Letter: Don’t scorn those who disagree

Friday, May 18, 2001 | 10:13 a.m.

Columnist Jeff German notes that he has chronicled Steve Miller's "gaffes as a disruptive city councilman, perennial office-seeker and government gadfly."

"Disruptive" city council members often provide a distinct public service, by questioning the status-quo, by refusing to abide by the "go-along-to-get-along" philosophy, by speaking out for the citizen when the bureaucracy is acting too fast. All Nevada's federal lawmakers are "disruptive" as to government plans to bring nuclear waste to our state.

As someone who has run a number of times for elective office in Nevada -- and lost -- I can state that perennial office-seekers add to the debate on public issues, often uncover issues nobody else wants discussed, and often have the last laugh. A young lawyer in Illinois lost office after office after office, but rather than give up on his perennial bids for leadership, Abraham Lincoln persisted and went on to change our country for the better.

And "government gadfly" is a noble term when applied to those who protest rising levels of arsenic in our drinking water or shoddiness in the manufacture of automobiles. Would any of us have wanted to silence Erin Brockovich or Ralph Nader?

Hail to the dissidents, whether or not they commit gaffes.

MIKE SCHAEFER