The Mayor of Jaffrey, New Hampshire.
Every year, Jaffrey, New Hampshire holds a Festival of Fireworks in August that attracts thousands of people to the town and is one of the special pleasures of living there. The festival was scheduled for today, but city officials cancelled it after they received a letter threatening to set off a bomb at the event.
As one non-threatening letter writer commented in a local paper, “So much for “Live Free or Die.”
A free society in which Americans can enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness requires a citizenry that has the conviction, dedication and courage to fight for those freedoms, and a government that is not so timid that it flees from every threat. A town that cancels an event because some anonymous jerk says he’s planning to bomb it might as well cancel every event because of all the potential bombers who aren’t courteous enough to warn them. Such a town is really a prison of fear and passivity, and as alien to the traditional New Hampshire principles of defiance of tyranny and standing firm in defense of liberty as what chased Sigourney Weaver around the Nostromo. Such a town is cursed with incompetent leaders who, instead of exemplifying the best in American civic values, embrace cowardice and apathy.
The town is a disgrace to New Hampshire, America, and itself.
Let’s hope that it is just an aberration.
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Pointer: Fark
Facts: The Union Leader
Graphic: Ramoulds
Ethics Alarms attempts to give proper attribution and credit to all sources of facts, analysis and other assistance that go into its blog posts. If you are aware of one I missed, or believe your own work was used in any way without proper attribution, please contact me, Jack Marshall, at jamproethics@verizon.net.
Ethics Alarms 
Got to agree with you!
Is that so bad???
It may be a public liability insurance issue.
There are always reasons to be a weenie. If you’re that frightened of liability, don’t try to run a city.
If it was considered a legitimate threat and they didn’t have the time or ability to secure and sweep the area for explosives the responsible thing to do is cancel the event.
So you treat a bomber who calls in his threat more dangerous than one who doesn’t? If you can’t ensure adequate safety precautions in public events, period, then don’t schedule any events. And rename your city Weenietown.
The threat wasnt called in , they recieved a letter on Thursday. That gives them a little bit over 24 hours to secure and sweep the area for an explosive device. I trust that since it is such a small town their resources for doing so are little to none and that they had to call in state and federal authorities to help them. The article says that the FBI are envolved and I would bet they have been envolved from the begining and advised them what to do.
In your scenario, the FBI are unethical for the reasons above, and the town is unethical for following the stupidiity of the FBI.
How was the FBI unethical ?
Suggesting the fireworks be cancelled based on a bomb threat.
That’s what you suggested occurred, and as I said, that just pushes the blame levied against the town to the FBI.
If they thought it was a real threat and they couldnt secure the area then the ethical thing to do is to cancel the event.
It’s the C.Y.A. school of though. Cover Your Ass. Cancelling an event, even because of a valid threat, is not ethical. It’s a heckler’s veto.
While it may be a case of them covering their asses in my view if I think that someone has planted a bomb and I cant find it, I would cancel the event to protect the people who would come there. It may not popular, it may not be the “brave” thing to do but is the responcible thing to do.
And there would never be a public even in a small town anywhere in America.