On a personal note, I had a rather unique experience today. I attended the Buncombe County Commissioners’ meeting, only this time the room was full of members of the Republican Action Club. About half a dozen brandished cardboard pitchforks with blunt ends. Eric Gorny dressed like Braveheart, with a kilt and a blue face. Three sheriff’s deputies protected the commissioners from the activists.
Gorny presented a four-point platform (a five-cent tax cut, district elections, no zoning, and open and accountable government). Bill Lack also wanted a tax cut. He angrily told the commissioners that everybody was tightening their belts and cutting their budgets except government. Government kept taking from workers for feel-good projects. Returning to his seat, he shot back, “I’m not asking you, I’m telling you to do it.†His daughter, Kathy, said everybody in the room was a law-abiding citizen. She asked what the commissioners would think about ignoring the people with paper pitchforks when the day came that people came after them with real ones.
The best part was the groans that came from the audience throughout the meeting. A good reverend opened with prayer asking for a blessing on all seeking a handout and all on the public dole. After the amen, somebody mumbled, “He watches too much TV,†and somebody called him a communist as he left. When the typical request for funds for a conservation easement came up, one could hear, “Land grab!†and mutterings about the county widening its budget gap another $50,000. The cries of disbelief almost drowned out the New Age mantras of the regular Public Comment speakers.
