Lake Worth is as progressive as North Korea

William Coakley’s web site is still blocked by the City of Lake Worth through a Firewall by SonicWall. This is Coakley’s campaign web site so this is a very unfortunate decision made by the City Manager, someone William Coakley has been challenging on various issues particularly our Utility. I say the City Manager because who else would it be? Doesn't the buck stop with Susan Stanton?

Do we live in North Korea? Is this a government that only allows media with its point of view? This is about government playing hardball with the First Amendment and stifling the freedom of speech. I or Bill Coakley didn’t wake up this morning and decide to attack the decisions of Lake Worth. These are real issues with real consequences for the residents here. Everyday there is something absurd or just plain bizarre to write about even at times, corrupt.

There are some private companies now that are blocking their employees from social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, justifying their action saying that employees should be concentrating on company business, not their own.

In the City, I don’t believe there is any evidence that the taxpayers are not being well served if an employee happens to check a local blog a few times a day. More and more of the First Amendment is being eroded when local governments pull these bully tactics and block certain web sites that challenge them under a disingenuous claim of “protecting workers or the city commissioners.” It is Ms. Stanton, afterall, who has publicly stated that she doesn’t want a “police state.” Is the blocking of a web site just the very action she says she opposes? What web site will it be next? Glenn Beck’s? Fox News? The Drudge Report?

By hindering the Internet media for an unfounded assertion, is a solution to a problem that, given the odds, probably does not even exist. An outright ban because of views that differ from City Hall’s, will only have more negative consequences than the non-existent problem the ban purports to fix.

Unlike people behind restrictive national firewalls in countries such as China and North Korea where there is no guarantee of free speech, we are largely allowed to access anything we wish as long as it is legal. So why is the City of Lake Worth being arbitrary? What are they afraid of? Surely not the First Amendment.

We must continually fight for the freedom of press. More and more information is being produced these days by bloggers. If we don’t stand up for this freedom, we will lose it. Secretive policy making must be contested as it will lead to more corruption. It is the press and the blogs that will keep it all honest.

We urge that the City of Lake Worth immediately lift the ban on www.lakeworthmedia.com and any other blog that may be subject to discrimination, now or in the future, because of its popularity relative to its stand on issues. Focusing on challenging ideas and decisions made by City Hall should not be condemned. Banning a web site because of information or facts that may differ from the City Manager’s or the elected officials is suppressing the right of free speech.

This is a City that supposedly continues to purport that it is “progressive.” Censorship is not cool.