I would like to thank Patrick Berry, owner of the Westfield News Group for his invitation to the City Council members to submit articles to the newspaper. He has proposed a weekly rotating schedule and this should allow you to be informed on the issues that affect Westfield.
I would also like to thank the voters for electing me to the City Council. It is a high honor to once again have an opportunity to represent the citizens of Westfield in elected office. The Council President, Brent Bean, has assigned me to the following committees of the Council; Business Development, City Properties, Government Relations and Chairman of the License Committee.
Welcome to the Fiscal New Year…in government, the new year starts July 1. Certainly by late June, most of the city financial accounts are exhausted and on July 1 they are replenished when the new budget comes on line. And speaking of the budget…it passed Thursday night. I would like to thank the members of the Finance Committee, especially Councilor Paul…for their diligent and exhaustive effort in reviewing the budget. In the end over 2 million dollars of cuts were proposed and the final document yielded just over $100,000. Though this doesn’t sound like a lot…it is consistent with past City Council cuts in my 15 years of city government. The important thing to remember is that by the time the Council receives the budget…the Mayor has already trimmed millions of dollars of “asks” in the budget.
This year like recent years past was filled with posturing and a robust debate. Councilors Flaherty and Dondley should be commended for the two presentation they prepared to provide context to the debate. Thank you to the citizens that appeared in front of the Council and sent emails. The debate culminated last night…and this past week was filled with spirited debate. This is what democracy looks like…someone once said it’s like sausage making…it can get ugly. But looking back, it was respectful and thoughtful. The Mayor and his team can now move forward with the resources needed to keep the wheels of progress turning in our city.
The License Committee had some action too…we passed a junk dealers license that allowed for the opening of a new book store on Elm Street and we approved a special permit for the Hanger that will see between 50 and 100 coin operated video games installed in the facility. This should provide an entertainment outlet for kids and adults alike. There have been a number of restaurant that have opened up with video games part of the offering. They have become popular outlets for Gen Xers (the first true gaming generation) and their kids.
This is the 4th of July weekend…the official start of Summer fun. We kick off with fireworks at South Middle School Field later tonight and two parades will follow on the Fourth. The fabulous Hampton Ponds Parade will kick off at 10 from the Plaza followed later that night at 6 in Wyben. Both parades harken back to another time…connecting the 1950’s style Americana with today’s modern world. Thank you to all the citizens that organize and participate in both parades. The truly are Westfield treasures and make our city’s celebration of our nation’s birthday very special.
July 4, 1776, the signing of the Declaration of Independence… a new nation is born…a nation unlike any that ever came before it…
From the archives of the Government of the United States.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
I think it is important for all Americans today to reflect upon the sentiments of the very first Americans. The desire to live life free of the yolk of tyranny was and still is one the strongest sentiments of human kind. I know I am thankful for being an American. So as you celebrate this weekend, take a moment to think of the birth of our nation and how today we are still inspired by the great Patriots of 1776. Be safe and may God Bless America.
Regards;
Daniel M. Knapik, City Council At-Large
