As a longtime citizen of Buncombe County, I now live in County Commissioner District 1, in Black Mountain. I support the truly progressive, dedicated leadership of Al Whitesides. He is my commissioner (AlWhitesides.com).
Al has lived his life as a role model the way his parents raised him, by humbly and positively leading our community. He leads without fear or favor, I will say, more than any other living citizen who has served in this office. His and Shirley Whitesides’ service to children in our community, including the two I raised here, in so many ways is a model that everyone could follow to lift achievement for all students.
As commissioner for five years, Al’s business savvy led the cleanup and recovery of integrity and money from the past county staff management failures.
Al has led commissioners working together to set ambitious goals for accelerating decarbonization, while saving huge taxpayer money through energy efficiency, beneficial electrification and solarization of our county’s operations, schools and community college buildings, efforts that are quite resolutely leading our state and nation.
The danger of treating the first African American county commissioner in Buncombe County history the ways some did Al Gore in Florida in 2000, Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in 2016, and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in March 2022 is the law of unintended consequences cannot be repealed. No one can honestly claim to be “progressive” and pull that trick.
— Keith Thomson
Black Mountain
Does Al support the imminent consolidation of our antiquated dual school systems for the children, for equity, inclusion and diversity or NOT ?
Great question. If he’s a no, I’m a no on him.
The far right and the far left can do a lot of damage to our essential community institutions when they play ping pong with our children and our civil rights. Posting anonymously or not.