Another Denigrating Letter Circulating Acton

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On Wednesday, I sent an email to a group of people in Acton to give them information about what's going on with the school budget and to tell people about 4 petitions circulating Acton for signatures. If we obtain enough signatures, and they pass the scrutiny of MMA, then they would go on the referendum ballot for June 10th.

Someone working at the Acton Town Hall faxed the email out to an individual who chose to write yet another unsigned letter attacking me for informing the people of Acton.

Why would anyone feel threatened by me supplying the townspeople with information? Anyone who would send such a hurtful and denigrating letter and not put his name to it or put a return address on the envelope is a coward and a bully.

Shame on you! Knowing that you are a middle-aged parent. What lesson are you teaching your children? You've lost all of the integrity and credibility you once had.

He calls the email horrifying and hateful. He stated that the information about the school was "misinformation". How would he know, he wasn't there and I have the spreadsheets with Mr. Beeler's own figures on them! The information I gave was Mr. Beeler's information, not mine.

At the end of the letter, this bully states that I have emotional problems, a frenzy of hatred, and I'm responsible for the mean and hateful undercurrent that is slowly overtaking the Town of Acton. And then he has calls me sneaky.

Now let me see if I get this right. He is the one who chose to attack me for giving out public information from the Superintendent of Schools to inform the people of Acton so they can make informed decisions. He is the one who continues to write denigrating letters and send them to people all over town, but won't sign his name to them. He's the one who is paranoid about people in Acton getting correct information so they can make informed decisions. So who's the sneaky one with the emotional problems in a frenzy of hatred? Hmmmmm......

I will continue to send and/or post information for the people of Acton. My information comes from the Maine State Department of Education. This is not information that I make up. Anyone in Acton can obtain the same information. All you have to do is spend a little time on the web site for MSDE, download the information, and put it into a spreadsheet, charts, and graphs. There's nothing sinister about that.

Stay tuned...........................Next.........How Acton Rates...............
Pam McAlinden
Acton

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What is bullying?

Bullying is persistent unwelcome behavior, mostly using unwarranted or invalid criticism, nit-picking, fault-finding, also exclusion, isolation, being singled out and treated differently, being shouted at, humiliated, excessive monitoring, having verbal and written warnings imposed, and much more. In the workplace, bullying usually focuses on distorted or fabricated allegations of under performance.

Why do people bully?

The purpose of bullying is to hide inadequacy. Bullying has nothing to do with managing etc; good managers manage, bad managers bully. Management is managing; bullying is not managing. Therefore, anyone who chooses to bully is admitting their inadequacy, and the extent to which a person bullies is a measure of their inadequacy. Bullies project their inadequacy on to others:

a) to avoid facing up to their inadequacy and doing something about it;
b) to avoid accepting responsibility for their behavior and the effect it has on others, and,
c) to reduce their fear of being seen for what they are, namely a weak, inadequate and often incompetent individuals, and,
d) to divert attention away from their inadequacy - in an insecure or badly-managed workplace, this is how inadequate, incompetent and aggressive employees keep their jobs.

Bullying...
is a form of abuse, and bullies - and unenlightened employers - often go to great lengths to keep their targets quiet, using threats of disciplinary action, dismissal, and gagging clauses. What bullies fear most is exposure of their inadequacy and being called publicly to account for their behavior and its consequences. This makes sense when you remember that the purpose of bullying is to hide inadequacy, and people who bully to hide their inadequacy are often incompetent.

A bully is a person who:

(a) has never learned to accept responsibility for their behavior
wants to enjoy the benefits of living in the adult world, but is unable and unwilling to accept the responsibilities that are a prerequisite for being part of the adult world
(b)abdicates and denies responsibility for their behavior and its consequences
(c)is unable and unwilling to recognize the effect of their behavior on others
(d)does not want to know of any other way of behaving
(e)is unwilling to recognize that there could be better ways of behaving

Bullying is obsessive and compulsive; the serial bully has to have someone to bully and appears to be unable to survive without a current target.

Despite the facade that such people put up, bullies have low self-confidence and low self-esteem, and thus feel insecure. Low self-esteem is a factor highlighted by all studies of bullying. Because such people are inadequate and unable to fulfill the duties and obligations of their position (but have no hesitation in accepting salary), they fear being revealed. This fear of exposure often borders on paranoia.

Bullies are seething with resentment, bitterness, hatred and anger, and often have wide-ranging prejudices as a vehicle for dumping their anger onto others. Bullies are driven by jealousy and envy. Rejection is another powerful motivator of bullying.

Serial bullying is where the source of all dysfunction can be traced to one individual who picks on one employee after another and destroys them. This is the most common type of bullying I come across; most of this web site is devoted to describing and defining the serial bully, who exhibits the behavioral characteristics of a socialized psychopath. Most people know at least one person in their life with the profile of the serial bully; most people do not recognize this person as a socialized psychopath, or sociopath. I estimate one person in thirty is either a physically-violent psychopath who commits criminal acts, or an antisocial whose behavior is antisocial, or a sociopath who commits mostly non-arrestable offenses.

The foregoing information is taken from the web site:
www.bullyoffline.org/workbully/bully.htm.
This psychopath/sociopath walks among us disguised as a parent!

Maps

[scott]

What people need to understand is that this IS a form of bullying as it is intended to be. They need to understand that this is not a random occurrence but is one of many occurrences that has happened in this town, often targeted at the same individuals (until they keep quiet at least). The anonymous letters, slanderous signs, untraceable rumors, and other actions witnessed around town are all forms of bullying as they have intended to be.

Why is this going on in Acton?
Who is behind these actions?
What is motivating a person or persons to act this way?
Why are certain people getting singled out?
Is this a organized conspiracy?

These are all questions that need exploring.

The "Flat Ground Road Arsonist" posting recently removed from the Acton Town website is a great example of bullying in my mind - who exactly wrote that anyway? I think it was intended to cast suspicion on an individual living on that road rather than "identifying the crime" that happened on the road. People were intentionally misled as the crime had nothing to do with Flat Ground Road. Not many people got the chance to see signs of the same nature - these were discovered and removed too quickly. What is up with this kind of stuff? Was that individual targeted for a particular reason? No doubt but not for the obvious one. Did that posting also serve as a diversion to cover up something else? hmmm...food for thought.

scott

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Funny that you asked that last question. It's always been my feeling that one of the individuals involved has/had information on the "inner" workings of Town government.

The only thing I do know, whoever wrote the letter is not very skilled in gramatical use of the English language!

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Letter read at selectmen's meeting dated April 15, 2008

OPEN LETTER TO ACTON SELECTMEN

As you are well aware, there is a lingering air of suspicion that continues to permeate the Acton Town Hall as a result of spurious activities by former town employees that, among other things, led to false charges being lodged against Selectman Conway. Those charges were dismissed after lengthy, costly, and ultimately unnecessary investigations which were recently completed.

Now, another employee working at the Town Hall is likely involved in prolonging this same suspicious, toxic and equally vicious atmosphere to make sure that it still prevails.
Here are the specifics you need to know in order to address the problem of eradicating the Town Hall of its specious reputation and start the rebuilding process to regain your integrity.

On Wednesday April 2nd, I emailed a private message to 15 people. One individual took his copy to Town Hall to show you on Thursday, April 3rd. The Town Clerk/Tax Collector asked him for a copy, which she received. At 9:52 that morning, a copy of my email was faxed to Masiello Real Estate from Town Hall without my permission. This was not Town business. It was gossiping via the fax machine! (It was also theft of town services to use the town fax machine for personal business.)

Whoever faxed my email from Town Hall set in motion the writing of an unsigned denigrating letter about me which arrived in 5 different mailboxes in town on Friday, April 4, 2008. (A citizen’s tirade Friday at the Town Hall was a direct result of that fax being sent).

A friend and I had a 2-hour meeting on Wednesday, April 9th, with a principal representative of Masiello Real Estate to show him the time-dated fax of my email with the Masiello phone number on it. (Fax machines automatically record times and phone numbers of sent messages.) We also showed him a large number of other denigrating unsigned letters previously sent to Acton residents over the last 18 months, or so. It appears that recent emails were sent from the Masiello office, and even included one with the Masiello letterhead on it, but unsigned! As we left this meeting, we were quite confident that the principal was going to take action to correct this situation.

The integrity of the Town government is at risk here, and it needs to be addressed and remedied forthwith in order to regain and start rebuilding the confidence of your constituents. At the very least, a full scale investigation is warranted, either by calling in the sheriff’s department or independent legal counsel to get to the bottom of this matter. If a former selectman can call in the sheriff’s department to investigate a false charge against a fellow selectman, then you can too, but with the assurance of cold, hard and accurate facts.

It would also be a good idea to have the sheriff’s department or legal counsel investigate the theft of documents, disappearing personnel files, and missing notebooks which I understand have been missing from the Selectmen’s Office and Treasurer’s Office. Do we have dishonesty at the Town Hall? Why were the locks changed on all the office doors?

The citizen’s of Acton deserve to feel safe in their homes and their community and be free from bullying, harassment, threats and intimidation. People working at the Town Hall deserve to work in a non-hostile environment. It is your duty and responsibility to see that this happens.

Please let me know when you will be discussing this so I can attend to present additional information and clarifications as needed. I look forward to your prompt response.
Sincerely,
Pam McAlinden

[localboy]

You folks should be ashamed of your actions, you spell out the aspects of being a bully so well because that is Pams tactics at Town hall, all of these untruthful allegations made are hurting the image of the Town, it will not help Pam get elected!, could she be the next Musollini?

[charlottespidey]

ooohhhhh..............looks like we have one of the good old "local boys" online................. Are you one of those good old "local boys" with a conflict of interest sitting on the Warrant & Finance Committee that Pam mentioned in her letter? So who should be ashamed?

Pam has told everybody that she's not running for any elected office so why are you trying to run her name through the mud?
She makes some very good points. We've all known for years what she is saying in public, we just haven't voiced it. It's about time somebody did! As far as I'm concerned, the town is better off for it!