The Asheville-Buncombe Food Policy Council is disappointed Asheville City Council has not followed through faster with its commitments in the Food Action Plan. This reads like crazy talk to one born in the Cold War era and educated when original-intent of the US Constitution was still taught at public high schools. The problem is, communists scream louder and demand more media time than traditional families. In an immature moment of frustration yesterday while walking the boss’ wild and crazy dog down a busy street, in the interest of sparing drivers heart attacks from wanton lunges, I took the liberty to walk on the lovely lawn of one of the houses, as it had Bernie Sanders signs posted. Surely, their lawn was my lawn. They likely agree, and more power to them, but I would prefer the opportunity to ask permission and let them be blessed for willingly sharing.
But what angers me is the notion that people, these unelected little animals running around that look just like politicians, need big government to help with basic things for survival. I do not trust government. I openly support distributed power, which runs afoul of the aspirations of most people who run for office because, at some level, they want the power because they believe they have the plan. Those with the power can at any time, not in so many words, deprive political opponents of food or whatever else they regulate. They would not say, “Death to my political opponents!” but what is to stop a megalomaniac, at some point, from crafting an ordinance reading something like, “Persons with college degrees from out of state who have worked menial jobs for more than four years and drive a car rather than taking the bus get no food”?
Secondly, this paternalism is destructive of human character. Noble humanists who celebrate the triumph of Darwinian evolution in the mainstream psyche treat people like little gerbils, in a cage, waiting for a big person to feed them. Not long ago, Buncombe County teachers were inserviced with a book about how different classes had different priorities. There was a working class and a recreation class, and both were equally valid. (Actually, the high and low classes were characterized as playboys and playgirls, reinforcing the definition of middle-class as having to worry about paying bills.) In other words, the working class was semi-slave labor for those who wanted parks and community centers – on top of housing and food paid by the working class.
It is not that the working class minds so much working twice as hard for its basic needs with no hope of time off in the park. There is a question of what encouraging half the population to put the purchase of bling and electronic devices and other status symbols above something as basic as feeding their young does for these people’s, if you will, souls and civil society altogether.
So, yeah. Let’s get the city to buy up land, taking it off the tax rolls, thus nudging the city toward needing a tax hike. I liked how ex-candidate Rick Santorum spoke of the hollowing out of the middle class. Back in those Golden Age civics classes, we were taught a large middle class was essential for freedom, and freedom was the path to prosperity. Ah, such nonsense in light of the next radical candidate for city council who, stoked on pot, has the vision.
