Havelock Scoop

I wrote the following essay last year for the first incarnation of the Havelock Scoop blog. I’m reposting it here because it seems especially timely as city elections edge closer.

Whatever the outcome of November’s elections, one result is certain: Poll workers, candidates and network news anchors will bemoan voter turnout.

If poll numbers don’t take another vertiginous plunge, they’ll simply be stagnant. And even if more Americans vote this year than in the 2004 presidential race, election officials still will say it’s not enough.

Voting is our most underappreciated democratic right; and it’s one that more of us should exercise more often. But forget for a moment how we go about picking our senators and representatives, our commissioners and councilmen, our judges and sheriffs.

In some form or another, every American votes every day. You can’t avoid it.

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Life as an ex-president must be boring. Maybe that’s why Bill Clinton is trying to bully a restaurant owner into removing a picture of his daughter that she posed for.

In a recent letter, Clinton demanded that a New York City restaurant owner take down a photo of Chelsea Clinton posing with him in the restaurant, according to CBS News. The restauranteur has snapshots of himself with numerous celebrities who’ve been to the popular eatery.

Clinton’s letter claims the photo could be construed as an unauthorized endorsement of the restaurant. This is about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.

Miss Clinton posed for this photo years ago and most likely knew it would join other pictures of celebrities on the wall. Why is it a problem now?

And, if Chelsea Clinton really wanted the photo taken down, why doesn’t she ask the restaurant owner herself? She’s a twentysomething grown woman, and Daddy writing her letters seems peculiarly paternalistic, even if Daddy is the former leader of the free world.

Some folks are wondering why so many comments on a story about Havelock’s deputy police chief being placed on leave have mysteriously disappeared.

Technical glitches affecting many (if not all) Freedom ENC Communications Web sites caused many stories to appear without the comment form yesterday. Most of the comments seem to be restored as of 12:10 p.m. today, but I think some are gone for good.

Just thought I’d refresh everyone’s memory about story comments. We at the Havelock News do not moderate the comments, that task is left to readers. You can click “Remove” when you encounter something that violates our code of ethics. When enough readers flag a comment, it is removed immediately.

Can this self-policing tool be abused by people who simply disagree with a commenter’s argument? Sure. But, we hope cooler heads will prevail.