I have had an email conversation with a person regarding my expressed anger during two separate comment periods before the Black Diamond City Council. Anger has become the unpardonable sin in America. If one speaks with passion and anger they are a bad person. Calling someone “angry” or a “bully” has become a tool to hush dissenting voices. I state here and now that I have a right to voice opposition and I will not be shamed into silence.

In the email conversation this person expressed they had issues with the former City Council’s diplomacy, not their actions. OK, so now I get it. This is why it doesn’t matter if Council actions follow the Law, or completely abolish the Law. This is why “anger” is far worse than governing outside the Law. What matters is how it “feels” or how it “looks”.

Every country on earth has laws. Yet many of these countries are ruled by dictators, and dictators are capricious leaders. Laws mean nothing to them. They decide which laws to enforce or follow, and which laws they could care less about. This can change depending upon the circumstance or person involved. When laws are so easily cast aside, the ever-shifting whims of those in power create instability and fear within the populace.

I spoke before the Black Diamond City Council at that Jan. 7 meeting and referenced RCW 35A.11.020 which limits the powers of councils and the mayor pro tempore. A follow-up speaker encouraged them to stay the course, they can decide how to run the council and city, the RCWs do not limit the council. With encouragement like this the results will be both capricious and disastrous!

America is a nation of laws. The laws are the bedrock upon which our governing bodies stand. If those three Black Diamond City Council members choose to ignore laws which clearly place restrictions and limits upon the way they govern, then they have in essence become the capricious dictators of Black Diamond. How do the citizens know which laws the council WILL abide by? Which limitations to their power will they accept, if any? And how are we to know what they will decide to do, or change tomorrow? The Laws are there to hold our governing bodies to a solid, unmovable point. By skirting the laws of their choosing, their governance will be as solid as the wayward wind.

Robbin Taylor

Black Diamond