Editorial: Playing hardball

Members of the Iredell Residents for a Rural Life, the group waging a court battle against the Iredell County commissioners and a North Iredell family that wants to build a biodiesel manufacturing plant, better get used to playing hardball.

The fledgling group got its first lesson in public relations this week after Randy Bridges, the group's de facto spokesman, was forced to start cleaning up his property off Snow Creek Road after the county planning department received an anonymous complaint about his illegal collection of junked vehicles.

When contacted by the R&L, Bridges said all the right things: His wife had been after him to get rid of the cars and he really wanted to be a good neighbor. The complaint provided some timely motivation, he added.

If you're going to put yourself on a pedestal as a champion for the environment and protector of property values, you better have your house in order. A group that claims to cherish clean groundwater and worries about the effects of pollution has to be squeaky clean or its public statements and court pleadings start to look self-serving and more than a little bit hypocritical.

The critics of this group - and it has some in powerful places - will be searching high and low for ways to damage its credibility.

There's an old saying about people living in glass houses and throwing stones. The Iredell Residents for a Rural Life should get their act together or be prepared to invest in bulletproof windows.