News (Media Awareness Project) - US NC: LTE: No 'Nattering Nabob' |
| Title: | US NC: LTE: No 'Nattering Nabob' |
| Published On: | 2001-11-01 |
| Source: | The Herald-Sun (NC) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-01-25 05:41:29 |
NO 'NATTERING NABOB'
When Durham City Council candidate Michael Peterson recently attempted to discuss crime and corruption in Durham, he was derisively dismissed as a "nattering nabob of negativism" by Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Howard Clement.
Is it negative to discuss a $150 million underground drug economy, an emerging gang problem and a crime rate that in most categories is multiples of the national average? Is Clement speaking for the hundreds of murder victims and the thousands of people wounded by gunfire, some of them permanently disabled, during the last decade in Durham? Is he speaking for the law-abiding citizens whose homes and offices have been burned by gangsters and drug dealers? Is he speaking for the thousands of citizens whose homes and businesses have been burglarized?
What is happening in our city is morally reprehensible. It reminds me of police programs that obtain substantial publicity when they refurbish bicycles for poor children at Christmas. Unfortunately, many of these poor children have to pedal their bicycles past rival groups of armed thugs who might shoot it out at any moment. But at least the police and the politicians can congratulate themselves on their public relations success.
PAUL J. MARTIN
Durham
November 1, 2001
When Durham City Council candidate Michael Peterson recently attempted to discuss crime and corruption in Durham, he was derisively dismissed as a "nattering nabob of negativism" by Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Howard Clement.
Is it negative to discuss a $150 million underground drug economy, an emerging gang problem and a crime rate that in most categories is multiples of the national average? Is Clement speaking for the hundreds of murder victims and the thousands of people wounded by gunfire, some of them permanently disabled, during the last decade in Durham? Is he speaking for the law-abiding citizens whose homes and offices have been burned by gangsters and drug dealers? Is he speaking for the thousands of citizens whose homes and businesses have been burglarized?
What is happening in our city is morally reprehensible. It reminds me of police programs that obtain substantial publicity when they refurbish bicycles for poor children at Christmas. Unfortunately, many of these poor children have to pedal their bicycles past rival groups of armed thugs who might shoot it out at any moment. But at least the police and the politicians can congratulate themselves on their public relations success.
PAUL J. MARTIN
Durham
November 1, 2001
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