Do you think the HOA crowd will attack the CMA COO on Saturday like they did last year to Michael Badger?
By Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor Blogfinger.net. Ocean Grove, USA.
Several notices were sent out in May by the HOA announcing that the new CMA President Nancy Ann Gillan would appear at the 5/25/24 HOA meeting. I arrived a bit late, but there was no mention of her visit. The HOA website doesn’t discuss the promised visit, so maybe she failed to appear. If not, the Groaners should explain why and whether they will ever have her appear to answer questions about the relationship of the CMA with the rest of the town.*
Then we recently started to see an announcement by email that the HOA would welcome the new CMA COO Natalie Stephens-Stewart. This is the woman who was the middleman between Gillan and Blogfinger when they wouldn’t allow us to put up a Yard Sale banner on the boards for 10 days prior to 6/22 Town-Wide Sale even though they allowed another group to do so. We were disappointed by their unexplained refusal since we have been supporters of the CMA when appropriate in the past.
The email lead about Stephens-Stewart by the HOA for the 6/22 meeting offers a summary of her background, but gives no mention of church-vs state issues that might be of interest to many of us OG citizens—especially those who are secular residents. Will she be challenged on such topics as the beach closure brouhaha which is still active in the courts?
And what about the presence of all those religious icons throughout town in places like parks and beach, when public functions are ignored while religion remains the main theme of our town. In fact, the HOA religious programming is bigger than ever.
You may recall that the CMA would not post our Yard Sale event in their “Ocean Grove Summer Program Guide?” So when they call their publication with that name, they really don’t include secular events like ours as they report on summer in Ocean Grove.
Will the HOA ask the COO questions as if President Gillan were there? Is she supposed to replace the CMA President in this meeting with the HOA, or is she only going to talk about herself?
I will be busy running the Town-Wide Yard Sale this Saturday, June 22, when she will appear–
So, if any of you citizens will be there , please let us know what happened. Hopefully the HOA will treat Ms. Stephens-Stewart better than they behaved during that horrid attack in 2023 when Michael Badger was mugged by that biased HOA Groaners mob.
If you want to be citizen reporters, send your summary to Blogfinger@verizon.net. You can be anonymous if you wish.
And, speaking of getting mugged, I was verbally assaulted publicly by an HOA official yesterday when she harshly berated me for calling them “Groaners” and for insulting them. A number of people heard the exchange. I was not allowed to respond to her attack.
I asked her to let me know what happened at tomorrow’s meeting, but she refused because she doesn’t like Blogfinger, thus wanting to deny We-The People important news.
Also I was verbally threatened last year by another HOA official who demanded that I not publish a particular photograph.
And last year I accused the HOA of gender bias, and many of you might recall my public complaint regarding that.
This is not the only clash of the HOA with Blogfinger. Also you might recall when the HOA invited OGNED to their meeting and then censored the questions which could be asked by the citizens. I strongly complained about that violation of speech.
I will discuss these unwarranted assaults when the time is right.
Blogfinger is the home of Grovarian journalists where the First Amendment offers protections for free speech, and photographing in public spaces is part of that, as is reporting on the behavior of miscreants in the Grove –ie persons who would deny free speech to others—like the Home Groaners and the OG United when it was still alive.
We offer opinions and news at Blogfinger whereas these Groaners evidently have a very thin skin.
However, the best way to deal with denial of free speech is to offer more speech, not less. Anybody want to be part of the pantheon of Blogfinger writers? You can be part of our proud history including the work of Charles Layton and Mary Walton formerly of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Paul Goldfinger, editor, Blogfinger.net.
6/21/24.
*ADDENDUM: We learned 6/21 that President Gillan did appear at that May meeting, but evidently nothing of substance was discussed, and the HOA rioters held their fire. We heard from an eye witness that more serious topics may be discussed with her sometime in the future.