What we learned this week?

1) Rudy Wright is in favor of Censorship. He thinks that many of us are too stupid to have our opinion published in the local newspaper. It seems that he thinks he is the best judge of information that should be provided for public consumption. There is a circular logic that we don't have the facts, but it is his government that is in charge of providing the facts, but we are supposedly not entitled to independently analyze the facts as provided and render an independent analysis.

He seems to think that the local media should censor information to fit his government's template. This kind of mindset would have been right at home in Bolshevik Russia and is exactly what Pravda was modeled upon. Sadly, there are people in this community that go along with this and against the founding principles of this nation and right here I am talking about the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. If our local paper is going to censor citizen information and opinion to fit a government's controlled message, then our right to free speech has been impinged upon.


2) Rudy is in favor of raising taxes for what he himself details as "Beautification." The City would rather plant a tree than create a job. Or maybe they want to create a few tree planting jobs. People will feel better about the community when they sense we have a plan that takes us in a direction forward. We need to invest in people not property. In the end, beautification doesn't create value. We need to build things from raw goods to marketable products. That is what builds an economy.

Then we look at anecdotal evidence that driving around on Friday night the restaurants look busy, so let's get some tax revenue out of the people/restaurants. Who would this tax revenue be collected from, the people or the restaurants?

I've worked in the restaurant business since 1984. I know the restaurant business as well as anyone in this town. People that know me know that. Some of Rudy's surrogates have made fun of me and called me a fry cook. They certainly look like they know a lot about eating fried foods.

I have a Culinary Arts degree and a degree in Finance. We have an out of whack aging population here. That population represents the bulk of people going out to eat. People are ordering split plates, half portions, and doing things to cut the costs of dining out. They aren't eating out as a luxury. They are eating out for convenience sake - time and cleanup - and because it has become engrained in our culture. And behavioral economic theory tells you that if you do something to cause a change in behavior, such as people eating at home to avoid additional costs of dining out, then it will lower the projected revenues associated with the tax and hurt the restaurant businesses. Food is a higher percentage of lower income people's budgets. It is a regressive tax. It is a pass the buck tax.

And Rudy talks about Raleigh not doing anything to harm Hickory's revenues at the same time he wants to fiddle with Hickory's revenues and ask for money from Raleigh. Where is the logic in that? And in the end this money will go to the same ole people.


3) Rudy is not responsible for the last 12 years of his tenure, but he is responsible from this day forward. Really? Really?


4) Rudy Wright conveniently throws Republicans under the bus at a Democrat meeting and Democrats under the bus at a Republican meeting. He talks about not casting blame and then calls out Bob Rucho as Persona Non Grata. He calls out Hickory's City Staff on the Radio a couple weeks ago, saying he wants a Splash Pad, but the City Manager didn't put it in the budget. He calls fellow City Council Member Fox a Liberal. He calls out Joe Brannock, Jay Adams, and myself and says at a gathering we had about the referendum last year, "that the gentleman spent half his time talking about how to get convicts signed up to vote," which is not even close to true and Rudy wasn't even there.

Rudy loves throwing people under the bus, especially when it is convenient... when he thinks it is going to make his point or save his hide. Many of you don't understand that you might be next or maybe it has already happened and you don't even realize it. You might not take this seriously, but now that I have presented this case it is on you.

Thank You for the audio Conover Crusader.