letters to the Editor: October 2012

City Council member Cecil Bothwell offers us a helpful window into the thinking of local government in his recent commentary (The Incredible Shrinking City” in the September 2012 Daily Planet), where he bemoans the fact that Asheville is legally prohibited from charging county residents more for water service than citizens of Asheville.

His complaint centers on the consequence of this law which he says is “removing a huge incentive for voluntary annexation.”

The only way I see that water rates could be an incentive to county customers is if those rates could be somehow manipulated to the disadvantage of those customers. In other words, the city could have an interest in rates artificially raised to the point where county customers have a disincentive to remain outside the loving arms of Asheville.

I say “artificially” because the desired rate hikes would presumably then be lowered immediately upon submitting to voluntary municipal annexation and the subsequent city taxes, ordinances and land-use regulations that annexation imposes on the newly abosrbed citizens. This, of course, counters any notion that higher rates simply reflect the higher cost of serving county customers that are farther away. Besides, the county is where the water comes from in the first place.

This arrangement would be about as voluntary as when the mobster warns the shopkeeper to pay protection money and when the shopkeeper asks, “Protection from who?” the mobster answers, “From us.”

Yes, Asheville is a shrinking city. With the Sullivan Acts, new democratic barriers to forced annexation, a newly-independent airport authority, a pending regional water system merger, the repeal of some recent questionable annexations, and with businesses, students and residents moving out and half of city workers now living out of town, Asheville, and specifically its tax base, is shrinking and will continue to shrink.

Couple that with the city thumbing its nose at Raleigh with an irrelevant water referendum and Asheville’s future looks like it’s being run by Dim and Dimmer.

The only question remaining is, if Asheville insists on dreaming beyond its means, what mechanism with she now resort to for skimming revenues from the unwilling?

As we approach the most significant elections in our lifetime, facing some of the most incredible challenges in more than 70 years, I’m reminded of the words of two great leaders:

• “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”

• “There are two ways to enslave a Country. One is by sword. The other is by debt!” — John Adams

Voting, of course, is critical. For whom you vote is vitally important; so too is your active involvement and participation in activities and causes for liberty and freedom in which you believe.

If you want Mitt Romney elected, please don’t wait for someone else to say what needs to be said, or hope that someone else will do what needs to be done. Get involved today — attend Tea Party meetings and volunteer at our local GOP office to proactively support our conservative candidates.

Doing nothing will not have been a good option if Obama and his Progressives who oppose our core beliefs and the founding principles are elected at any level — local, state or national.

The radical right-wing in our General Assembly made North Carolina the laughingstock of the nation with a bill that prohibits state agencies from using current scientific predictions of sea level rise due to climate change. Legislators created the bill at the command of coastal developers.

These developers deny the science because they know it will spell the end of taxpayer subsidies for damage to coastal homes and infrastructure built too close to the ocean.

Buncombe County Representative Tim Moffitt, who earned a dismal 9 percent (out of 100 percent) environmental voting score this year from the non-partisan N.C. League of Conservation Voters, said, “Science is not absolute.”

Science is not absolute, but it’s the best tool we have to plan for a safe and healthy future. Virtually all climate scientist agree that global warming presents a clear and present danger to civilization. My follow-up question to Moffitt is this, “If you went to the Mayo Clinic and 98 percent of the doctors there diagnosed you with cancer, would you believe them?”

I endorse Jane Whilden, Susan Wilson, and Susan Fisher for N.C. House. They value science and care about our environment.

Street preachers have been invading Bele Chere like poison ivy in a park. This year, they spread their amplified hate beyond Vance Monument and took over Pritchard Park.

Just around the corner by the Battery Park Stage, however, we wicked witches of Coven Oldenwilde — whom many might assume to be a natural target for puritanical ranters — actually welcomed thousands of festivalgoers at our nonprofit wristband booth unmolested.

Here’s how, based on our two decades of experience, Coven Oldenwilde prevents the disruption of our annual public Samhain ritual by brigades of anger-addicted Bible thumpers bused in from out of town.

The preachers’ sole weapon is sound — a loud megaphone drone of accusatory spew that intentionally ruins the spirit of the festival. Their tactic only works in a relative sonic vacuum, easily neutralized if the local sound-scape is filled with amplified live or recorded music, as by a stage or concerted drumming, such as a drum circle.

Asheville can’t afford to lose the valuable publicity boost the Southeast’s largest street festival gives it each year. Here are two suggestions for keeping future Bele Cheres from being expensively buzz-killed by evangelical agitators.

One: Asheville’s drum-circle regulars could organize and raise funds from affected merchants to pay a rotating crew of skilled drummers to keep a danceable beat going at Vance Monument and Pritchard Park throughout the festival.

Two: Pre-recorded music (preferably by local bands and DJs) could be played continuously there, amplified loud enough to defeat megaphones but not interfere with the live bands nearby.

When Drew Reisinger was appointed to fulfill Otto DeBruhl’s unexpired term, a Mountain Xpress article (March 1, 2011 “A done deed”) reported on the Democratic party’s choice:

“The committee — made up of Buncombe County precinct chairs and vice chairs, Democratic elected officials and other party leaders — chose Reisinger, a 27-year-old party activist… But though Reisinger was unemployed at the time of the vote, he and his allies stressed his years of experience as a political organizer. He recently managed Patsy Keever’s successful Statehouse campaign and worked to elect Asheville City Council member Gordon Smith, U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler and President Barack Obama. ‘It’s a fantastic opportunity for me and my wife,’ Reisinger gushed after winning the job.”

Let’s see… a 27-year-old unemployed party activist political organizer campaign worker who sees his appointment as a fantastic opportunity for him and his wife, was appointed as our register of deeds.

Going from $0 to $78,497 in six days surely is fantastic. Add the commissioners’ gift of immediate health insurance coverage by waiving the six-month waiting period, a benefit worth more than $6,500, and no wonder Reisinger gushed about that fantastic opportunity for him and his wife.

Voters, elect a truly qualified, educated, and experienced candidate – Pat Cothran. Visit www.patcothran.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE: No more letters to the editor regarding candidates will be printed in the Asheville Daily Planet until after the November elections.

True unemployment rate? It requires math

Eighty-eight million people are out of the job market.

That is approximately 28 percent of the U.S. population of 311 million. And not all of the 311 million are of working age. That’s just the ones of working age that are no longer looking for a job — they have given up.

Now add the 8.1 percent for the ones still looking for a job — that equals 36.1 percent.

The unemployment rate is even higher if, you remove the ones that are not of working age out of the 311 million people in the USA.

Where’s the HOPE?

I know where the CHANGE is.

FREMONT V. BROWN III

Asheville

•

EDITOR’S NOTE: Brown is the vice chairman of the Asheville Tea Party.