There has been much newspeak about the asbestos removal in county office buildings, and George Fearon's implied connection to and responsibility for, the illegal process used to get the job done.

There was also much innuendo during his campaign for re-election, some of it blatantly wrong.

In order to judge the problem, it is necessary to read history, and George has some good impacts from programs or issues he addressed while in lower offices.

Springport and Union Springs had some very serious pollution problems a while back, and if you look under the covers, George was the whistle blower and the lead attack dog in getting them cleaned up.

George is like a Doberman: he doesn't bark, but once he gets it in his teeth, get out of Dodge.

In order to judge the asbestos problem realistically, it is necessary to drill down very deeply into the public record testimony of the two low-level employees who are the central point in George's reported involvement.

This is where the media has to get involved; in order to set the newspaper record true, rather than slanted as it is now.

At issue is who said what and when. The record will show the actual timeline and reality.

Every politician inherits the sins of predecessors, either omissions, or facts.

At the county level, a politician also gets a huge bureaucracy, and a large gaggle of subordinates, most of who are prone to foot-in-mouth disease.

He/she also gets an aging infrastructure suffering from benign neglect, as the battle to reduce taxes dumps more of the maintenance cost on the future tax load on our offspring.

George did not put the asbestos in those buildings, and certainly would not knowingly try to subvert a cleanup process.

George the politician has to accept the BS and innuendoes of the political scene: it goes with the territory.

George the man does not.

William E. Dugan III

Aurora