Whenever enough people get to the point that they just ignore government, it leaves the door wide open for an individual or group of individuals to take control. It does not have to be a "coup," so to speak; just people too busy to pay attention to what their government is doing. Anyone who is of the attitude that there is nothing that we can do about this situation is sadly mistaken. Whenever a government is seen as out of control and forgets that it is "The People" that they serve, it is time for a change. Denying citizen's rights, violating laws without regard for the public good, lying, hiding facts, misleading, and manipulating our citizens is considered being "out of control."Political favors, conflicts of interest, misdirected governmental influence and collusion are all adverse qualities that we do not want from our politicians. We have laws governing when, where and how they do their jobs and there needs to be accountability to the people that brought them into office. I am sure we can all think of instances of abuse. In my case, I cite them individually because I have a long memory and have been here through many of those times. There are all aspects of politics that we prefer more to not to see or admit to, but they are nonetheless present today.Anyone that is not worried about what their government is doing needs to consider the outcome of their lack of action. It is our community and we need to make our elected officials understand that they work for us, not the other way around.
Respectfully,
JIMMIELEE SMITH
Salem
Here is what she wrote in Your Side, The Readers Take Over, Firefighter expresses views on proposed joint district:
To the editor:
I am quite sure that by now most citizens have at least heard something about me. My name is JimmieLee Smith. I am the firefighter who sued the City of Salem due to the illegal actions that other city employees were taking against me.
I am writing this letter to express my feelings on the issue of the fire district. I know that there are many people that agree with me about dissolving the City of Salem Fire Department even if they are afraid to stand up and say so. It is my personal opinion that the fire district has nothing to do with financial problems within the city. If it did, perhaps the city council could explain how they suddenly found one million dollars? The city was able to hire a part-time secretary, did not take cost cutting or savings measures elsewhere in the city's departments and are able to negotiate wage increases and savings in other city department contracts. This is not to mention appropriating thousands or hundreds of thousands in attorney fees to do things that could be considered shady at best. Does that sound like financially strapped to you?
There is much misinformation coming out of city hall these past few months. The council says that a firefighter's wages are between $70,000 and $73,000 per year, but that figure starts to increase in an attempt to incite the public and make "their case." To use one councilman's phrase, "Who is doing all the 'spin doctoring?'" Does it sound to you like they are controlling spending when they are willing to expend all of that taxpayers money to try to get them out of the trouble they created?
There are many more questions. When will the city really be in fiscal emergency? At first it was could be within 10 years and now it will be within this year. Are the city managers and fiscal officers so inept that they cannot determine when the city will be bankrupt? Adding insult to injury, the State Election Board stopped our city council from using an arbitrary figure of $600,000 in cost savings (or could it be the $700,000 that was mentioned in court) to the city in their campaign because it could not be substantially proven and was deemed misleading the public. Remember the signs and how fast they dodged the issue once the information was discredited.
I feel this does have to do with the personal biases, petty prejudices and misguided moral ideals of some, if not all, of city council and city administration. Consider that on June 2, 2004, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a decision which placed people with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) under the protection of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On June 16, city council announced their intention to eliminate the fire department and form a Joint Fire District with Perry Township. In my eyes this amounts to a "vendetta." Does anyone need a picture to understand what this vendetta is all about? I personally do not find this very amusing.
Since I took the city to court, and through the courts stopped the city from infringing on my rights, the City of Salem's only alternative was to eliminate the entire fire department. In order to accomplish that goal they could not risk having public opinion go against them. They had to infringe on your constitutional right to vote and repeal the two ordinances that you overwhelmingly voted for to protect the will of the voters. Now, not only are they trying to infringe upon my rights, they are trying to infringe on the rights of every citizen of the City of Salem.
It is my opinion that city officials overwhelmingly proved that they do not care when they directed only fire department personnel to attend the diversity training ordered by the court. Instead of requiring all city employees, as well as the elected officials to attend this training, they only did what the letter of the law demanded, not what the spirit of the law was: to help people that I work with understand the prejudice of people with GID is not appropriate or legal. This demonstrates how the council feels about the law and supports my contention that this administration's track record on discrimination is improper.
It is my understanding that there were several employees who requested to be able to attend this training but were not allowed to do so. Instead of city employees and officials learning about GID and what it involves, they would rather just ignore the issue. The way people see those afficted with GID is not any different from the way that people with cancer were thought of a few decades ago. The same applies to diseases like polio in the days of F.D.R., people born with extra or without certain anatomical body parts, or people born with mental deficiencies. People are always scared of what they do not understand.
The biggest issue is that they seem to be willing to sacrifice the health, safety, and well-being of the city residents to accomplish this end. Not only are they willing to destroy a complete city department, but also risk destroying your entire city, just to satisfy their petty prejudices. Do the words, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness," -- the very principles on which this country is based upon, mean anything? One of our most famous presidents once stated, "That this nation shall have a new rebirth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Every time government infringes on the rights of any of its citizens, it erodes the very foundation of this great country and especially our right to vote. Every citizen must stand up for every other citizen's rights. Not to do so makes our constitution and laws nothing more than a piece of paper with a bunch of words on it. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Gettysburg Address, and other important historical documents proclaiming freedom were not written just to be decorations in a display case somewhere. Millions of soldiers and citizens have fought and died to protect these values and the ideals of these documents. For citizens to stand idly by and let government dictate to them is intolerable. A citizen that turns their back on these concepts and lets government get away with it is just asking for trouble. That is one of the ways that dictatorships are started. Whenever enough people get to the point that they just ignore government, it leaves the door wide open for an individual or group of individuals to take control. It does not have to be a "coup," so to speak; just people too busy to pay attention to what their government is doing. Anyone who is of the attitude that there is nothing that we can do about this situation is sadly mistaken. Whenever a government is seen as out of control and forgets that it is "The People" that they serve, it is time for a change. Denying citizen's rights, violating laws without regard for the public good, lying, hiding facts, misleading, and manipulating our citizens is considered being "out of control."Political favors, conflicts of interest, misdirected governmental influence and collusion are all adverse qualities that we do not want from our politicians. We have laws governing when, where and how they do their jobs and there needs to be accountability to the people that brought them into office. I am sure we can all think of instances of abuse. In my case, I cite them individually because I have a long memory and have been here through many of those times. There are all aspects of politics that we prefer more to not to see or admit to, but they are nonetheless present today.Anyone that is not worried about what their government is doing needs to consider the outcome of their lack of action. It is our community and we need to make our elected officials understand that they work for us, not the other way around.
Respectfully,
JIMMIELEE SMITH
Salem
posted by Theodosia @ 4:26 AM
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