Big in the Asheville news today is name-calling. Councilman Dr. Carl Mumpower said the way the state legislature used its power to deprive Asheville of the ability to govern its water system was criminal. He is correct in the sense that unfair takings are unfair takings. Americans have become quite used to government wielding its authority like criminals wield guns: Give me your assets or else.
Though elected to preserve justice and look after the people of Asheville, Mumpower’s peers preferred to proceed with capitulation and wrote a letter of syrupy gobbledygook to absolve them of any association with Mumpower’s “inflammatory†and “inappropriate†choice of words. Mumpower wrote back that he is not backing down, and no re-re-rebuttal has yet been published.
