Stifling Opinions and Ideas IP: 97.96.177.108 Posted on April 18, 2019 at 08:32:21 PM by Jeffrey L Smith
Tampa Retired Fire & Police Association.
I have been a dues paying member of the Tampa Fire & Police Retirees Association for 15 years. Recently I express my opposition of using the Association to endorse political candidates by a select few during a social gathering in Feburary. The Association's Facebook Administrator Scott Howell has locked me out of my thread on Association Facebook page preventing me from responding to others who post under my thread.
He also selectively deleted some of my rebuttals to others in an effort to silence my opinion and voice. Scott Howell defends these actions by stating he doesn't recall me ever attending an Association social gathering. The Association never had a problem with taking my yearly dues and spending it on Cuban Sandwiches, Devil Crabs and Beverages at their quarterly meetings.
Is this what the Association President Tom Depolis meant when he said they respect every members opinion even if it differs from their own.
Members opinions seam to only matter when they march in lock step and follow a strict unwritten doctrine of conformity.
If your a free thinker your opinion does not matter and will be silenced because you are considered a threat to the good ol' boy network. All this negativity because I simply expressed my opinion that the Association should remain politically nuetral and allow its members to decide for themselves who they choose to endorse. I would suspect that the majority of those individuals involved in the political endorsement do not even reside in the City of Tampa and therefore can not even vote in the Mayoral race. Replies: