Pubdate: Mon, 10 Jun 2002
Source: Dispatch, The (NC)
Copyright: 2002, The Lexington Dispatch
Contact:  http://www.the-dispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1583
Author: O. Eugene Queen

A SHORT QUIZ

Editor: It's pop quiz time for we folks who are just a tad older than the 
graduating class of 2002. (Congratulations and best of wishes to all our 
grads!)

Two multiple choice questions for we older folks:

Which is the smallest of the seven numbers separated by ( )?

(973) (1,293) (1,386) (1,333) (1,167) (1,713) and (1,540)

If there has been no typo and 973 was selected, then everyone receives 50 
points.

Which is the smallest of this last collection of seven numbers?

(10,948) (10,929) (11,773) (12,182) (12,284) (11,181) and (11,244)

Again, if no typo and 10,929 was selected, then total quiz score = 100 or 
A+. Congratulations to we older folks.

That's it. I just wanted hard evidence that when folks look at facts we 
often come to the same conclusion. Leave politics out of a discussion of 
facts and there's no fancy footwork going on.

But, let's now insert some political implications and see what happens. The 
above numbers were not drawn from a lottery hat. They were provided by the 
Administrative Office of the Courts in Raleigh. The first set of numbers 
are the number of felony (criminal) cases filed in Davidson County Superior 
Court beginning with the year '94-95 and including the year 2000-2001. 
There were 973 cases filed in '94-95, 1,293 filed in '95-96, 1,386 filed in 
'96-97 and so forth.

The second set of numbers are the number of misdemeanor (non-motor vehicle 
criminal) cases filed in District Court in Davidson County during the same 
years.  Lest there be someone who wishes to feign intellect superior to the 
rest of us, "Davidson County" includes the first piece of dirt to the far 
east of the county, all the dirt to the county line at the far west and all 
dirt in-between - including the asphalt in the cities and the town of Denton.

What did we learn from this pop quiz? The criminal element has not been 
asleep during the past seven years. Neither have they been intimidated and 
departed our county for parts unknown. Makes one wonder just who is on drugs.

Oops, the "controlled substances" cases filed for the seven years noted 
earlier were: (381) (358) (396) (411) (440) (507) (389). Not included in 
these numbers are the filings in federal court.

Just thought that some would like to see facts to compare to the stuff 
being fed us from the political bull pasture.

O. Eugene Queen

Lexington
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart