Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Letters To The Editor

Dear Editor,

In an article published in the Gurdon Times on Aug. 23 concerning the City Council ordering Juvenile Curfew, Delton Simpson's character was attacked by the city marshal, David Childress and fire chief, Jake McBride. According to the article the only source of defense came from Mayor Rick Smith.

No one is perfect, but I take exception to this attack for the following reasons:

1. I have lived in Gurdon city limits for the past nine years and the community for the past 25 and I can not remember a time when kids did not walk the streets, sit at Sonic and park in the parking lots until after midnight.

2. The responsibility of kids being home at a certain time lies with the parents not with someone who is providing activities.

3. Delton Simpson has volunteered countless hours in this community to provide some sort of activity for the young people, to teach them pride in their community, to teach them to respect authority, to assist them in getting in the work force by taking them to apply for various jobs, talking to employers about hiring and job training. These things and many others have been done primarily at his own expense. Recently sponsors have seen the hard work he has done and that things are slowly changing and are willing to assist in this difficult task.

4. Delton had discussed with the city marshal the fact that he would voluntarily suspend all activities at the gym until the arson situation was resolved.

5. The last two or three fires that were set were set prior to 11:00 p.m.

It was suggested at the meeting by the fire chief and others that someone talk to Delton regarding this situation, but since the City Council meeting, neither the city marshal, fire chief or any members of the City Council has called or come to speak with Delton regarding any issue.

If these officials are reckless enough to make these untrue, unwarranted and damaging statements regarding a persons character, then they should be men enough to follow up with what they suggested.

The Bible tells us in Romans not to let your good be evil spoken of, therefore, it is apparent that positive and permanent change is not something that concerns some people and if you are a person that desires to do good, beware.

Voicing your opinion is one thing, degrading a persons hard work without even discussing it with them is quite another.

Darlene Simpson