Talk:Steve Laffey

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Removal of text by User:Chummers

I added back text that was removed by Chummers, without explanation, and posted a warning to his talk page that his/her edits should be constructive. I just received the following email from him/her:

What you call vandalism is a removal of outright distortions.

I have asked him/her to discuss such matters on this talk page (preferably), not via email. I want to note here (a) that edit summaries should be used to explain deletions (this was not done by Chummers) (see Help:Edit summary), and (b) that the best way to convince others that something should be removed is to be specific. So, in what way is the removed text "outright distortions"? John Broughton 22:34, 28 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mr. Broughton, while I don't agree that all of the information about the ID cards should be removed, I don't think the particular phrase has a NPOV. To break this whole thing down, it says, "While mayor, Laffey was intrumental in getting his city to accept Mexico's Matricula Consular education card for identification, even though Congress had tried to ban the use of the card on multiple occasions. Laffey said that the cards offered all immigrants "the fair chance to live the American Dream"."

I would remove "even though Congress had tried to ban the use of the card on multiple occasions," because I don't see the information as relevant unless you are trying to "spin" the issue, as Mr. Laffey's challenger is. Congress has tried to do many things, and I don't see how it is worth mentioning with regards to this particular issue unless Congress actually banned them. If you still feel that is worth mentioning, I would think it is also worth mentioning that neighboring towns in Rhode Island accept the cards in question, which can be sourced to the same article already linked.

I would also mention that Mayor Laffey has said repeatedly that he chose to accept the card because his police chief advised him to, and that he viewed it as an issue of security for his officers. Additionally, it is worth mentioning that Lincoln Chafee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have chosen this issue to attack Mayor Laffey.

I don't know who added this particular segment to the article, but it seems like it was written by an opposition researcher, and not someone who wanted to bring unbiased information to the public. It is definately worth mentioning, but I disagree with the language. However, in the interest of avoiding an editing war, I want to discuss this first. Dadip6 17:08, 29 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have absolutely no investment in the actual language used; I just object on principle to people deleting text that has substance without any explanation whatsoever (and doing it twice).

Please go ahead and make any changes that you want; I'm sure they will improve the information. And thank you for posting here first; it wasn't really necessary but I do appreciate your erring on the side of caution. John Broughton 17:29, 29 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Be bold! Arbusto 02:12, 11 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]