Letter to the editor.
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From: Guy [mailto:grhowe1@cox.net]
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2008 4:13 PM
Subject: letter to the editor.
I just finished reading Bob Caudle’s editorial about the alleged flap over the old deputy’s badges between Benton County Judge Black and Sheriff Ferguson. Caudle went on to say that it was just a ‘cheap trick by a member of TV Lee’s personal posse’. The otherwise bland article could have been written without the obvious slam against former Sheriff Andy Lee.
As a retired deputy who worked under both Sheriffs Lee and Ferguson I would like to address the blatant politically biased reference to ‘TV Lee’.
When I went to work for the Sheriff’s Office in 1991 I was paid a paltry $11,900 a year. All of my equipment, except for the car, was my own. I got no training. There was no money in the budget for any of that. Andy knew that the only way to bring this county out of the 18th century was to get the attention of the public and the quorum court. He spent a good deal of his time ‘getting on TV’, appearing in front of the quorum court and pleading his case for bringing the Sheriff’s Office at least into the 20th century. Unless you were there you have no idea how dangerous working in the old jail was. I can’t count the number of nights I was the only deputy on duty in the entire county. Andy changed all that. And he made enemies doing it.
Since he left office there have been many changes. Many people view them as a digression. Andy wants to bring the Sheriff’s Office back up to speed. I think he’s just the man for the job.
Guy Howe
“Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.” —Daniel Webster
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.” -Edmund Burke (1729-1797)