The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1939-03-02
Letters To The Editor
Durant, Miss.
March 2, 1889.

Miss Hazel Brannon,
Editor Durant News,
Durant, Mississippi.
Dear Miss Brannon;
/ have been very interested in the
proposal to nave the proceedings OF
the Mayor and Board of Aldermen
published in the Durant News, and
since the people of Durant have been
invited to give their views on this
question, / am writing this for the
purpose Of doing so.
I feel certain that the people OF
Durant have confidence in their City
| officials. I, personally, feel that this
confidence is we'll merited by the
officials. But / do not believe that
this confidence that we have in the
City officials al be expected to
continue in the face of a positive un-
willingness on the part of these Of
ficials to AXE the people Of the
community into their confidence. Re-
fusal to publish the proceedings Of
our municipal governing body would
seem to be such an unwillingness.
Now, as has already been said, it
is believed that the people have CON
fidence in the Mayor and Board;
many of the people undoubtedly feel
pride in the set of officials we have.
Is the Mayor and Board of Alder
men afraid to let the people who
elected them and who have shown
confidence in their honesty and in
tegrity know how the City govern
ment is being run? If they. arc
afraid of doing this, why? The peo-
ple-all the people of Durant-are
entitled to know.
Should any one official, or should
any group Of tho City officials feel
that publication of the boards pre-
ceedings would show him or them
to a disadvantage, that official, or
group should be willing to take his
or their medicine. One of the great
est safeguards of the common good
here in America is the good old
practice of letting the people know
how their government is being ope-
rated. When governing bodies re-
fuse to take the people into their
confidence, then, however wrong the
people may be, it is but natural that
they become distrustful of that gov-
erning body. Any such distrust could
and would be dispelled by enough
light on the subject-unless per-
chance it were merited.
The Mayor and Board of Aldermen
seem to be of the opinion that any
thing they do has the approval of
everyone in the community. Even
II this should be true. which it is not,
they should be fair enough to give
the people of the community, whom
they are supposed to represent, the
last word. But how are we to even
ing If we do not get a report on
their meetings?
The Mayor and Board of Aldermen
give as their reason for not pub
fishing the minutes the answer that
they don't think the people of Durant
want them published.
If this group is so far removed
from the average citizen of the town
that they don't even know what the
majority of the people in the town
are saying about their attitude then
it is their duty as public officials to
find out what the people really think
on this subject instead of assuming
that they are right.
l have always felt that the women
citizens should be given a better
opportunity to become acquainted
with the affairs of government. They
do not rave the same opportunities
of observing the operation of the
government and of coming in contact
with the problems of government rs
have the male citizens. Publication
of the boards proceedings will GER
tainly aid in giving the woman citi-