Pushing back: Are cities the new front?
Submitted by James on Thu, 01/27/2011 - 11:54am
The split between urban and rural voters is about more than population density, but don't discount its importance. In many ways, cities need highly effective government, even if they don't always get it. In cities, many different kinds of people live more closely together, so that the "other" is not some rare or alien creature. The "other" is your gay friend, your black colleague, your female boss. The city council in Asheville is an elected body that gets this. The new GOP majority in Raleigh is not.
If we're going to be amending our state constitution to discriminate against gays and quash local autonomy, maybe we should amend it to give municipalities and counties more power to govern themselves. Otherwise, the best of our metropolitan areas will be forever constrained by the narrow-mindedness of the Tarheel Taliban.
And if local governments don't get the power they want, the power to raise taxes, impose fees, and control land use, maybe they should just take it. Civil uprising is good enough for teabaggers. Shouldn't it be in the considered set for cities that aspire to be progressive?
I live in a small town
And I like it, the black neiborhood is a five minute walk from where I live, but so is the rich section, and every other section of town. There is only on middle school and high school in the town so, we do not have the problem of which district to live in, my son is active in sports and plays with whites, blacks, browns and yellows and various mixes of such on a regular basis, and gives little thought of it. I am not sure why you think living in a big city makes one so open minded when Raleigh and Charlotte seem to have more racail issues than Newton does. And while I know of no one who is onpenly gay, there is a single girl on our street we all think is, she has a some strange looking women spending the night with her most nights, but we do not bother he and whenever she asks for help most folks on the street give it her without issue.
We like our taxes low, we like our guns and most of us our in church Wednesday and Sunday night. It is also the only town in the county who has the mayor who is a Democrat and the only one the Democrats control the city council, but I am not sure what kind of civil uprising you are asking but in the words of John Lennon " you can county me out".
It would never have occurred to me
to county you in, so to speak.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Republicans can't even stand to be in the same room with gays
Which might explain why so many gay Republicans live lives of secrecy in the closet. I'm talking to you, Tommy.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.