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I listened to your radio show this morning and I have to agree with Mr. Berry about the condition of Westfield’s water. I too have spoken to a chemist, someone with degrees and certifications in the field and does sample analysis for a living, and they have assured me that Westfield’s water is absolutely fine, whereas other, nearby, community’s water is awful. I also went on the City’s web site under the water department and looked at the Consumer Confidence Water Quality reports and they show the testing of Westfield’s drinking water which is, again, fine. Oh, and I spoke to an authorized employee of the water dept. and got direct, easy to understand answers. The persistence by people in this town to claim the water is unsafe is merely a scare tactic. And those claims are being made by people without formal training. People: listen to professionals in their field. If there were truly an issue in the city with our water those officials with licenses to manage drinking water would be screaming it from the tops of buildings because, if they didn’t they could be held accountable. People on their soapbox who took a college chemistry class are not certified to make any decisions regarding our drinking water. If you think your particular home has a water issue, and you’re on the public water supply, contact the water department. It is their responsibility to ensure the public water supply is safe.
I read with interest former councilor Dondley’s article the other day about social media and I must say that, while amusing, social media will be the end of the human race. Think about how much more tension is in our lives now because of the comments and positions being pushed via social media. The misinformation on any number of topics permeates our society as fact. We must step away from the small screen and once again have in person conversations with people to better understand the world around us. Don’t be afraid to reach out to someone and ask a question, in person or on the phone. The online forums for Westfield are absolute troughs of garbage and misinformation. The people who run these forums portray them as the place for facts and intelligent dialogue when they have an agenda which is subtly fed to the public creating a divided community. Westfield is not unique to this. The article the Westfield News posted yesterday about journalism couldn’t have been more appropriate: people who solely rely on getting information from online blogs and forums are provided biased facts and are more likely influenced by hyperbole and scare tactics. We live in a world of silos where we gravitate to people and sources of similar ideology which creates a narrow-mindedness rather than absorbing information from varying credible sources to form well-rounded positions. In parting, I ask Westfield residents to take a break from social media periodically and engage with your neighbors. I no longer scroll the internet like I used to because the hate mongering and divisiveness is overwhelming, stressful and sad. Think about the meaning of the word Social and then ask yourself, how Social am I sitting behind the screen.
