Celia Powell Liebl: A ‘sulfurous’ jab at Nichol

Regarding J. Peder Zane’s March 11 column “Being fair about poverty center”: Zane wrote that it might not be fair to call the closing of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, “which is run by the sulfurous GOP critic Gene Nichol,” what it absolutely is.

As it did with the unceremonious ousting of UNC President Tom Ross, the Board of Governors engaged in obvious meanspirited political grandstanding and pettiness. The Republican-packed BOG was being a collective bully and pulled the plug on the center just because it could. Take that, progressive Tar Heels. We don’t need no stinkin’ institutions of higher learning and mission.

Zane’s use of the word “sulfurous” to describe Nichol immediately took me back to my Bible school days. Revelation 20:10: “And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the Beast and the False Prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Hyperbole much? How’s it fair to describe Nichol as sulfurous?

And speaking of being fair, any hope I had of believing Zane would write a fair analysis was dashed with his vernacular.

This story was originally published March 31, 2015 at 5:51 PM with the headline "Celia Powell Liebl: A ‘sulfurous’ jab at Nichol."