RECALL: No, it's not destructive

If you count yourself a citizen of Coeur d’Alene you likely know about the recall effort being waged against Mayor Sandi Bloem and her key central planning accomplices.

Now, to most of us it’s understandable that the children of local politicians, and other functionaries rally to the defense of Bloem and company. They have vested interests which we in the general public lack. It’s a perspectival matter. We get that.

What we don’t get, however, is the nature of their argument.

First, they claim not to understand why the people of Coeur d’Alene demand a recall. “All over a park?” they ask. No. It’s over Bloem and company’s redundant displays of disregard for the will of the people whom they were elected to represent. The fact is we’ve seen a succession of frivolous, if megalithic, taxpayer funded projects, come out of the Bloem regime. Every one of these schemes has seen significant opposition from residents. Because it’s their money and their town. And it’s supposed to be their government.

Moreover, the central planners and their enablers insist that those calling for recall are “destroying Coeur d’Alene.” Really? How is preventing the forced transformation of our idyllic country town into an urban-metro zoo like Spokane “destroying” it, exactly? Preservation is not destruction. They’re opposites. We should at least be able to agree on that.

Transparently, we’ve come to this impasse because we have two starkly differing visions of what this city is and what it should be. Tied up in this matter too is the question of government’s legitimate function. On one side is Bloem and company who believe it is the duty of central planners to totally remake Coeur d’Alene, at the expense of an unwilling populace, into something wholly unrecognizable. They mean to “fix” us by force. And on the other side is the tax-burdened citizens who love Coeur d’Alene and her roots; they expect their representatives to represent them, not rule them.

DANIEL BRANNAN

Coeur d’Alene