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For the Record 10/23/08

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Staff

Acts of desperation

Vote suppression, demonizing the working press and a campaign that, in its final weeks, has focused almost solely on guilt-by-association as an argument against its opponents — this newspaper does not by policy endorse candidates, but we do have an obligation to highlight shameful political acts detrimental to the republic.

Campaigns used to be short-lived, raucous endeavors aimed at ginning up the base and winning the undecided over to the bandwagon. But as the time span for a run stretched out from months to years and as the machinery got more sophisticated, they became sheer torture.

This year, the convergence of the longer election cycle and the compulsion by many strategists to run a campaign dominated by character assassination and attacks on the media has created an exceptionally poisonous atmosphere.

Last week, at a rally at Elon College featuring Sarah Palin, a reporter was taunted and then kicked to the ground because he interviewed Barack Obama supporters. During her speech at that rally, Palin praised “pro-America” parts of the country.

That message — implying, we suppose, that there are sections of this country dominated by anti-Americans — has been the crude tool increasingly deployed by a campaign teetering on the brink of epic failure.

Late last week, for instance, a Wisconsin congresswoman went on national television to warn about Obama’s anti-American leanings and, in a retro-McCarthy moment, called for an investigation of her fellow representatives to root out those with similar anti-American leanings.

Warming up a crowd in Charlotte this week, Congressman Robin Hayes said, “Liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God.”

When that was reported, Hayes’ spokesperson denied he said it and called reporting it “irresponsible journalism.” When the audio turned up, Hayes finally admitted it, but said he was just trying to get the people at the rally excited.

Excited? About what? About telling a crowd of people that those who do not agree with their politics hate them? That’s not exciting the crowd — that’s demagoguery. Since her remarks just up the road from us, Palin has offered a sort of apology. She said her remarks about enjoying pro-American areas of the country did not mean to imply that other areas were any less pro-American.

Uh, sorry, but that doesn’t even make sense. In this case, her rhetoric drowns out her actions.

After a long wait, the right call

As if in afterthought, without so much as a murmur from the packed house, the Rogers-Eubanks community was removed from the list of potential solid-waste transfer station sites at last night’s Board of Commissioners meeting. The board narrowed that list to three sites — all of which are located west of Orange Grove Road along N.C. 54 — taking the site of the current landfill on Eubanks Road out of consideration.

It had come to seem in recent weeks like a foregone conclusion that the Rogers-Eubanks site would be removed. After technical criteria had been applied, the site ranked fourth-highest in preference on a list of 10. But with the introduction of community-specific criteria, which includes environmental-justice considerations, it seemed likely Rogers-Eubanks would be dropped.

It had also come to seem apparent that the commissioners had gotten the message. Community members had raised a collective voice in opposition to what they saw as a clear injustice, and they had steadfastly articulated to the broader community why they felt that way. The board heard, and had been stirred. Throughout the process, several of them acknowledged as much.

Now comes the grapple to narrow that list of three to one. One community is going to be decidedly displeased with that decision. And the question remains — one we’ve raised in these pages before — of whether there should be a transfer station at all, whether we should be shipping our garbage off for another community (most probably, a less affluent one than our’s) to deal with.

But what’s certainly been learned is that an informed and vigilant community can elevate public discourse, and how important it is that we educate ourselves in the decisions, odiferous and otherwise, with which our elected officials struggle.

As commission chair Barry Jacobs said last night, “Just because one of these three sites isn’t in your neighborhood, doesn’t mean you should stop paying attention.”
The next one could be. And your informed opinion could make a difference.

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