Sanuk D

I don't know what I'm doing here, I should be someplace else.

In Thailand they have a color of the day.  The color for Tuesday is Orange.  It is the day of Hanuman, devotee of Rama, who helped Rama battle the evil Ravana.  Tuesday is perhaps not an auspicious day to have a primary election because Orange is not a primary color.  Sunday, Thursday, and Friday (yellow, yellow, and red, respectively) would be better.  Maybe we would get more turnout on a yellow, yellow, or red day.  Perhaps our expectations would also be lowered such that we would not believe our political leaders to be incarnations of Hanuman.

Such was our hope for a Democratic party Representative from the 11th Congressional District here in Western North Carolina.  See, back in the day we had a corrupt banker / stroke victim for a congressman.  That was cool because we are open and accepting people here in the Land of the Suwaree, and showing our support for a half dead Republican seemed like the liberal thing to do.  We thought we had one in ‘04 but turns out she wanted to show pornos to kids.  Or she supported teaching contraception in public schools.  I get confused about how that works.  Instead, our current congressman ran through the T in ‘06 so that he could get back to Washington without being threatened by outside linebackers.

What he does seem to be threatened by, however, is any real association with his national party leadership or their platform.  That’s not to say that his vote against the stimulus package was not a principled stand against mounting deficits or that his vote against the healthcare bill was not a principled stand against perceived incursions by the government into  the lives of private citizens.  All I am saying is that his principles seem more aligned with the party in opposition to the one with which he is afilliated.  That’s all.

So that leaves us with the she-who-shows-porn-to-kids / educates-them-about-reproductive-health taking on whatsis in for a seat in the State House (which she will win, btw, because her supporters are motivated and direct mail  ain’t gonna doit in a mid-term primary for state representative.)  It also leaves us wishing she had mounted such a vibrant primary challenge to the quaterback.  Not that any of this is life and death.  The things that need to get done are going to get done before the general election anyway.  It’s an economic and political necessity.  What will remain is the opportunity to accomplish those things we have not even dreamed of yet.

Politics, you slovenly wench, you have seduced me yet again.  You come at me, face painted with the rouge, promising that somehow things will be different this go around.  Thirty minutes later, I am both depleted and filled with self-loathing as you move on to the next innocent sailor.  In this month of STD Awareness, I feel the need to get myself checked.

But I know I have a social disease, and it is terminal.  I believe in government and its power to bring us together to achieve good ends.  I get mad when people who would represent me in government act tacky.  When someone I know to be a good person wants to serve in the legislature, I feel compelled to support her.  Or him.  It could be a him, but right now it is a her.  Just saying.

Anyway, here I am, doing the same thing and expecting a different result.  It’s just one letter, I tell myself.  One letter never hurt anyone.  Just one evening of ignore the pleas of Tallulah to come play.  Just one evening of letting the dishes rot in the sink.  Just one evening sitting in a darkened room writing letter for the ethers.  It doesn’t mean anything.

Now, where is that phone bank going to be tomorrow night?

One of the first things that Horace Kephart noticed about the mountain people was their peculiar attitudes toward water.  (Second thing was their familiar attitudes with corn liquor.)  The mountaineers did not like to travel to the flatlands because good, clean water was hard to find.  It was not unusual for them to carry water (and corn liquor) with them if they had to go outside of the mountains.  The highlanders were not known to share their mountain water although they might sell their mountain dew.

Their descendants in Altamont are still funny about sharing water.  In the early part of the 20th century, the communities of Padgettown and Walkertown gave up the ghost to be submerged under the Burnett Reservoir in Black Mountain.  The clear mountain streams that feed this august body have provided drinking water to Altamont and its environs ever since.  It initially fed independent water districts throughout the county as well.

At the end of the 1920’s the stock market crash had a disasterous effect on these highly leveraged water districts as well as the equally highly leveraged City of Altamont.  The county took over the debt of the districts but passed the infrastructure on to the city in exchange for a promise that rates would remain the same for all subscribers, wherever they lived.  This promise was subsequently written into law with the Sullivan Act.  The City said thank you very much and proceeded to use the revenue from the water system to do all sorts of things except keep the water system in good repair.

So now the City of Altamont faces the bill for maintenance long deferred.  In addition, it seeks to extend its authority beyond its borders through manipulating who does and does not get water.  Living among the Suwaree, not in the City of Altamont, I have to register my objection to this plan.  Poor planning of previous generations does not obligate me to retire another’s budget deficit.  Furthermore, I desire a voice in the discussion of decisions that will affect the Land of the Suwaree for many years to come.

In the current process to decide who will speak for Buncombe in the State Legislature, one candidate would overturn the Sullivan act and leave regional land use planning to the City of Altamont while the other has been slow to embrace any land use planning at all.  While I do not like the latter, I loathe the former.  We need our state representatives to move City and County officials closer to cooperative planning, not into further bickering and debate.  The Sullivan Acts are law, supported by multiple court rulings.  Since you don’t mind drinking the water of the Suwaree, maybe you can talk to us too.