Dave Pollak: No progress will be made in Franklin focusing on wrong problems

To The Daily Sun,

When I was in law school, professors across the political spectrum spent endless hours trying to convince us that "legal reasoning" involved principled frameworks, not personal bias. Though I was skeptical back then, I tried to accept their perspective. Today, it appears that the Supreme Court has discarded formal legal reasoning entirely. There is no more consistent logic. Precedent means nothing. Instead, we see a priori or motivated reasoning at work, where the desired political outcome leads to whatever argument supports it.

What deeply concerns me is how this top-down rejection of reality trickles down to local communities.

In Franklin’s council meetings and in online commentary, a vocal cadre of trolls attacks our municipal and school budget managers, suggesting that they are either hopelessly incompetent or fundamentally corrupt.

These critics refuse to accept the reality that state mandates, skyrocketing health insurance costs, and rising labor, transportation, and legal fees — let alone trying to do things better — drive up costs. Facts simply don't matter to them. The exact same questions, already thoroughly answered multiple times, are asked again and again just to maintain the fiction that our public managers are lying or stealing.

The intent of replacing facts by stoking online outrage is to cripple self-governance. Franklin can’t fix roads, keep good teachers, or fund essential services if every budget discussion gets bogged down in the mud.

Dave Pollak

Northfield