No suit on merger

Dear Editor,

Does the McCook Gazette have a problem reporting facts and truth? First, you report, without checking a single, solitary source, the village of Lebanon has arsenic levels of 23 parts per billion. Lebanon Village Board Chairman, F.W. Ankenman wrote you on that.

Now the Saturday/Sunday edition of the McCook Gazette reports "... a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that contests the Republican Valley/Twin Valley school merger ..."

My lawsuit, which this motion to dismiss is about, says absolutely nothing about the "merger" of Republican Valley/Twin Valley schools. My court case deals only with the bonds. I gave you a copy of the petition I filed in the Red Willow (County) District Court so you would have the actual document in your hands. Neither you nor your staff had to photocopy it or take notes. I trusted you to read it and refer to it.

I expected the McCook Gazette to print facts about this case. Are you aware about 49.7 percent of both districts voted against these bonds, on March 25, not in January, as you reported earlier?

the fact is these schools are merged according to the Department of Education. The fact is, my lawsuit does not mention their "merger" one way or another. Check it out.

Do you prefer to print outright lies? It is an outright lie my lawsuit is about the merger. If you had reviewed the court document I gave you, you would have known it says nothing about "merger." You could have reported "truth."

Don't you think your readers deserve to know the truth? Isn't that what the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, setting out "freedom of the press" is all about? Perhaps, to you, the First Amendment means whatever you want it to mean.

Yours truly,

Frances Louise Nicholson

Lebanon