Speech to Watauga County Board of Commissioners
By Madeline K. Carter
March 2006
You, the BOC and other public officials, speak of priorities. You tell us how much you care for the children of this county.
We, Watauga citizens, ask you serious, straightforward questions, but we receive too much doublespeak, duplicity, delays and/or silence. You promise and say one thing, but do the opposite.
You favor powerful and politically correct groups and individuals over the best interests and at the great expense of the entire county.
Specifically, you and other officials have attempted to justify and promote a psychologically controlled, Delphi Technique, feasibility study as a functional substitute for an honest, secret, yes or no ballot, referendum.
What is actually happening here? You are redefining how this county makes crucial decisions and/or how we will spend money; that is, tens of millions of dollars funded from continually increasing taxes forced from even many under-employed, modest income, and struggling citizens.
You have virtually locked out the entire Watauga electorate by substituting the traditional constitutional process with a controlled series of meetings you label a feasibility study which costs $50K; a series of groupthink and highly subjective assemblies representing <1% of the population, where there were no votes, no ballots, but rather a subsequently announced consensus for a predetermined outcome.
There was no decision made at these community gatherings, Mr. Kinsey, because truthfully, the decision had already been made. The recommendations then were made by a soviet-style council, composed primarily of carefully chosen, non-elected, compliant members—the apparent precedent for the future.
You and other officials have denied repeatedly this pre-determined outcome only to brazenly announce the obvious last fall, plus deny its colossal costs, again, without a legitimate vote from the entire electorate.
I ask you, the BOC and the BOE, some questions:
This citizen is far more concerned about what goes into young people’s minds, like high standards for genuine academics, and their souls, especially about their true heritage—a strong constitutional basis that the Founding Fathers gave us. To this citizen, this priority is far more important than all the expensive, state-of-the-art buildings this corrupt and oppressive system is capable of.
Is the ostensible concern for the children, in truth, the impetus
for continued and increasing funding for a gigantic, over-bloated
bureaucracy?
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