Write a commentThere is a line from the Simon & Garfunkel song The Sounds of Silence many of us grew up with: “Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again.”
It’s haunting, not because it speaks of fear, but because it speaks of returning to a familiar feeling: the darkness of silence. A silence that settles in when people stop listening, stop responding, and become complacent. A silence that becomes the atmosphere of a place, a government, and in our case, a County Legislature. For eighteen months, that silence has defined the majority leadership in the Oswego County Legislature.
During that time, national policies have shaken families, strained farmers, disrupted veterans, and placed real burdens on working people across this county. A recent report indicated that 4,000 children in Oswego County go hungry every single day, yet the party in charge chooses not to respond. Not to talk about it. Not to act on it. Not even to acknowledge it. Just the sounds of silence!
And like the song warns, silence has a way of growing. It becomes comfortable. It becomes habitual. It becomes a substitute for responsibility. But it is never harmless. Because when leaders fall silent, the people they serve pay the price.
For eighteen months, residents have attended the Legislature meetings again and again. They have spoken about the impact of Donald Trump’s policies on their farms, their healthcare, their schools, their livelihoods. They have asked for courage, and support. And what they have received from the majority leadership is exactly what the song describes: “people talking without speaking, people hearing without listening.”
That is not leadership. That is avoidance. And avoidance, especially from those in power, is a failure of duty.
The majority leadership is not just any group of elected officials. They are the ones who set the agenda, decide what gets discussed, choose whether this chamber faces the realities affecting Oswego County people or hides from them. Silence is not neutrality. It is a choice. And it is a choice that has consequences. People are tired of it. And they said this loud and clear last November at the “ballot box” where it counts.
The people of this county are not silent. They are speaking up. They are standing up. They are showing up week after week, month after month because they understand democracy does not work when leaders retreat into silence. It works when leaders face the public, listen to the public, and respond to the public.
The darkness of silence within the Republican party may be familiar, but it is not acceptable. Not now. Not with families struggling. Not with farmers squeezed. Not with veterans burdened. Not with thousands of children going hungry. Not with a community that deserves better than elected officials who sit in silence while the people they serve carry the weight.
The Sounds of Silence was written as a warning. Oswego County is living that warning. And it is long past time for the majority party to break the silence…or step aside for those who will.
Indivisible Oswego County
Paul McKinney
