March 2012 ADP

By JOHN NORTHIn a situation similar to Gen. George A.

Custer’s at the Battle of Little Bighorn, Rep. Tim Moffitt, R-Buncombe County, stood his ground against a panel and a crowd that — at least from the sounds of it — appeared to be overwhelmingly op-posed to his legislative study that could result in the Asheville water system being turned over to an independent authority.

However, unlike Custer, it was not Moffitt’s Last Stand. Indeed, the first-term legislator responded to every ques-tion — and emerged to fight another day.

Moffitt, who is chairman of the legisla-tive committee looking at the Asheville system, faced a crowd of about 225 people attending the free multimedia forum focusing on the current Asheville water issue Feb. 20 at Jubilee! Commu-nity in downtown Asheville. The event was hosted by Mountain Voices Alliance.

Moffitt began by saying that he feels that he has been misunderstood — but he took the blame for failing to communi-

cate well with the public.He also noted that “I just want folks

to get a sense of who I am ... You don’t know me. I’m a fourth-generation resi-dent of this area ... I used to live down-town in the mid-’80s at the beginning of

the renaissance” there.Despite repeated accusations and in-

nuendo to the contrary, Moffitt said he definitely is not interested in privatizing the Asheville water system.

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March 2012 Vol. 8, No. 4 An Independent Newspaper Serving Greater Asheville www.ashevilledailyplanet.com FREE

From Staff ReportsThe U.S. Postal Service announced Feb.

23 that it will close the Asheville mail pro-cessing center on Brevard Road sometime after mid-May, resulting in the loss of more than 200 local jobs and likely slower mail delivery.

The center’s employees were informed of the measure on the night of Feb. 22 and the morning of Feb. 23.

A USPS study last fall proposed shutting down 252 processing centers — including the one in Asheville — and 3,700 post of-fices across the nation.

The city’s processing center, which began operations in 1979, employs 205 workers, of which 183 jobs will be shifted to a processing facilty in Greenville, S.C. The remaining 22 jobs will be eliminated.

The consolidation of Asheville and Greenville operations is expected to save $3.3 million per year, USPS officials said.

Average workers compensation at the Asheville plant, including benefits, is $72,000 annually.

First-class mail volume reportedly has dropped 25 percent over the past five years.

Cash-short Montreat College trims classes, staff — Pg. 6

Asheville postal processing center axed

From Staff ReportsA protest to show support for saving post of-

fices and postal jobswas staged Feb. 20 at Pack Square Park in downtown Asheville.

Following the rally, some protesters marched to the Vance Monument and then adjourned to socialize at Pack’s Tavern.

“It’s always slash and burn on the hard-work-ing people of America,” Joanne Guess, presi-dent of the Asheville chapter of the American Postal Workers Union, told the crowd of about 60 people.

The crowd included a mix of postal workers, protesters, politicians and candidates.

Guess urged the gathering to press for change in the oversight laws of the U.S. Postal Service, reducing its debt burden and overturning bur-densome parts of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006.

One specific need change he cited the por-tion of the act requiring the Postal Service to prefund retirement benefits for the next 75 years within a 10-year window at a cost of $5.5 billion annually.

Guess said it is crucial to keep six-day de-lievery and prevent closure of post offices.

As several speakers reiterated, the Postal Service is projected to lose a record $14.1 bil-lion this year.

See WATER, 6

Chris Berg portrays Ben Franklin.

Moffitt holds firm despite opposition

Many protesters hold pro-postal worker signs.

Rep. Tim Moffitt (left), R-Buncombe County, converses with activist-panelist Barry Sum-mers during a Feb. 20 water hearing at Jubilee! Community Church on Wall Street in downtown Asheville.

See POSTAL, Page 16

Daily Planet Staff Photos

City water changes draw heavy flak at hearingFrom Staff Reports

FLETCHER — A proposal that could lead to the state taking the Asheville Water System away from the city and placing it in the hands of an independent regional authority drew about 80 speakers — the overwhelmingly majority of which opposed the plan — during a public hearing Feb. 23 at the WNC Agricultural Center.

Many of the speakers — from Buncombe and Henderson counties — asked that the $1.3 billion system not be taken away from Asheville. The system serves 125,000 cus-tomers inside and outside the city.

Among the supporters were Buncombe officials, which surprised some observers, given that they had battled with city of-ficials over the water system.

Those who backed the city keeping the system contended that it is working well and that any decision on regionalizing the water system needs to be made by local and regional — not state — leaders.

However, Henderson Commissioner Michael Edney was among those critical of the city’s operation of the water system.

The House Metropolitan Sewerage/Water System Committee is scheduled in April to recommend to the General Assembly whether to put it in the hands of a new independent authority, place it with the already-operating sewerage authority, or leave it with Asheville.

Rep. Tim Moffitt, R-Buncombe, chair of the committee, has said he believes the city should be compensated if it is stripped of the system, but said he had doubts about how much of it Asheville owns.

Don’t cut post offices, jobs, protesters plead

2 —March 2012 - Asheville Daily Planet

Asheville Daily Planet — March 2012 — 3

By JOHN NORTHAsheville Vice Mayor Esther Manheimer

and City Councilman Jan Davis vigor-ously defended Asheville’s ownership of the regional water system during a Feb. 3 breakfast and issues meeting of the Council of Independence Business Owners in Asheville.

The state legislature may make a deci-sion as early as April on whether the sys-tem remains in the city’s hands or operates under an independent authority, Manheimer told the CIBO members.

The vice mayor reviewed the city’s view-point on why it should retain ownership and control of the water system, while City Attorney Bob Long discussed the legal his-tory of the water system. (Long’s address appears on Page 5).

Davis, who was in the audience, said the city should not re-enter the legal battle over the water system. Instead, he proposed that council resolve to keep the system.

“We need to look where we are today,” Davis said. “The system is better today.”

Manheimer and Davis are the city’s two elected representatives on the task force.

Also addressing the group was state Rep. Patsy Keever, D-Buncombe County, a can-didate for the 10th District. She explained why she is running and how she will repre-sent her constituents in Washington, D.C. (See story on for Keever’s remarks).

About 75 people — including a number of local elected officials and candidates — attended the early-morning session in the food court at Biltmore Square Mall.

Manheimer, a Democrat, began her talk by noting that the legislature introduced a study bill in 2011 to address the history and current operation aspects of the water system. (The bill was initiated by Rep. Tim Moffit, R-Buncombe County.)

City officials, alarmed at the prospect of possibly losing ownership and control of the water system, sought representation on the task force. “We reached out to Rep.

Moffitt, who very graciously responded and met with us. We’re kind of giving you a recap of that meeting,” where both Man-heimer and Davis were in attendance.

Manheimer emphasized repeatedly that the city wants to retain ownership of the water system. She also reviewed a report — from the study committee investigating the Asheville water system. — of a Jan. 23 hearing held in Raleigh.

She said the study commission felt it had three options on the water system owner-ship issue, including “leave the system as it is,” spin off the water system as a separate independent authority, or merge the water system with the Metropolitan Sewerage District of Buncombe County.

“I personally have the opinion that these are extremely well-run systems today,” Manheimer said, in reference to both the city water system and the MSD. However, she added, “I say — it’s always good to

study more.”Compared to other water systems run

by cities around the state, “Asheville is strikingly unique because we have about one-third of the county’s population within the city and the remaining two-thirds out of the city. That is strikingly lopsided com-pared to other large North Carolina cities. Most have more population in the city than in the county.”

Despite the situation, Manheimer said that the city tax rate “has remained level.” Moreover, Asheville’s property tax rate is “middle to lower,” when compared to other cities in the state.

Since 2005, she said Asheville has bor-rowed $45 million to make repairs and updates to the water lines.

Following the passage of Sullivan Acts 2 and 3, “legislatively, we can’t charge different rates” to water system customers, which makes the Asheville water system

unusual in the state, Manheimer said. That requirement also poses a financial chal-lenge, she noted.

“Under North Carolina law, most cit-ies can charge different rates for city and county,” Manheimer said. Nonetheless, Asheville is allowed to charge different commercial and residential water rates, although all customers in either category must be charged the same rates.

At present, she said “the ‘outside’ rates are subsidizing the ‘inside’ rates.” Accord-ing to a report, the water system’s residen-tial rates are higher, while the commercial rates — and those for multifamily homes — are lower. “So our rates” are out of line.

She said the two largest water system users are Mission Hospital, followed by the Buncombe County Schools.

“We are very appreciative of Rep. Mof-fitt for (allowing) our participation in the discussion,” Manheimer reiterated.

4 - March 2012 - Asheville Daily Planet

2 city officials defend Asheville’s ownership of water system

Published monthly by Star Fleet Communications Inc.

JOHN NORTHPublisher

Phone: (828) 252-6565 • Fax: (828) 252-6567Mailing address: P.O. Box 8490, Asheville, N.C. 28814-8490Website: www.ashevilledailyplanet.comE-mail the following departments: News: [email protected] to the Editor: [email protected] Advertising: [email protected] line ads: [email protected]: [email protected]: [email protected] To subscribe to the Asheville Daily Planet, send check or money-order to:

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Asheville City Councilman Jan Davis

TO REPORT AN ERRORThe Asheville Daily Planet strives to be ac-curate in all articles published. Contact the News Department at [email protected], (828) 252-6565, or P.O. Box 8490, Asheville, N.C. 28814-8490.

City Vice Mayor Esther Manheimer City Attorney Bob Long

Asheville Daily Planet — March 2012 - 5

From Staff ReportsRep. Patsy Keever, D-Buncombe County,

fired several verbal jabs at state Republi-cans during her address to the Council of Independence Business Owners at a Feb. 3 breakfast and issues meeting in Asheville.

“You always have such good programs,” she told CIBO, noting that she always has every intention of attending, “but I don’t — I stay in bed” because they start so early in the morning. The crowd laughed.

“This morning, I’m here because I’m running for the 10th District” congressional seat. “One reason I’m running is my Re-publican friends have drawn me out of my (11th) district” via recent redistricting.

Keever said that running for office “is something I enjoy doing because I believe” in the job of representing her constituents in the state General Assembly.

The Charlotte native, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and a master’s in education from Western Carolina University, noted that she taught

in public schools for more than 25 years and served three consecu-tive terms on the Buncombe County Board of Commis-sioners.

She was elected to the House in 2010 with the campaign slo-gan “putting the people first.” She defeated incum-

bent D. Bruce Goforth to win the job.Keever then reviewed the “four things”

she believes in, terming them the “four E’s.” These include education, economics, environment and equality.

First, she asserted that education is “the backbone of our economy ... Public educa-tion is for everyone ... It’s the birthright of every child in North Carolina.”

Keever also said that economics is intertwined with education, as those who are better educated tend to do better finan-cially — thereby fueling the economy.

Regarding the environment, she said suc-cinctly, “We need to keep it clean.”

As for equality, she asserted, “I believe every single person deserves” to be treated equally under the laws of the land.

“I truly believe in the system,” Keever said. “I think that it’s great that we have two ways of thinking about things,” ap-parently alluding to the Democratic and Republican parties, or liberal and conserva-tive idealogies.

She concluded by noting, “We need to keep in mind — put people first.”

During a question-and-answer session, an unidentified male CIBO member asked, “Everybody’s for education. Nobody’s not for education ... How do you recommend controlling the costs of education?”

Keever replied that the state cannot cut the costs of education with the same ap-

proach as private businesses. She added that there are “more children and more things (requirements) put on schools” each year, necessitating increased spending.

Citing recently released statistics, a female CIBO member asked, “Buncombe County had a net gain of 100 jobs” in 2011 — and “that’s not very good. What will you need to do” to improve the environment for job creation?

“A couple of things,” Keever answered. “We need to support the businesses that are already here.”

She added, “I don’t think we’re all about government creating jobs ... What we need are customers.”

However, Keever also said, “We can’t have the (state) layoffs like we did in education,” which she blamed on the first Republican-controlled General Assembly in Raleigh in more than a century.

“It’s all of us together. We’re all in this boat together. We need to lift the boat together,” Keever said.

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Area water system’s legal history termed ‘unique,’ with versions differingFrom Staff Reports

Asheville City Attorney Bob Long, who addressed the legal history of the Asheville Water System, told the Coun-cil of Independence Business Ownerson on Feb. 3 that many people have formed strong opinions on who should own the Asheville water system, depending on which ver-sion of “history” they have heard.

“The history is unique,” compared to that of other water systems in the state, he asserted.

“Whoever (originally surveyed and) went over to the north fork of the Swannanoa River in Black Mountain was laying off 16,000 to 20,000 acres” for the water system. “It was quite a job.”

Long said the Asheville water system is comprised of the Burnette Reservoir, the Bee Tree Reservoir and the Mills River Water Treatment Facility, the latter of which is

located near the confluence of the French Broad and Swan-nanoa rivers.

In speaking of the purpose of an easement, he said, “You’ve got a dedicated piece of property that’s going to stay the way it is.” From his research, Long said it appears that “the water customers paid for the system.”

He said Sullivan Acts II and III, enacted by the state legislature in 2005, required that Asheville as well as Bun-combe and Henderson counties’ water rates must be the same systemwide — and that the money made in the water system had to be kept in the system, except that which was needed to pay off indebtedness. The acts were justified by the legislators, based on the contention that Asheville had not paid for the water lines outside the city limits.

He said the water systems around Asheville had “floated their own bonds ... Most of those systems are now within

the City of Asheville water system.”As for Candler, Long said, “The first round of the legis-

lation in 1955” focused “on whether it was constitutional for the legislature to require rates to be equal.”

“The city only served to pump water into the system, read the meters and bill the customers,” he noted. “The court concluded that these same factual underpinnings con-tinued to exist in 2005 — except that at an even greater” rate differential.

“I’m not here to advocate what’s to be done with the system.” However, he said after the passage of the Sul-livan Acts, “this is like a restart — all of the customers are paying for it equally ... The people outside of the city have actually paid for their portion of the sytem and the question is — should they have higher rates,” Long concluded.


Montreat College makes cuts to balance budgetFrom Staff Reports

MONTREAT — Four academic pro-grams and 29 employees will be cut in an effort to make ends meet at Montreat College, school President Dan Struble an-nounced Feb. 1.

“The current economic conditions have affected tuition, gift and endowment income for most colleges and universities; Montreat College is no exception,” the col-lege stated in a press release.

“Montreat College leaders have an-nounced decisions to enable a healthy, sustainable future for the institution.”

Fifteen workers were laid off immedi-

ately, while the other 14 will lose their jobs at the end of the spring semester. Some financial aid will be offered to faculty and staff who are laid off, school officials

said. The private Christian college has 171 employees.

The bachelor’s level programs axed will include elementary education, music and worship arts. The fourth program, the mas-ter’s in education, will close at the end of the semester. Prior to the cuts, the college had 24 academic programs.

“The college will assure that students enrolled in the discontinued programs are able to complete their degrees. Transition assistance is being provided for the faculty and staff affected by the changes,” the college press release noted. Of the school’s 755 students, 15 will be affected by the

cuts.“Rather than raise tuition to balance the

budget, Montreat College will keep tuition flat for the 2012-13 academic year.”

What’s more, the salaries of Struble and the college’s cabinet members will be reduced. No specifics were available on those cuts. No other college employees will suffer cuts, the school said.

The college has offered what it bills as “transformative, Christ-centered education for over 95 years. It will continue its efforts to build enrollment and to seek financial support to enable it to grow and to thrive for years to come,” a press release stated.

UNCA, WCU students to pay 9.9% tuition increaseFrom Staff Reports

CHAPEL HILL — The University of North Carolina Board of Governors voted Feb. 11 to raised tuition by 9.9 percent at both UNC Asheville and Western Carolina University.

The average tuition boost was about 9 percent across the 16 university campuses in the system. The action occurred despite loud demonstrations by crowds of students protesting the increases.

“UNC Asheville recognizes the difficult decision faced by the UNC Board of Gov-ernors and (UNC System President Tom Ross), who are trying to balance univer-sity needs with affordability for all North Carolina students,” UNCA Provost Jane Fernandes noted in a statement. “Increasing tuition is something no one wants, but we must protect the high-quality educational experience we offer students.”

UNCA actually sought a higher tuition

increase than was approved by the board. The school’s trustees recommended a $500 tuition increase for both full-time in-state and out-of-state students. However, the UNC board ended up increasing tuition by $310 for in-state undergraduate students. It did, though, approve the trustees’ suggested $500 tuition jump for out-of-state and graduate students.

WCU in-state undergraduate students will face a tuition increase of $399.

From Staff ReportsDr. Dan Eichenbaum announced recently

that he is dropping out of the 11th District congressional race.

Eichenbaum, who was endorsed by the Asheville Tea Party, among other groups, did not endorse any other candidate. He is an ophthalmolo-gist from Murphy.

“With the filing deadline upon us, having spent many of the past days in prayer and discus-sions with family and friends. I have decided that I will not file for U.S. Con-

gress for North Carolina’s 11th District,” he stated in an e-mail.

He cited policies and money as the chief

reasons for canceling his campaign.“Over the past several months of the

campaign, listening to the other candidates for Congress in N.C. 11, I find increasingly little difference, on paper or in words, be-tween the positions I have consistently held and theirs. More importantly, I am unable to self-fund sufficiently to compete against those who can. As such, I see no clear path to victory in the primary.”

Eichenbaum thanked his family and sup-porters for their backing.

“For those candidates seeking the sup-port of grassroots groups, especially those affiliated with the iCaucus, I urge you to submit to its vetting process. Evaluation

and approval of your platform by indepen-dent groups gives citizens of this district the ability to hold you accountable for your actions in Washington, D.C.”

He added, “Be assured, I will continue to champion private-property rights, consti-tutionally limited government, personal responsibility, fiscal restraint, individual liberty and a free market economy based on the principles of sound monetary policy.

“As patriots, we must resist — with vigor — the elitists in the current admin-istration and their fellow travelers in both parties who seek to seal our birthright of freedom and replace it with the tyranny of soclialism,” Eichenbaum concluded.

Eichenbaum drops out of congressional race,citing policy similarities, financial concerns

Dr. DanEichenbaum Way beyond hip and trendy

Asheville Daily Planet

Asheville Daily Planet — March 2012 - 7

Greenpeace’s action promptslocal activists to plan next step From Staff Reports

Two days after the arrests of 16 members of the environmental group Greenpeace on Feb. 13 at Progress Energy’s Skyland plant, about 150 people met to discuss the next steps at Pasana Café in downtown Asheville.

In the Greenpeace incident, five protest-ers from the group scaled a 300-foot inac-tive smokestack and unfurled a banner that stated: “Duke Energy ... The climate needs ... Real Prog-ress.” Greenpeace leaders later announced from Washington, D.C., that Duke — once it acquires Prog-ress in a pending merger — will be the nation’s largest utility, making it a key player in energy policy.

As noted in the local media, the Green-peace action also highlighted holes in the plant’s security.

The 16 Greenpeace members entered the plant’s secured perimeter shortly before dawn, using ladders to scramble over a fence, after which five members scaled the smokestack to hang the banner.

All 16 members were arrested on mis-demeanor trespassing charges. Several members also were charged with misde-meanor breaking and entering. The group was released from the Buncombe County Detention Facility on the night of Feb. 13, after posting a $1,000 bond each. A Green-peace representative who posted bail for the group paid the entire amount in cash. Those arrested have a March 6 court date.

Greenpeace is asking Duke to halt its mountaintop removal of coal. It also is asking the utility to set a goal of generating at least a third its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

What’s more, the group wants Duke to quit using coal altogether by 2030, citing harm to environmental and human health.

On Feb. 15, Greenpeace activists still in Asheville followed up with a community meeting to discuss strategies for opposing the use of coal to fuel the Skyland plant.

The Posana Café meeting, which was open to the public, included representatives

from area environmental groups, includ-ing Appalachian Voice. Also attending and speaking was Hartwell Carson, the French Broad riverkeeper.

At the meeting, several speakers stressed that coal ash is a major issue and urged those present to get actively oppose it.

“Coal ash is a huge priority for us,” Ula Reeves of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy said. “As someone pointed out, we just need to go after coal ... We just need to get rid of coal.”

In the Southeast alone, she said, there are about 175 coal ash ponds, “like the one on the French Broad River” at Skyland.

Carson, the riverkeeper, noted that utili-ties tend to say that they are meeting all federal and state laws at their coal-burning plants — “and it sounds good. But there basically are no laws!”

He added, We need better laws and the laws on the books need to be enforced.”

The riverkeeper also said that fly ash “used to shoot out of the top of the smoke-stacks,” but “now, scrubbers magically capture the stuff.” However, he noted, “It doesn’t go away — they put it in the (coal ash) ponds.”

Further, Carson asserted, “Some people say coal ash composition is the same as dirt. It is, but not in these radical amounts,” noting that there were much higher-than-normal concentrations of certain chemicals.

He said Progress has two coal ash ponds behind its Skyland plant, near the section of the French Broad River that runs along I-26 between Asheville and Hendersonville — “and it’s not a safe way to store coal ash ... All of this nasty stuff is sinking into the (area’s) groundwater” and the future consequences will be grim.

“A neighborhood is about 50 feet away from the two coal ash ponds ... The ponds need to be lined” to make them safer. “There is at least one person on a well near the ponds ... There is sediment pollution (going) into the river.”

Worse, Carson said, “They’re trucking this stuff (coal ash) across (I-26) to the airport to use as structural fill ... Without a doubt, the groundwater is migrating to the French Broad River, with a lot of heavy metals in the sediment ... The good thing is, there’s a solution — you can burn less coal. You can line ponds.”

The riverkeeper urged those in the audi-ence to challenge the state to stiffen the requirements in its permits that allow utili-ties to dump their coal ash.

Tell our advertisers — who enable us to bring you this newspaper —that you saw their ad in the Daily Planet!

Asheville businessman, developerof Pack’s Tavern, dies at age 63From Staff Reports

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Asheville businessman and developer Stewart Coleman, whose properties include the popular Pack’s Tavern, died Jan. 29 after a short illness.

Coleman, 63, died at Medical University Hospi-tal in Charleston, S.C. He was a lifelong resident of Asheville.

In 2010, Coleman opened Pack’s Tavern, a restau-rant and taproom just off Pack Square in downtown Asheville.

Coleman had originally intended a nine-story business development and condos on a slice of land adjoining Pack Square Park, and on the site of the old Hayes and Hopson building, which was once home to the old Bill Stanley’s barbecue.

The controversial devel-opment was stalled, and Coleman instead redeveloped the Hayes and Hopson site into Pack’s Tavern, which has become a popular downtown gathering spot.

He was president of S.B. Coleman Construction Co. He and his family developed the Asheville Mall in 1972.

An estimated 600 people attended Coleman’s funeral service on Feb. 3 at Trin-ity Episcopal Church in

Asheville.Born in Asheville to Betty Bryan Cole-

man and to the late Richard L. (Pokey) Coleman, Sr., Stewart graduated from Lee Edwards High School in 1966 and from N.C. State University in 1972.

Hartwell Carson

Stewart Coleman

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From Staff ReportsThe news media and some specta-

tors converged on the Occupy Asheville encampment in front of City Hall at noon Feb. 17 to see if the group would move — as required by the city — after nearly three months in that location.

John Spitzberg, head of the local Veter-ans for Peace, told reporters that he and a dozen other veterans were on hand to “act as a barrier” to ensure that there would be no violence between the police and OA.

Intead of erupting into melée as occurred in some other cities, most of the roughly 60 protesters peacefully broke camp, while vowing to continue demonstrating around the city against wealth disparity, homeless-

ness and other social issues.

As campers folded up tents and raked and cleaned the area, some chanted slogans, beat on drums and other-wise showed that their spirits remained high.

During the camp breakdown, the Asheville Police Department kept a

low profile, with only park officer Keith Whittington observing activities from a distance. “They’re fine on the property,” he told the Daily Planet. “We can see that progress is being made.”

Spitzberg, who also is secretary-treasurer for the Asheville Homeless Network, lamented that “there’s a real disconnect” between Asheville City Council and the Occupiers, based on council’s action on Feb. 14 that required the protesters to leave the park.

Council voted 6-1 to include the small piece of land the OA protesters were camped on as part of the adjacent Pack Square Park, thereby making park curfews applicable to the camp. Casting the nega-tive vote was Councilman Gordon Smith.

In addition, council voted 5-2 to ban overnight camping on city property, with both ordinances becoming effective at noon Feb. 17. Casting the negative votes were Smith and Councilman Cecil Bothwell.

Spitzberg also noted that “15 to 20 per-cent of the homeless nationally are truly, chronically homeless.” At the OA encamp-ment, he added, “They (the homeless) were able to find nurturing and housing. The bottom line is, they’re criminalized again at 12 noon today.”

Further, he asserted, “All I asked from

them (council) at the (Feb. 14) meeting is to provide a safe” alternative shelter for the homeless members of OA.

“There are not sufficient shelters to house them,” Spitzberg asserted. “The ones (shelters) that are here demand that they be treated as children, with a curfew and ser-mon” they have to endure. “Some churches demand a price tag” from the homeless. “There should be no price tag for being homeless.”

Meanwhile, APD officials said no arrests had been made at the encampment through the afternoon and early into the evening. (See story on Page 9 for details on OA ar-rests in front of City Hall later that night.)

Anyone can remain in the park between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., according to APD Interim Chief Wade Wood. However, after that time, protesters would be arrested and likely be charged with trespassing. By late afternoon, only four tents remained.

Spitzberg told the Planet he would try to get his fellow veterans to return at 10 p.m.

“I believe that the City Council acted against the needs of its most marginalized and vulnerable people in our community,” he said. “All we were asking for was give us sanctuary” for the homeless.

Spitzberg added that, at 10 that night, “I think they (the APD) will swoop down” and make massive arrests.

Occupy protesters break camp, vow to stay course

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John SpitzbergAn OA protester kneels as she holds a pole with an American flag.

The Occupy Asheville campers take down their encampment on Feb. 17.Daily Planet Staff Photos


By JOHN NORTHAt the 10 p.m. curfew on Feb. 17, three

tents remained at the Occupy Asheville en-campment area — or in front of City Hall — with several dozen protesters hanging out in the area that had been declared part of Pack Square Park.

Several musicians played guitars and banged on drums.

John Spitzberg and three or four other members of the local chapter of Veterans for Peace returned after taking a break from their afternoon presence to — as he put it — provide a barrier between the Asheville Police Department and the OA protesters. (For details on the decampment at noon Feb. 17, see story on Page 8.)

At 10:25 p.m., several officers showed up and stood nearby. Eventually, about 15 officers appeared.

The OA protesters were warned to take down the tents, but all three of them peaceably refused to comply, despite three separate requests by police.

Each of the three was charged late that night with violation of a city ordinance with the wording “tents on city property.”

Arrested were Perry Thompson Gra-ham, 23, of Eugene, Ore.; Matthew Ryan Dannevik, 26, of Scribener, Neb.; and John Rhodes Perry, 60, of Asheville. Graham and Dannevik were each released on a $100 bond. Perry was released on a written promise to appear in court.

Asheville City Council on Feb. 14 voted to include the slice of land on which the OA protesters were camping as part of the adjoining Pack Square Park. As a result, the park’s 10 p.m. curfew applied to the camp. Council also voted to ban overnight camp-ing on the city property. The two ordinanc-es went into effect on Feb. 17.

During the confrontations between the APD and the protesters, an OA member told the police that they are “part of the 99 percent” and “you should be arresting the 1 percent. You should be arresting Bank of America and Wells Fargo — Bank of America is foreclosing on people’s homes.”

Just before the police showed up, Penley, an OA member and one of the arrestees, told the Daily Planet — in an interview —of his challenging circumstances that brought him to his camping spot.

The Vietnam-era U.S. military veteran said he was born and grew up in Asheville. He noted that he was a co-captain of the Asheville High football team, on which he played linebacker.

He said he was among the original Oc-cupy Wall Street protesters who camped out in Zuccotti Park in New York City. Penley later moved on the Freedom Park in Washington, D.C., where he got arrested.

Penley said he once was a photo-journal-ist, but has been unemployed in Asheville for eight months. He lamented that he recently applied for a dishwasher’s job — and was rejected.

“I wanted to be part of the Asheville pro-test,” he said. For the 10 p.m. curfew, Pen-ley said, “I moved my tent in front of City Hall ... This area now has been designated (by Penley) as the free speech movement.”

He likened the Occupy movement to “Paul Revere riding in and warning” every-one of problems in America’s economy and society. Penley said many problems could be solved by a “redistribution of income.”

Penley added that “it’s in the interest of the (rich) 1 pecent to keep” the poorer 99 percent from staging a revolution.

He asked, “Where are the jobs? We’ve moved industry overseas. I’d like to see work (jobs) rather than” a revolution. “I’d

like to see them (the wealthy elite) restart the Civilian Conservation Corps.”

What’s more, Penley said, “I’m not a genius, but I think anybody able to work ... ought to be able to join the CCC,” if no other jobs are available.

Penley said “the beds are full” at the area’s homeless shelters.

“There are a lot of homeless people who live out in the woods” just outside of down-town,” he noted.

Despite his criticisms of the system, Pen-

ley contended that “I’m on friendly terms with the APD.”

He also said, “I’m seeing veterans in all of these (Occupy) camps ... I think the homeless rate (in the camps) is about 30 percent of newly arrived veterans.”

Regarding his plans for responding to police when they arrived later that night, Penley said, “I talked to a civil liberties lawyer, who said this is a First Amendment right” for him to camp in front of City Hall. “Time’s on our side.”

3 Occupiersarrested infinal hurrah

John Penley, who was among the three protesters arrested, holds a signexpressing his contention that “free speech is not a zone.”

APD officers form a semicircle around tents as fellow officers remove them.

Thursday, March 1CONTRA DANCE, 8 p.m., Bryson Gym, Warren

Wilson College, Swannanoa. A contra dance is held weekly, preceded by beginner’s lessons at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $6.

Friday, March 2MODEL TRAIN SHOW, noon-7 p.m., WNC

Agricultural Center, 1301 Fanning Bridge Rd., Fletcher. The WNC Model Railroaders 20th Annual Model Train Show will be held. It will continue on March 3 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The show will feature four working layouts and more than 100 vendor tables,door prizes and a raffle. Park is free and admission is $5 for adults and free for children children under 13 accompanied by an adult.

AUTHOR’S TALK, 7 p.m. Malaprop’s Book-store/Café, 55 Haywood St., downtown Asheville. Jim Neugass will discuss his book, “War Is Beautiful.”

AUTHOR’S TALK, 7 p.m., City Lights Book-store, 3 E. Jackson St., Sylva. Bob Plott will present his new book, “Colorful Characters of the Great Smoky Mountains.”

DIANA ROSS CONCERT, 7:30 p.m., Harrah’s Cherokee Casino, Cherokee. Diana Ross, an American singer, record producer and actress, will perform. Ross was the lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. For tickets, visit Ticketmaster.com, or call (800) 745-3000.

CONCERT, 8 p.m., Altamont Theatre, 18 Church St., downtown Asheville. The California Guitar Trio will perform. For tickets, which are $15 in advance, visit www.myaltamont.com. Tickets are $18 at the door.

CONCERT, 8 pm., Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville, 1 Edwin Place, Asheville. The Alexander String Quartet will perform.

Send us your calendar itemsPlease submit items to the Calendar of Events by noon on the third Wednesday of each month, via e-mail, at [email protected], or fax to 252-6567, or mail c/o The Daily Planet, P.O. Box 8490, Asheville, N.C. 28814-8490. Submissions will be accepted and printed at the discretion of the editor, space permitting. To place an ad for an event, call 252-6565.

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Saturday, March 3PREPPERS CONFERENCE, 8:30 a.m.-5:30

p.m., Christian Life Church, 2700 Bush River Rd., Columbia, S.C. The all-day conference will address the many challenges of preparing for short- and long-term emergencies, no matter where one lives — even those with no well, no septic tank and no large garden or livestock. Be-sides a number of speakers on various subjects, vendors of survival supplies will be exhibiting and selling their goods. Lunch will be available for $7, along with snacks and drinks throughout the day. The admission fee is $12 via Pay Pal, or $15 at the door. For more information, e-mail [email protected].

CONGRESSIONAL FORUM, 10:30 a.m., Ferguson Auditorium, A-B Tech, Asheville. The Buncombe County Republican Party will hold a congressional forum feature 1th District congres-sional candidates from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. A 10th District congressional forum will be held from 1:30 to 3 p.m. A straw poll will be held dur-ing the last 20 minutes of each forum. Refresh-ments and concessions will be available from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Doors open at 9 a.m.

AUTHOR’S READING, 2 p.m., City Lights Bookstore, 3 E. Jackson St., Sylva. Trey Garland will read from his book, “A Seeker’s Guide to Inner Peace.”

AUTHOR’S TALK, 3 p.m., Malaprop’s Book-store/Café, 55 Haywood St., downtown Asheville. Rita Golden Gelman will discuss her book, “Tales of a Female Nomad.”

READING/TALK, 7 p.m., Lipinsky Auditorium, UNC Asheville. Sandra Cisneros will present a reading and a talk. The novelist and poet is the author of the critically acclaimed “The House on Mango Street.” The program is free and open to the public.

AUTHOR’S READING, 7 p.m., Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café, 55 Haywood St., downtown Asheville. Suzzy Roche, musician and novelist, will read from her book, “Wayward Saints.”

CONCERT, 8 p.m., Altamont Theatre, 18 Church St., downtown Asheville. The Black Lil-lies will perform. For tickets, which are $20 in advance, visit www.myaltamont.com.

CONCERT, 8 p.m., Diana Wortham Theatre, Pack Square, downtown Asheville. Christopher O’Reilly, a pianist, will perform. For tickets, visit www.dwtheatre.com.

Sunday, March 4CONCERT, 3 p.m., St. Matthias Episcopal

Church, 1 Dundee St., Asheville. The Asheville Cello Choir will perform. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted for the upkeep of the historic church.

CONCERT, 3 p.m., First Congregational Church, Fifth Avenue, Hendersonville. The Fire Pink Trio, featuring harp, viola and flute, will perform. Admissions is $17.

Monday, March 5CONCERT, 12:30 p.m., Lutheran Church of the

Good Shepherd, 22 Fisher Rd., Brevard. The Blair String Quartet will perform.

FILM/DISCUSSION, 7-9 p.m., Black Mountain Library, 185 Dougherty St., Black Mountain. The documentary film “Occupation 101” will explain the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with commentaries from leading Middle East scholars, journalists, peace activists and religious leaders in the first of three film and discussion programs in Black Mountain. They will be facilitated by Tony Bing, retired professor of peace studies at Earlham College and past president of the Peace and Justice Studies Association. The other programs will be held on March 12 with the documentary “The Lemon Tree” and March 19 with “The Israeli Lobby.” Admission is free.

WEST COAST SWING CLASSES, 7:30 and 8 p.m., The Hangar, Clarion Hotel, Fletcher. Free beginners’ lessons for West Coast Swing will be held at 7:30, followed by intermediate lessons at 8 every Monday. The lessons are free. After the lessons, an open dance will be held.

CONTRA DANCE, 8 p.m.,Grey Eagle. 185 Clingman Ave., Asheville. A contra dance is held weekly. Admission is $6.

Tuesday, March 6TANGO LESSON/DANCE, 6 p.m., Eleven on

Grove, Grove House Entertainment Complex, 11 Grove St., downtown Asheville. Tango lessons will precede a dance.

SWING LESSON/DANCE, 6:30 p.m., Club Eleven, Grove House Entertainment Complex, 11 Grove St., downtown Asheville. A lesson will be followed by a dance, with live music.

COIN CLUB MEETING, 7 p.m., American Le-gion Post, downtown Hendersonville. The Hender-sonville Coin Club will hold its monthly meeting.

SHAG DANCE, 7-11 p.m., The Hangar, Clarion Inn Airport, 550 Airport Road, Fletcher. The Mountain Shag Club’s weekly dance will feature a DJ. At 6:30 p.m., free lessons will be offered by Paul and Debbie Peterson. Admission is $5.

Wednesday, March 7TEA TIME SOCIAL, 6 p.m., Apollo Flame, 1025

Brevard Rd., Asheville. The Asheville Tea Party will hold its weekly Tea Time Social. All inter-ested are invited to attend.

FILM/DISCUSSION, 7-9 p.m., Brooks-Howell House, 366 Merrimon Ave., Asheville. The documentary film “Occupation 101” will explain the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with commentaries from leading Middle East scholars, journalists, peace activists and religious leaders in the first of three film and discussion programs at B-H House. They will be facilitated by Tony Bing, retired professor of peace studies at Earlham College and past president of the Peace and Justice Studies Association. The other programs will be held on March 14 with the documentary “The Lemon Tree” and March 21 with “The Israeli Lobby.” Admission is free.

Thursday, March 8FILM/DISCUSSION, 7-9 p.m., Firestorm Café,

48 Commerce St., downtown Asheville. The documentary film “Occupation 101” will explain the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with commentaries from leading Middle East scholars, journalists, peace activists and religious leaders in the first of three film and discussion programs at Firestorm Café. They will be facilitated by Tony Bing, retired professor of peace studies at Earlham College and past president of the Peace and Justice Studies Association. The other programs will be held on March 15 with the documentary

“The Lemon Tree” and March 22 with “The Israeli Lobby.” Admission is free.

GREAT QUOTES PROGRAM, 7-9 p.m., Smoky Mountain Theatre, Lake Pointe Landing, Hender-sonville. The Great Quotes program will feature Dr. Katharine R. Meacham, professor of philosophy at Mars Hill College. She will address a quote by Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860): “Death is the true inspiring genius, or the muse of philosophy ... Indeed, without death, people could scarcely philosophise.” A question-and-answer period and general discussion will follow the presentation.

CONTRA DANCE, 8 p.m., Bryson Gym, Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa. A contra dance is held weekly, preceded by beginner’s lessons at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $6.

Monday, March 12COIN CLUB MEETING, 7 p.m., basement,

Grove Arcade, downtown Asheville. The Bun-combe County Coin Club will hold its monthly meeting.

WEST COAST SWING CLASSES, 7:30 and 8 p.m., The Hangar, Clarion Hotel, Fletcher. Free beginners’ lessons for West Coast Swing will be held at 7:30, followed by intermediate lessons at 8 every Monday. The lessons are free. After the lessons, an open dance will be held.


Tuesday, March 13BILTMORE FOREST MEETING, 4:30 p.m.,

Town Hall, Biltmore Forest, Asheville. The Bilt-more Forest Town Commission will meet.

Arthur Schopenhauer (above), a German philosopher known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity, will be the focus of a Great Quotes program from 7 to 9 p.m. March 8 in Smoky Mountain Theatre at Lake Pointe Landing in Hendersonville.


Diana Ross, perhaps best known as the lead singer of the female soul group The Su-premes, will perform at 7:30 p.m. March 2 at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino in Cherokee.

Continued from


Continued from Page 10Calendar

503 New Leicester Hwy. Tel. (828) 225-4209Asheville, N.C. 28806 Fax (828) 225-4208

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11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Lunch Buffet

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WORKSHOP, 6-8 p.m., Skyland Fire Depart-ment, 9 Miller Rd., Skyland. The Civitas Institute will present “Free-Market Academy Asheville: Eco-nomics in One Lesson.” The workshop is inspired by Henry Hazlitt’s classic book, “Economics in One Lesson,” which was once described by fellow economist F.A. Hayek as “a brilliant performance.” Civitas is billing the book as exploring “several overlooked economic truths missing from today’s economic debates” and “essential for newcomers to economics and also serves as a great refresher for those already familiar with the sbuject.” Admis-sion is free.




Brevard Rd., Asheville. The Asheville Tea Party will hold its weekly Tea Time Social. All interested are invited to attend.



Saturday, March 17LINCOLN-REAGAN DINNER, 7 p.m., The

Crowne Plaza, West Asheville. The 2012 Lincoln-Reagan Dinner will be presented by the Buncombe County Republican Party and the Buncombe County Republican clubs. The keynote speaker will be Cherie Berry, the state commis-sioner of labor. Featured speakers will include state Sen. Pat McCroy, a gubernatorial candidate; state Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson County; and Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-Cherryville. The dinner will be preceded by a reception that begins at 5:30 p.m.

Sunday, March 18STAMP CLUB MEETING, 2 p.m., Deerfield

Episcopal Retirement Community Center, 1617 Hendersonville Rd., Asheville. The Asheville Stamp Club will hold its monthly meeting.

PANEL PRESENTATION/DISCUSSION, 2-3:30 p.m., Ray Auditorium, YMI Cultural Center, downtown Asheville. “Occupy Asheville – The Inside Story” will be presented by a panel of four speakers at the monthly meeting of the Ethical Society of Asheville. The panel consists of four Occupy Asheville insiders: Lindsey Miliquez, a philosophy student at Asheville-Buncombe Technical College and member of OA’s social justice working group; Naomi Archer, a trained legal observer and member of OA’s legal defense working group; Kasha Baxter, an addictions counselor (with a master’s degree in psychology) and member of OA’s correspondence working group; and James Latimore, a retired college teacher, member of Veterans for Peace and member of OA’s committee of correspondence working group. The ESA invited attendees “to find out the purpose and goals of our local group and get answers to your questions about this grassroots movement.” A discussion period will follow the presentation. Following the meeting, there will be time for informal conversation.

Monday, March 19WEST COAST SWING CLASSES, 7:30 and 8

p.m., The Hangar, Clarion Hotel, Fletcher. Free beginners’ lessons for West Coast Swing will be held at 7:30, followed by intermediate lessons at 8 every Monday. The lessons are free. After the lessons, an open dance will be held.








Thursday, March 22PLAY, 7:30 p.m., Carol Belk Theatre, UNC

Asheville. UNCA Theatre will present the play “Tartuffe” by Moliere. “Tartuffe” is the story of a family turned upside down by the arrival of a con man pretending to be a religious figure. It is billed as “a lively and hilarious look at hypocrisy and greed hiding behind a mask of piety.” Show dates for the 7:30 p.m. performances include March 22, 23, 24, 29, 30 and 31. See March 25 listing for the one matinee performance. Tickets are $5 for students, $8 for UNCA faculty/staff and $10 for general admission. Tickets are avail-able at the box office 60 minutes before curtain, online at http://drama.unca.edu/ and by calling the Theatre UNCA box office at 232-2291.

CONTRA DANCE, 8 p.m., Bryson Gym, Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa. A contra dance is held weekly, preceded by beginner’s lessons at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $6.

Friday, March 24GUN/KNIFE SHOW, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., WNC

Agricultural Center, 1301 Fanning Bridge Rd., Fletcher. The Land of the Sky Gun and Knife Show will be held. The show will conclude from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March. 25. Admission is $7.

Sunday, March 25CELEBRATION FOR THE TROOPS, 1-5 p.m.,

St. John’s in the Wilderness Church, Flat Rock. The 10th annual celebration will be held for a program that knits and crochets items for deployed United States troops.

PLAY, 2 p.m., Carol Belk Theatre, UNC Asheville. UNCA Theatre will present its only matinee of the play “Tartuffe” by Moliere. For de-tails of its nightly schedule, see March 22 listing.

Monday, March 26WEST COAST SWING CLASSES, 7:30 and 8

p.m., The Hangar, Clarion Hotel, Fletcher. Free beginners’ lessons for West Coast Swing will be held at 7:30, followed by intermediate lessons at 8 every Monday. The lessons are free. After the lessons, an open dance will be held.










Friday, March 30MOODY BLUES CONCERT, 9 p.m., Harrah’s

Cherokee Casino, Cherokee. The Moody Blues. For tickets, visit Ticketmaster.com, or call (800) 745-3000.

Saturday, March 31MAVIS STAPLES CONCERT, 8 p.m., Lipinsky

Auditorium, UNC Asheville. Mavis Staples, billed as a gospel and rhythm and blues legend, will perform in concert. She began her on-stage career in the 1950s as a member of her family’s group, The Staple Singers. In the 1970s, the group reached the top of the Billboard charts with “I’ll Take You There” and “Respect Your-self.” Mavis Staples began her solo career in the late 1960s with a voice that some say captures the strength and spirit of R&B, sould and gospel. She was named one of the 100 greatest singers of all time by Rolling Stone and one of the 100 greatest women of rock and roll by VH1. Staples is a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Winner (2005), and in 2011 she won the Grammy for Best Americana Album with “You Are Not Alone. Admission, is $5 for UNCA students, $7 for all area students, $20 for UNCA faculty, staff, alumni, NCCCR and Western Caroluna University faculty and staff, and $35 for the general public. For tickets, visit uncatickets.com.

Mavis Staples, a gospel and rhythm-and-blues legend, will perform at 8 p.m. March 31 at UNC Asheville’s Lipinsky Auditorium.

The Moody Blues — a British rock band known for its innovations, including a fusion of rock with classical music, most notably in its 1967 album “Days of Future Passed” — will perform at 9 p.m. March 30 at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino in Cherokee.

Big government advocates are like teenagers with cell phones. Any call for limits is im-mediately met with alarm and protestations of imminent disaster.

When your job is to consume resources, a description fitting most government enterprise, you live in a world of constant insecurity. Un-like producers, your contribution is harder to track. As a result, self-protection becomes job one for most government agencies. Reason and restraint are poorly fed by this mission.

Another trait common to teens and gov-ernment is the belief that the world revolves around you know who. That naturally leads to entitlement thinking, arrogance, and narcissism. Those traits make it easier for parents to smile when their young leave the nest.

Unfortunately, government doesn’t grow up, it grows bigger and worse. Without the strong parental hand of an educated and engaged pub-lic you get the kind of adolescent government we have today.

Louisiana wisdom .…The Republican primary is a curious mix of

entertainment, education, drama, and pre-tense. As a reality show, it’s almost as good as “Swamp People.”

On the minus side, it’s really tough to sepa-rate the wheat from the chaff. Everyone on that stage is a talker — including professionals whose talk doesn’t match their walk.

On the plus side, whoever wins will be a practiced debater by the time Obama steps into the ring. The Republican candidate should be able to turn a bright light on our Presidential Imposter. Until that candidate emerges, conser-vative thinkers should look long and deep and choose wisely.

Noah Webster once offered guidance, “In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomi-nation of the candidate — look to his character.” At some point we’ll be stuck with a lesser of evils decision. Until that time think like a Cajun gater hunter, and ignore the glitz.

Who can beat Obama?Putting it simply — Ron Paul is the only

Republican presidential candidate remotely acquainted with standing for something.

All the rest, Romney, Gingrich and Santo-rum have repeatedly demonstrated themselves

as political opportunists. What’s that? It’s a please and appease politician who panders to his current audience in order to support job one — being liked or being elected. That’s why there’ve been so many position changes for our candidates. Heck, Newt was for federally man-dated health care before Romney or Obama. The same Romney now speaking against abor-tion was once really for it. Who are these guys kidding — they’re all Washington insiders.

We don’t have to buy their nonsense, but we do have to find someone to beat Obama. That’s the real job one and that’s who should get the nomination. After that, we can decide to get back in our recliner or hold these guys to stand-ing for something real.

Manipulators misused ClintOne of the better Super Bowl commercials

relied on the sturdy skills of Clint Eastwood – this generation’s version of John Wayne.

Eastwood’s reference to “It’s Half-Time in America” had a stirring ring of authenticity. Unfortunately, the ad was sponsored by a car company, Chrysler, that’s owned by a foreign car company, Fiat.

Worse, Chrysler and GM received a bailout of $80 billion – $25 billion of which is gone forever.

President BHO likes to tout his “Detroit Miracle” as a stellar example of his policies. He’s right. His blend of crony socialism and crony capitalism enabled the Detroit bailout — and allowed bad managers and greedy unions to escape accountabilities at taxpayer expense.

Ford, as a real model of American ingenuity, resisted Washington meddling, made adjust-ments, and accepted the responsibility that comes with opportunity. Chrysler should be ashamed for misusing Clint and us.

•Carl Mumpower, a former member of

Asheville City Council, may be contacted at [email protected]

CarlMumpower

Daily Planet’s Opinion

It’s time to rev uparea’s job growth

Times have been tough for the past several years — and they remain tough — in this place that some play-fully (and others, seriously) call the People’s Republic of Asheville.

No doubt, many deep sighs of dis-appointment were heaved when, in early February, the state Employment Security Division announced that the Asheville metro area gained only 100 net new jobs in 2011.

Indeed, the report shows — at best — marginal job gains resulting in 0.1 percent growth for last year.

With the local economy sputtering, Buncombe County’s unemployment rate increased to 7.6 percent in De-

cember, up from 7.3 percent in No-vember.

The prolonged economic slump has many communities reeling in dis-tress in the United States and around the world, so Asheville’s slight gain in jobs could be interpreted as rela-tively positive.

However, we think this metro area can do much better.

To spur job creation in the private sector, we encourage local officials — where possible — to cut taxes and fees on entrepreneurs. Such a tack would encourage them to grow their businesses, thereby necessitating the hiring that this area so badly needs.

Letters to the EditorContraceptive use notbeing forced on anyone

If the Catholic Church were right that contraception is immoral, then everyone would be honor-bound to oppose contra-ception.

However, proof that contraception is immoral requires more than a declaration by the church. If we had a state church, the problem would disappear. The church would tell us what to believe. Absent a state church, each individual must decide for himself. Absent a state church, issues such as contraception must be resolved by political means. This doesn’t mean the state is entitled to force individuals to violate their moral beliefs.

But no one is forcing Catholics to use contraception. Nor is the government forc-ing the church to provide financial support to contraception programs. Obama reversed himself and even exempted institutions connected with the Catholic Church.

The church, however, appears deter-mined to end all government support for contraception. It’s certainly legitimate for the church, as one interest group among

many, to oppose contraception.It’s not legitimate, however, for the

church to claim religious persecution if the wider society decides to support contracep-tion efforts and to reject Catholic claims regarding what is moral and what is not.

COl. NED CABANISS (RET.)Fairview

Coverage of WCQS-FMprompts reader’s praise

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following references a story in February’s Daily Planet about a group’s effort to achieve changes at Asheville public radio station WCQS-FM by filing a petition with the FCC to deny its license renewal.

•I want to take this opportunity to thank

you (the Daily Planet) for the coverage of the WCQS Board Meeting and the con-troversy over program changes, use of the Community Advisory Board and the station’s responsiveness to its WNC com-munity. FRED SIMMSArden

A government of teenagers The Candid Conservative

See LETTERS, Page 14


last August the Republican Party dragged the national conversation into very strange territory. They decided to make hay with the fairly routine matter of raising the fed-eral debt ceiling. The debt ceiling had been raised seven times under G.W. Bush, and 18 times under that icon of conservatism, Ron-ald Reagan. The result of the Republican stonewalling and bellyaching about the debt ceiling was a downgrade of America’s credit rating. Nice move, GOP!

(Of course, given that the Republican’s overarching goal is to make Barack Obama a one-term president, the downgrade may have been the goal all along. Keeping un-employment high, dampening investment, stalling any program that might boost re-covery ... no holds are barred in their fight for power.)

The economic theory regarding the debt ceiling is pretty abstruse, and, practically speaking, far beyond the interest or ken of most of us. But, suddenly, it was a HOT TOPIC.

HOT TOPICS in the hands of politicians are much like magic wands in the hands of magicians. They work to distract voters from what’s really going on. Hence same-sex marriage, abortion, gun control and oth-er HOT TOPICS are raised during election season, despite the fact that those issues are rarely the subject of legislation, and pose no meaningful threat to the electorate. Mean-while the wheels of power and finance are generously greased and the well being of the people is sold to the highest bidder.

Run for your lives! Obama wants to raise the debt ceiling!

Fortunately, in September, the Occupy Wall Street movement introduced sanity into the national conversation. Who is run-ning the show? Who holds the keys to pow-er? Why isn’t our government accountable to the people of a democratic nation? Oc-cupy has successfully moved central issues onto the main stage of our national politi-cal debate. OWS shone a bright light on the Citizens United court decision that endorsed corporate personhood and blew away the McCain-Feingold campaign finance rules. It also demanded real accountability from banks and investment brokers.

By focusing attention on the one percent of Americans who control 40 percent of the wealth in this country, and on the increas-ing wealth gap, Occupy struck a nerve.

Knee-jerk conservatives wailed “Class war! They’re starting a class war!” Investor War-ren Buffet sagely responded, “Yes there is a class war, and the 1 percent have been win-ning it.”

Addressing issues raised by OWS, Buf-fet wrote in The New York Times: “Since 1992, the I.R.S. has compiled data from the returns of the 400 Americans reporting the largest income. In 1992, the top 400 had ag-gregate taxable income of $16.9 billion and paid federal taxes of 29.2 percent on that sum. In 2008, the aggregate income of the highest 400 had soared to $90.9 billion — a staggering $227.4 million on average — but the rate paid had fallen to 21.5 percent.”

Democracy cannot survive when accumu-lation of weath by a few creates a powerful aristocracy. Thanks to OWS, citizens are rising up to reclaim America. local groups meet to support the Move to Amend, aimed at eliminating the idea that corporations are people. There is pressure to implement a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions. There is a clamor for stronger oversight of Wall Street, and a growing demand for liv-ing wage laws.

Those of us on Asheville’s City Council who urged tolerance and caution concern-ing Occupy Asheville were doing our best to stand aside while the fledgling movement gathered its thoughts and found its direction. Protecting free political speech is essential to the continued health of democratic gover-nance, and making room for new expression does little near term harm and avoids long term damage. Whether the particular form and style of the Occupy movement suits you or me it bears remembering that all but a tiny handful of Americans are on the same side of the wealth gap.

Occupy is on our side. We are the 99 per-cent.

•Cecil Bothwell, a member of Asheville

City Council, is a candidate for Congress in North Carolina’s 11th District.

On the left: PreoccupiedCecilBothwell


Generation Z: Your Social Security may depend on it

CHAPEL HILL — Gen Z, I thought to myself, what in the world is that?

Because it was the theme of the annual Emerging Issues Forum in Raleigh in early February, I knew I was behind the times.

Just so you will not be so far behind, here are some basics. Gen Z is shorthand for Generation Z, young people born during the nineties and the early part of the current century. Not everybody agrees on the exact dates, but the Emerging Issues Institute defines Gen Z as “today’s 9-to-21 year-olds.”

Why label them with the letter Z?They follow Generation Y, the group born during

the 15 years or so before the nineties, sometimes called Echo Boomers because they are the children of the Baby Boomers.

Before Generation Y came Generation X, those born in the late 1960s into the 1970s. Newsweek characterized them as “the generation that dropped out without ever turning on the news or tuning in to the social issues around them.” Hence, they are sometimes called the Lost Generation. They were preceded by the post-World War II generation known as Baby Boomers.

Why would the important Emerging Issues Forum focus on Gen Z, the demographic group that is mostly still living at home and not working, or voting, or making policy?

The forum sponsor and speakers quickly deliv-ered a series of answers. In 2020 this new genera-tion “will be the 18-to-30 year olds comprising the emerging core of our state’s workforce.”

Baby Boomer retirees will be dependent on the productivity and earning power of Gen Z workers to pay Social Security premiums and other taxes that will fund the Boomers’ retiree benefits.

Politicians will not have to wait. This year the early cohort of Gen Zers will go to polls and help settle the question of who runs our governments.

Gary Pearce, longtime political consultant to former Governor Jim Hunt, told me he would advise a candidate for governor to hire 20 Gen Zers to work full time sending out tweet messages to stir up interest and deliver timely messages about the candidate’s positions and proposals.

At the Emerging Issues Forum, Pearce learned that Gen Zers send an average 3,000 tweets each month. Receiving and sending message after mes-sage is their way of getting current information. Breaking into that system of information exchange is as important in reaching Gen Zers as television has been to reach the Baby Boomers.

Although Pearce is much too old to be a Gen Zer, he says he entered the tweeting community and now gets “almost all” his current political information by following the tweets of political activists.

Some people at the forum wanted to jerk the iPhones and other devices from the hands and ears of the Gen Zers, who seem addicted to them. They feel the young people suffer too much from the loss of personal, face-to-face interaction. But others, like Pearce, are upbeat about the new fast-moving com-munication that the Gen Zers have mastered.

Machines like the ones the Gen Zers use to send their tweets will continue to revolutionize the work place. Factories and offices will continue to increase efficiency. The good news is that factory and office workers will be more and more productive. The bad news is that the more efficient working places will need fewer and fewer workers.

Still, good jobs directing designing, building, and directing the new equipment will be available for Gen Zers who are educated, directed, and trained.

The challenge for the rest of us is to be sure North Carolina’s systems of education and training are up to the task of preparing the Gen Zers for opportuni-ties that will be available.

We have at least one good reason to make sure it happens: The retirement income for us older genera-tions depends on the prosperity and success of the Gen Zers.

•D.G. Martin hosts UNC-TV’s North Carolina

“Bookwatch.”

D.G.Martin


Ethan Wingfield:Conservative or fraud?

Twenty-six year-old Ethan Wingfield is running for the GOP nod for the 11th Dis-trict congressional seat as a conservative businessman.

Since he has not held office before, one can only judge the depth of Wingfield’s conservatism on his political activism as a young man in college. Unfortunately for Western North Carolina conservatives, Wingfield’s record is one any RINO (Re-publican In Name Only) or Democrat could appreciate.

During his tenure at Brown University, Wingfield was involved in the 2006 re-election campaign for liberal Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee, serving as Brown’s co-founder of “Students for Chafee.”

Chafee was best known to conservatives for his support of abortion, federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, amnesty for illegal aliens, opposition to Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito’s confirmation, as well as opposition to the 2nd Amendment.

Chafee even opposed a bipartisan effort to ban partial birth abortion, which is the procedure where abortion doctors dilate the female and then puncture the skull of the unborn child.

Such a record would normally preclude any conservative, especially one with WNC values, from supporting such a candidate. Instead, Wingfield supported Chafee with gusto when the latter was challenged by conservative Steve Laffey in 2006.

When questioned on his support for Chafee, Wingfield was quoted that he sup-ported “‘Rhode Island Republican values,’ as represented by Chafee, over the moral conservatism backed by Laffey and many Southern Republicans.” One might ask when did Wingfield shed these Rhode Is-land Republican values for WNC conserva-tism? (Or did he?)

Chafee went on to defeat the more conservative Laffey in the primary, but lost the general election that year. Chafee, soon after, abandoned the GOP and was elected as a liberal independent to the Governor’s

Mansion in Rhode Island. This latest stint in elected office saw Chafee refuse to dedi-cate a Christmas tree, instead opting for the more benign label of holiday tree.

In addition to his prominent and vocal support of Chafee, Wingfield’s leadership skills as chairman of the Rhode Island Col-lege Republicans left much to be desired.

His tenure was notable for a letter he sent out, urging College Republicans to make sure that they moderated their words and activities when exercising free speech. His tenure was also marked by the atrophying of the organization before his resignation upon graduating.

Wingfield’s succesor as chairman, Ryan Bilodeau, stated that “(Ethan Wingfield ’07) was a chairman missing-in-action. Ethan was an intelligent businessman … but he spread himself too thin. I think we met twice throughout his term.”

That is far from a ringing endorsement to make one feel confident in placing our trust in him as congressman.

Whether it is his lack of a record of prin-cipled conservatism, his support of a liberal Northeastern RINO, his moderate approach to issues, and his lack of political skills as chairman, Wingfield is clearly not the man to represent WNC in Congress.

I invite everyone to research Chafee, Laffey and Wingfield’s tenure at Brown University to see if they are comforted or horrified at the prospect of Wingfield stand-ing for you in Washington.

•Christine Gates is the president of the

Caldwell TEA Party and president of the Caldwell Republican Club (a federal PAC) in Lenoir.

ChristineGatesGuest columnist

Letters Pagan spell books couldpave way to fix education

A recent letter (in the Asheville Citizen-Times) defending the handing out of Bibles to schoolchildren asks, “What values do spell books teach?”

Having co-written a Pagan spellbook that’s a popular textbook of magic, I’d answer that spell books’ magic teaches values absolutely critical for today’s schoolchildren to learn.

Magic imparts emotional maturity by teaching self-empowerment: To cast an effec-tive spell, you can’t rely on money, popular-ity, beauty, muscles, drugs, guns — only your own intuition and will, guided by ethics and divination rather than commandment.

Intellectually, magic teaches the “art of correspondences” — how to recognize the

fundamental patterns that interconnect all things — which develops the skill of creative problem-solving by seeing whole systems rather than isolated parts.

Physically, magic perceives the world as animated with spirit — an awareness that teaches students to treat nature and their fel-low human souls with compassion, wisdom and love rather than materialism, violence and exploitation.

Spiritually, magic embraces many god-desses and gods, teaching respect rather than intolerance for diversity of opinions, cultures, histories — and especially religions.

All in all, I’d argue that handing out Pagan spell books — on a constitutionally equal basis with Bibles, of course — could even be America’s secret key to education reform.

STEvE RASMUSSENAsheville

EDITOR’S NOTE: Steve Rasmussen is the co-author with Lady Passion of “The Goodly Spellbook: Olde Spells for Modern Problems” and can be reached via http://oldenwilde.org/.

Continued from Page 12

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Guest column

With China in spotlight, it’s time for U.S. rebirth

Lee Ballard

When I read The New York Times series in January about Apple manufacturing in China, my first thought was the mantra of the “Lost Cause Movement” in the South after the Civil War: “We were not defeated, we were outnumbered.”

I heard it a thousand times when I was a boy. China’s advantages in manufacturing are overwhelming. I had to consciously bring my thinking back to “America is not a lost cause.”

The Times’ articles include this example: “One former executive described how [Apple] relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves.

Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an as-sembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight. A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, accord-ing to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.”

For the manufacture of those glass screens, Apple had Corning and a Chinese company compete. The Times’ article said, “The Chinese plant’s owners were already constructing a new wing. ‘This is in case you give us the contract,’ the manager said, according to a former Apple executive.

The Chinese government had agreed to underwrite costs for numerous industries, and those subsidies had trickled down to the glass-cutting factory.” Apple gave the contract to the Chinese company.

When Apple gave the Times their ra-tionale for going to China, they described China as more “flexible,” “diligent,” “in-dustrially skilled.”

Uh yeah, thousands of workers living in dorms on site can help a company be flexible. And people living away from home would tend to be diligent. And then there’s government support: financially, in recruiting workers from the countryside, in directing millions of state-supported students into fields needed for their national industrial plan.

When I finished reading, I felt something like despair. Like the way starving Confed-erates must have felt when they overran a

Yankee camp and found food aplenty, new blankets, guns and ammunition, shoes.

What chance did they have to win such an unfair fight?

I hear pundits say we’re in a post-indus-trial time anyway, blah-blah, let somebody else assemble our products. And indeed it is true that America’s dominance in this century will be through technology.

And it’s also true that these pundits know a whole lot more about this stuff than I do. All I can see is people who used to have solid lives based on good wages now tak-ing anything they can get. And I think of 1942, when we beat the Japanese air force and navy at Guadalcanal just eight months after Pearl Harbor. We had a strong indus-trial base, and it delivered.

We hear a lot in the presidential cam-paign about “bringing back jobs.”

And indeed there is a lot that government can do, with tax incentives and the like.

But there’s another scene I’d like to see happen. I believe that President Obama in his second term will bring about a rebirth of patriotism, pride in who we are as Americans.

If I squint hard, I can see a popular movement, rising out of this patriotism, that gives American corporations a mes-sage: Profit ain’t all there is. Maybe boy-cotts, maybe shareholder revolts, maybe pressure from the media about working conditions in other countries.

Maybe, just maybe. •

Lee Ballard lives in Mars Hill.

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16 — March 2012 - Asheville Daily Planet

From Staff Reports A forum on the issue of

whether the City of Asheville should keep control of its water system drew about 250 people Feb. 13 at Grace Cov-enant Presbyterian Church in North Asheville.

Regarding the attendance, panelist Esther Manheimer, vice mayor of Asheville, said, “I’m overwhelmed — amazed at this turnout.” She noted that she was partici-pating as a member of City Council.

The speakers at the forum clashed over control of the $1.3 billion in water works that serve about 125,000 people within the city and outside of it.

The forum, hosted by the League of Women Voters, focused on a discussion of an ongoing study by a state House commit-tee on whether to give control of the system to an independent authority or to let the city keep it.

State Rep. Tim Moffitt, R-Buncombe, proposed the idea and was invited to the fo-rum, but did not attend, later citing a sched-uling conflict. His absence drew a number of angry comments from those speaking at the forum. He is the chairman of the state committee looking into the plan.

In a written statement reader by forum organizer Nelda Holder, Moffitt sought to dispel the notion that his ultimate goal was to privatize Asheville’s water system.

Instead, Moffitt said in his statement that the committee would only consider whether to give the system to an inde-pendent authority, to the public body now running Buncombe’s sewer system or leave it with Asheville.

In addition, Moffitt vowed to sponsor a bill keeping the water system forever in public hands.

Rep. Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson, who is also a member of the Metropoli-tan Sewerage/Water System Committee, participated in a panel discussion at the forum. McGrady explained that he believed Moffitt’s intent in raising the issue was to increase the efficiency of the man water system serving the area.

Some of the panel members and many of those addressing the panel favored the city continuing to own and maintain the system. Several speakers noted that Asheville re-cently began $40 million in repairs. Funds for the repairs were from bonds backed by customers who mostly are city residents, but also include many businesses and homes outside Asheville.

Conversely, Gene Rainey, a former chairman of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, said turn-ing the system over to an independent authority would result in greater efficiency and create jobs.

“Rep. Moffitt’s proposal has not been popular,” he said, as some in the crowd laughed at his understate-ment. “I’m a Democrat, but we owe him (Moffitt) a debt. A debt for bringing up an issue that needs to be ad-dressed now.”

In contrast, activist Barry Summers warned that privatization usually begins with a company managing a public system.

“A private company would take over ev-ery aspect, setting rates, collecting revenue, whatever,” Summers asserted.

Summers then asked McGrady if the committee could guarantee that privatiza-tion would never occur.

“There is no discussion of privatization of any sort,” McGrady told Summers.

Manheimer, , said, “What I want to focus on is how good it (the city-run water system) is ... It’s not used to subsidize the city’s general fund ... Basically, we’re not running the water for the city as a cash cow — it’s so we have good service.”

However, McGrady said that Henderson County would have no interest in joining in with Asheville in a regional authority.

McGrady noted that Henderson resi-dents still harbor “hard feelings” toward Asheville over the regional water works be-cause “the agreement was not honored. The city (Asheville) agreed to provide water to industries in northern Henderson County ... The county (ultimately) sued to get rights to the water.”

Postal

Water forum heats up

USPS officials have presented a plan to close 3,700 post offices and 252 mail pro-cessing centers, including one in Asheville. The Postal Service has delayed that plan until May.

Chris Berg, an actor who portrayed Ben Franklin, reminded the crowd — in a brief appearance — that he and the other Founding Fathers included a provision (in the Constitution) for a post office because of the importance of mail delivery. He noted that Franklin was the first postmaster general.

In his portrayal of Franklin, Berg praised those at the protest for “being willing to

fight — in the matters that oppress the common people.” Moreover, he ripped the prefunding law as “absolute nonsense that pays for workers who will not even be hired in 50 years.”

Other speakers were congressional can-didates Cecil Bothwell, Patsy Keever and Tom Hill, all Democrats; Mark Case, presi-dent of the WNC Central Labor Council; and Blake Butler, a progressive talk-show host on 880-AM radio station in Fairview.

Butler noted that, even though the Oc-cupy Asheville tents were gone from the encampment in front of City Hall, the spot where they stood remains hallowed ground.

“Everyone here wants transparency, ac-countability and big money out of politics,”

he said.Butler lamented that “we’ve got elected

officicials who vote at us — not with us ... Folks, we’ve got the power to vote them out of office ... It matters because this collective voice is the only thing that can change things.”

Bothwell asserted, “There should be a lot more people out here.” He blamed the Republican congress for requiring the pen-sion prepayment that is resulting in USPS’s cost-cutting. “Who wouldn’t pay even 75 cents for a first-class letter” to keep from closing the processing center? he asked.

In addition, Margaret Davison, president of the Edneyville Grange, spoke about how the area needs its post office.



State Sen. Martin Nesbitt

WaterHowever, he also asserted that he does

not think it is fair that representatives of one-third of the water-users — city resi-dents — are dictating to the two-thirds of users — county residents.

He said the other panelists, with the exception of Rep. Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson County, were guilty of “one glaring omission — and that’s (ignoring) the history of the water system” — in their fiscally motivated goal of one day charging customers differential rates for water.

Moffitt charged that it is taken as a “threat” — by Buncombe and Henderson County customers — when city officials constantly complain about the need to charge different rates to different custom-ers.

Ultimately, though, “I have no interest in harming our community,” he said.

Moffitt then suggested that a regional agency could rectify the situation where Buncombe and Henderson residents have no say in governing the city-owned water system that serves them.

It “has been governed solely by the citi-zens of Asheville without any real regard to the people in the county,” he said.

Despite state law prohibiting Asheville from charging differential rates to water customers, “there is a continual threat to people who live outside Asheville” that they will be charged higher rates than their city brethren, Moffitt asserted.

Conversely, others speakers said the war is over between the city and Buncombe County and that the water system is op-erating well under Asheville control and, therefore, needs no change.

“The worst policies we have are when something is jammed down our throat from Raleigh or Washington,” David Gantt, chairman of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, said via videotape.

The event was billed as an opportunity

for the community and a panel of speakers to discuss an effort underway in Raleigh that could possibly remove control of the water system from the City of Asheville.

The event was triggered by a bill intro-duced last spring by Moffitt that could take local control of Asheville’s water system from the city and place it into the hands of an independent authority.

Moffitt later modified the bill into a study. Thus, the committee he chairs is ex-amining the operation of the current water system to determine whether it should be surrendered to an outside agency.

“This is not a partisan issue,” meet-ing moderator Elaine Lite said in a press release before the meeting. “It’s not a city versus county issue. It’s a matter of our community coming together to determine what is in our own best interest. We have got to do that if we want to keep local con-trol of the water.”

Councilman Jan Davis, a panelist, noted that “a lot of rumor and inuendo is going around.” He cited a rumor involving his participation at Moffitt’s committee meet-ing in Raleigh, where some people have said he was cutoff from making remarks.

“I was neither cutoff, nor not allowed to speak,” Davis said. “I was gathering my thoughts and missed my opportunity,” as Moffitt took his hesitation as a sign that he was finished talking and ended the meeting.

The crowd cheered when Rep. Patsy Keever, D-Buncombe, said, “The bottom line is, I’m adamantly opposed to privitiza-tion of the water system in any shape or form.”

She added, “Water is the basic element for you, whether you’re in the city or in the county.” Keever said the recent dissolution of the regional water system “was not done in the best way possible, but it was the right thing to do.”

The crowd again cheered when Keever said, “Asheville has been a good steward for the (region’s) water resources ... If a decision is to be made about our water, it should be made here — and not at the state level.”

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Asheville”

Occupy girl with boyfriend issues looks for the Gaia next doorI’m an Occupy girl, age 45, into eco-

shamanism and planetary consciousness stuff. I’ve mostly dated engineers with a playful side who initially seemed open to my interests but quickly became resent-ful of them. My boyfriend of two years is different — easygoing and willing to ex-pand his horizons. He actually reads the articles I post on Facebook and discusses them with me. We laugh effortlessly and are very giving to each other, but I can’t shake the feeling that I should look for somebody more my type (more artisti-cally, politically and spiritually inclined). I fantasize about meeting an artistic sha-manic guy who is gorgeous and open and shares my sense of purpose, but the truth is, guys in my social milieu can be very competitive, neurotic and immature. I guess my question is: If you can IMAG-INE a better partner, does that mean you should break up?

— RestlessThese guys you dated probably believed

they were open-minded … until they were invited by their eco-shamanistic girlfriend to something like the “Embrace of the Earth” rite, in which participants spend the night in a grave they dig themselves.

As refreshing as you may find it to “tap into the earth’s restorative energies,” their first thought probably went something like “Thanks, I’ll take the night on the 800 thread count, slave-labor-made sheets. Could you turn on my electric blanket, please, before you go?”

If a guy thinks a girl’s hot, he’ll buy into whatever her trip is for as long as he can. My steak-loving boyfriend once dated a militant vegan. (He’d hit the Burger King drive-through on his way home.)

Obviously, it’s a problem if you go out with some engineer dude, tell him you’re an “Occupy girl,” and he says, “Wow, my company designs the water cannons the police use to spray you people.” But, your current restlessness may stem from the notion that it’s a great big drum circle out there with a lot of chakra healer-boys and past-life counselors in it.

Having a lot of choice sounds great, but research by social psychologist Dr. Sheena Iyengar suggests that most people get overwhelmed when they have more than a handful of options. Essentially, when it seems the sky’s the limit, we’re prone to keep looking skyward. We end up not choosing at all, or we choose poorly and end up dissatisfied.

A solution for this is “satisficing,” a strategy from economist Herbert Simon of committing to the “good-enough” choice — instead of marching off on a never-end-ing search for spiritually evolved, Burning Man-certified perfection.

Sure, you can probably find your eco-shamanistic cloneboy — a guy who’ll take the initiative in signing you both up for “soul retrieval training” when you worry that you forgot yours at Macy’s in a past life. But then maybe he’ll go all hateful on you on the way home about whether to save the whales or go to the movies.

The longer your list of must-haves in a man, the more you shrink your pool of po-tential partners. Your own appeal is also a factor, and it’s probably narrowed by things like not being 22 and your plumpitude, if any.

Consider whether it’s possible to have friends be your spiritual colleagues and have that be enough. You can wish for the gorgeous, artistic, shamanic perfect man — along with world peace and all the hemp bacon you can eat. But, maybe the realistic man is your sweet spiritual trainee who is fun and giving, dutifully rinses off his used foil, and smiles and pulls the Prius over

when you tell him that your spirit animal needs to pee.

Sperm limits I’m a 32-year-old woman who doesn’t

particularly like kids. I told my last boy-friend I didn’t want kids, but three years in, he said he wanted a family and left. He said he thought I’d eventually change my mind. How do I keep this from hap-pening again?

— Nobody’s Mom

You can’t just sit down on the first date and ask a man if his semen has a lifeplan. But, let a kid-wanting man get attached (even second date-attached) and he’ll want to believe you’ll eventually mommy up.

So right on date one, you need to drop into conversation that you aren’t a “kid per-son.” Make sure a guy responds like he’s gotten the bottom-line message: His sperm, your egg, they ain’t gonna party.

Now, some guys might not have fully considered the issue of kids, so you might weave the subject in on subsequent dates for reinforcement.

If you’re 22, a major compatibility issue is “Eeuw, you like Coldplay?” At 32, you really need to know up front if one of you is musing “I wonder what we’ll name the twins” and the other’s thinking “Whatever they called them at the pound is fine by me.”

Dim and herI’m having a whirlwind romance with

a man I met online on Thanksgiving. I moved across the country to live with him on Dec. 20, and we’re now building a life together. The problem is I have a high IQ (137), and he’s very unintel-ligent and illogical. It’s hard to have a good conversation unless we talk about sex. It’s too late to leave now, so … any advice on how to keep our IQ difference from ripping us apart when things are less new and exciting? I really love him, as he’s pure of heart. And boy, is he sexy and great in bed! So far, I’ve held back from telling him when he’s gullible or ir-rational, but I worry that I’ll eventually call him something nasty — like “idiot.” I don’t want to hurt him. I crave his company and love him for who he is, not what he knows.

— The Smarter One

Is there a chance you cheated on your IQ test?

You seem to pride yourself on your intelligence, yet you spent a few weeks chitchatting on the Internet with some dull blade, dropped everything and moved across the country to live with him.

Now, you two lovebirds are “building a life together” — that is, whenever you aren’t too busy grumbling about needing your intellectual equal and not the coffee table’s.

You might “love him for who he is,” but you also despise him for who he isn’t.

Oops. Marriage researcher Dr. John Gott-man found that expressions of contempt are the greatest predictor that a couple will go kaput. Of course, anybody you get involved with will have some annoying habits or flaws that challenge the relationship. Relatively benign bad habits are things like snoring, and for that, you can get those

little strips to put on your partner’s nose. What’s the answer here, strapping a piece

of duct tape across his mouth? Check out your completely lame excuse

for staying: “It’s too late to leave now.” Now check your feet. Bolted to the floor-boards?

If not, what’s keeping you there is prob-ably irrational thinking that economists call the “sunk cost fallacy” — deciding to keep investing in some endeavor based on what you’ve already invested (an unrecoverable cost) rather than assessing how your invest-ment will pay off (if at all) in the future.

People are especially prone to overvalue prior investment when their ego is also invested — like when sticking around helps them continue the fiction that they’ve behaved wisely in going all-in with a guy whose intellectual “spirit animal” is prob-ably the amoeba.

Fools rush in, but the real fools find themselves facedown in a pool of “boy, was I dumb” and get busy coming up with reasons why staying there is a wise idea.

In “The Folly of Fools,” anthropologist Dr. Robert Trivers explains self-deceptions like yours, noting the difference between intelligence and consciousness: “You can be very bright but unconscious.” When you realize you’ve been unconscious, you can choose to wake up and cut your losses — before you start saying cutting things to your goodhearted sexy simpleton.

To live less sleepwalkingly in the future, reflect on what got you into this — what void you tried to fill by telling your ratio-nality to shut up and go sit in the corner so you could congratulate yourself on the great love you found. And goody for you on what you actually found — some really great sex — but let’s call a cabana boy a cabana boy, lest you turn a story that

should be “My Hunky Winter Vacation” into a move-in special.

I’m with cupid What’s with all the Valentine’s Day

haters? Some of my single friends cel-ebrate V-Day ironically, and I sense that they look down on my boyfriend and me for celebrating it for real, as if we’re just buying into a giant marketing campaign.

— Romantically Uncool

Occupy Wall Street is so 2011. Trendset-ting inequality haters should be occupy-ing Hallmark: “If we don’t get love, you don’t get love, either,“ and “This is what a woman without a boyfriend looks like!” Valentine’s Day has been hijacked to sell everything short of heart-shaped rubber vomit. I even got a Valentine’s-linked press release pitching surveillance services. Right. Nothing says “I love you” like in-stalling a keylogger on your partner’s lap-top. The louder the hyping of the day, the louder the message that somebody’s a loser if they have nobody to buy a bunch of red merch for. So, your single friends’ cooler-than-thou attitude is understandable, but there’s something better than being cool, and it’s being happy. Let them have their black-frosted cookies with the little dead cupids and their marches against romance-colored corporate greed … well, until next year, when they’re sneaking into Godiva to buy chocolates for the girl they fell in love with after they got pepper-sprayed together.

•(c) 2012, Amy Alkon, all rights re-

served. Got a problem? Write Amy Al-kon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405, or e-mail [email protected] (www.advicegoddess.com)

The AdviceGoddessAmy Alkon


Faith Notes

Covenant ReformedPRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

281 Edgewood Rd. • Asheville, N.C. 28804

828-253-6578www.covenantreformed.net

Wednesday— 7 p.m. Prayer/Bible StudySunday— 9:30 a.m. Sunday School11 a.m. Worship • 6 p.m. Worship

Thursday, March 1CLASS, 7-9 p.m., Center for Spiritual Living, 2 Science

of Mind Way, Asheville. Michele Laub will present a class titled “Master Your Life — Harness the Energy of 2012” through March 29.

Friday, March 2WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY, 10 a.m.-noon, All Saints An-

glican Church, 15 McDowell Rd., Mills River. A women’s Bible study titled “Believing God” will be offered on Friday mornings from March 2 through May 18. The Beth Moore study, rooted in Isaiah 43:10, explores what it means not only to believe in God, but to believe God. The cost is $14.95 for the workbook. To register, call Christine Maddux at 808-2325, or e-mail her at [email protected].

Saturday, March 3INDOOR YARD SALE, 8 a.m.-2 p.m., Anointed Word

Church, 2223, Butler Bridge Rd., Mills River (next to Glenn C. Marlow Elementary). AWC will hold a spring Indoor yard sale.

AGLOW MEETING, 10 a.m., Fletcher Feed and Seed, 3715 Hendersonville Rd., Fletcher. Pastor Margaret Vis will address the Asheville-Hendersonville Aglow Community Lighthouse. Vis was missions director for Good News Assembly in Johannes-burg, South Africa, and worked for African Harvest Ministries. Refreshments will be served at 9:30 a.m.

CELEBRATION, 10 a.m., First Baptist Church, 5 Oak St., Asheville. The Operation Christmas Child Blue Ridge volunteer team will celebrate. Jennifer Davis, Carolinas regional manager, will announce the official totals of boxes collected last season and will share images and stories about a discipleship program in Madagascar. Mela Sluder, a high school senior in Asheville and a shoe book recipient from Kazakhstan, will share her story.

Sunday, March 4CONCERT, 3 p.m., St. Matthias Episcopal Church, 1

Dundee St., Asheville. The Asheville Cello Choir will perform.CONCERT, 3 p.m., Hominy Baptist Church, 135 Candler

School Rd., Candler. A shape note singing will be held, followed by a covered-dish supper at 5 p.m. and a concluding session.

Tuesday, March 6TRUTH ON TAP, 6 p.m., Black Rose Public House,

upstairs at 221 N. Main St., downtown Hendersonville. The Rev. Chad O’Shea of Unity in Mills River will hold a “pub chat” on matters spiritual and otherwise.

SING-ALONG, 7 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville, 1 Edwin Place, Asheville. A sing-along, welcoming all singers and music-lovers who enjoy group singing — will be held. A wide range of well-known selections will be sung. Lyrics and music handbooks will be provided. There are no auditions or musical requirements. The group is led by musician/com-poser Dave Bates.

Wednesday, March 7ADDICTIONS PROGRAM, 7 p.m., Unity Center, 2041

Old Fanning Bridge Rd., Mills River. A program on “Mood Disorders and All Addictions: The Cause and the Cure” will be presented by Dr. Suka Chapel-Horst. Specifically, she will focus on Reward Deficiency Syndrome, an inherited, genetically caused deficiency in brain chemistry. “RDS is the underlying cause of all addictions, including alcohol, drugs, medications, food, sex, gambling, shopping and extreme sports addictions,” Unity noted. “Individuals can also develop RDS due to molds, chemicals, allergies, hormonal changes and inadequate nutri-tion, which is the root cause of mood disorders.” Chapel-Horst will explain how the condition can be reversed. Admission is free, but a love offering will be taken.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT TALKS, 7-9 p.m., Center for Spiri-tual Living, 2 Science of Mind Way, Asheville. “Join Barbara, John and Christy for an uplifting Science of Mind experience,” the CfSL said, calling it “the perfect mid-week boost!”

Friday, March 9FILM, 7 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Congregation of

Asheville, 1 Edwin Place, Asheville. The Social Justice Film Se-ries will screen “Casino Jack and the United States of Money.” The film, billed as “disturbing yet fascinating,” exposes Jack Abramoff and other lobbyists for their impact on U.S. politics, while peddling influence in Washington’s corridors of power. Admission is free.

Wednesday, March 14QUANTUM TOUCH PROGRAM, 7 p.m., Unity Center,

2041 Old Fanning Bridge Rd., Mills River. An introduction to quantum touch program will be led by Pam Hurst. She will explain how quantum touch came about and how it works. Admission is free, but a love offering will be taken.

Sunday, Feb. 18TYRANNY/SUBVERSION SERVICE, 9:15 and 11:15

a.m., Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville, 1 Edwin

Place, Asheville. The services will feature Rabbi Rob Cabelli, guest speaker, addressing, “Tyrannies and Subversions: Are We As Advanced As We Think?” The UUCA noted that “an age-old story, read critically, reveals a radical, subversive and universal message about the nexus of gender and politics, as well as tyrannized minorities. Yet for centuries the impulse has been to read the scroll of Esther as a ethnocen-tric fairy tale of freedom and either approve or disapprove of it on that basis alone. Regardless of how objectively modern or post-modern we might imagine ourselves to be, we receive texts through culturally conditioned eyes and ears. We must challenge ourselves to open up to the subversive in our most sacred and venerable texts, or else humanity and its religions will remain their own worst enemies.”

COFFEEHOUSE CONCERT, 7 p.m., Unitarian Universal-ist Congregation of Asheville, 1 Edwin Place, Asheville. The Mountain Spirit Coffeehouse will feature a concert by Danielle Miraglia and Angela Easterling in concert.

Tuesday, Feb. 20SING-ALONG, 7 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Congregation

of Asheville, 1 Edwin Place, Asheville. A sing-along, welcoming all singers and music-lovers who enjoy group singing — will be held. A wide range of well-known selections will be sung. Lyrics and music handbooks will be provided. There are no auditions or musical requirements. The group is led by musician/com-poser Dave Bates.

HEALING CIRCLE, 7-9 p.m., Center for Spiritual Living, 2 Science of Mind Way, Asheville. An Aramaic healing circle will be led by Dale Allen Hoffman.

Wednesday, March 21LOUISE B. HAY PROGRAM, 7 p.m., Unity Center,

2041 Old Fanning Bridge Rd., Mills River. Denise Palmer will present a program titled “Learn More About the Louise L. Hay Principles.” A love offering will be taken.

Sunday, March 25BOOK-SIGNING, 3 p.m., Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café,

35 Haywood St., downtown Asheville. Judith Toy, author of “Murder as a Call to Love: A True Story of Transformation and Forgiveness,” will hold a book signing. Toy is ordained as a core member of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hahn’s monastic order, Tiep Hien, and teaches mindfulness at Cloud Cottage Community for Mindful Living at Black Mountain.

Tuesday, Feb. 27PROGRAM, 7-9 p.m., Center for Spiritual Living, 2

Science of Mind Way, Asheville. A program on “Embracing the Global Heart” will be presented.

Wednesday, March 28GENEALOGY PROGRAM, 7 p.m., Unity Center, 2041

Old Fanning Bridge Rd., Mills River. A “Beginning Genealogy” program will be led by Pat Dockery. The program is aimed at helping individuals learn more about their lineage. Attendees are asked to bring any pertinent information about their family tree, such as full names, dates and birth/death places of par-ents, grandparents and others. A love offering will be taken.

Friday, March 30PEACE DANCE WORKSHOP, 7-9 p.m., Jubilee! Com-

munity, 46 Wall St., downtown Asheville. A dances of universal peace workshop will be held. The workshop will continue March 31 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday, March 31“SURVIVING 2012” PROGRAM, 2-10 p.m., Unity Center,

2041 Old Fanning Bridge Rd., Mills River. Dr. Robert Holt will llead a program titled “Surviving 2012.,” featuring a number of film screenings. A love offering will be taken.

An Informal Spiritual Center of Practical Christianity for Everyday Living.

130 Shelburne RoadWest Asheville

252-5010

BookstoreMeeting Rooms

Celebration Services11 AM Sunday

www.unityofasheville.com

Unity CenterCome as you are!

891-8700 / 684-37982041 Old Fanning Bridge Rd.Mills River 28759Rev. Chad O’Sheawww.unitync.netServing WNC for 60 years

Sunday Services9:30am & 11:00am

A Church Family for ONE and ALL

New Books byDr. Bob Holt, M.D.at Lulu Dot Com“Jesus in India,” etc.

www.healthark.comemail: [email protected]

Advertise your church in this space@ $10 per month

If interested, e-mail us [email protected]

... or call 252-6565.


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