The PulseMt. Pleasant’s Weekly Community News

Vol. 2, No. 1

Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016

www.centralmichiganpulse.com

“Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom

of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble...

Pulse EditorialLocal Man Shares with Other Local Man

Unless you’re still trying to access that too big to comprehend World Wide Web with your bonus 600 hour+ dial up disks, you’ve no doubt seen the recent “news” coverage of a local man helping another local man.

It truly is a great story when one person helps another, which happens all the time yet goes mostly unnoticed in the media. That’s one of the reasons The Pulse was created, to help facilitate more local positive news stories. So I commend Tyler Des Saint on giving $100 to Raymond Teall.

I would love to add that I also applaud all who have covered this recent generosity in the news and on Facebook, but what I’ve read so far has left me appalled.

First let’s start with the original post from the New York Facebook page titled ‘Love What Matters’ that lists itself as a “Media/News/Publishing” site.

On Tuesday, January 5th, Love What Matters posted a picture of two men standing next to each other. In the picture one man is holding money while the other is next to him and smiling while

taking a selfie. The post talks about one man, Tyler Des Saint, giving $100 to a homeless man as a thank you for a good deed he recently saw the homeless man do.

The problem is that the man holding the received gift is not homeless. He is a Mt. Pleasant com-munity member who can usually be spotted standing at the corner of Mission and Locust holding a handmade cardboard sign that states he is looking for bottles, but that doesn’t mean he is homeless. Besides, it’s a good corner, being that the car wash is across the street.

Love What Matters is either not really a Media/News/Publishing site, or they have a lot of explain-ing to do about why they called community member Raymond Teall a homeless man. Was it be-cause of his long hair and worn appearance and clothing? Not exactly.

The truth is that the story Love What Matters ran wasn’t theirs. The original post (actually two separate posts and a photo) comes from Tyler Des Saint’s own Facebook page. LWM may have had his permission, but why didn’t they just say here’s a quote from Des Saint’s own page.

They apparently were more interested in the story than in the little things like checking facts and sources. Anyway, again, not the real issue.

Let’s look more local now.As much as it pains me to do so as I try to support other local media, I have to: the Facebook page

of the Morning Sun newspaper (the current Mt. Pleasant and surrounding areas daily paper) posted its own article on this story. To their credit the article did not list Raymond Teall as homeless.

Phew! Thank you!But, they did include unnecessary details which seem to at least imply a link between Teall and

alcohol use. Unfortunately the article states that [Des Saint] “saw Teall walk out of the Bird Bar and Grill,” and that Des Saint would “be content if Teall had spent [the money] on ‘a nice fifth’ to cele-brate the New Year.” Teall is an adult, and if he drinks that’s his business. Including an unnecessary quote that ponders his using the money to buy alcohol is unconscionable. It is a flat out affront on his humanity and dignity. In our opinion the Morning Sun and Kelly Rocheleau, who is listed as the author of the piece, both owe Raymond Teall an apology for their unnecessary implication.

Neither of the statements about alcohol were necessary parts of the story, except to play to unfor-tunate stereotypes of one who panhandles for bottles. What Teall planned to spend the money on was only important if Teall himself offered that information, which he did not. In fact, the article didn’t have a quote from Teall at all. It’s as if he’s just important enough to be a part of the story because he was the one being helped. Truth be told, even the unfortunate labeling of Teall as “home-less” and the unnecessary double mentioning of “bar” and “a nice fifth” is not the real story here.

It’s much worse.What was never mentioned in either of the articles is that starting next week it will become a

misdemeanor in the city of Mt. Pleasant to (according to new ordinance “§ 131.14. DANGEROUS AND OFFENSIVE INTERACTIONS IN PUBLIC PLACES”), among other things, “Enter onto the paved traveled portion of the roadway to address, seek payment or donation from, or perform services for a person in a motor vehicle that is in traffic or stopped at a traffic light; or stand, sit, or otherwise remain within 50 feet of the intersection of 2 roadways while displaying a sign other than an official traffic sign authorized by a governmental unit with jurisdiction over the roadway.”

That’s right, the Mt. Pleasant city commission voted to make standing at the corner of Mission and Locust with a sign and asking for bottles illegal in the city of Mt. Pleasant. No one can be at any corner with any sign asking for anything. This blatant disregard for the 1st Amendment has gone mostly unnoticed among community members.

(You can read The Pulse’s original editorial in the December 18th edition on our website.)In fact during the portion of the last city commission meeting when every community member

had the opportunity to stand up and speak up for our families, friends, and neighbors like Teall, no-one came forward. Not one person. Nada. Zero. Nobody.

I know a major reason is lack of knowledge in that most citizens don’t seem to want to follow local politics until they happen to hear about something that they disagree with. So consider this your wake up call. There’s still time to tell the city commission to make a new motion that can cancel out what they passed last meeting.

Motions made by the commission take effect 30 days after the motion has been carried. The last city commission meeting, when the motion was carried, was December 14th, which means the motion will take effect Wednesday, January 14th. The next city commission meeting is scheduled for Monday January 12th, just two days prior to the new ordinance taking effect, and will include the induction of the three new city commissioners as well as installing the new Mayor and Vice-Mayor.

Our hope is that one of the commissioners, be it a new member or a veteran, cares enough about our community to add to the meeting’s agenda an idea to bring the recent ordinance decision back up for a new motion.

Whether it makes it on Monday’s agenda or not, all concerned community members have a right to speak for five minutes on why these new ordinances should be overturned. The Meeting will be at 7:00p at the city building this Monday.

If you’re truly a concerned citizen, and you believe in the kindness of one human being helping another human being, then show that by attending the meeting and speaking about why the city commission should take another look at the ordinances they passed at the last meeting. Your atten-dance will help many community members and it won’t cost you a penny. Even if the commission chooses to take no action and allow the ordinance to take effect you will have spoken up and stood up for all community members, including Raymond Teall.

In a show of solidarity for the 1st amendment rights of all members of our community The Pulse decided to black out the rest of the contents of today’s edition of The Pulse and go silent on social media as a sign of what the effects of limiting free speech to a community can be.

Until we return to our regular local coverage for the paper and on social media next week, we will only publish reminders about the 1st amendment and Monday’s upcoming city commission meet-ing.