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Editor, News-Register:
Why sign up to speak before the City Council only to give your time to someone else? If one signed up to speak, one must have had something to say. Surely you aren't in cahoots with another speaker to extend his/her time.
If someone wants to speak at the council meetings, they have every right to do so. Sign up to be heard and you will be heard. You will be given three minutes to say what you have to say. Everyone gets the same amount of time. If three minutes is not enough, maybe the one who wishes to speak should rewrite their speech for the time allotted and be more concise. If you are afraid of public speaking and don't want to do it, why sign up to speak in the first place?
Sure, maybe it will take more time and thought to plan your speech to fit in those three minutes, but is that so difficult if the message is worth it? And for those who don't really want to speak in public, you've got to make the decision for yourself whether your message and what you want to say is more important than your discomfort with standing in front of others and speaking your mind.
Don't worry about it. Many, if not most, people are a bit afraid of speaking in public, especially when one is speaking their own opinions and/or concerns. But if a concern or issue is important enough for you to want to have your opinion heard, then (as Nike would say) just do it. Don't worry about others disagreeing or even making fun of you because there will always be someone who will do that -- usually by someone who disagrees. But have no fear, they get the same from those who disagree with them.
To give one's allotted time to another is like stacking the deck (I don't really know what that means in cards, but I do understand that it's cheating). The person who signed up to speak and yields their time to someone else is giving more time to one than the others have; and they are kind of lying because they didn't sign up to actually speak, they signed up to give another more time.
The time for speaking to the council is not (or should not be) transferrable. Everyone signs up for three minutes speaking time. If you cannot say what you have to say in three minutes, go back to the drawing board, or notepad or word processor and revise. It should be concise, succinct; briefly and clearly expressed. To sign up for the three minutes speaking time only to give it to another to prolong his/her time, is lying and misrepresenting one's intentions. It's like saying, out of the corner of the mouth with a wink, wink, "I'm not speaking I'm just going to give my time to them so they can speak longer and hopefully outspeak everyone else."
I don't know about anyone else, but that doesn't sound like "community involvement" to me. It sounds like deception and giving false impressions to get what you want, another three minutes to another who probably is saying the same thing.
One "perspective" or "side," one voice.
Isn't the individual voice of several more impacting than one long-winded speech? Come on, if you want to participate in community and local government, then do it; by yourself, for yourself and that about which you care. When you allow others to speak for you, you are minimizing your opinions, thoughts, and yourself.
Joseph Cupp
Wheeling