Letter to the Editor: Standing Up to a Bully

To the Editor:

Having failed to win the waterfront plan policy debate on the merits, Andrew Macdonald continues to foment the politics of personal destruction, which debases our community and ill-serves those opponents of the City's plan whom he purports to lead.

Apparently, it was not enough for him to hurl baseless allegations of corruption against City officials. Now he has taken to attacking me personally and demanding details of my business dealings, as if the he gets to determine my bonafides as an Alexandrian. Given Macdonald's own apparent litigiousness, he should consider the perils of such slander and libel. However, I have nothing to hide and will gladly respond to Macdonald's now characteristic attacks. 

As an Alexandria resident, taxpayer, homeowner, and small business owner, and as the mother of a child in Alexandria public schools, I have long been an activist on City issues of all kinds. My longtime support for the City's waterfront plan is no secret, as I've been advocating for it in person and via my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts for months.

Through luck and hard work, I have built a successful consulting business and am in the happy position to choose my clients. I do not work for causes I don't want to see carry the day, so I would never have worked for opponents of the waterfront plan under any circumstances, since I have always supported the City's plan as a sound way forward for our community. When Waterfront for All asked for my professional help to balance the public discussion, I was happy to accept.

I helped them strategize and organize and ensure the many who support smart development on the waterfront were part of the public discourse. But Macdonald's suggestion that I was paid to testify at the recent City Council hearing on the plan is categorically false. I stood up as a taxpayer, homeowner, small business owner, and citizen of Alexandria, and I had as much right to speak at a public hearing as Macdonald and everyone else who testified both in support of and opposition to the plan.

Rather than honor our community's tradition of thoughtful, civil discourse, Macdonald chooses to play the bully, demanding that those he disagrees with provide personal and professional details to him; Details that he prefers to keep private about his own life, of course. While I'm inclined to stand up to bullies like Macdonald and not accede to them, I would be happy to walk him through my business, but only if he's willing to do the same.

Since his obvious intent is to use any information he can glean to attack my reputation and credibility, he ought to be willing to submit to the same. I'll admit I'm most interested in documentation dating back to late 2006 and early 2007, when Macdonald abruptly and without explanation to the many of us who dedicated time and treasure to getting him elected resigned his Council seat just months into his term. Were I unconcerned about wasting City resources, I might follow his lead and submit massive FOIA requests to the City for every correspondence that includes his name, that of the properties he's been involved with across the City, and anything else that might hold some prurient interest in advance of the coming Council elections, in which Macdonald has hinted he intends to be a candidate.

On the topic of baseless attacks on reputation and credibility: I understand that Macdonald denies any involvement in the ugly robocalls many in our community received on the eve of Council's vote. Though the calls parroted Macdonald's own talking points, I take him at his word, a courtesy Macdonald declines to grant to anyone he disagrees with.

Several of my friends took a different view from me and opposed the City's waterfront plan. Rather than call them stupid or corrupt or ascribe other nasty motives merely because we don't see eye-to-eye on this issue, I recognize that they are genuinely concerned and sincerely disagree about what's best for our community. If only Macdonald would do the same and put a halt to the bullying and personal attacks, we could move forward as a City with less acrimony, even when we're not entirely agreed.

Sincerely,

Shayna Englin