Published: August 28, 2006 09:49 am      

CCAC member responds to harassment

I am a board member of the Clinton Citizens Action Congress and as such I can assure the public that we have no political, ethnic or religious affiliations or predispositions.

We have to date had Clinton Police Chief Brian Guy at our monthly meeting as have been the superintendent of schools, a person from one side of the the Soaring Eagle Nature Society argument, our new city attorney, and a seeker of public office, Mr. Les Shields.

In all cases the public was invited to these meetings held the third Friday of each month to ask whatever questions they consider appropriate as long as they weren’t personal in nature and not inflammatory or disrespectful to the personage who is the speaker! Since the meetings are poorly attended, we have attempted to inform the public as to the content of the presentations through the auspices of the newspaper.

This submission of information concerns the quality of the presentation, and doesn’t speak to the accuracy of the statements made, or to whether we support the persons statements, or political, ethnic, or social opinions. The third Friday in September, Sen. Roger Stewart and Rep. Polly Bukta will be our speakers and we hope for good attendance at the Lyons Train Depot!

Since our last meeting we have been doing a little investigating about several issues concerning possible “conflicts of interest” and duplication of certain organizations and their funding. As soon as these issues were made public by questions at our last meeting, certain of us started receiving harassing and threatening phone calls and just having their phone ring over and over all hours of the day and night.

This is, to our way of thinking, a juvenile and unwarranted action taken by person or persons unknown who are not mature enough to sit down over a cup of coffee and discuss their complaints in a neutral location. I will assure the city of Clinton that this action also will not deter those of us who conclude that we might possibly have hit a nerve somewhere in some investigation and perhaps might be shining a light on an area that some might want to leave in the darkness.

We will continue to investigate everything we consider as unusual. This is frankly why we exist and why we will persevere. If something is not right it should be made so, and if we are, “barking up the wrong tree,” then we will say so publicly, in the paper!