To the editor:

After attending the council meeting Monday night and hearing comments by Councilman Dodd about activities for the area youth and comments from Councilman Burling about using the editorial page for cheap shots, I felt like  I needed to respond to each.

Councilman Dodd just does not understand what we all are talking about when we say the community needs youth activities.

As far as that goes, none of the city officials do.

My question to all the officials who grew up in Dowagiac is to please respond to this letter not in a council meeting but by writing a letter to the editor, and tell the community what you all did for fun growing up.

I have talked to several residents in your age group and they told me what there was to do back them.

By not responding, that just tells of me that there was more for the youth to do then than there is now.

So, if you grew up in this town, let’s hear about it. That includes you, Mr. Mayor.

As for Councilman Burling’s comments, if you were referring to me as the cheap shot artist, my letter was not meant as a cheap shot towards anybody, but in my opinion, if you are an elected official and didn’t attend the carnival, that to me is a show of non-support.
Didn’t you all attend the  Dogwood Festival (geared towards adults)?

Aren’t all of you going to attend Summer in the City or whatever it is called now (geared towards out-of-towners and adults)?

As for a phone call to each of you, what would that accomplish?

The fact still would have remained that not all of you showed at least minimal support.
You could have attended for 10 minutes and it would at least looked like you all cared.
For the officials who did attend, I thank you for showing your support.

Waiting for all the “official” responses.

Bill  Oliver
Dowagiac