We read with befuddlement, and more than a thimbleful of bemusement, CCM’s article covering the “hissy-fit de jour” emanating from that local Center of Arrested Development — our County Commission.

At the center of this Vast Confabulation of Conspiracy is the county’s underwriting of metal detectors at STEM School. Apparently, Chairman Laydon’s Department of TOP SECRECY deemed disclosure of this million-dollar purchase too sensitive for the eyes and ears of parents, students and simpletons like taxpayers.

In the finest traditions of innuendo and disinformation, Laydon implicated not only DougCo’s Resident Punching Bag, Lora Thomas … he felt compelled to pull the Local Free Press into his dark and stormy story. Like many DougCo politicians, Laydon believes the First Amendment applies only to his allies … and the Free Press better watch it.

Never mind information on these metal detectors had been publicly released days before. To Laydon, reality spins around him, as the center of all, something adjustable for political convenience … reminiscent of his infamous declaration, “let me be the first to state that the COVID pandemic is over” at the time when it wasn’t.

One of these days, DougCo’s conservative voters will determine that, perhaps, the Arrested Development series has been on for one season too many, and it’s about time to find higher quality programming.

Lloyd Guthrie

Roxborough Park