{"id":25514,"date":"2011-01-21T08:26:59","date_gmt":"2011-01-21T12:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/dno\/?p=25514"},"modified":"2011-01-21T11:57:19","modified_gmt":"2011-01-21T15:57:19","slug":"julius-sampson-the-letter-was-a-hoax-intended-to-make-a-larger-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/julius-sampson-the-letter-was-a-hoax-intended-to-make-a-larger-point\/","title":{"rendered":"JULIUS SAMPSON: The letter was a hoax intended to make a larger point"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_6409\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6409\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6409\" title=\"openletter\" src=\"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/dno\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/openletter.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"254\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6409\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credita: www.legis.state.wi.us<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I am not surprised that readers completely misunderstood the content and the rationale behind the letter to Charles Maynard. It was thought to be a bold and dramatic way to highlight what many in the country perceive, which is, that integrity and high principle are no longer virtues that govern the conduct of public policy or even the political discourse in Dominica. Instead what we have is a value system that puts enormous emphasis on financial remuneration and very little emphasis on good citizenship and acting selflessly for the greater good of the country.<\/p>\n<p>How many individuals have been enticed to run for public office on the promise by the leadership of certain political parties of large sums of money? Did the prime minister not famously say that \u201cevery man has his price\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>It was in this context that the letter was addressed to Mr. Maynard. It was intended to draw attention to the unhealthy attitude that the prime minister has introduced into the country where civic mindedness is replaced by an irrational lust for money without the hard work and sacrifice that should properly precede any financial compensation. It is a form of prostitution of the political culture that may well haunt this country for generations.<\/p>\n<p>Let me clear: The letter was not intended as a bribe. If this had been the intent no consideration would have been given to publicizing it. It was meant to draw attention to the dichotomy between the known and expressed values of some in Dominica and their public posture that is governed by financial considerations.<\/p>\n<p>Should I have known that such subtlety and nuance would not be fully appreciated by the general public?<\/p>\n<p>In retrospect, I should have. This is why minutes after hitting the send button to DNO I recalled it for fear that its contents would be misinterpreted. But DNO chose to proceed with the publication even after I withdrew the letter (SEE EDITOR&#8217;S NOTE BELOW)<\/p>\n<p>I have no fear that those who really know me and know of the threats I have survived as I have expressed myself unequivocally about the values that should form the cornerstone on which the country stands, will undoubtedly treat with contempt any thought that I intended to bribe anyone.<\/p>\n<p><strong>EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: Mr. Sampson\u2019s letter was one of several opinion pieces or non-perishable news items that were in the backlog to be published seeing that news items are given priority. On the day I decided to publish his article, I inquired of Mr. Sampson if I should publish both articles and he responded \u201cPlease publish both, they go together\u201d. Subsequently, a few news items arrived by mail and which were priority therefore I marked Sampson\u2019s email \u201cunread\u201d so I won\u2019t forget to post later. It was during that time that Mr. Sampson apparently emailed us to reconsider and not to publish, but if one is aware of how Gmail works I would not have seen new responses if the mail was already marked unread after previously opening it. Therefore, during the rush hour when revisiting the email to publish his article, the first thing I did was to click on the top of the email message and retrieve the article. I did not see the new messages he sent as they were hidden (Gmail users can attest to that). He said he called but I did not receive any such missed calls and I am not disputing that he did not call. It was after his complaint a few days after the article was published that I double checked the email and realized what had happened, that after initially giving us approval to publish, he wanted it withdrawn out of the fear the public would misinterpret, misunderstand and blow the meaning of his article out of context.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I am not surprised that readers completely misunderstood the content and the rationale behind the letter to Charles Maynard. It was thought to be a bold and dramatic way to highlight what many in the country perceive, which is, that&#8230;","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>JULIUS SAMPSON: The letter was a hoax intended to make a larger point - Dominica News Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/julius-sampson-the-letter-was-a-hoax-intended-to-make-a-larger-point\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"JULIUS SAMPSON: The letter was a hoax intended to make a larger point - Dominica News Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am not surprised that readers completely misunderstood the content and the rationale behind the letter to Charles Maynard. 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