And now...the rest of the story...

In yesterday's Under the Dome, the lead item talks about this year's absences in the state legislature. The N&O rightly points out that Senator David Weinstein D-Lumberton missed twelve or more days in this year's session. What the column neglects to mention is that Senator Weinstein missed those days because his wife had been diagnosed with cancer. Sadly, she passed away in June.

To me, that's a perfectly justifiable reason for leaving session. Missing twelve days of work when the person you love is diagnosed with a terminal illness is in not dishonorable.

Unfortunately, yesterday's Under the Dome read a bit like a high school detention slip sent home to your parents. The implication was that Weinstein and all the other legislators mentioned in the column were failing to do their proscribed duties, that they were letting down their constituents. I can't speak for the others, but with Senator Weinstein, that's simply not the case. Above all else right now, eh deserves our patience and our respect. Too bad the N&O didn't take the time to look into the story more thoroughly.

****UPDATE****

Turns out, that the N&O did take the time to investigate the story, twenty-four hours after the original column ran. I have to admit, their correction of the record was tastefully done. But still, that was a fairly sloppily handled bit of journalism.