Thank you for your comment. When emotions run high, vitriol seems part of human nature, and if you read online comments in other publications such as the Washington Post, you would be even more disturbed. Most publications do not have the resources to monitor online comments, so anything goes. Because the Wave serves a small town, the number of comments is low enough to be manageable. The Wave agrees that civility is to be desired, and hopes that even angry readers will agree. Expressing one’s opinion at the polls is the democratic way, but that democratic tradition has always gone hand in hand with a free press, including letters to the editor and, in our electronic age, online comments. –EDITOR

To Scott: When you move back into this town you get to voice your opinion.

The Asst Town Mgr (as he did in 2008) culls the questions to weed out the whackos. You can do better? Volunteer next time.

Meanwhile, go shovel some sand…

Thank you for your comment. You will find nothing in the editorial that is in any way meant to “belittle” Arts Enter. The Wave is a strong supporter of Arts Enter and the Palace Theatre, and is pleased to publicize their productions to the greatest extent. But if you were to speak to the Arts Enter leadership, as we did, you might learn that Arts Enter did not “sponsor” the candidate forum. –EDITOR

We also seem to be splitting hairs about who “sponsored” the forum. The Town is almost always responsible for this thing, and it is usually put on in the firehouse, which is a horrid venue. Arts Enter opened its doors for the event, and in return, was given some props. That’s usually how it happens around here.

There was also some hand wringing regarding the shuffling of questions by Mr. Panek. When I ran for Mayor, we had a similar candidate’s forum, which was also moderated by Bob. During that event, he also shuffled and skipped over some questions. In that case, the questions were ad hominem, personal attacks, meant to embarrass me. Mr. Panek was not a supporter of mine, yet he skipped over those questions and attempted to keep the forum focused on the issues, and not on personal attacks. I wasn’t at the latest forum, but I have a feeling he did the same thing there.

Back to the original point, these are serious allegations, and Town staff has been caught with its hands in the candy jar once before; however, I’m not sure thanking Arts Enter for hosting the event, or Bob making judgment calls on the appropriateness of the questions gets us there. What the piece does highlight is just how distrustful citizens have become of the inner workings of our Town government. They have become disgusted with back room, sweetheart deals, and the Vladimir Putinesque nature of a Council which seems more than willing to run roughshod over the concerns of the full-time residents of the historic district. Believe me, Old School Cape Charles gets it —- we’ve lived it. This is also why there are two lawsuits pending, and we hired one of the best constitutional attorneys in the State. The issues being generated here (which are being talked about from Norfolk to Blacksburg to Arlington), and which may affect the General Assembly, more than likely will have to be decided by the Virginia Supreme Court.

Thank you for your comment, but to be clear, there is nothing in the editorial that either implies or infers, intentionally or unintentionally, that Mr. Bennett is somehow “in cahoots” with town staff. The editorial focuses wholly on the unethical actions of town staff and casts no aspersions whatsoever on Mr. Bennett. –EDITOR

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