{"id":2496,"date":"2011-01-20T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-20T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/democracy-in-action-v-unelected-officials-matthew-richard.html"},"modified":"2011-01-20T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-20T13:00:00","slug":"democracy-in-action-v-unelected-officials-matthew-richard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/democracy-in-action-v-unelected-officials-matthew-richard.html","title":{"rendered":"Democracy in action v. unelected officials –Matthew Richard"},"content":{"rendered":"This LTE appeared in the VDT 18 Jan 2011. -jsq\n
\n\n<\/a>\nThe\n\nrecent biomass meeting<\/a>\nwas a great example of democracy in\naction. Concerned citizens gave up an evening to educate themselves\nand it was heartening to see many in the audience participate. I\u2019m\nno political scientist, but this must be what the founders of the\nconstitution had in mind in conceiving that document.\n

\nThe evening was not without controversy. Several speakers spoke\npassionately, even vehemently, prompting someone to question the tone\nof some on the anti-biomass side. One wonders how closely he follows\nevents in the area?\n

\nValdostans are frustrated at the blatantly anti-democratic tactics\nemployed by local government that result in our getting things rammed\ndown our throats. Biomass is just the latest example.\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\nThe project is\nill-conceived economically and ecologically. Our officials denounced the\nObama economic stimulus package as wasteful, yet here they are with their\nhands out asking for millions of taxpayer dollars to build a \u201clandfill\nin the sky.\u201d\n

\nLet\u2019s review. The biomass project was selected by the Industrial\nAuthority as a worthy initiative, even though it will create only 19-22\njobs. This five-member body is APPOINTED, not elected. Who appoints\nthem? The same local officials who now wash their hands of responsibility\nfor the project, saying they have no authority to intervene; the matter\nis out of their hands; there\u2019s nothing they can do. Our newspaper is\ncomplicit in this,\n\nannouncing on its editorial page just today that the\nproject is inevitable.<\/a> I\u2019ve lived here 15 years and have witnessed\nthis institutional collusion and stiff-arming of the public over and\nover. Local government takes advantage of low turnout at meetings to pass\nquestionable initiatives. If that doesn\u2019t work, they resort to bullying.\n

\nSo the industrial board, accountable to nobody but those who appointed\nthem, is insulated from public criticism. Where shall citizens turn? The\ntown square is not an option; everyone shops at the Mall, where free\nspeech is not guaranteed because the Mall is private property. Many of us\ngo faithfully to the City Council and County Commissioners\u2019 meetings\nand wait patiently\u2014sometimes hours\u2014until the citizens\u2019 portion of\nthe meeting. Imagine our shock when we heard that\n\nDr. Noll was prohibited from speaking Tuesday night,\nfor all intents and purposes, told to shut up.<\/a>\nThen, the inevitable sentiment was heard: \u201cYou\u2019re not from around\nhere, are you?\u201d I\u2019ve heard this remark many times and have learned\nthat it means \u201cYou don\u2019t know how we do things around here, do you?\u201d\n

\nMy point: In Lowndes County, serious decisions are being taken by\nUNELECTED people. It would be good to know the credentials of the\n\u201cquasi-governmental\u201d Industrial Authority determining local air and\nwater quality. Might the VDT investigate? These UNELECTED officials are\ninsulated from public critique and are taking full advantage. The public,\nmeanwhile, tries to use the democratic process to keep the debate alive,\nbut is silenced by our ELECTED officials who clearly have forgotten they\nwork for us.\n

\nOh, but I\u2019ve erred once again: I must not be from around here.\n

\nDespite the advice of the VDT, those of us from elsewhere, together with\nour longtime friends in town will continue to fight this unhealthy and\nwasteful monstrosity.\n

\nMatthew Richard, Naylor\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This LTE appeared in the VDT 18 Jan 2011. -jsq The recent biomass meeting was a great example of democracy in action. Concerned citizens gave up an evening to educate themselves and it was heartening to see many in the audience participate. I\u2019m no political scientist, but this must be what the founders of the […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,556,120,14,15,49,16,2,19,88,733,21,22,32,54,133,178,700,55],"tags":[8738,3388,8704,8701,154,7,1174,703,8770,8712,3224,6,180,8749,8796],"class_list":["post-2496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-air","category-biomass","category-economy","category-education","category-elections","category-environment","category-government","category-history","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-media","category-planning","category-politics","category-pollution","category-valdosta-city-council","category-vdt","category-vlcia","category-wace","category-water","tag-biomass","tag-democracy","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-landfill","tag-lowndes-county","tag-matthew-richard","tag-michael-noll","tag-naylor","tag-politics","tag-stimulus","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-lowndes-county-industrial-authority","tag-vlcia","tag-wace"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-Eg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}