Home in Henderson obtained a draft copy of the Economic Development Commission’s (EDC) Strategic Plan for 2010-2014 as part of the Vance County Commission’s March meeting paperwork.
Vance County Manager Jerry Ayscue will be asking commissioners to approve the document tonight.
We invite readers to pay particular attention to page 61 (of the actual document, not the .pdf numbering), where HiH is listed as a “key strategic challenge”, right above unnamed but easily identifiable “former elected officials”.
A local radio talk show was mentioned as well.
HiH is listed as a “key strategic challenge” again on page 62, just in case you didn’t get the point on page 61.
So let me get this straight. The EDC, a government entity funded by the city of Henderson and Vance County, two governments to which I and my business pay taxes, has put both my business and private citizens (who also pay taxes) on what amounts to a blacklist for what they say?
Did I wake up in North Korea this morning? I could swear I went to sleep in America last night. Should I start singing the glories of Kim Jong Il and writing poetry about the grandeur of the State?
The unpleasant fact that a government-funded operation like the EDC is making such a list is very, very dangerous. It smacks of totalitarianism, McCarthyism, and oppressive authoritarian government. This is not the America I was brought up to believe in, the land of freedom and opportunity.
“Soviet” is the descriptive term that comes to mind.
The foundation of HiH lies is our constitutional, 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech, a freedom that is absolutely fundamental to our political process and our way of life. How could a group of people exercising that basic right be a “key strategic challenge”? The very thought is so un-American that the question itself should make any real patriot wince.
The EDC’s tactics are clear. First, the people in power find a group of people who are not in power to blame for all the problems in the county. Why? Because the people in power are unwilling to take ownership of the problems themselves. Many of the members of the EDC have been creeping around Vance County for a lot longer than the five years HiH has existed, yet, somehow, HiH gets the blame for problems that existed long before it was conceived.
Of course, they have to repeat this message over and over again, because if you say it enough times, people start to believe it’s true. This is the first instance that I know of where they’ve had the moxie to put in a public document.
Contrary to expectations, I’ve got some positive news for the EDC. What you call “negativity” we Americans call “dissent”. And if you paid attention to your civics classes when you were in school, you’d know that dissent and the compromise that inevitably follows it are a vital part of our way of life. When a government seeks to silence those who disagree with it, we call that an “oppressive regime”.
Who the hell wants to bring their business to a community whose leaders openly blackball citizens and businesses? For that, they could go to Cuba. The weather’s better, and they don’t have to worry about health care costs.
Now I know what certain members of the EDC mean when they talk about “unity” and “cooperation” — a team of mules under one whip, bridled and hobbled and force-marched in the same direction, all the while pulling a heavy load of someone else’s interests.
In case you missed the nuance of my clever metaphor, we’re the mules.
I guess the ongoing mystery of why no one will advertise with HiH has been solved.
Keep the comments coming. If you’re a member of the EDC, make sure you keep it positive.
After all, you wouldn’t want to end up on a list.