Wednesday, June 11, 2003

In the Wednesday, June 4 edition of The Citizen on page 6A you published an e-mail from the mayor of Peachtree City entitled, "Authority's finances for 10 years pose questions." The last paragraph of the mayor's e-mail mentions our organization, DIRECT PAC.

DIRECT stands for Demanding Integrity Responsibility Ethical Conduct and Truthfulness. We expect those qualities in all public officials, elected and appointed. With that in mind, we present the last paragraph of the mayor's e-mail, which reads as follows:

"DIRECT PAC has its first candidate: Dan Tennant. I am starting see how there could be some common interest. I cannot blame Dan, I would dodge this issue and hand it off to the Information Specialist and the City Manager if I were in his position too. This would be a difficult thing to talk your way out of so it is best to hide" (end of mayor's unedited e-mail).

DIRECT PAC strongly objects to the mayor stating who our "first candidate" is or even mentioning our name as we have never discussed our organization, our goals or our candidates with him. We also object to your newspaper publishing a statement about our organization's endorsement without giving us the opportunity to confirm or deny.

As our leadership group stated clearly to your reporter Frank Lynch last month, our organization is not about the mayor or any other individual. It is about the entire process of efficiently governing Peachtree City. At this point, we have not endorsed or encouraged any candidate for any office. We may do this in the future since that is part of our mission statement (which will soon be available in its entirety at www.directpac.org).

Since ethical conduct and truthfulness are cornerstones of our organization, we are committed to holding all elected officials to a high standard of honesty and integrity. We strongly object to Mayor Brown or any other elected official making unresearched and uninformed public comments, accusations, or innuendo in an attempt to discredit any group or individual. These uninformed public comments by our elected officials significantly add to the ineffective and divisive nature of our city government.

At this time DIRECT PAC has neither met nor agreed to endorse any candidate for any office. Please be assured that if we feel any candidate is to be endorsed by our organization we will most certainly provide an accurate and timely press release.

In the best interest of the local citizenry and to avoid confusion and unfounded innuendo, we urge your newspaper to make every attempt to provide accurate and timely information to the public. With this in mind we encourage you to call or e-mail us if you are interested in accurately reporting our intentions, goals or endorsements. DIRECT PAC is always willing to respond with factual information.

Jim Stinson and Sharon Waples

Candidate Support Committee Co-Chairpersons

DIRECT PAC, A Political Action Committee in Peachtree City

www.directpac.org

The editor replies:

I am running your letter to the editor as I received it, without checking with anybody. For your information, I provide the following:

One supposes that a group with "political" in its name would expect to engage as an equal among equals in the sometimes hurly-burly give-and-take of politics. Part of the price of entrance into that engagement is having all sorts of sinister or hidden-agenda motives attributed to a group and its members, whether warranted or not. (Would you believe that sometimes happens to editors and publishers and newspapers, too?)

By virtue of being a "political action committee," you step onto the same stage as all the other players, with all the same rules of engagement.

Second, following your logic about the paper "checking" with you before we publish any opinion about you or your group, I should have to submit your letter above to Mayor Steve Brown and many others to "check" whether your letter's assertions are "factual" or not. Presumably, using your logic, if they disagreed with your assertions, I should feel compelled not to publish your letter. I think you know it doesn't work that way. Steve Brown doesn't get to censor you in these pages, and you don't get to censor him.

Letters are where people express opinions about various things, including motives, including yours, if you choose to participate in this public forum.

News stories are different than letters of opinion. In this media outlet (unlike some other papers and a local Internet site), reporters report while editors and opinion columnists opine. News appears on the news pages; opinion is clearly labeled as such and appears only on the Opinion and Letters pages. Political charges made in a news story warrant giving the object of the charges a chance to respond, in the same story. Not so in Letters. But you have opportunity to defend your position, as you have done in your current letter, in the next Letters issue.

This forum belongs as much to DIRECT PAC as it does to any other person or group in Fayette County. Therefore, I welcome your contributions to our Opinions and Letters pages, and I welcome all other contributions, pro, con or in between.

Cal Beverly

publisher