I agree that in a democracy the people’s desires should trump DOT. I also believe that the people’s desires should have trumped when the Cullasaja community and Save Our Rivers group tried so unsuccessfully to keep Highlands’ sewage out of the Cullasaja River. I further believe that the majority should have prevailed when they voted down the bond issue for the schools. However, on both issues the people only got lip disservice, aka, bull (barnyard vernacular), poopy river water, debt and a colossal mess for school facilities.

I moved here from eastern North Carolina over 30 years ago and at that time Macon County was growing and there were plenty of jobs, as was the rest of the country. Look what our elected officials have done for us. Because of all the government regulations we have just about stopped developments and building in Macon County, which means jobs gone. Without jobs we cannot pay the taxes it takes to pay the salaries for the people necessary to enforce these regulations.

On the federal level it is no secret why our companies are going to other countries.

Dear Governor Perdue:

Before you simply pass this letter on to the NC Department of Transportation, please take a few moments to read it. To ask that agency to handle a change of this type and expect results would be like putting your two-year-old daughter into the alligator pen and asking the alligators to raise her to adulthood for you.

Last night a large contingent of DOT folks traveled from Raleigh to the mountains of Macon County to hold a “last hearing” on the fate of McCoy Bridge, one of the few remaining truss bridges still in service in the state. We appreciate the DOT’s effort to bring their expertise to our community, however it was evident from the start that a DOT-initiated alternative had already been chosen and once again community opinion had been ignored.

On Saturday April 9, Macon County FreedomWorks sponsored the John Locke Foundation speaker Dr. Terry Stoops. He spoke out against centralized (public) education and in favor of charter schools. Most revealing was his stance against cultural awareness.

According to the April 14 edition of the Macon County News, Stoops stated that a minimal national curriculum “…would incorporate many of the things our kids don’t need to know, like the multiculturalism, like the cultural awareness and those sorts of things that really divert a child’s attention from being able to read and write as they should.”