Write a commentThe June 11th Oswego County Legislature meeting offered a rare and powerful glimpse of what civic engagement looks like when the public is actually given the chance to participate.
Evening meetings of this legislature are few in number, and the difference was unmistakable. The chamber was full, and eleven residents rose to speak… first during the resolution session and during the post‑meeting public comment period. People stayed. People listened. But some legislators left.
And in what may have been the most hopeful moment of the night, two Phoenix High School students stepped to the podium and delivered eloquent, thoughtful remarks on Child Poverty i and Environmental Responsibility in Oswego County. Their clarity, courage, and moral seriousness earned loud, sustained applause. If anyone doubted whether young people are paying attention, those students answered the question.
Their presence underscored something many of us were taught long before we ever entered a government chamber: the difference between right and wrong. It wasn’t complicated then, and it shouldn’t be complicated now. Decent people try to live by it. Communities grow stronger when they do. Leadership becomes real when it is grounded in it.
Yet we are living through a time when that basic moral compass has been tossed aside by Donald Trump and his administration. And residents in Oswego County feel the consequences every day. They see corruption spreading. They see democratic norms eroding. They see neighbors hurting. And they see too many of their legislature representatives choosing silence.
Silence is not golden when people are suffering. Silence is not golden when families are torn apart and farmers are losing their farms. Silence is not golden when democracy is being chipped away.
For sixteen months, residents have been attending standing committee meetings, full legislature meetings, and speaking during the public comment sessions. They show up. They speak up. They ask questions. They raise concerns. And yet the Republican leadership of this legislature, the majority caucus that claims to represent the people, remains silent. This was glaringly obvious at this meeting as only members of the Democratic Caucus asked numerous questions related to the resolutions being voted upon.
There is an old saying many of us grew up hearing: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” Over the past 16 months since IOC was organized, more and more voters of Oswego County are moving into that last category. They are watching who speaks up and who stays quiet. They are watching who stands for right and who hides behind wrong. They are watching who listens and who walks out.
Elections have a way of revealing what people have been feeling long before ballots are cast, and what people are feeling now is clear: silence is not leadership, silence is not service, and silence is not acceptable.
The people deserve leaders who remember the difference between right and wrong. Leaders who understand that silence in the face of harm is complicity. Leaders who know, as President Truman reminded us, that the buck stops here.
So, we can only hope that as the coming months unfold, and more and more people become actively involved, those in the position of power in the Oswego County Legislature will better understand that: silence is not always golden; you can’t fool all of the people all of the time; and you reap what you sow.
The people are speaking up, loud and clear. The question now is whether these elected officials will do the same.
Indivisible Oswego County
Paul McKinney
