Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. - George Washington
When one side only of a story is heard and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it insensibly.
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Today's Herald -again- carried an article describing how off-base Whatcom County has become in its latest sorry attempts at rigging GMA policy toward those same 'special interests' that have been, for years, usurping responsible government for their own selfish purposes and agendas.
That the County Council has been in the thrall of certain development interests is not news, but the actual extent of that rip-off is only now being revealed, which continues a pattern of willful deception that is destructive to both good government and the overall best interests of its citizens.
But, even with such directly incriminating evidence, some are still in denial that anything wrong has been done! Now, THAT is sadly, truly troubling, because it brings to mind the fact that we are electing people whose minds are either being controlled by ideology, or who are appallingly susceptible to persuasion by certain misguided elements in our County government, or its influential advisors.
Could our County Council's problem with responsible growth management be related to the so-called 'Tea' Party and its sometimes very strange ideas?
This Crosscut article relates similar stupid mind-sets to a strange movement against the so-called UN '
Agenda 21', a
recommendation for sustainable development.
If so, that thinking is stranger than strange, and actually counterproductive to what most rational people would consider good sense!
When a people decide upon self governance, that's something of a miracle in itself; but when certain misguided segments of the population then attempt to hijack what most willingly accept as simple common sense in every one's best interest, that's stupid at worse and problematic at best.
Don't you think that such thinking needs to be reasonably justified and held accountable?
It would be very interesting to hear a cogent argument against reasonable growth planning; one that would rationally explain a few things, like why reserving farmland and open space is a bad idea, or why concentrating population, schools and business doesn't make sense, or why providing mass transit options to private transport isn't worthwhile. Aren't those things basic to prudent economic governance?
While I'm certainly open to such explanations and sincerely want to hear them, pardon my doubt since such arguments do seem so ridiculously counter intuitive.
Fortunately, there is room for considerable diversity in our country, including a certain amount of selfish self interest, but how much utter stupidity can we tolerate and still call ourselves an educated country which presumes to leadership in the free world, as well as preservation of our own basic freedoms, so presciently given us by our founders?
Alternately, perhaps those so enamored of their private 'rights' can tell us of other places where such an excess of aberrant thought has been successful over time. I sincerely hope that these folks constitute such a minuscule minority that most citizens would view them as am tempted to do; ignore them as the willful crackpots they are.
More troubling is the possibility that some who subscribe to these thoughts have actually managed to become officials, either elected or appointed, who profess to serve us here in Whatcom County- the fourth corner of sanity!
That of course, would explain some part of the silly GMA dilemma we now find ourselves embroiled in, thanks to the devious, backward and ridiculous policies that our recent and current County Council have saddled us with to our great misfortune!
Is it really possible that some misguided souls really do believe the United Nations is to blame for our problems? If so, perhaps they would agree to illuminating us into their reasoning by means of some convincing proofs.....
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Q.E.D. is an initialism of the Latin phrase quod erat demonstrandum, which translates as "which was to be demonstrated". The phrase is traditionally placed in its abbreviated form at the end of a mathematical proof or philosophical argument when what was specified in the enunciation — and in the setting-out — has been exactly restated as the conclusion of the demonstration.[1] The abbreviation thus signals the completion of the proof.
Q.E.D. is sometimes jokingly claimed to abbreviate "quite easily done". Q.E.D. can also be used to ridicule the specious reasoning of another person by mockingly attaching it to the end of a poor argument, which was not in fact successfully demonstrated or presented.
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Since our illustrious Whatcom County Council - in a unique reality of its own - seems to have conjured its own solutions without appreciably understanding the real problem of growth management. Perhaps, this can be partially explained -or confused- from Six Characters In Search Of An Author (by Luigi Pirandello 1921);
There is a body of ideas by now universally denominated 'Pirandellian', and here is the Maestro attempting to compress them into half a dozen lines:
…the deceit of mutual understanding irremediably founded on the empty abstraction of words, the multiple personality of everyone (corresponding to the possibilities of being to be found in each of us), and finally the inherent tragic conflict between life (which is always moving and changing) and form (which fixes it, immutable).
If this sounds a bit crazy, it may be, but no more so than do our Councillors, in real life!
They seem all too willing to substitute their own agenda for that adopted by the people of WHATCOM COUNTY, the State of Washington, and good sense, in general.
Under such circumstances, what are our remedies as citizens, other than lawsuit, recall, or voting them out of office? It has been obvious that they are resistant -even deaf- to reasonable arguments and appeals to their better judgement, at least until now. This situation would be laughable, if it were not so appallingly stupid -and costly to taxpayers!
I call upon our new County Executive to take this matter under serious advisement, and to demand that proper procedures and competent directions be given to those Council members who so obviously need it!
If they are to serve the public, they need to respect the public with proper education, understanding, discourse and decision-making. Otherwise, why are they there?
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