With reference to Mr. Steve

Brown, I write what I hope will serve as encouragement.

Under my First Amendment

rights, I choose to tell the editor a story. The title of

this imaginary story I will call "The Surreal

Facts." The names have been changed to protect the

innocent from SLAP suits.

Once upon a time in a place

far, far away, there was a planned community in the low

country of the Americas, in north Jawja called CherryTree

City. The year was 1997, an election year. Now there was

a certain Cowboy Engineer, who decided to run for the

City Council. At that same time a gentle man by the name

of Beav FourDoor decided to also run for City Council

(For those of you that don't know, Beav FourDoor was the

original architect in CherryTree City, of debate

inspiring letters to the editor).

The Cowboy Engineer was a

man of little means and he did not have much money to get

his message out - you know, in a way that he thought he

could be the most effective. Nevertheless, he decided to

move forward anyway.

The Cowboy Engineer and

Beav FourDoor began to speak out against the high command

political establishment in CherryTree City. This is

because they did not want their beloved CherryTree City

to become like Cod Liverdale or Linnette County, Jawja

(suburbs of Hotlanta).

There was this local

periodical called "The Surreal Deal (published on

Wednesdays) and the CherryTree and Soweta Review

(published on Fridays). The Surreal Deal newspaper was

the only publication in CherryTree City in which the

people could have the real unencumbered facts (that's why

our story is named the Surreal Facts).

However, there were many in

CherryTree City that did not like this. The Grand

Pooh-Bah even wrote that the Surreal Deal published lies,

inaccuracies and innuendo. Another top high command

official said they didn't want the Surreal Deal delivered

to their house anymore. How dare the puny CherryTree City

citizenry criticize anyone in the high command? The high

command will never allow that.

CherryTree City was unique

in the fact that it was re-developed by the former

CherryTree City Re-development Corporation (CCRC) and

other re-developer "fat-cats." CCRC is now

known as Golf-Cart-Pathway Commune. Now a re-developer

"fat-cat" is different from just a plain

re-developer. A re-developer "fat-cat" wants to

consume all the re-development dollars that they can out

of a re-development.

In other words, the

"fat-cats" are the ones that won't tell you

about the destruction of wetlands and flood plains and

green belts, siltation damage to the environment and our

precious water supply watershed, over building with too

much impervious surface material, and they have a lack of

concern for the infrastructure (Given the chance, I never

vote for re-developer "fat-cats"). CCRC was

also the owners of the privately owned Shower System.

CCRC was (prior to the election) in secret negotiations

with the city in the sale of the Shower System.

CherryTree City was full of

"so-called" power brokers. You know, this group

of movers and shakers together with other re-developer

"fat-cats" and the high command that think they

know what's best for our planned city better than you or

I. Unfortunately, I listened to my broker one time, and

the only one broker was me. So this was the entrenched

power base in the city. Nobody had better question

entrenched power.

The Cowboy Engineer, then

head of the city government organization known as the H20

and Shower Majority, felt that the secret discussions in

the Shower Deal and the hiring of professional

consultants was both inappropriate at times and costly

for the city in this information gathering effort. The

Cowboy Engineer began to speak out on this and the

Surreal Deal newspaper began to report these events.

One day, the H20 and Shower

Majority's Attorney advised it that the city's

Re-development Majority (issuer of Re-development bonds

to CCRC) had the authority to obtain financial

information on request. The Cowboy Engineer and attorney

made a formal appeal for the Re-development Majority to

get this financial information because it would be a cost

savings to the city. The Re-development Majority gave a

resounding "no" to this request. The Surreal

Deal newspaper reported this in what was headlined

"The Million Dollar No" in 1995. So much for

teamwork.

Just who were these people

on the Re-Development Majority? To find out, the Cowboy

Engineer went to City Hall and requested of the city

clerk the roster of who sat on City Council, the

Re-development Majority and the Hairport Majority as far

back as 1985 to then 1995. Believe it or not a pattern

began to emerge from these lists. The Cowboy Engineer was

trained to recognize mathematical patterns.

Much to the Cowboy

Engineer's chagrin, there were in plain sight on the City

Council, the Re-development Majority and the Hairport

Majority all kinds of conflict of interests. There were

Re-developer "fat-cats," Movers and Shakers,

past Grand Pooh-Bahs, Aire apparent Pooh-Bahs, and others

of that same ilk. There was one other special breed of

power broker. This was the individuals that have been on

the boards for many, many years. You and I can call them

"lifers."

Well, you can start to see

how high stake politics works in CherryTree City. Term

limitations in CherryTree City is a joke. So much in

CherryTree City government is orchestrated. The good guys

must somehow break up the clique. Its time to retire the

so-called "lifers."

In the meantime, Beav

FourDoor went on the attack in the fight for justice

concerning the issues of the day such as the secret

shower deal, out-of-control growth, and the attack on the

re-developer "fat-cats" in his then unique

campaign letters to the editor. This was a time when the

legendary letter to the editor was authored criticizing

the Grand Pooh-Bah himself. That letter was entitled,

"Don't let CherryTree City turn into Pooh-Bah's

Town."

Unfortunately, the

CherryTree City government Grand Pooh-Bah issued a

statement: "Please do not vote for these two men -

they will ruin this city." Can you imagine that? The

Cowboy Engineer and Beav FourDoor loved CherryTree City.

Subsequently the Cowboy and

the Beav went down in smoke.

It even got so bad that the

CherryTree City government high command even tried to

blacklist and shut down the Surreal Deal's reporter,

prior to their good wisdom to hire an Infomercial

Specialist. Open and honest government hit an all time

low back in 1997.

Then afterwards came a good

elected official we'll call "our man - Stan."

He won 100 percent of the vote in all precincts to finish

a three-way race without a runoff. The year is now 2000.

"Our man - Stan" came to try to save the day

and break up the clique. He was pretty successful at it

too (through the introduction of Ethics and Free Speech

legislation).

However, currently

"our man - Stan" has been somewhat slowed up

out of the starting block due to his side involvement in

"cat-fights." Don't worry, they won't be able

to keep "our man - Stan" down for long.

Enter our hero - Clev Down.

Clev was an everyday foot soldier who came to pick up the

gauntlet. Clev, with his letters to the editor and his

gift for the written word, he has been able to galvanize

the people and inspire them to greatness and meaningful

debate. All of a sudden Clev began to get things done and

with the support of the citizenry.

What Clev didn't know was

that the new millennium high command in CherryTree City

government doesn't appreciate thought-provoking debate.

This was because fingers got pointed at the high command

itself. Now, Clev's free speech rights have been stymied.

Now we wait. We're rooting for you Clev.

No one knows what the

outcome will be concerning Clev's ability to raise

questions surrounding his local government and that

government's key players. Will our hero be able to

prevail? Or for that matter will you and I be able to

ever criticize our government without fear of being

crushed into grapefruit juice or CherryTree wine? Will

the border police go unchecked? Will Glasnost and

Perestroika ever make it to CherryTree City? Stay tuned.

Somebody once said,

"Even if you lose the game, you can never lose the

game of life." Have courage, Mr. Brown.

You're a good man, Steve

Brown.

James Melvin Ewing

Peachtree City