unnecessary vehicles in order to supply a take home car to staff. Incidentally, it is my belief that to achieve good management practices and improve efficiency, the allocation of vehicles should be revisited and the fleet downsized to essential vehicles only, but  I digress.

Hagler's court proved the system can still function as it should but Gobble's loss in no way reflects badly on his legal team. They did a heroic job of presenting a case that had no merit to start with. It seems Bradley County Mayor, D. Gary Davis, was placed in a position to defend the county that was not of his making and, apart from the inappropriate Gobble money eating bank episode, conducted himself with dignity. His legal team of local attorneys Robert Thompson and James Logan, appeared to be outclassed by their out of town opponents and they may not have found the case so easy to win without the impressive expert witness support. But they did win for the county taxpayer so they should be congratulated.

What did we learn from this experience? I learned that even in the scoundrel infested town of Cleveland, it is still possible to be impressed by the wisdom of the occasional genuine leader. Judge Hagler won the bout while wrestling with important conflicting interests. It must have been difficult for him to find against those he calls friends. That takes real courage.

The moral of the story is, just as with our children, who we cherish, they understand that it is not that we don't care when we deny them something - in the real world, it is not possible to have everything, priorities must be set and disappointment is a part of the learning, growing up experience.

This learning, growing up experience just cost the taxpayer a fortune in legal expenses, I hope the lesson was worth it.

That's what I think. What do you think?

Smile, please

I am an English-American.... Not really, I am an American citizen who happens to have been born in England but I just wanted to see how silly it looks when it appears in print.

While I am on the subject of England, those Americans who support the use of surveillance cameras to identify people who jump red lights or speed or to provide other law enforcement duties, should take a look how privacy has been eroded to the point of nonexistence in the birthplace of freedom, the United Kingdom, as it is now known. There are cameras almost everywhere that is public and many places that are private. Although policing has become easier and impersonal and court coffers are bulging with video enforced fines, there are just as many speeders, light jumpers and the country is just as violent and unruly as it has always been, maybe even more so. There are more office dwelling police officers watching a monitor and less on the streets to protect you form burglars or muggers. The surveillance cameras do sometimes catch a criminal in the act but they do not prevent crime, only witness it. The ordinary, usually law abiding person, is easy prey for the all seeing lens but the real criminal sees them as a minor inconvenience. This must be true because crime would have been eliminated long ago if the crime fighting prowess of video was justified. The only proven method of preventing crime is a human being, on the spot, preferably with a big gun.

America affords its citizens the most personal freedom and privacy of any country on earth, yet its crime rate is better than most. Immigrants like myself flock to its shores to taste that which is so scarce elsewhere. There are those in America, as there are in England, that place little value on other people's freedom. Be wary of sharp sales talk intent on persuading you to relinquish that which makes America unique, for some promised but elusive safety. History has shown that once a freedom is lost it can never be regained. It is common knowledge that liberty is lost, not in one fell swoop, but is eroded one freedom at a time. It seems few Americans are paying attention.

That's what I think. What do you think?
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