Yow digs in
County Commissioner Billy Yow, a well driller by trade, seems to be digging in following Democrat Carolyn Coleman's electon as chairwoman of the commissoners by an unusual coalition of Republicans and Democrats.
Yow tells News & Record staff writer Nate DeGraff that his fellow Republicans, Steve Arnold, Linda Shaw and Trudy Wade, "sold out" by supporting Coleman.
"History was made last night," Yow told Nate Friday, "when the board went more liberal than they ever did before."
Say again, Billy?
I don't doubt for a moment that Arnold, who became vice chairman out of the deal, is as conservative as ever.
If anything, the Republicans may have strengthened their voice on the board, sharing leadership and getting concessions from the Democrats for some board and commission appointments. By not simply sitting by and pouting while the 6-5 Democratic majority steamrolled one decision after another, the Republicans may have increased their leverage, at least a little.
And that's better than simply being there to oppose anything and everything the Democrats do.
The commissioners realistically are going to differ on some issues. But as we have noted before, most of the issues the board routinely tackles -- waste disposal, school funding, jail overcrowding, economic development and the like -- have nothing to do with partisan philosophy, which tends to diverge more on social and cultural issues.
The dynamic of "Majority rules, minority makes life as miserable as it can for the majority," is shopworn, childish and not in any voter's best interest.
Kudos to Shaw, Arnold and Wade for behaving like adults.
Comments (12)
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Allen,
Apparently Arnold saw a better deal with Coleman than with Gibson and at the same time saw the "big picture" better than Yow.
Having both parties to be represented in the chariman's tent is good for both of them as well as the county.
Hopefully, this will decrease the childish rancor that effects the GCC at times and real things will get accomplished.
Posted on December 5, 2005 12:19 PM
The dynamic of "Majority rules, minority makes life as miserable as it can for the majority," is shopworn, childish and not in any voter's best interest.
Maybe you should send this to the folks in Washington Allen.Perhaps Ted, Nancy and Harry etal could learn from this as well as Mr. Yow. It seems that some of the readers and commentors here could also stand a taste of this lesson.
Good article by the way and from what I remember about G'boro politics it is a small move toward civility.
Posted on December 6, 2005 9:38 AM
mrproduce, if Ms. Coleman ever sends the city of Greensboro into an illegal war based on lies and distortions, then I would definitely want Billy-Bob to "make life as miserable as [he] can for the majority."
:-)
Have a nice day,
Tony
Posted on December 6, 2005 12:41 PM
Tony , you are such a one dimensional individual. There are many more issues than just your one pet peeve and gripe and love of constant bashing of the President, that those in DC have stalled on, beat around the bush on, allowed to die, all because they were afraid that the other party would get some credit for doing something.
Come into the real world Tony and see that there is more to life than your perspective on things.
Posted on December 7, 2005 8:45 AM
Oh goody.. new episodes, (with a new star character) of the best reality tv show in town!
Posted on December 7, 2005 3:34 PM
How we managed to move from the county commissioners to Iraq is truly amazing, folks.
Posted on December 7, 2005 3:53 PM
I'm good at it, Allen; simple enough.
;-)
Regards,
Tony
Posted on December 8, 2005 5:07 PM
Well, it was a bit of a stretch to link Carolyn Coleman to an illegal war.
Posted on December 8, 2005 6:13 PM
Allen, I don't actually think that either Ms. Coleman or the City of Greensboro will declare war on any entity. The City usually only wars with itself.
I was actually responding to mrproduce's (with whom I agree about 75% of the time) comment digging at "the folks in Washington" who are "make[ing] life as miserable as possible for the majority." And in my response I "localized" my message with references to Greensboro folk and made a stab at some humor-through-absurdity.
I commented in this fashion because I strongly disagree with mrproduce's initial comment (and am attempting to ignore his second, ad hominem argument). As an American patriot, I believe that it is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to question, and even harrass, obstruct or in any other way block the "majority" from destroying everything that makes America great and unique in the world. So Ted, Harry, Nancy -- keep up the good work, only HIT HARDER!
Best regards,
Tony
Posted on December 9, 2005 8:06 AM
Gotcha, Tony.
Posted on December 9, 2005 8:51 AM
Allen, I have mixed feelings about blogging, as can be determined by a visit to my own, which has no entry since July. I do not question their value at all, but I am really on the fence as to how structured they should be.
By this I mean, should the moderators (for those that are moderated) allow abrupt tangents, or require close adherence to the point of the original posting? (This is completely separate, IMHO, from the discussion of whether or not to censor language or other content.) Although I sometimes dislike the confusion that abrupt tangents can produce, on the other hand, I like the free-wheeling quality that results, the almost group-stream-of-consciousness that is sometimes demonstrated. It reminds me of the "old days" when the USENet was in its heyday (it's still out there, but fading).
It seems to me that many, perhaps most, blogs fit into one of three categories: personal journal (may be no need to even permit comments on these), discussion (examples would be the political blogs, right or left) and the evolving, still-in-its-infancy category: news. Perhaps one of the things that will ultimately help distinguish the news blogs from the discussion blogs will be that the news blogs *will* be moderated in such a way that posters will be required to stick closely to the point of the original post, while the discussion blogs remain free-wheeling.
Right now, though, I'm not sure I see a big difference between discussion and news, and part of that is because of people like me.
:-)
Have a good weekend!
Tony
Posted on December 9, 2005 9:40 AM
Tony, I agree entirely; if the tangents are part of a natural flow of discussion and not a predetermined detour based on someone's agenda, I say have at it.
That's how good discussions evolve.
Posted on December 9, 2005 10:25 AM