BULLYING: Not limited to school

Some bullying has been happening in our town.

I wasn’t surprised to see the political signs displayed at some of the business properties in Coeur d’Alene — the ones with personal or financial ties to the current administration such as those owned by business persons Riggs, Meyer, Nipp, Bloem, etc. etc. Those are expected.

I am surprised to see political signs displayed in other business windows around town. Ones you don’t expect to have politics mix with their business. The ones that don’t have financial gain in advertising their political views. It makes sense for businesses to stay neutral on the political front. And I appreciate it when businesses do remain neutral.

In recent conversations with a couple local businesses I have found that there are businesses that want to be politically neutral but are bullied into displaying signs at their business because they are owned by Mr. Riggs or Parkwood Business Properties (Mr. Nipp and Mr. Meyer).

I spoke to the Front Avenue branch of Bank of America Wednesday morning asking why they would have political signs in front of their bank and was told specifically that they do not want them there. The property that Bank of America is located on is owned by Parkwood Business Properties. Bank of America has requested to Parkwood to remove the signs from their business. Bank of America has taken the signs down only to have Parkwood replace the signs. I was told by a Bank of America employee that they have asked their corporate office to intervene on their behalf to request that Parkwood stop placing their political signs at the bank property.

Not that long ago I was dining at a local restaurant downtown and asked the hostess why there are so many anti-recall signs plastered on all the windows of the nearby buildings. She replied that the owner of the buildings put them up. They were pressured to have the signs in their window also but later removed them. She felt others have had the same pressure to have the signs in their business windows. The owner of the buildings mentioned is Mr. Riggs.

It sounds like bullying at the expense of the business owners who are caught in the middle. Why not let the owners of the businesses that pay to lease the buildings decide if they want to advertise your political beliefs at their expense. It sounds unfair to me. To use Mr. Riggs’ own words, it sounds downright “nasty and un-American.”

JEAN STARR

Coeur d’Alene