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It was not surprising that someone has started a petition to oust City Manager Mitchell Johnson.

Greensboro is that kind of place. We do petitions a lot.

It's a shame, however, that Johnson has been so thoroughly vilified based on shreds of truth liberally mixed with rumor and innuendo.

We absolutely need to get through, then past, the divisive turmoil that has gripped the city over the Greensboro Police Department.

We need to face whatever is wrong and fix whatever is broken. But we can't let it destroy us in the process.

We have passed this way before.

We did on Nov. 3, 1979. And even since we as a city have believed at least two distinctly different narratives about what did and didn't happen in the ugly clash between Klu Klux Klansmen and communisit protesters.

Now here we are in 2007, doing pretty much the same thing.

Probably one of the most unsetttling aspects of the petition drive against Johnson is an interview with a restaurant owner who is asking patrons to sign the anti-Johnson petition. She said she only approaches white customers.

I don't know precisely what that says. But it isn't good.

The police issue is important. Important questions need to be answered. We shouldn't turn away because this is a hard, messy issue.

But we can't let it consume us to point of paralysis. Or racial division. Or self-destruction.

There is too much important work to be done in Greensboro ... too many opportunitties to seize to wallow in the poison of prejudice and distrust.

One thing is clear: Greensboro still struggles to talk to itself and does an even lousier job of listening. We take sides and dig in.

Deeper and deeper until the hole's too steep to climb out.

A heads-up:

We editorial guys will work Tuesday night to cover the primary.

We'll have analysis and reactions for Wednesday's paper, plus an early look ahead at November.

I still expect an exceptional turnout.

This whole Hannah Montana ticket thing is absolutely blowing up.

People around here aren't the only ones distressed by their inabiilty to buy concert tickets, even after waiting in line early in the morning at the Greensboro Coliseum box office.

Fans are mad all over at the instant sellouts created by scalpers buyng up huge blocks of tickets on the Internet.

Your source for Hannah Montana news, The Wall Street Journal, reports that Ticketmaster is hoping to strike back with technology.

This week's column features an interview with City Manager Mitchell Johnson and expresses my concerns about the repercussions of the Wray controversy for the whole city.

Read it here.

This week's column.

As yet another drought turns what once were local lakes into vast plains of cracked red clay, how serious — really serious — are we willing to get about conserving water?

Serious enough to raise a toast with the same water in which we bathed or washed dishes — or worse?

Science says it's possible. In fact, you've probably already wet your whistle with at least traces of reclaimed wastewater.

Winston-Salem draws its water from the Yadkin River. The Yadkin River contains treated wastewater from other communities upstream. Winston-Salem sells water to Greensboro and, well, you get the idea. Even when the Randleman reservoir comes online, probably by 2011 as a regional water source, part of its contents will include treated wastewater.

It may sound perfectly icky, but so would many of the things we regularly consume, if you took time to trace their origins. And it's eminently doable, says Greensboro Water Resources Director Allan Williams.

"With the technology we have now, you could probably do it and be safe," Williams said. "But it's a PR nightmare."

It doesn't help that such initiatives have been popularly described as "toilet to tap."

Gentlemen, start your campaigns.

This release just in from the state GOP:

RALEIGH — After news broke of Democrat Congressional staffers being immunized before a fact-finding mission to Concord for the Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, some NASCAR fans felt insulted by the insinuation that inoculations would be necessary to attend a race. Congressman Robin Hayes quickly came to defense of his hometown and NASCAR fans saying, “I have been to numerous NASCAR races, and the folks who attend these events certainly do not pose any health hazard to congressional staffers or anyone else.' "

"Congressman Patrick McHenry also defended NASCAR fans in North Carolina and across the nation saying, “If anything, it’s the NASCAR fans who should get immunized against Washington officials.

"North Carolina Democrats, however, were notably silent last week in the wake of the immunization flap. In particular, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue failed to make any comment about the recommendation from the Democrat leadership of the House Homeland Security Committee even though she held a fundraiser at Lowe’s Motor Speedway last Thursday (October 11) during qualifying rounds for the Bank of America 500."

Perdue , coincidentally, is running for governor in 2008.

I am going to hear Darryl Hunt speak at N.C. A&T tonight.

I have heard him several times before. But I can't help being humbled and amazed over and over at the tremendous spirit of peace and calm he conveys.

This is a man who has a right to be angry. He was imprisoned for 19 years for a murder he didn't commit.

But not once has he conveyed one syllable of bitterness or anger.

And now he has devoted his own life to helping others in similar circumstances.

I like to hear him every once in a while to remind me of how little I've got to complain about in my own life.

The second One Guilford leadership symposium today at Guilford College did not attract the numbers of the first.

But what it may have lacked in glitz and sheer quantity it made up for in quality and energy.

The 100 or so who attended were engaged and thoughtful, a fact that became clear when they split into breakout sessions to discuss four key areas:

1. The region's economic potential as an "Aerotropolis."

2. . The impact of the High Point Market and potential for High Point's development as the intellectual and creative center of the furniture industry.

3. The UNCG-A&T Millennium Campus' ramifications for the future of Guilford County.

4. "Opportunity Preparedness" -- as in equipping students to thrive in a more knowledge-based economy.

As Doug notes, the speakers (Commissioners Chairman Paul Gibson, UNCG economist Andrew Brod, N.C. A&T Chancellor Stanley Battle, school board Vice Chairman Amos Quick and Bennett College President Julianne Malveaux, who provided closing remarks) were superb and Guilford College was an excellent host.

Bottom line: A lot of exciting opportunities await this county if we connect our efforts and better leverage our collective strengths.

We need to move faster. We need to put aside petty differences. We need to invest in education. We need to empower all of our citizens to succeed. And we need to embrace and exploit our diversity.

Some room for improvement:

Julianne Malveaux pointed out the glaring lack of young people.

Stanley Battle noted the lack of women among the keynote speakers.

So far as I could tell, High Point wasn't as well represented as we'd hoped it would be.

We need to keep working to encourage more grass-roots participation.

But we're encouraged. And we're already looking forward to the next One Guilford.

Incidentally, it's at UNCG on March 12, 2008. And after that, at GTCC.

Each breakout had a notetaker, so you'll hear more about this in the future.

A North Carolina A&T professor will appear on CNN tonight to respond to a Nobel Prize-winning geneticist's statement that black people are intellectually inferior.

Dr. Joseph Graves Jr., dean of University Studies and professor of Biological Sciences at A&T, will be interviewed on "Anderson Cooper 360" at 10 p.m.

James Watson has cancelled a series of speaking engagements in Britain after being suspended from a prestigious scientific laboratory for claiming that black people are less intelligent than whites.

Watson, who won the Nobel Prize for his role in discovering the structure of DNA, was quoted in an interview in The Sunday Times of London saying he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says not really."

A very dumb statement by a very smart man.

This week's column.

Talk about small consolation.

George Gilbert reminds us that the microscopic turnout in Oct. 9’s City Council primary was actually an improvement over the previous one in 2005.

Of all the city’s registered voters, 7 percent and change showed up this year versus half that number in 2005, said Gilbert, the county’s elections director.

In other words, a merely terrible showing instead of God­awful. Hoorah.

You could argue that it’s a sign of the times — that voters everywhere find city elections boring and irrelevant. But try these numbers on for size:

Turnout in Cary’s primary: 20 percent. In Raleigh: 16 percent. In Wilmington: 22 percent.

And in every case, local journalists were lamenting poor showings at the polls. Wait till they get a load of us.

Which begs the question: What makes people so especially detached and uninterested around here?

Ironically, this election seemed poised to many to break the mold of ho-hum primaries: lots of new faces among the candidates, plus the return of some familiar faces, plus a huge, generally well-qualified field — 32 in all who filed to run, 26 of them in the primary.

There were other hopeful signs: myriad, frequently well-attended candidate forums, two News & Record town hall meetings on the elections that drew capacity crowds.

This election also was the first under a new state law permitting same-day registration during early voting. That meant you could register and vote in one visit to the polls.

There even was a divisive controversy that seemed sure to fuel turnout, no matter which side you took. The simmering debate over the forced resignation of former Police Chief David Wray has become a front-burner issue among candidates and seemed to resonate in the community.
Still, 93 percent of the registered voters stayed home in a town where, I’m guessing, oh, a gazillion times more of us regularly vote for American Idols or buy Hannah Montana tickets.

Does it mean that the vast majority of Greensboro residents are satisfied with the status quo?

Does it mean the pro-Wray, throw-all-the-bums-out contingent is merely a small, but vocal minority?

Or does it mean the levels of distrust revealed in social capital studies have created a general sense of civic apathy?

Beats me. You could argue that voting could be made even easier, online, by the click of a mouse. But is convenience really the issue?

As Jason Hardin noted in a recent news story on the pitiful turnout, people around here aren’t always so blase about elective politics. In 2004, 67 percent of Guilford County voters came out for the presidential election between George W. Bush and John Kerry.

But that was an extraordinary circumstance, the result of a perfect political storm ignited by a sharply divided country and an increasingly unpopular war.

There’s still a sliver of hope.

The general election features a contested mayoral race between two good candidates, Yvonne Johnson and Milton Kern, a tightly packed at-large field and several very competitive district races. The T. Dianne Bellamy-Small-Tonya Clinkscale finale in District 1 and Sandy Carmany-Trudy Wade duel in District 5 promise close, hard-fought outcomes.

This still could be a compelling election after all. Or not. Even for those of us who were born and reared here, Greensboro can be an impossible place to figure out.

Half of me wants to believe my hometown is better than single-digit turnouts when such issues as jobs, growth and quality of life are at stake. The other wants to say voters will get precisely what they deserve if they choose to sit out the general election.

They will empower a small minority of people to pick their leaders and chart their city’s future.
They will have no right to complain when things don’t go their way.

And if they do, we, in turn, will have every right to tell them to sit down. And shut up.

I hired Ruthell Howard straight out of college when I was editor of a feisty black weekly, the Winston-Salem Chronicle.

She was short and spunky and full of a joy for life and work and friends. She covered everything from school board to City Hall to the sheriif's department.

And she interviewed everyone from mayors to funeral home directors.No matter how big or small the story, I could always count on her. Her energy was boundless.

We as a staff loved going to the Coliseum Kitchen for breakfast after working killer shifts on late Wednesday nights and (I'm not exaggerating) Ruthell never was happy with the quality of her food.

We'd kid her about being so fincky but she was serious. Her meal was too hot or too cold or too salty or hard or too soft or too dry or too runny, but never ever right.

Those were among the few times we ever saw her close to mad. But for some reason I don't we all kept going back to that same restaurant where the rest of us were typically satisfied with our meals even as Ruthell steamed.

The Coliseun Kitchen notwithstanding, Ruthell was one of the most selfless, giving people I ever knew, with an endearing innocence and an unwavering belief in everyone's capacity for good.

In time, shel moved on to the Carolina Peacemaker and then the News & Record.

Next she caught on with some little operation up north called The Washington Post, where she worked on the copy desk and impressed her bosses with her skills and enthusiasm.

I would see her occasionally at conventions and hug her and reminisce about our high-stress, low-pay glory days in Winston.

In those days, I was young and driven with high aspirations and rough edges. As a 26-year-old manager, I wasn't always the best boss in those days ... impatient and demanding and not well versed in the art of tact. But Ruthell forgave me anyway. She preferred to remember me for the good times we had and the spirit that drove the little paper that could to all kinds of state and national awards.

Ask my other colleagues: James Parker, Robin Adams, David Bulla. Ruthell was as special and as unique and as memorable as her name (she had twin borther named Ralphell).

Now she's gone.

This came in today's email from The Post:

Ruthell Howard, 50; Longtime Post Copy EditorTuesday, October 23, 2007;

Ruthell Howard, 50, a copy editor for The Washington Post for more than 15 years, died of cardiopulmonary arrest Oct. 21 at Menorah Home and Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y.

-- Patricia Sullivan

I am so happy that our paths crossed as much as they did over the years. And I am so saddened that'll I'll never see her again.

Just got back from moderating a city council candidate forum ... in Eden.

From where I sat, it looked like a strong field of informed candidates. Among the top issues addressed in the well-attended session at Morehead High School: downtown development, business recruitment, water and sewer, property taxes, health care for the poor, tourism and the drought.

Sound familiar?

My job was easy. I just followed the script. Even enjoyed the drive up and back in a pouring rain.

Here's one for the Dumb Idea File:

Legislation against baggy pants. On the city and even the state level.

Some cases in point:

-- Delcambre, La., near Baton Rouge, where dwearing droopy pants will net you a fine of as much as $500 or up to six months in jail. “We used to wear long hair, but I don’t think our trends were ever as bad as sagging,” Mayor Carol Broussard otld The New York Times..

-- Mansfield, La.,near Shreveport, where the fines run as high as $150 (plus court costs) or up to 15 days in jail. The law took effect on Sept. 15.

-- Hawkinsville Ga., where anyone who appears in public "wearing pants or shorts below the waist, which expose the skin or undergarments" gets a maximum fine of $500 and 80 hours of community service.

-- Opa-Locka, Fla. which banned sagging pants at all city-owned places on Thursday. You won't go to jail or have to pay a fine. They'll simply kick you off the premises.

Atlanta could be next.

Now, I'm as against droopy trousers as the next guy. It's not only unsightly, but it's impractical. A guy can't walk very far with his beltline around his knees.

But on the cosmic scale of societal ills ... gimme a break.

Hawkinsville has been beset by major job losses. Atlanta is on the verge of running out of water.

City and state leaders really ought to be raising their sights on more important peiorities rather than obsessing over lower waist lines.

This week's column.

What didn't kill Darryl Hunt made him stronger.

Imprisoned for nearly 19 years for a crime he did not commit, Hunt stared hopelessness in the face time and again and refused to give up.

But that was only the beginning. Once DNA evidence and another man's confession cleared him three years ago in the 1984 rape and murder of newspaper copy editor Deborah Sykes, Hunt dedicated his life to helping others who might be wrongfully convicted.

When I saw him during a speech at N.C. A&T two weeks ago he was a much different man from the skinny 19-year-old I interviewed in the Forsyth County Jail 23 years ago. He was shy and tentative in those days and spoke barely above a whisper. But he looked me in the eye and made it clear: "I did not do this."

At A&T he sported a neatly trimmed beard and a close haircut, and wore a sport jacket and turtleneck. He stepped forward and smiled and gave a 20-minute speech without one single note.

He cited his own life story as an example of what was wrong with the criminal justice system. He spouted statistics and rattled off in precise detail the circumstances of half a dozen present-day cases similar to his own.

"This is going on everywhere,'' he said. "And any time the system fails, it affects us all."

The News & Record's mayoral debate video is now posted on our Web site in its entirety and in one-minute segments grouped by questions.

You can access it by clicking here.

Also coming soon: one-minute video statements from the City Council candidates.