To Give Thanks

We are thankful for:

1)    The US Constitution and Bill of Rights which guarantee us freedom of speech and of thought.

2)    The various Civil Rights bills which guarantee us Human, Civil and Political Rights in this country regardless of ethnicity, color, religion or political beliefs.

3)    The New Hampshire Bill of Rights --which includes:

    ARTICLE 1:

Equality of Men; Origin and Object of Government. All men are born equally free and independent; therefore, all government of right originates from the people, is founded in consent, and instituted for the general good.

     ARTICLE 8:

Accountability of Magistrates and Officers; Public's Right to Know. All power residing originally in, and being derived from, the people, all the magistrates and officers of government are the substitutes and agents, and of all times accountable to them. Government, therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsible. To that end, the public's right of access to governmental proceedings and records show not be unreasonably restricted.

     ARTICLE 10:

Right of Revolution. Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.

We are thankful for the natural beauty of the Upper Valley with his trees, lakes, mountains and environmental robustness.

We are thankful for the many Upper Valley citizens who reach out to help others in so many ways. Put food on the table of the needy, protest unfair treatment of individuals, care for the less fortunate and in so many ways express love and kindness regardless of who the person is.

When People Sleep

When They Sleep
by Rolf Jacobsen

English version by Robert Hedin

All people are children when they sleep.
there’s no war in them then.
They open their hands and breathe
in that quiet rhythm heaven has given them.
They pucker their lips like small children
and open their hands halfway,
soldiers and statesmen, servants and masters.
The stars stand guard
and a haze veils the sky,
a few hours when no one will do anybody harm.
If only we could speak to one another then
when our hearts are half-open flowers.
Words like golden bees
would drift in.
– God, teach me the language of sleep.

Submitted by Robert Logan

Governance False Allegations

Recently I received an email from a long-term governance member in reply to my Blog “The Latest Governance Scam at Eastman” that contained false allegations and insinuations.  On November 13 I wrote a reply to the author. As of now I have not received the courtesy of a reply. We seriously doubt that the individual who wrote this, is the sole party in governance responsible for these malicious and wrongful accusations. No democracy ought to tolerate governance members accusing its citizens wrongfully of actions or words. That is a violation of one's civil and human rights. We have the right to state our political position as it pertains to Eastman governance. We have the right to advocate for change in governance model and we will continue to do so.

I have posted the email in italics and my reply below.

"it slowly became infiltrated by governance members." That reeks of conspiracy. What is *your* evidence that it is some secret cabal of governance members seeking to "take over" this group?

My "evidence" of infiltration of governance members --I never said secret cabal (your words),  my reference to secret in the blog post is regarding Larry's statements. When the Facebook group changed its name to the same as the "petition" group, I felt the two groups "merged". Let's be honest here--that group (the Petition Group) is run by governance members who have by their failure to bring forth any meaningful governance change proposals to the Council not demonstrated a proactive approach to change the existing governance structure including equal representation and direct vote. I advocate that equal members should have an equal vote; as did you at one time.

I have said before, the only way to change our governance is from within - that means being a part of governance, not part of some "secret" group prone to sending inflammatory anonymous threats to the ECA on a regular basis. How are we to reform governance without participating in it??? You accuse this group of being "secret" and not naming names - well, I publicly was one of the four who signed the original letter launching the successful petition.

FALSE-- Neither I nor Bob have ever sent an anonymous anything to ECA or anyone else. I don't know who is telling you this or if you created this malicious statement, but it is completely false and borders on slander. If you have positive proof, then produce it--otherwise stop spreading malicious rumors for which you have no basis. I am not in the business of spreading rumors--only facts, which I can back up.   

Have you been as forthright?

We sponsored  previous Petitions, including one for Direct Vote along with Bob McCarthy, Greg North and others.

Regarding communicating with the press, that is your right - but as a group, it is foolhardy, nay, just plain stupid communications to invite the news media to an event without having discussed a plan for what message is hoped to be communicated - nevermind poisonous to building relationships with people you are hoping will support your cause.

You claimed I was involved with inviting the news media to your event--FALSE. I had nothing to do with it.  However a public meeting in a public place is a public meeting--what are you trying to hide? Who benefits when you control information? Ask Daniel Ellsburg how well governance secrecy works for a constituency. See 8/3/14 Post

Geri, you have lost touch with the people you allegedly are championing, and you have lost me. I beg you to stop and thing about what you we doing, and consider stopping. You are causing more damage than you know, and playing right into the hands of those who oppose what you say you support. Please stop!!!

I know I've lost you and it is too bad. If people can tolerate differences they can leverage their points of agreement. Every Eastman reform effort since 2002 has failed because of intolerance and inability to accept political differences. If you want to blame us for our political point of view then you've got your scapegoat.  You have talent. I don't think you know what you are up against and as it pertains to me you have consistently demonstrated you are not open to other points of view other than your own. (You could say that about me, but I will listen, I will communicate or I wouldn't bother writing).  In the vast majority of cases I/we have made an effort to communicate directly with those who disagree with our point of view.

We tried your current approach to fix the governance for more than 10 years so we know what you are up against. You say your petition was successful--how do you measure success? By the number of signatures to an explicitly worded petition signed by parties that you and we encouraged people to sign, or by getting that explicit wording in the referendum sent back to the petitioners and owners to vote on?  We still got the $4.5 M building that nobody can justify the need for, or feels they need to have justified (for that matter) unless one of the community's core purposes is to have a high end restaurant and subsidize its owner.

Your group dropped the ball on Question #6--if anyone should have known what that question was going to do, it was Larry and Paul Hoffman. They did nothing--why? Now you have all these people that thought they voted against the building but are getting it anyway and now they are pissed. You are trying to round them up again but people have a short attention span. This is how it goes. Getting critical mass is nearly impossible--people would rather move even if they give up $100K or the entire house. People are fleeing Eastman and you want to play the blame game and point the finger at people who didn't make the decisions that got us here.

You claim you are going to cause governance change by working within. Hopefully you will be more successful than the last governance committee's proposal for equal districts. 

I am surprised and disappointed that people would fabricate false allegations like this. Are we to understand that the current Eastman governance idea of member respect includes maligning any citizens who disagree with the governance approach and decisions? Why do we tolerate the actions of this governance?

Banned IV Dissenters

Banned at Eastman—Dissenters 

One of the Eastman Board By-laws states:

"The President shall provide overall leadership for the Eastman Community Association, the Board and ECA management…" "...additionally the President shall be the official spokesperson for the Board...."

In that regard, the current ECA Board President on April 18, 2013, using ECA stationery, ECA employees and the ECA mailing list sent a letter entitled "and now you know the rest of the story" to members of the Eastman community.

Contained within that letter are the following statements:

·      "… There continues to be a small group of dissenters who have opposed virtually every initiative to improve our community". 

One of his initiatives was to install almost unfathomable “enterprise financial statements” so as to inappropriately complicate the average member’s understanding of accountability for community spending. Eastman is a small financial entity ($4M) and there is no need for complexity in its financials.

The labeling of any ECA community member as a dissenter (or dissident) is an attack on an Eastman member's political beliefs. It is inappropriate for any elected Eastman official to target any community member(s) in such a demeaning way.

This statement and others like it, is a form of intimidation through insinuation. The Board President has the same right to use and express his views and to defend his political beliefs on the listserv as everyone else. Interestingly he chose not to release his letter using the Eastman Listserv and now some of his government supporters have successfully censored what was an open and transparent Listserv communication channel. It has been replaced by the non-governance controlled Eastman Open Forum on Google Groups which can be accessed here  https://groups.google.com/forum/eastmanopenforum 

The Board President's letter goes on to state:

·      "....types of irresponsible material contained in the anonymous letter and many postings that appear on the listserv." 

The letter continues, laden with implicit statements suggestively linked to those whom he has labeled as dissenters:

·      "further mischief by the perpetrators the longer you keep throwing poopcorn at the wall the more likely it is to stick."

Further he says, 

·      "Find a statement or number that appears in a letter, report or other document, and then surround it with innuendo or misstatement(s) wrapped in a cocoon of venom."

Nowhere in his letter is there any substantiation of any of his claims. Furthermore, if the Board President disagrees with the stated opinions or the financial information presented by community members which is sourced from ECA reports (some of them audited) he has every ECA employee and community resource at his complete disposal to do his bidding. If he wanted to substantiate his un-substantiated claims he has every capability to do so.  

In an attempt to condemn the "always signed" messages on the listserv, the Board President attempts to discredit the well-written disagreements of ECA members which are in fact, supported by ECA governance financial documents. He also discredits ECA members’ points of view with some Eastman governance decisions or policies adopted during his more than 10 years of Board membership and more than 6 years as a Eastman Sewer Company Board Member.

Further on in his letter, he states:

 "Why would anyone want to serve in a governance or committee position in a community where character assassination was a way of life?"

Why indeed? If he doesn’t want to “serve”, please stop pretending to. He at the same time establishes a dispensation for himself in attacking ECA members as dissenters. 

As to the Board President's 4/18/13 letter's content and its predecessor’s 4/1/13 letter content: prose on golf revenue, committee meetings etc.--the verbiage contained within these is all a distraction from the real community issue, which is excessive, almost uncontrollable and unaccountable spending that is occurring now in the community. This rate of spending has been increasing over the past 10 years. It has created a beautifully manicured golf course as a resort showcase. Some members consider the old Eastman golf links more consistent with a friendly New England community. It was also more practical economically to a diverse economic group of citizens.

Eastman is a beautiful location cleverly designed by Emil Hanslin to be enjoyed for its natural setting and natural resources. Buildings, trucks and manicured grass do not enhance the social welfare of the community. 

If you would like to read the full text of Mr. Goldman’s letter, you may find it on the Eastman website. It should be under “Documents”.

Banned at Eastman III

An Eastman owner sent this to the "governance-controlled" Eastman Listserv:

I think that you should disclose that the "letter" you refer to is really a link to a blog which discredits our governance and objects to everything that has formed the community in Eastman!

·      Does the Blog “discredit” the governance or does it report what governance is doing and has done?

·      Does the Blog object to everything that has formed the community? NO.

What the Blog objects to is a “governance which”:

·      Spreads false accusations about certain owners

·      Bullies

·      Holds frequent secret meetings

·      Refuses to provide consistent financial information and open, explicit financial accountability to owners

·      Changes the explicit Petition wording of the owners’ Petition for a Referendum

·      Refuses to allow direct vote in order to determine what owners want

·      Fails to hold its General Manager and Board accountable in an open, transparent manner

·      Is not equally representative or accountable

Is this what has formed the community in Eastman? When the community was formed and for the next 27 years it practiced open governance and open disclosure of potential conflicts of interest such as:

·      Membership in the Eastman Golf Course

·      The ability to communicate with neighbors was not unreasonably withheld.

Governance was not a sacred entity to be zealously followed by worshippers; rather it was open to discord.