Opinion: CA Chair Publicly Humiliates Constituent in Reprehensible Character Assassination
By Deepest House
(Europeia – September 25, 2017) - The Citizens’ Assembly (CA) is Europeia’s lower legislature, the lawmaking body closest to the citizens. By law, every Europeian is a member of the CA. It is often where new citizens get their first start in lawmaking and serving in elected office. The body as a whole is highly regarded among the population, serves an integral role in our noble republic, and serving as its Chair is a moderately prestigious position within the region. Current CA Chair GraVandius recently publicly humiliated Aditya Republic and cast aside his opinion as unworthy of being considered. For an elected official charged with representing and considering the opinions of all citizens, this is unacceptable behavior.
Aditya Republic participated in the recent debate encompassing the split of the EBC into forum and sub-forum, stating his agreement that the creation of a sub-forum was not necessary. GraVandius, in an attempt to minimize the support for the opinions stated in the EBC piece, immediately disregarded Aditya Republic as unable to grasp the issue at hand.
“First of all you counted Adyita (sic), which I think can fairly be chalked up with the same amount of understanding and involvement as every other one of his "nice" comments,” the CA Chair snarked incredulously. This unprovoked attack on Aditya Republic’s intellectual capabilities began a string of attacks on the CA Chair’s constituent.
When challenged that he simply cast aside the valid opinion of a citizen, GraVandius doubled down on his public embarrassment of Aditya in a manner unbecoming the position he holds.
“Your (sic) telling me that you honestly believe that Adytia (sic) has a complete understanding of the issue and formed his own comprehensive opinion on the topic?”
The egregious grammar and spelling mistakes aside, the second quote is absolutely horrible and offensive to Aditya Republic. Together, these two assaults on Aditya Republic illustrate GraVandius’ willingness and ability to publicly marginalize and embarrass his constituents, and displays a hubris unfit for the office of CA Chair. The CA Chair should be the elected official most willing to legitimately entertain the opinions of the electorate, and the CA Chair certainly shouldn’t publicly discount his constituents as unworthy of even having an opinion. In another post in another thread, GraVandius chalked up Aditya’s behavior in the region to “stupidity.”
Aditya Republic is as deserving of having the CA Chair listen to and respect his opinions as is every other member of our region. He certainly does not deserve the public humiliation and shaming for merely holding an opinion. Extrapolating from this incident, it is clear that any opinion stated by Aditya Republic within the CA will likely be summarily dismissed without consideration by the current chair. GraVandius made clear he does not believe Aditya Republic has the intellectual capabilities to form his own opinion about current events. Moving beyond Aditya Republic, the CA Chair has also demonstrated an ability to disregard an opinion simply based on whose it is, rather than its merits. That is not behavior that we should expect, nor accept, from our CA Chair.
It is the responsibility of the CA Chair to faithfully represent the electorate that put him in office. A significant part of that is an honest ear to listen to, and consider, their opinions. Aditya Republic is only one person, but how many other citizens does GraVandius think is unworthy of having an opinion? How many citizens won’t have their interests even heard, let alone represented, by the CA Chair if he is willing to completely marginalize and humiliate them in a very public manner for stating them?
The bottom line is that GraVandius should not have publicly embarassed Aditya Republic in an attempt to advance his argument. It was not necessary, and a low blow that is demonstrative of the depths to which GraVandius will go to advance his agenda. Given his position as an elected official, GraVandius must conduct himself in a more appropriate manner and treat all citizens with the respect they deserve. We as citizens should evaluate whether GraVandius represents the values we desire in an elected official. Finally, he owes Aditya Republic an apology for the unprovoked character assassination.
