The Lebanon Democrat
October 17, 2008.
Letter to the editor:
How ironic it is to see a letter from William Farmer urging Mark Rose
to use his “editorial powers to look for a positive
solution” to the Mt. Juliet fire service “tax
injustice” right after I received a mailer from Mr. Farmer
making a false claim about the stance of his opponent, Philip
Craighead, on the same subject.
In this mailer, Mr. Farmer accuses Mr. Craighead of believing it is
okay for Lebanon tax payers to pay for Mt. Juliet fire service. There
is an asterisk referencing the Sept. 10, 2008 edition of the Wilson
post for this quote. Of course, if you actually read the article and
don’t believe everything you get on a nice glossy package in
the mail, you’ll know that the accusation is false.
What Mr. Craighead was disagreeing with is Mr. Farmer’s
“positive solution” in which the City of Lebanon
Fire Department would no longer assist in Mt. Juliet fire protection
when called upon. Mr. Farmer seems to think that one way to stick it to
them is to let a few houses burn and teach Mt. Juliet a lesson. Mr.
Craighead disagrees with this tactic and urges cooperation and working
toward a unified resolution – which I believes the true
function of a working government and something that sould have been
happening to resolve this all along.
It amazes me with all of Mr. Farmer’s experience in city
government that his only solution to the problem is to make a rash
decision that will put countless families at risk instead of try to
reach a proper and legislative resolution to what has been a continuing
problem for years. I thank making this threat was Mr.
Farmer’s way of try to take attention off the fact that no
progress was made on the issue in the years he has been a long time
councilman and Mayor Pro Tem.
What we are seeing is a repeat of the strategy of Mr.
Farmer’s last campaign. Remember the old saying about people
in glass houses? It’s just shy of three weeks to Election Day
and Mr. Farmer is already throwing stones at anyone who disagrees with
him. In addition to his letter about Mr. Rose, Mr. Farmer sent out not
one, but two professionally produced mailers skewering his opponent,
Mr. Craighead, this week.
As I looked at the mailers, I first wondered how much money they cost
and why that money couldn’t have gone to a better use. Did
Mr. Farmer not learn a lesson when over $104,000 was spent by his
campaign in a losing effort against Mayor Fox (whose campaign spent
about half that amount) in the last election? Then, I wondered when the
citizens of Lebanon will be finally fed up with this type of politics.
The feud between Mr. Farmer and Mayor Fox has been frustrating and
downright embarrassing at times over the years and yet again, instead
of campaigning on what he will do for the citizens of Lebanon, Mr.
Farmer has set his sights squarely on a new opponent. Using carefully
crafted half-truths in his mailings, he is betting that Lebanon voters
will take his propaganda as the gospel truth and he assumes that we are
not intelligent enough to do a little simple research to uncover the
facts.
Mr. Farmer is rightly proud that he has been a part of city government
on and off for over 34 years, but is that enough to make him the
correct choice to lead our city? In the last mayoral election, the
citizens were loud and clear with the answer to that question.
Sincerely,
Jason Reese
Lebanon
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