Emotions always run high during an election season and when mud starts to be flung and re-flung and re-flung by the same fistful of tactless, mean spirited people, taking the high road can look less and less attractive. Mayor Britton, no doubt exasperated by the continued petty attacks on his character over a thirty year old incident, fired back with a very biting letter to the people of Coquille in this week’s Sentinel.
I feel sure you must be tired of all the rotten tactics that political opponents use to make their candidate look better. Until now I have taken the high road, not wishing to respond to the few who have no idea how to be a public servant or even how to talk with the public. You don’t have to always agree, but you must always listen.
The Mayor unleashes a lot of pent up frustration unloading a list of wrongs he believes the former police chief, Mike Reaves, has perpetrated against the city. Though I have corroborating support for some of Britton’s claims about the ex chief, my interest is more in why the city manager, Terence O’Connor, chose to keep these transgressions from the public and why Reaves was never disciplined?
Meanwhile, an apparent fan of an erstwhile Sentinel reporter is claiming that his blog, or more accurately, his RPO (Reaves/Parker/O’Connor) Wire Service, is actually a newspaper. There is even a claim that the RPO is a member of the ONPA (Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association) though a search of their membership under several names does not support this claim.
Britton is not the only angry person in this week’s paper. My column this week is angry too as I was much appalled by Paul Frasier’s request to control more public money via Measure 62. There are a couple of letters to the editor from educators responding to Frasier and arguing against the passage of Measure 62 in addition to my column.
Phewww! Only back from Portland for a couple of hours and the mint juleps and the election bleachers are already filling up.
