Dear Editor,

I am writing in response to the article “Hobbton Track Funding Denied” published Oct. 5, 2016. It is absolutely ridiculous that this inequity continues to be allowed. Were this a revenue earning sport or another high school, this would most certainly have been rectified. What I found even more ridiculous, absurd, and illogical were the discussions and rationales provided by the commissioners themselves.

For example, Commissioner Albert Kirby, who noted the need for a track at Hobbton, gave his vote away, by yielding to Commissioner Clark Wooten stating, “If [he] votes yes, I’ll vote yes tonight.” This is in essence blaming his inability to do the right thing on someone else. Perhaps he should also yield his pay to Wooten for doing his job for him. Moreover, he called it “implausible” and “irrational” to deny the HHS community a track, yet that is precisely what his vote was used for.

Wooten then took the ridiculousness to another level as he named his many lifelong friends from the Hobbton community while concocting a series of smokescreens to blame for his vote: Robert’s Rules of Order, being put “in a tough spot,” the red herring that “a gift that would last forever — education” is more important than “50 kids.”

Perhaps it is the championship track program at Hobbton that is in the “tough place,” as they are forced to compete without having any facilities. These are ineffective and illogical arguments, and blaming “how this came to us” is no reason to be vindictive and to deny equal opportunities and facilities to the students at one school. It is, instead, childish, unprofessional, and amoral.

Shame on you. Do the right thing.

Sincerely, Mike Cook

(Editor’s note: Mike Cook is a former Hobbton High School educator.)