“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”

 — Buddha

The Problem

One of the first discoveries for all newly elected officials is the illusive nature of truth.

Though usually promised unimpeded information access, the all-too-frequent reality is a collision with mankind’s remarkable capacity to confuse, discard or deny. Any official worth his or her salt digs and scratches for truth. Most don’t.   

John Q. Citizen suffers the same impediment with even greater constraints. Surrounded by lies and pretense, it’s easy to surrender to the recliner and the simplicity of blue or red myopia.  Culturists – as in people who have a vested interest in preserving the best of who we are – resist the temptation of mental autopilot.

If you’re part of this select few, here’s a little more flashlight action on some potholes worth dodging.  

Government is your friend

Consider the capacities and limitations of gasoline. Contained in a car’s tank, gas fuels the motors making America the most mobile society on the planet. Pour that same gas on the ground and toss a small match and you have a recipe for a forest fire.

Restrained and well-managed government can do good things. Unfortunately, like anger, government tends to corrode the container that holds it. There are reasons. 

The No. 1 mission of all governments is self-protection – everything else comes later. Control thus becomes an inevitable addiction growing until it collapses under its own weight.

Good governance is consequently small governance. The key to that equation is a focus on accountability over control. Holding people accountable creates real impediments to wrong. Unfortunately, our current governance culture is largely indifferent to the crucial difference in rule creation and rule enforcement. The former creates a lot of lather, but it’s the latter that cuts the beard.

Consider illegal immigration and illegal drugs. We’ve lost both of these social struggles because in neither case have we truly fought to win. Holding the people accountable – employers and users – who fund mass importation of people and drugs would stop these social self-destruction pacts in their tracks.

People are abandoning their home countries because they can get a better deal here. No problem with that except it should happen per rule of law – not at the hand of Chamber of Commerce-protected crony capitalists gaming the system. Employers who can easily be fined and otherwise punished for exploiting a cheap and exploitable labor pool would back down quickly when economic risk starts knocking on their door.  These same people rarely evade payroll taxes because Uncle Sam tolerates illegal labor but stomps the mud out of those attempting to steal his booty.

Regrettably, drug addicts will not be stopped by stepped up enforcement. What will stop is the recruitment of new addicts. Need a model? In most Scandinavian countries it is very rare for anyone to drink and drive – the consequences are so immediate and dramatic that no one dares.

Drug advocates and illegal alien enthused employers need not worry. Our government will continue to surrender on both of these issues. It’s too busy growing itself to protect us.

Christianity Doesn’t Matter

Secularism continues to make dramatic inroads into America’s psyche.  Through the subtle manipulations of false Christians and more direct attacks by those who worship man, pleasure, government and other modern equivalents of the  “Golden Calf,” America’s spiritual heritage is being successfully assaulted.

This attack matters because Christianity matters. The Judeo-Christian model still stands as the guiding light of the economic, education, social, governance and moral codes of our country. Those standards, in turn, have set the pace for the world. Abandoning this code of morality insures more and more people will be lost to second-string alternatives.

For an immediate example, witness contrasting events in Baltimore and Charleston, S.C. When Baltimore, long dedicated to the secular progressive model of the left, hit a wall, the reaction was a combination of anger, division and destruction. When Charleston, a community continuing to reach for its Christian heritage, hit an even bigger wall, the response was forgiveness, unity and healing. 

A regrettable reality of life on the planet earth is that most men suffer from a busted inner moral compass. In looking up, we find connection to a standard of faith unique among all the world’s religious orders. Christianity stands alone in its Biblical mission of uplifting the common man over the elite or would-be-powerful. In this last sentence we find reason for the relentless assault on the founding faith of our nation.

It’s Not My Fault

If there is a single criterion separating the character of the greatest generation from baby boomers, it’s the assertion by the former that “my life is my responsibility.” It’s no surprise that my spoiled generation would be the first to suggest we come first and thus believe it’s OK to leave our children enough debt to break an elephant’s back.

In today’s upside down world personal choice stands as the number one source of all miseries. No matter where you come from or what your color or economic standing, every addiction, character betrayal, criminal action, or other step toward darkness begins with a choice. Pretending otherwise robs us of two things – the dignity of holding sway over our much of our own destiny and the independence that disappears the minute we start blaming others.

Stark example of the impact of choice is found in teetering world economy. If and when the crash occurs, it will track to the false notion that opportunity can exist without matching responsibility. When we chose to bail out crony capitalism in 2008-9, we made a perpetual bargain with the devil. It will – probably sooner rather than later – but in darkness, not prosperity as promised.

We are blessed to live in a self-correcting world. Without exception, bad choices end in bad outcomes that represent an opportunity to rethink and head in a better direction. We’ve become masterful at pretending choice exists without consequence.

Uplifting our fellow man remains a call for all. Separating love from enabling is an important part of that equation. Anytime we ignore the impact of a person’s choices on their reality, we are contributing to their demise. We do that for us – not them – and that’s anything but love.

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Do you have information about a source of mischief in our community? You can safely contact us at 252-8390 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . We are offering a $500 reward for information on corruption, crime, or other harms you share in confidence and we reveal in print. Bad things grow in the dark. We have a flashlight – do you have a whistle?

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Carl Mumpower is a former member of Asheville City Council.