OMG

The following is one of the saddest stories I have read in a long time.

It comes from the Wheeling News-Register.

“I can no longer feel safe …”

That is the sort of comment one might expect from a frightened public official in, say, Iraq. In some parts of the world it can be dangerous to hold a government position, even at the local level.

But Wellsburg? Say it isn’t so.

Apparently, it is. Five of the eight members of Wellsburg City Council resigned this week. Their departure appears to have resulted from a bitter controversy over whether to raise sewer rates.

All five of them submitted letters of resignation. One explained his decision with the comment quoted above. Another referred to “threats,” as well as verbal and written abuse. A third commented the situation had become “so threatening that the police had to escort some of us to our cars for our own safety” after a council meeting.

When five people on an eight-member council resign for any reason, constituents ought to be concerned. But when the circumstances involve council members feeling intimidated, the proper reaction is worry.

This story is bad enough, but what makes it even worse are the comments that are made after the editorial.

Read them for yourself  HERE if you dare.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 13th, 2010 at 3:52 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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