The Editor,
Having attended the March 12 workshop, I have the following comments and reflections:
As I had predicted previously, the workshop was facilitated in classic “Delphi Technique” fashion, with the attendees divided up into groups of approximately eight people per table.
One early observation made was the less-than-subtle presence of several parties who may be deemed “Richmond’s establishment,” ie. various politicians, community and business leaders etc. (who, by and large, often stack such meetings with support for the status quo).
The person chairing the workshop began with making inferences that the Delphi Technique (ie. controlling and manipulating opposition) would not be used and attendees wouldn’t be preached to.
But at the conclusion, it was clear after the meeting we were totally misled.
Note: I hope the entire meeting was recorded for future reference, given it was a textbook example of the Delphi Technique.
Approximately 75 per cent of the “workshop” (90 minutes) was run like a combination of “adult daycare” meets “indoctrination session” with various experts submitting questionable statistics and more ad nauseum studies currently underway.
Less than 15 minutes was allotted for open microphone and the flow of free speech by attendees.
Let’s cut to the chase: Simply stated, when a physical war ends, the conquerors plant their nation’s flag and with it comes the peripherals such as a new culture to displace the existing ones.
However, in a physical war, the citizens are at least given the opportunity to defend themselves and their collective best interests, as opposed to being sold-out in the backrooms by treasonous politicians.
The ill- informed often claim any expression of concern is “racist,” not realizing that over-used subjective term “racist” is attributed to Communist Leon Trotsky as a means to demonize and marginalize any agenda opposition until resistance is futile.
However, hope springs eternal. The overwhelming majority of the average citizens who attended and spoke, expressed concern that the status quo was not acceptable.
The general feeling resonating was that the signage issue is simply a symptom of a far bigger problem and of which the blame lies solely at the feet of government which is, at the eleventh hour, desperately trying to put the grassroots fire out with these amateurish, insulting and deflective efforts as we witnessed at the March 12 workshop.
R. A. Hoegler
Richmond
