I stopped writing about & voicing my political opinions back in 2008 or 2009 after J. Kevin Kelley & Kevin Payne got busted by the FBI for their corruption. At the time I tweeted something along the lines of “I can’t believe I worked on a project with these scumbags.” That project being a redesign of the County Engineer’s website that had languished for over a year, complete, but without sign-off to go live. The next day I got called into the Director’s office with my boss and syntax was structured that tangentially implied that further public commentary from me on anything job-related would affect my employment. That Director, Dan Weaver, later got sentenced to 3 years in prison as part of the same giant pile of corruption that infected the management of the entire County. I think the FBI stopped fishing soon after because everything left was small fry.
They scared me. I had a brand new infant, a mortgage, there were no job prospects in Cleveland, so I deleted the aforementioned tweet and kept my head down for another 5 years. The FBI burst in to my office because these criminals spat upon the same civil responsibility that I was honored to contribute to. Everyone at the County was implicated. I know how louche it is to voice personal opinions regarding one’s professional position, but some shit needs to be unequivocally repudiated. The following tweet is, as far as I can tell, the only one left standing from that time:
Reading about the FBI public corruption charges at my workplace. This is one of those days I’m ashamed to work for the County.
— Adam Harvey ? (@AdamInCLE) June 14, 2009
I’ve spent 7 years with my lips zipped — which is not an easy thing for me to do. I’ve tried to be as non-partisan as possible in my dealings with everyone. Going along to get along. I’ve avoided engaging in anything that might be politicized, but what isn’t these days? Ain’t nobody playing for low stakes.
I can continue to kibitz, or I can throw my two cents on the pile & see if anything shifts.
Mainly, though, I’m tired of keeping my mouth shut.