(Published in the Hickory Daily Record on September 5, 2008)
In response to Doug Griffin's letter from this past week, it is my opinion that the problem we have is a lack of leadership from our local officials and our representative in Raleigh.
Local officials don't want to rock the boat, because they are afraid of the repercussions. State Senator Austin Allran has been doing nothing but playing the role of lapdog to the Democrats in Raleigh for years. He seems to only be interested in getting a paycheck. It's time that he earns his money or be brought back home.
Our County Commission's Chairlady Kitty Barnes is so proud of the award she was given for being the Democrats’ favorite Commissioner. Why is a Republican so proud to receive an award from people that play pure party politics against Catawba County? I'd tell them to keep it.
Catawba County and the city of Hickory have hired a new lobbyist in Raleigh. Lobbyists are always for sale to the highest bidder. In these times, we don’t have the money to play that game. We can’t afford to continue throwing good money after bad in a fruitless effort.
Persuasion is supposed to be part of our elected officials’ job. We need leaders that will fight for what is rightfully ours, instead of sitting back and watching these roads to nowhere be built in the eastern part of the state, while we roll down the crater and patch highway.
James Thomas Shell
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Friday, September 5, 2008
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4 comments:
I totally agree with lack of leadership concerning bad roads. We pay one of the highest gas taxes in the nation yet have some of the worst roads. The one way streets in hickory are a joke. I40 is pathetic for the amount of traffic it carries. Mayor Rudy is more concern with t-shirts, a mound of dirt on hwy 70, or a photo opt ribbon cutting ceremony. If the people of hickory dont wake up and vote these useless leaders out of government then they deserve what they get.
If a conservative Republican like Austin Allran is not getting the job done in getting much needed highway improvements to Catawba County, then maybe you should try voting for whoever runs against him. If voters want politicians to do their jobs, they need to stop voting for their favorite political home team, be that Democrat or Republican, and start voting for someone who will do the job, regardless of party affiliation. Then and only then will the politicians start working harder on their jobs than they do on the political word games they use in their campaign advertisements. In other words, vote the dogs out of office, even if it means voting for someone accused of being a (gasp, shudder) liberal. Then if that person doesn't do any better, go the other way again. Repeat said process until we get rid of the useless career politicians and find someone who wants to work. I understand that you want smaller government, but you need to understand that neither party has been giving us a smaller government, contrary to their campaign promises.
Sincerely,
Penelope
Penelope, I couldn't agree more and that is where I was coming from.
By most objective accounts, Austin Allran has little influence in Raleigh despite his long tenure. He consistently ranks near the bottom in the state's power rankings.
He refuses to compromise and says he's waiting for Republicans to grab control of the legislature. Meanwhile, Catawba County suffers from his little old church lady mentality. Actually, Austin is likely a church lady in a impish male's body.
Catawba County screwed up by not electing Kitty Barnes. The county needs pragmatic leadership.
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