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Press Release/Position Statement
-From the desk of the Candidate-
Monday, December 31, 2007
The $555 billion federal budget bill passed by
Congress last week contained 9,000 special interest earmarks. It comes as no surprise that the new Democrat
Congress has broken the promises of the 2006 election to stop historical budget
busting practices. At this stage of
American politics, neither party has credibility in their claimed intentions to
resist pork. This reality will not
change until we reach a point of crisis that illuminates the harm of government
leaders addicted to living beyond their means and ours.
Speaking of promises, the 1943 Federal pledge to
build the North Shore Road in Swain County was side stepped this past week by
one of those hidden earmarks. Through
the efforts of Congressman Heath Shuler, a 6 million dollar down payment on a
proposed 52 million settlement was included in the larger budget bill. In reality, it was a down payment on the
surrender of the future of Swain County.
Approximately 85% of Swain County is tax-exempt
– meaning that government and non-profits own nearly the entire county. Most of that land was not given away; it was
taken, or at least purchased, in exchange for certain promises. One of those promises was to build a North
Shore Road that would reestablish access to part of the heart of Swain
County. These are lands not only holding
the key to much of Swain County’s past but possibly also its future.
The reality of the North Shore Road is that it
will not only provide access to those reaching for their heritage but also open
up one of the most beautiful areas of the Smokey Mountains National Park. That reality represents competition for
Tennessee tourist interests. Thus that
state’s resistance to the road and a dedication to interests, like the inequitable
drawdown policies practiced on Fontana Dam, that are more about selfish than
special.
The envirojackers have pulled out all the stops
in supporting a buy-out versus a promise.
Costs and potential environmental impacts have been magnified to maximum
effect. The fact that there has never
been a road built in the mountains of WNC or Tennessee that did not have impact
has been overlooked in an effort to define the North Shore Road as unique. What is really unique is the unholy alliance created
by Tennessee’s economic agendas, the National Park Service’s bureaucratic
agendas, the environmentalist’s social agendas, and other special interests. It’s a marriage made in some place other than
heaven and licensed by political versus moral action.
Between the economic harms of the TVA’s policies
with Fontana Lake and the invisible fence restraining most of their land, the
future of Swain County is being strangled.
It is simply not possible to lock the door on that much land within a
County and expect economic vitality.
The settlement proposal realistically secures a
large part of Swain County as another Federal reservation. Except that in this case, unlike the Qualla
boundaries of the Cherokee, the people who have lived there have no autonomy in
utilizing the land to uplift their own.
Those against the North Shore Road highlight
the initiative as a dated and unsupported promise that is bloated with expense
and harm. From another view, that road
represents a moral fulfillment of earlier obligations and a powerful economic
engine that will uplift Swain county and its neighbors. In either
case, it is certainly time to move beyond hollow promises and empty words. Unfortunately, this latest Federal settlement
plan is a duplication of the promise now –
pay later shell game that was
played out it the original 1943 agreement.
The people of Swain County have
every reason to view this latest Washington exercise with suspicion. Their personal experiences and a brief
reading of the history of the American Indian will explain why.
37 – Editorial/North Shore Road
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