THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 30, 1994 TAG: 9409290207
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Short : 30 lines
``Certain people have consistently used the council podium as a circus . . colleagues slammed the doors of City Hall in the face of the citizens of Chesapeake Tuesday night.
Mr. Dwyer never spoke truer words.
What he failed to comprehend, however, is that the circus takes place on his side of the podium, not on the people's side. There's no better example than Tuesday night, when six Keystone Kops ran around the center ring hitting the First Amendment in the face with cream pies.
Under the council's new rules, which take effect next week, citizens' opinions about their government will be relegated to late-night, unofficial sessions and will not be televised on the city's cable TV station.
The Council's priorities are seriously askew. It is what the people have to say, not what the politicians have to say, that should take priority in a democracy.
The government of Chesapeake does not belong to Mr. Dwyer and his cronies. It belongs to the people whose voices they have attempted to squelch. by CNB