By Joe Garofoli | SF Chronicle
Growing dissent at the upscale Contra Costa County senior community of Rossmoor offers a chilling preview of where our country is headed if we can’t start discussing our political differences civilly. Inflamed by a fistfight between two women on the pickleball court at the 55-and-over community, the tensions have escalated to include complaints of an authoritarian crackdown on free speech — including restrictions on public demonstrations on its lush grounds and on political commentary in the Rossmoor News.
Some residents say more than their free speech is being impinged. They call the restrictions “infantilizing” for an age group whose members can be sensitive about being told what to do and what’s best for them. For them, the new rules are akin to taking the free speech keys from Grandma and Grandpa, decades after this generation’s seniors used them to transform society during the Civil Rights era.
“Banning the political columns are not going to bring peace to Rossmoor. They’re not. They are, in fact, exacerbating the problem,” said Katha Hartley, director of the speakers program for Rossmoor’s largest club, the 1,240-member Democrats of Rossmoor. “We’re being treated like kids in a high school cafeteria where two people had a food fight, and now everyone’s on suspension.”
Read more at: SF Chronicle
