Readers join outcry calling for Gale to step down

To Commissioner Gale: You understand nothing about history

To Joseph Gale: Congratulations on your sorry attempt to gain favorable status with the “tyrant in chief” currently occupying our White House of this nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and& justice for all. A description that you obviously don’t believe.

Several people in this county’s capital have encouraged me to read the latest “dribble” that you had the most unfortunate gall to place on official county letterhead as if you spoke as the chairman or majority of the commissioners of Montgomery County. Not only do you have no understanding of what that burden means, it’s also evident that you don’t understand what it means to be an American member of the human race.

“Never in our history” was your outcry as to the unrestrained rage of citizens of this nation.

You’re far too young to recall the rage expressed in the 1960’s against Americans waging war across the Pacific Ocean in Vietnam. You’re also unaware of the beatings and suffering Americans of African descent endured during the protest marches in the South and the North of this nation. You’re totally unaware of the outrage suffered at the hands of white police officers against black Americans in the 1950s, 1940s, 1930s back to 1865. What history of significance could you understand always being wrapped in your white sheet skin, having never being followed as a child or adult walking through a retail store?

The rants that you socalled “conservatives” belt out over and over against the phrase “Black Lives Matter” only demonstrates that you don’t believe our lives matter at all. How dare we state such a thing without including WHITE or BLUE lives matter? When was the last time any white person died due to a choke-hold on their throat by any police officer? When was the last time any white person was shot because it was believed he committed a crime? How many white women were sitting on the couch in their own home and shot dead by police officers breaking in to arrest someone already in custody? When was the last time a young black man walked into a white church and shot dead the members AFTER prayer meeting?

Never before in history, you said. Somewhere I read about expressed rage regarding “Taxation Without Representation.” Somewhere I read that if the government becomes a tyrant against the people, then it is the right and duty of the people to Throw Out the government. Somewhere I read that a great war ensued against a government believed to be a tyrant and that government of the people, by the people, for the people did not perish from the earth after defeating the revolt. What part of “struggle” do you not understand? It seems that you’re ignorant of all parts of it.

Being elected or appointed to serve the people of any government is a privilege. It’s a human being’s chance to do something greater than themselves and to effect and affect the greater good of human progress of civilization building. It seems that you believe that your elected position (November 2015) and reelected victory (November 2019) has anointed you as the be-all, end-all of conservative values. Your comments are the expressions of a narrow uneducated childish point of view of what conservative values are.

I watched political conservatives in action during my lifetime. People like Sen. John McCain, Presidents George W. Bush, George Herbert Walker Bush, Ronald Reagan and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Sen. Barry Goldwater. You know NOTHING about these men and women. You’re just a little boy with his nose pressed up on the glass of history trying to get in among the great Americans of this nation. People who debated ideas and negotiated to bring about laws on policy that could pass by a majority vote and help all Americans. Did they always get it right? No; human failings detracted. Did they all see eye-to-eye with the liberal wing of the Democratic party? No. Of course not. Disagreement should not lead to a “civil war.” Partisan politics should not inspire silence toward injustice and rhetoric in favor of marginalizing any group of people as was done in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.

Mr. Gale, you seem to know more about making noise to appeal for a job in Washington, D.C., than to attempt to understand that millions of Americans watched a “cold-blooded murder” take place before their eyes while being shuttered-in-place due to a nation unprepared for a epidemic OR pandemic. Your bitter, narrow-minded useless dribble expressed with hatred for humanity if different than your own speaks volumes as to why your disgraceful conduct should come to an end!

You can serve no further good here in Montgomery County or Pennsylvania. Your position as “public servant” is an abomination of sub-human thought. Your next best step is to resign and leave the running of a human government to those that understand that this nation, under God needs people of the human species. Get thee gone, sooner the humanly possible!

James A. Daley Lifetime resident of Norristown

Dear Mr. Gale: Please resign for sake of county

Dear Mr. Gale,

As of June 2 at 2 p.m., 13,261 people have signed the petition calling for your resignation from the post of Montgomery County commissioner. I am personally writing to you to voice my strong opposition against the malicious and ignorant comments you made.

As my elected official, you have shown that you do not represent me, my neighbors, or anyone in this county. You have tried to delegitimize the Black Lives Matter movement, you have inhibited our First Amendment rights to protest, and you have tried to obscure the ubiquitous and systemic racial inequity in the United States. Your statement is fraught with misleading statements, rife with fallacies, and imbued with racist ideology. How can you claim to serve our county while working to suppress peaceful protests and perpetuate police brutality and undeniable racial disparities?

As someone who actually attended the Philly protest on Saturday and has a basic understanding of race relations in this country contextualized in history, I can unequivocally say that every claim you made was wholly untrue and intentionally misrepresented.

The protest movement (of which I am a part) is crying out for a fundamental change in policing and other American institutions that implement systemic racial inequity and violence, something you maliciously misconstrued beyond recognition. Yes, there are opportunists who use these BLM protests to riot and loot — that is an obvious fact (interestingly, the “few bad apples” argument seems to apply to police officers and not to peaceful protestors) — however, the protests themselves are vital to our democracy, to reforming a fundamentally broken system to finally protect and serve all Americans and not just those who are white.

How can you remain blind to the systematic violations of black rights? How can you remain complicit with a system that deliberately suppresses righteous protest movements and the freedoms of black community members?

The destruction of black bodies, the silencing of black words and black lives, the delegitimization, the suppression — do these things mean nothing to you? Like thousands of others (now, 30 minutes later, it is 15,057 people), I am demanding your resignation. You cannot claim to serve the community members in your county while perpetuating that malice, remaining complicit with a system that fundamentally treats people who don’t look like you worse in possibly every conceivable standard (access to quality healthcare, access to housing, criminal justice, police brutality, access to education, safety). You do not represent us. Please resign to show that you actually care about the people who claim to serve.

Eamon Goucher

Yale College ’22 Montgomery County

Joe Gale shows constituents his true colors

It has taken me a day to process Commissioner Joe Gale’s statement on Black Lives Matter.

When I first read your “op-ed,” Joe Gale, I was enraged, disgusted, and hurt. This morning, however, I am grateful that you decided to publish a piece of your mind.

While our values and platforms are different, throughout my campaign for supervisor in Lower Salford Township, I respected the fact that many of the residents, particularly those with long driveways and homes off the beaten path, told me that Joe Gale was the only other candidate that ever knocked on their door. I respected that many constituents felt that you also genuinely seemed to care about the people you hoped to represent.

I can only hope, after reading your press release, that the people who you represent have now seen your true colors. You have no connection to the daily reality of many of the county’s residents, people you promised to serve. As representatives of the people, we are responsible to listen to all sides of an issue; to educate ourselves about the people we serve and the things that are important to them, and to represent them fairly, even when their opinions and values differ from our own or that of our party.

You also appear to be ignorant about the purpose of the Black Lives Matter organization. After the death of Michael Brown, and the ensuing public protest in Ferguson, Mo., I proudly displayed a BLACK LIVES MATTER sign on my lawn. I placed the sign alongside my “We Support Our Local Police” sign. I did this in hopes that people in our community would talk and educate themselves rather than continue to ignore the problem. I directed anyone who asked me what BLM meant to the organizers’ website where they could find the group’s values. Their website makes it clear that they are a peaceful organization whose most important mission is to bring awareness to the continued inequity in America.

It was foolish of me to believe that despite our different views, we shared a commitment to our constituents, our community, and our nation: a commitment to serve all the people under our jurisdiction. I’m glad that you’ve drawn attention to your bold views. My hope is that your seemingly insatiable craving for attention will motivate more people to go to the polls to vote against you and other ignorant and entitled leaders at the earliest opportunity.

I truly hope you will educate yourself on the real issues at hand. You can accomplish this by listening. Listening to ALL the people that you promised to represent. I know not every resident in Lower Salford and I agree on every national issue, but I also know that nearly all the residents that I have encountered here have a love and respect for their neighbor. This is a teaching found in the Holy Bible you mentioned, the Qur’an, and many other religious texts. Your narrative is not a true representation of the Lower Salford community. If you will not listen to all the people who believed in you during your two campaigns, I hope that your press release will make them see you for what you are: a racist. Kevin Shelly Lower Salford Township Supervisor

To Commissioner Gale: Educate yourself

Dear Commissioner Gale,

I grew up in Montgomery County and my parents still live there; I now live in Philadelphia. I am writing today to express deep sadness, and anger, at the press statement you put out about riots and looting in my city.

I am white, as I know you are, and at this time I am trying to deeply listen to my black peers and colleagues as they explain what living in this country is like for them. I could try to repeat their explanations to you, but from your statement calling a movement about life being important “urban domestic terror,” it seems you are not yet open to such information. I can only try to point out that you are openly calling for violence against people who have experienced nothing but that from our country’s leaders and law enforcement. You are actively, purposefully, and widely calling for the violence you seem to condemn.

I have also been a teacher and counselor in Philadelphia schools. So perhaps as a starting point, I can suggest you take some time to learn about trauma and its impacts on behavior. If a student in a school acts out, knowledgeable professionals ask “what has happened that is causing this behavior?” and they work with the student to try to fix it; less knowledgeable employees try to punish away the behavior, which inevitably leads to more and more anger and “problem” behaviors.

As a leader, you should see it as your job to educate yourself. Please, do better for Montgomery County.

Julie Berger

Philadelphia