we saw that...

paul smith to pundits put up or shut up

as usual we are a bit tardy, we just now picked up the latest edition of the northside journal, the wednesday 25 october 2006 issue. in the letters to the editor first up in a tersely worded letter to the editor, paul smith, alexandria's chief of the fire department [public safety] picks up on a theme that we first hit on here. smith called out the northside journal's editoral and really all of us that agree.
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chief smith writes:

"i was just forwarded your piece regarding ms brewers news conference by a friend. let me admonish you like jacques roy did john sams on the issuse of "corruption associated with alexandria city hall." if you purport to represent the truth to your readers or if one aspires to represent the citizens of this community or for that matter if anyone considers himself to be a responsible neighbor and are/is aware of the "fact that sweetheart deals, nepotism, invoice padding, consultant family members, all slosh around in the cesspool that city hall has become" then you have an absolute moral obligation to share the details of that corruption with your readers and fellow citizens. what do you know? how long have you known it? what steps have you taken to bring these facts to the attention of authorities to rid our community of corruption. if you are willing to know these facts and take no action then perhaps you would at least share the details with your neighbors so that someone might bring them to the attention of appropriate authorities. to "know it and not name it" in the words of jacques roy is (in my words) to perpetuate it. it is the moral equivalent of seeing your neighbors house on fire and not calling the fire department."