Mayor’s Row……by Ned Mitchell 5-2-5The evening was a peaceful one, my wife and I painting ceilings in a home we are restoring. The silence was broken by the cellular phone ringing at about midnight. The caller was Sesser police chief Rob Barrett who informed me that someone had driven their car into the historic Sesser Opera House. Upon arrival we discovered a late model Chevrolet Blazer wedged in between the ticket booth and the west arch pillar. Thousands of dollars of damage was done to the building, fortunately nobody was seriously injured.
We had been at the Train Rek Grille, next door to the Opera House for our nightly glass of tea and left at 10:00 o’clock. Outside I noticed two young men sitting in a red car, the driver slumped over the steering wheel. I went on about my business and left. Our very observant police chief drove to the other end of the block and waited. The driver of the little red car proceeding down main street but when he spotted the unmarked patrol car, turned north and then down an alley and off went the head lights. It was too late as both the police chief and another officer on duty had the vehicle spotted. Not only was the driver drunk or on drugs, a quantity of suspected drugs were found with them. This driver had been cited for DUI in Williamson County only three days prior to this arrest. Of course the passenger wanted to fight so that took a while to get both in custody as well as put up with a female passenger who was threatening to call “her” lawyer, as if she has one on retainer, and file harassment charges. What a hoot!
While this is all going down a loud thud was heard from in front of the Opera House. One police officer went to investigate the noise and finds the Blazer embedded in the arch of the Opera House. The driver was found in a bar across the street, bleeding and obviously too drunk to drive. She had came to main street on South Broadway, lost control and veered up the embankment next to the old township building, glanced off a utility poll, traveled across main street, went air born and landed head on into the Opera House. Here is a young mother with three children out drinking and driving. The children were ages 11 and under and had been left at home alone while mom was out on the town. To top it all off we ended up having to arrest the driver’s mother who was bent on whipping someone, in her own words, and another Sesser resident who simply would not shut up, obey the police officer and go across the street. He wanted to stand in the middle of it all and argue. I thought for a while we were going to run out of handcuffs! In the matter of about 20 minutes we had five people in custody and in route to Franklin Hospital for blood and urine samples before an overnight stay at the Franklin County jail. Once we have the samples confirmed and I consult with our city attorney, I will put the names of those arrested in a future column.
Here is the deal, I’m really getting sick and tired of these dead beat drunks causing all the problems for the rest of us. And yes, they are dead beat drunks and dope heads with extensive criminal records. Some of them are on Social Security Disability, but all of them are becoming a huge cost to society. It is a miracle that when this drunk driver went sideways across our main street at a high rate of speed some car load of young people were not hit and either seriously hurt or killed. Then everyone would be wringing their collective hands wondering just how this person continued to drive a vehicle. I think it would be a good idea, if legal, to make a report naming names in this column in the future of arrests such as this. It would be good for readers to know who is running amuck around here and what they are doing. Stay tuned, this could be entertaining. I figure if you are going to come to Sesser and act like an idiot, the least we could do is put your name in the paper. The bottom line is, you come here and violate the law, we’ll give you a free ride to the county hotel. Hopefully court officials will now do their job, we will be watching from this corner of the county!
Speaking of Social Security Disability, President Bush and Washington elected officials are looking for ways to save Social Security for future generations. Here is a novel idea, if you are drawing disability benefits because you are a drunk or drug addict, cut off the benefits. We need to face up to the facts here. Drunks and dope heads are disabled, if you want to call it that because they can’t crawl off a bar stool or not have a fix long enough to hold down a job. This is not a disability that requires the rest of them to pay for their bad habits. Sesser, like other towns, has a multitude of drunks and dope heads drawing Social Security checks every month while the rest of us work and pay into the system. I say cut ‘em off and tell them to get a job. They could at least do community service work, pick up trash or mow yards like many of them do for cash. They do not need to be sitting at the bar all day drinking up our hard earned tax dollars. If you have a physical or mental disability and are not able to work, Social Security is a great program and folks should be entitled to the benefits. I’ll pay my share every month and feel good about it if it only goes to those who are truly disabled and cannot work. To pour it down a rat hole for drunks and dopers however is not something I agree with and if the folks in Washington want to salvage the system, here is a good place to start.
Don’t forget the town wide yard sale is this weekend in both Sesser and Valier. We hope you can attend and find just that bargain you have been looking for. Also, don’t forget have a great Mother’s Day and do something extra special for mom on her day!
If you have a comment or suggestion, please feel free to call 625-3611, 625-5322, or 625-5788. We’ll be happy to listen to you about any subject!
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