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Asheville as a City Model - Lets Focus On Where We Can Do Better |
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by Dr. Carl Mumpower
Op-Ed
Asheville Citizen-Times
August 28, 2004
Recently,
representatives from the city of Springfield, MO, came to Asheville to
learn more about our fair city. It seems that Asheville has become a
model for dynamic cities of the 21st century, and other people want to
learn from us. We are well honored by this positive attention.
As
we count our blessings, however, we might also ponder the evidence that
we have significant room for improvement - especially in the areas of
diversity, governance, and the common good.
We pride ourselves
on being a city of diversity. Yet our reality finds us frequently
pitted against one another in an ideological struggle that mocks the
concept. A community that successfully embraces diversity is not one
where anything goes, respect is one-sided and insults are tolerated as
long as these target those with whom we disagree. True diversity is not
polarizing, narrow or absent of consideration for our fellow man.
Dedication to diversity finds us bringing our best to Asheville and
learning from those here before us and those who will come later.
It
is not diversity that says its OK for a social activist to spray-paint
venom on our buildings, an African-American drug dealer to maneuver in
a neighborhood with impunity, or a homeless alcoholic to operate as a
marauder on our downtown city streets.
Just as we would never
endorse the racism that was once a part of the character of this
regions people, these behaviors do not merit our support or silence.
Diversity in its most authentic form represe!
nts reco
gnition and
acceptance of our differences versus an indulgence or blind endorsement
of those differences.
Our City Council recently deliberated on
how best to manage the changing realities of Ashevilles watershed.
During this process I received slightly less than 100 emails, eighty
percent of which arrived as a form letter stimulated by a special
interest Web site. The parade of insults, manipulations and
intimidations offered before, during and after those deliberations
offered a glimpse into an oft-repeated pattern of governance that we
embrace at our communitys peril.
Some believe that elected
representatives should do more than listen and reason through the facts
of an issue. There is too often a call for surrender to the personal
preferences and pressures of those with a sense of special privilege
and insight.
These folks want more than the opportunity to share
their opinion - they want the power to control the outcome. The
minority of elected officials who resist these methods and refuse to
pander become highlighted targets.
If we truly uphold a model of
governance framed as a representative republic, we must refuse to
accommodate those in Asheville who take shortcuts around the voting box
as a means to achieving their own sense of whats best for the rest of
us. Theirs is the politics of power - not mature governance.
A
city of the 21st century needs people who have opinions, passions, and
commitments. It also needs people who have a sense of personal
responsibility and interest in their fellowman. It can be well argued
that we are all unique, but it does not follow that we are all special.
Special people have to reach higher than for something as simple as the
pursuit of their own pleasures, interests and needs. Special people
seek the more demanding role of the contributor over the critic.
Special people can!
be skep
tical without being cynical. Special people
recognize that loud does not mean right, mob rule is not a sustainable
form of community, and the overuse of words such as racism, minority,
and "me" can impair as surely as empower.
A special interest has
the power to teach and enlighten. Unfettered or indulged, and a special
interest can just as easily become a selfish interest that trumps the
common interest supporting a healthy Asheville. There are masquerading
interests in Asheville who seek to divide, distract and silence. If
they succeed, we risk losing the basic tenets of civility, culture and
community that have brought us to a place and time that holds so much
that is truly special.
A thriving city that sends a strong
delegation of people to draw from our model of success is making a
powerful statement about Asheville. With this honor comes a
responsibility to reach a little higher and further as we work to
responsibly meet our future. We will not succeed in this effort if we
are divided, poorly governed or neglectful of the common good. We are
truly in this together, and there is a persisting necessity that most
of us behave accordingly.
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