On Friday, the Davis High School PTA and NewStar Chinese School hosted a forum for candidates for Davis school board. Several of the candidates, including Susan Lovenburg, Alan Fernandes and Jose Granda, placed their campaign materials on a table the organizers had set up.

As soon as Granda turned around and went to find the order in which the candidates would be introduced, a woman who apparently works at the DHS library came up and took all the materials from Granda’s campaign and the no on Measure E campaign. Since he was already at the podium, there was no way for me to get other copies of those materials to put on the table.

So I asked the woman, “What is happening here? Someone removed all the materials from Jose’s campaign from that table.” She went back behind the table to the library counter and got the materials that were ready to be discarded, and put them back. She then came back and told me: “They were removed because here we are the Yes on E and he is the No on E.” I told her, “We were invited to present our views.” Soon after realizing what she had done, she left.

I cannot conceive this happening in a library in Davis, where we have a great variety of books that teach us the respect for democracy and freedom of expression of all views. Is there room for discussion of our views who think Measure E is an unfair new tax? Should the community deserve a debate on the issue? The proponents of the Measure E need to rationally publicly debate the issue instead of resorting to tactics to silence the opposition. Davis voters need to hear all sides in order to make an informed decision.

Imelda Granda

Davis

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