A SHORT QUIZ

Editor: It's pop quiz time for we folks who are just a tad older than the
graduating class of 2002. (Congratulations and best of wishes to all our
grads!)

Two multiple choice questions for we older folks:

Which is the smallest of the seven numbers separated by ( )?

(973) (1,293) (1,386) (1,333) (1,167) (1,713) and (1,540)

If there has been no typo and 973 was selected, then everyone receives 50
points.

Which is the smallest of this last collection of seven numbers?

(10,948) (10,929) (11,773) (12,182) (12,284) (11,181) and (11,244)

Again, if no typo and 10,929 was selected, then total quiz score = 100 or
A+. Congratulations to we older folks.

That's it. I just wanted hard evidence that when folks look at facts we
often come to the same conclusion. Leave politics out of a discussion of
facts and there's no fancy footwork going on.

But, let's now insert some political implications and see what happens. The
above numbers were not drawn from a lottery hat. They were provided by the
Administrative Office of the Courts in Raleigh. The first set of numbers
are the number of felony (criminal) cases filed in Davidson County Superior
Court beginning with the year '94-95 and including the year 2000-2001.
There were 973 cases filed in '94-95, 1,293 filed in '95-96, 1,386 filed in
'96-97 and so forth.

The second set of numbers are the number of misdemeanor (non-motor vehicle
criminal) cases filed in District Court in Davidson County during the same
years. Lest there be someone who wishes to feign intellect superior to the
rest of us, "Davidson County" includes the first piece of dirt to the far
east of the county, all the dirt to the county line at the far west and all
dirt in-between - including the asphalt in the cities and the town of Denton.

What did we learn from this pop quiz? The criminal element has not been
asleep during the past seven years. Neither have they been intimidated and
departed our county for parts unknown. Makes one wonder just who is on drugs.

Oops, the "controlled substances" cases filed for the seven years noted
earlier were: (381) (358) (396) (411) (440) (507) (389). Not included in
these numbers are the filings in federal court.

Just thought that some would like to see facts to compare to the stuff
being fed us from the political bull pasture.

O. Eugene Queen

Lexington