AN ODD BATTLE

As conflicted as this sounds, we like both Webster County Prosecuting
Attorney Cynthia Black and Sheriff Ron Worsham. We also appreciate the
good each does for the county in their respective elected posts. The
county is a safer place because of the oftentimes thankless work that
each does.

But to be brutally honest, they hate one another.

Perhaps neither of them will say it ... we will. Hate isn't too strong
a word, either; dislike ends with the silent treatment. Their dispute
has grown to never-before-seen levels, at least here in Webster County.

The end result has been the creation of "camps," so to
speak.

Either you're in the Black camp or the Worsham camp. For those in
between, it is a unfortunate "Catch 22." Both sides likely will
consider you an adversary.

Over the past two years, we've watched this conflict develop and
grow.

We, too, can see the perspective from both sides.

Black suspects a cadre of wrongdoing within Worsham's office, and the
sheriff hasn't done a whole lot to help his cause.

On the other hand, Worsham suspects Black is on a political witch
hunt, and, to place the conflict in literary perspective, he feels
that he's the "Hester Prynne" of Black's "Scarlet Letter."

Who's right?

Who's wrong?

Anymore, who the heck cares?

From what we've gathered, the public doesn't. The bickering has become
tiresome. In the long term, that probably doesn't bode well for either
person, at least in a political context.

What's odd is that both sides are battling for loyalties that they
previously shared, creating, in essence, a family feud.

Translated, that means supporters of Black likely are or were
supporters of Worsham ... and vice versa. Many of the same folks who
voted in 2000 for Worsham as sheriff likely cast a ballot Black's way
two years later when she ran for prosecutor. Which makes sense, since
both are Republicans and each is an active party member. And to give
each their due, Black and Worsham, respectively, when campaigning for
their first terms of office, ran perhaps the two most-effective
election campaigns this county has seen in its 150-year history.

Perhaps in preceding months, the rift hasn't annoyed us to the point
of taking the issue to print.

Perhaps, we, as a paper, are guilty of human nature - for most of us
enjoy watching others fight. It sells papers.

But last week, we became aghast when we learned the fight had moved to
a new battleground - the county's Drug Abuse Resistance Education
(D.A.R.E.) program, designed to warn 10- and 11-year-old kids of the
dangers of alcohol and drug abuse. The first blow came when one of
Worsham's officers accused Black of not inviting Niangua kids to the
annual Webster County D.A.R.E. Camp.

Black responded by defending herself and others on the D.A.R.E. board,
which she certainly had the right to do. This week, Worsham has his
own letter, saying he was "upset" to learn about the Niangua kids.

These were the first tips of the teeter-totter.

As a result, several members of the county's D.A.R.E. board became
akin to the conflict, especially since Worsham, per his letter, said
that the board, which he isn't a member of, should refund part of a
$10,000 grant it received from the Webster Electric Foundation to fund
children so they could attend the aforementioned camp.

Thus, there's yet another letter; this time, the D.A.R.E. board is
defending itself.

In the crossfire are a bunch of innocent children.

Injured is the D.A.R.E. program itself. For example, what are the odds
of the Webster Electric Foundation awarding D.A.R.E. any grant funding
next year? If we were on the foundation's board, we'd toss the
request, just to avoid the future conflict.

Also subject to fire are many innocent adults, most of them with
absolutely no connection to law enforcement, who have volunteered
their time to the effort of keeping kids off drugs as members of the
D.A.R.E. board.

What a shame.

Any bad light cast on the D.A.R.E. program is pitiful politics. For
that, initially we blame the Worsham camp, for they cast the first
stone. They pushed the envelope. Then again, the sheriff's camp is
quick to say that politics first came into play when Black
"cherrypicked" some kids for the camp while ignoring others, hence
last week's letter. Frankly, it's an ugly "he said, she said" fiasco.

The ringleaders are the adults; the losers are the
kids.

Looking at the big picture, county residents, as a whole, aren't
paying the price in terms of poor prosecution or lackluster law
enforcement. Both offices remain busy in service to the people they
were elected to protect.

At their jobs, Black is a fine prosecutor, Worsham is a fine sheriff.
We'll tip our hat to that.

But at the same time, their off-duty infighting has become a
distracting sideshow, one that casts a bad light on the county each
time a print, radio or television story documents it. To people who
don't live here, Webster County must seem a lawless place, reminiscent
of a John Grisham book.

That just isn't the case. This is a good county, filled with good
people.

Soon, those people will lose patience with both sides.

Many of us already have.