On Being Free

“Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

― Benjamin Franklin

We'll Always Have Paris

From our village in southern Belgium to downtown Paris was about a three hour drive. About the same as from Oriental to Raleigh.

Two decades later, we lived in Paris and my office was in the Marais (third arrondisement). It was a  ten minute walk to Boulevard Beamarchais for lunch near some of last Friday's shootings.

It was pleasant to stroll around the streets, sharing Paris with a diverse populace of Parisians and visitors.

I take exception to the MSNBC reporter recently describing the events of last Friday 13th as having "devastated Paris."

Paris is not devastated.

Parisians are back at their outdoor cafes. They gather at Place de la Republique and hug each other. They lay flowers as a memorial to victims. Life goes on much as before.

Vive le France!

Yet we must not forget that the terrorists who attacked Paris were themselves French men and Belgians. Not Syrians. Not refugees.

The France that was so welcoming to African Americans like Josephine Baker and James Baldwin has not been so welcoming to Algerians and Moroccans. I have seen it with my own eyes.

May Day, 1960

May Day, 1960, CIA pilot (former Air Force officer) Francis Gary Powers, flying alone at more than 70,000 feet, was on his 27th U-2 mission, flying over Sverdlovsk in the Soviet Union. The CIA estimated the altitude of the U-2 was above the reach of any Soviet missile or aircraft. That estimate proved to be too optimistic, and Gary Powers was shot down on one of the biggest Soviet holidays.

Contrary to the CIA's expectations in such an event, Powers survived and was captured.

Stephen Spielberg captures much of the drama of that time in the Cold War in his new movie,Bridge of Spies, starring Tom Hanks. The main hero of the story is a New York lawyer who negotiated the eventual release of Powers. A second important character is the Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel, who was offered in exchange.

It is mostly a true story, with some embellishment for effect. Here is a useful comparison of the true events with the fictional movie version: http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/bridge-of-spies/

Go see Bridge of Spies.

Oriental's Exciting Election And Casey Stengel's Lament

Early voting turnout for Tuesday's municipal election in Oriental has been below that of recent years. Only four voters showed up Saturday, the last day of early voting.

I voted last week. I found this year's election exciting for two reasons:

1. We have a woman candidate for mayor, who is unopposed and who will change the atmosphere at Town Board meetings for the better;

2.  We have two new candidates for Town Commissioner who have never served nor run for commissioner in the past, who bring a new perspective. They will also improve the board.

I did not vote for any incumbent. I cast three write in votes for citizens who have served in the past and can be counted on in the future.  I wish more candidates had filed.

Liz and I attended last Thursday's agenda meeting at Town Hall. Maybe it's because of the World Series, but the meeting called to mind Casey Stengel's lament about the brand new New York Mets: "Can't anybody here play this game?"

A few specifics:

1. Mayor Johnson informed the Board that, based on the documents on file at the Pamlico County Register of Deeds, it is impossible for anyone to walk to or from Town Dock 2 without going through the private property of Chris Fulcher or of the Toucan. None of the commissioners seemed interested, even though this means the Town Attorney did not do his job two years ago;

2. The Town's official binder of minutes of closed sessions of the Board is still missing. None of the commissioners seem interested;

3. The commissioners made a joke of the fact that one of the commissioners had never made a motion in nearly two years as a commissioner. Certainly there is no requirement for commissioners to make motions or even to second someone else's motion, but still....

4. There was much discussion of Midyette Street (traffic calming measures, speed limits, patrol schedules, tickets, etc.) with no awareness of what the Town had done in the past to amend ordinances and to experiment with solutions. After two years in office, this suggests a previous lack of interest in such issues.

5. The Board seems a bit unclear that the Town Attorney works for the Board and not the other way 'round. I suggested to the Board eight years ago that the Board needs to understand the attorney,s legal theory and approach to litigation in order to provide guidance to the Attorney - since it is the Town, not the attorney, who is a party to the case. Still dissatisfied after I was elected to the Board, I initiated the following discussion on July 31, 2008:

"Commissioner Cox then voiced his opinion that Scott Davis has not fulfilled his professional

responsibilities to this town and that he has made egregious errors in a number of ways and

should be replaced. Commissioner Inger concurred with some of Mr. Cox’s comments and added

that she is disappointed that we are not a priority to him. She also suggested that the Board

should be more specific and ask to see documentation when he says things off the top of his

head. She asked that Mr. Davis be informed of the Board’s concerns. Mayor Sage suggested that

Mr. Cutler check to see what other law firms are available."

So far as I know, in the intervening years, the Town Board has never evaluated the Town Attorney's performance, as the county board does every year. This should be done.

Vote Tuesday! 

Think twice about voting for any incumbent! 

Send a message! 

Is The Republican Turmoil In Congress The Final Failure Of Nixon's Southern Strategy?

I want to share a recent article by William Greider analyzing the Republican paralysis in the House of Representatives: GOP

I am not as optimistic as Greider that this represents a "final unraveling."  I do agree that the growing influence in the House of Republicans who have no interest in actually governing and solving problems is a reflection of the inherent tensions within the GOP created by the shotgun marriage between white supremacist former Democrats and Country Club Republicans.

Greider's take: "So what caused the current rebellion in the GOP ranks? It finally dawned on loyal foot soldiers in the odd-couple coalition that they were being taken for suckers. Their causes always seemed to get the short end of the stick. The GOP made multiple promises and fervent speeches on the social issues, but, for one reason or another, the party establishment always failed to deliver.

“We told people Obama was a dangerous socialist"…one Republican lobbyist explained,  "when really we knew he was a moderate. But they believed us.”

"This belated realization stirred the anger that has flared across the ranks of the followers — and not just in the South. The financial crisis, the bailout of the banks, and collapsing prosperity intensified their sense of betrayal. People began mobilizing their own rump-group politics to push back. The tea party protests were aimed at President Obama, of course, but they were also an assault on Republican leaders who had misled and used the party base for so long. Tea party revenge took down long-comfortable legislators and elected red-hot replacements who share the spirit of rebellion."

This started to come to a head in 2010 when Republicans elected 30 candidates to the House of Representatives who had never been elected to any office at any level of government.

The same thing happened at the state level. North Carolina is a case in point.

The General Assembly passed draconian changes to election law designed to suppress voting by African Americans and other minorities, to discourage young people from voting, and to make it harder for women to register and vote. (Women keep changing their last names. How do we know who they really are?) This all served as cover for equally draconian changes to the tax code to the benefit of wealthy North Carolinians and to the detriment of people who actually work for a living.

How long will it take for our local Tea Party types to figure out that they are being duped again?

October 6 Town Board Meeting

Last Tuesday evening, October 6, the Oriental Town Board held its regular monthly meeting. Attendance was better than normal, because of the controversy over Yoga classes in Town Hall and controversy over the offer to the Town of a five acre parcel adjacent to Camp Creek. Town Dock covered the meeting here.

I would only add to Town Dock's account that at one point in the proceedings, Town Manager Diane Miller reported the advice received by phone from the Town Attorney, Scott Davis. Davis advised as follows:

1.  The Town government should not accept the parcel as part of the subdivision,but rather require the developers to resubmit the plat to sever the five acres from the rest of the subdivision and to remove the parcel (described as a park/arboretum) from the wording of the development's restrictive covenants. Otherwise the Town could become involved in legal controversies between lot purchasers and the current owner/developer. This seems like prudent legal advice;

2.  If the Town accepts the parcel, it should do so as a separate parcel with no restrictions on it.

If recommendation (2) means what it seems to, it may go beyond legal advice and get into policy advice. It sounds a lot like "don't tie your hands."

I urge the Town, if it accepts the offer of the five acres to be used as a park and/or arboretum, to request the owners to make an offer of dedication to the public for that purpose, to be held in trust by the Town.

Oriental Town Government Incumbency Protection Program 1-3 Today

In about an hour, in spite of the rain, what the small, uninformative banner at top of the front page of the Pamlico News describes as "Old Fashioned Meet and Greet Scheduled for Saturday, October 10th, 1-3 pm at the Oriental Marina" will begin. There will be no candidate forum as in the past, where candidates for elective office have answered detailed, sometimes challenging questions from attendees. Voters usually learned a lot about candidates at these forums.

When I was a candidate, the forum was organized by Pamlico News Editor Tony Tharp, assisted by Town Dock. It was a good experience.

Today's "Meet and Greet" appears to be sponsored by Pamlico News, though this has not been spelled out. There has been little or no advertising. Pamlico News did not even inform all of the candidates of the event, pleading inability to find the candidate's phone number, which is on public record at the County Board of Elections.

A newspaper can't find a publicly available phone number?

The newspaper is, of course, owned by one of the incumbents, though that surely has no bearing on the matter.

I miss Tony Tharp and wish him and his family the best.

Sea Level Rise: No, Al Gore Didn't Invent It, It isn't A Hoax, And Now We Can Visualize It

Thank goodness, the water has gone down. This morning the water level at Oriental is a bit more than 10 inches above normal.

If you want to visualize what will be the normal water level in twenty-five years, just go down to Hodges Street at Town Dock 1 and take a look. If you want to know what the normal water level will be by the end of the century, we saw that here in Oriental last week when the water level reached its peak. That is the future normal.

Four years ago, our state legislature passed a law prohibiting sea level rise. More importantly, they prohibited government agencies at any level from planning for a sea level rise of more than 19 inches. Bad idea.

Last year, a draft state government study of projected sea level rise for the next thirty years was published. It has smaller numbers than the earlier study projecting sea level rise by the end of the century. But for government planning, thirty years is a very short time frame.