2007/08/17

The First Round of the income tax battle

Round 1

Ypsilanti hosts dozens of special interest festivals in the course of the year, however the Heritage festival is the ”big one” for the locals… hell even I go to that one and I’m nobody’s socialite.

Well, it seems that the movers and shakers who are peddling the income tax have leaned on the Heritage Festival organizers, and the Stop City Income Tax crew have been stopped from joining the parade.

I haven’t looked into this very deeply, but I know the SCIT folks had received their place (44) and their note of thanks from the Jaycees.

I know that the SCIT folks intended top use a Hybrid vehicle as part of their parade.

The SCIT folks applied for position in the parade with the name “Stop City Income Tax”.

Now, these are the relevant rules of the parade.

2007 HERITAGE FESTIVAL
PARADE RULES & REGULATIONS

7. Units sponsored by or depicting a political or controversial issue will not be permitted in the Parade.
8. No vehicle is permitted to accompany marching units unless authorized by the Parade committee
….
10. AUTOMOBILES must be antique, or at least twenty-five years old. If you are sending a Queen or Royalty, if you are a politician, if you are a neighborhood group and do not have a float, the transportation for the parade must be in an antique car or truck or fire engine. NO CURRENT AUTOMOBILES WILL BE ALLOWED unless they are pulling a float.


My problem is this.

The organizers of the event have the right to make whatever rules and regulations they want for their event within reason.

They even have the right to enforce those rules how they please, again within reason.

The time to reject the SCIT proposal on either political or vehicular grounds was when the SCIT folks applied for it.

It is really bad form for the Heritage Festival committee to give these folks a place, and then pull the pin at the last minute. It is small-minded, petty, not to mention rude, and ignorant to do so. If the person who approved the application in the first place was in error, then the committee needs to live with its error.

It would seem that, in first allowing the SCIT folks to think they had a place, and then dismissing their hard work and preparation out-of-hand, the Herritage Festival Committee have expressed a strong political opinion in favor of the tax…

And I thought rule 7 was supposed to avoid all that? …. Silly me …

As usual, Ypsilanti’s movers and shakers get to set a double-standard which espouses equality and free speech on paper, but serves a very specific political agenda in reality.

I can’t believe Ypsi’s citizens are still eating this crap.

Wasn’t that what the Boston Tea Party was all about? Doing away with the influence of a few to impose higher taxes and increased burdens on the masses?

Maybe the next SCIT adventure should be a “Tea Party” at Farmer Meadows (Water Street)...

While round 1 officially goes to the Campaign for Ypsilanti’s Future, (the pro-tax group) for stopping the SCIT parade run, I think they have just cost themselves a lot of support in the long term.

Take care

Rod

3 comments:

Steve Pierce, Ypsilanti, Michigan USA said...

Last week, Lynda Hummel called us on August the 9th and asked us about the Hybrid. She said a modern vehicle isn't in keeping with the Heritage festival. She also said she like the Segways and thought they were great in the parade.

We absolutely agreed with Lynda Hummel (co-chair Heritage Festival) and immediately agreed to withdraw the request for the modern car. The main reason we originally asked to put it in is because we wanted a support vehicle in case those in costume got over heated. But we had no problem withdrawing the Hybrid.

Two days later we got our invitation telling us we were in the parade. Lynda knew last week that were were marching as SCIT. She even called a neighbor to get my home phone number.

Rodney Smith said...

thanks Steve,

So, what was the nature of the phone call that told you that you couldn't march? Who got the call and what did the caller cite as the reason?

Curious

Rod

Misti said...

Segways aren't modern? Wow...