By Lillian Ridlen / L’Observateur / August 5, 1998

DEAR EDITOR: When the present sheriff of St. John Parish was elected to the office bythe voters of the parish, one thing was made crystal-clear. The voterswere sick to death of the ever-increasing crime in the parish.

In reading the booklet printed by the sheriff to the public, he notes 16 additional deputies per way of federal grants received, better training, new programs that have been set up, a special task force created and a 43 percent drop in the crime rate the first quarter of this year.

Arrests have been made in murder cases and the normal just-before-an- election sting was done to round up and arrest drug dealers, with all this going toward defeating crime.

The sheriff’s report then predicts an expected increase in crime, citing population growth for his reasoning as to why this will occur.

If saying to the voters expect more of the same, you were sick to death of it when you elected me as your sheriff was not enough to knock the wind out of the voters in St. John Parish’s sails, then what is?Why did the voting majority stay away from the polls on this millage tax asked for by the sheriff of St. John Parish?Were they out of town, in a meeting where they could not be reached, unavailable at this time, too busy to take a call to discuss the issues? Does what the voters have to say, what they feel or think, seem to matter? One could speculate on it until the cows come home, yet the tax passed by only a minority of the registered voters in this parish, 20 percent.

You would be very hard-pressed to say the parish voters gave the sheriff and the tax proposal an overwhelming vote of support or confidence.

Now, why were the registered voters in the parish, most of them, “blue flu” on going out to the polls? As one person suggested, issues could be talked about and discussed. Thattakes listening to other person’s points of view, as well as broadcasting your own. When four-fifths of the voting public stay away from the pollsit is saying the communication lines are down, as as one of my born and raised here friends would say – “and big time!”

Lillian Ridlen

LaPlace

Copyright © 1998, Wick Communications, Inc.

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