The recent debate between Betty Brown and Lance Gooden, and the opinions expressed regarding it by letters in the Athens Review remind me again of the privilege we enjoy in our country. We are able to hear the candidates and consider all things, make our personal decisions, and vote accordingly.
As one person expressed in a letter earlier in the week, she hopes to get another opportunity to hear Lance Gooden, and learn more about him. Surely that can and will happen since he has promised to make himself available.
I can only conclude that the reference to his “snatching” the microphone from the moderator’s hand was something that I saw as a young man able to think and act quickly and decisively with rudeness intended. That is an ability I admire, and would like our representative to possess.
The things about the debate that concern me were the propaganda sheets placed in every chair by Representative Brown’s workers. She also had to have notes to answer questions not known to her before the debate. Then she had to ask her advisor to help her answer the questions about her voting record.
I have spent the last several years watching Betty Brown’s voting record, and I do not feel she has done us justice in Austin. She has not done the job she was voted in to do, and my conclusion is a strong opposition to those expressed in the last letters that ran in the Review.
Concerning the second letter that ran, I can only say that Robby Robertson was at the same forum that we were all at. His report on the forum was true and accurate. Representative Brown takes every opportunity for local coverage, and just because the report was not leaning toward her, doesn’t give people the right to say the report was not accurate.
Mrs. Brown gets coverage from the Review in everything from the style shows, school awards programs, grand openings and city events. That is all good, but wouldn’t it be time better-spent if she was in Austin fighting for her constituency.
Again, isn’t this a great country that allows us to express our diverse ideas? On March 2, we can go vote accordingly.
Evelyn Kindred
Athens
