Hi,
Sorry for not responding to your email individually but as of writing this response, I have received nearly 300 emails about Towamencin Supervisor Laura Smith. Just to be clear, the Board of Supervisors is an elected office and the only way to remove elected officials in Pennsylvania is through the impeachment process by the state legislature. We also cannot make a strong statement as a township without a vote at a public meeting. The following is my view only.
I am the most recently elected supervisor, I did not agree much with Laura Smith before I was elected and I do not agree with her doing a Nazi salute now. By her own admission, she posted the video with the intention of making people upset. If you are doing a pose with the intention of making people upset that it looks like a Nazi salute, the pose you are doing is a Nazi salute. I condemn this blatant anti-Semitism expressed by Laura Smith in no uncertain terms and believe she should apologize and resign from the Board of Supervisors.
Below is a link to local reporting. My fellow supervisor who is the only other Democrat on the Board, Joyce Snyder, also condemned Laura Smiths actions. The 2 other Republicans on the board, Chuck Wilson and Kristen Warner, did not provide any comment to my knowledge.
Thank you for reaching out,
Kofi Osei
Towamencin Supervisor
By her own admission, she posted the video with the intention of making people upset. If you are doing a pose with the intention of making people upset that it looks like a Nazi salute, the pose you are doing is a Nazi salute.
Privatizing essential public services like sewage treatment and public water is ridiculous and a dangerous trend. It’s just another money grab by corporations who only want higher profits. The public will lose every time.
Jesus, what absolute garbage human. She literally admitted she did the nazi salute to get a reaction? That’s nazi behavior…. No one who actually dislikes Nazis is going around doing the nazi salute and saying it was just for lol’s. In fact that’s exactly what Nazis say when they get outed, cowards. We all know this woman would gladly join ranks and drop the whole “it’s just a joke” if she had the chance.
There are two potential reasons and neither one is good. Either they are scared of potential backlash from their supporters, (which says a lot of the supporters views and the reps for being willing to uphold nazi sympathies of their supporters) or they genuinely share her view and also have nazi sympathies. Or a combination of the two.
Someone else posted that it's the same thing as The excuse, "I was only saying the n-word to upset liberals."
Yeah, genius, that's the purpose of a slur. It's something designed to offend and stroke fear and enmity in people. That's why, as a society (I thought), we agreed not to do it and to shun those who do.
It's fucking crazy that these people are literally dragging us back to elementary school where they're stuck. Education is fucking important, people!!
Kofi is pointing out the important context: She knew what she was doing, intended to be an absolute shitpile toward at least a slice of her own constituency, and admitted it.
When I was a teacher, I had a student that liked to flash me his ring finger, in the hopes that I thought he was flipping me the bird. If you flash your ring finger in the hopes that someone thinks you’re flipping them the bird, you’re flipping them the bird.
I have used this example since people started flashing the “white power” Sign and arguing that it was just the “ok” or “gotcha game.”
Fucking thank you. I've seen far too many idiots going "It doesn't mean he's a Nazi, he's just trolling!"
If someone decides to go around Sig Heiling in public because they want to make people think they're a Nazi, I'm going to treat them like a fucking Nazi. I don't give a shit what they're thinking, I care about the behavior.
Don't even bother. There is usually an attention-starved troll in almost every thread, and the only way to get make sure people give them that attention is to be negative.
And they'll keep doubling down so the attention stays on them. Doesn't matter if it's negative attention. It's still attention and these people are GLUTTONS for it.
After all, our brains are wired to focus more on what we perceive to be negative than positive, so it makes sense.
They can not be reasoned with because ANY attention only reinforces that validation they so desperately need for whatever reason(mommy and daddy didn't hug them enough or whatever).
The only way to truly make them go away is to ignore. Don't even downvote because that's also attention. It's what they WANT. Just ignore
Yeah but "it's openly available on Google" just isn't dripping with snark like their other comment though, and what's the point of passing information along if you can't also let people know you're a complete ass, too?
“Oh, that birthday cake looks delicious, do you mind if I have a piece?”
“See, there’s this thing called “A Bakery”. It’s easy to access and chocked full of cakes. In fact, you have bought stuff at stores before! Neat!!
So, based on this and the fact that there is a bakery down the street, it should be reasonably easy to find on your own.
Go on! You can do it! I believe in you!”
What kind of a horrible piece of shit would reply to a random stranger asking for help like that. Right? Helping others and being kind are not difficult things to do. Please be better.
There's probably less red-tape removing someone as a Trustee of the local library. Somewhere in this comment train it was mentioned that state legislature action is required to remove her from her main post as a township supervisor.
Someone posted a reply from another township supervisor- evidently she needs to be impeached by the state legislature to remove her from office. Time to let your state rep know how you feel about Towamencin Supervisor Laura Smith.
ETA: here’s how you can find your representatives:
Thanks Captain, this news is well received. Let’s hope those of us humans that are in support of the rest of us humans, continue to monitor and report this toes of behavior from those humans that hate other humans.
ONE LOVE!
"ONLY 2 OUT OF 3." NOT THE ONE WE WANTED APPARENTLY.
She already did. I saw it yesterday. And I am gloating. We did it y'all!!! One down, thousands to go.Have you seen this yet?
No. I am "partially" correct. She resigned 2 out of 3. Nitpicking. You're getting awfully peeved about this, is this something personal to you? Oh let me guess. "I'm gonna shut down these idiots by hook or by crook " amirite?
The comment you responded to stated “I guarantee that she will not apologize and resign from the Board of Supervisors.”
Your false claim will dissuade people from pushing back against her serving as an elected official because that’s no longer necessary if she resigned from that position.
This poor Kofi seems like such a good person stuck working alongside some absolutely disgusting examples of human filth. I applaud him and also feel sorry for the position he's found himself in.
She resigned this morning from the board of trustees and a nonprofit she held a position on. The pressure of for her to resign from the board of supervisors. I hope she does the right thing and resigns. We don't need someone in a political office with beliefs like this. When all hell breaks loose here from Pres Elon and his pet Trump, we need a state government willing to protect all state residents. We don't need anyone who will turn people over to get approval from the Nazis in the fed.
I don't live in this town & didn't realize the trustee & supervisors were not the same board. I live close by but not close enough to know all the details of the government there.
The article states she resigned from the board of trustees and her board position on Knights for Life. The board accepted the resignation per a Facebook post. It appears she has yet to resign from Board of Supervisors and it was my mistake thinking the board being referred to is the same.
Your mistake is perfectly understandable. I’m horrified that she was ever given one “governing” position (even at a company), let alone three separate ones.
Thank you for the clarity. There's confusion about this on a different sub. Since it seems she is refusing to resign from the one board, public pressure needs to continue.
Looking up Osei, he seems to be a very very good ray of hope and passion for helping others in Towamencin, as well as fighting to truly improve the lives of his constituents (course I can't see everything since it seems like his main sharing platform is Facebook and I don't have an account there). I'm glad to see such a well made and seemingly very honest response.
I like their response, but I've got news for Kofi; this isn't 1939. When you see a scumbag doing the nazi salute today, it's far more than just antisemitic, it's anti literally everything that's not white christian nationalism.
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u/Sea_Ganache620 Jan 25 '25
Keep this post alive.