You hear much about “Asheville, the bastion of the progressive,” as in “making progress toward better conditions; employing or advocating more enlightened or liberal ideas, i.e., a progressive community. “Making,” “employing” and “advocating” are all about action taken to achieve progress.
The question then is, where’s all this “action”? Few even voted in the last election, leaving us with a historic reactionary, backward shift in state politics.
The next question is, Why do real progressive candidates for City Council like Chris Pelly and Lael Gray have to work so hard to attract broad-based, feet-on-the-ground, check-writing support? These true progressives have been working, continuously, in the trenches of social progress for decades. Chris Pelly has a long list of organized neighborhoods, sidewalks, parks and successful social campaigns on his résumé. What’s on yours, Asheville Progressive Person?
Real progressives do! Please get involved, support progressive City Council candidates, stand against development-first darlings like Jan Davis and, of course, vote early in the both the primary and general elections. Oh, and you really must stand up for the one-fourth of 1 cent sales-tax referendum to keep our local educational treasure A-B Tech educating our citizens for the essential work ahead.
— Bruce Kennedy
Asheville
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