An open letter to our elected officials | Eastern North Carolina Now

    I recently had two experiences that have taught me a great deal. The first was covering the School Board presentation of its budget request to the County Commissioners and the other was watching the debate this week in the N. C. House on the state budget.

    To understand what I'm about to say requires you to either accept that this nation, state and county are in serious financial trouble. If you do not accept that then you can stop reading this. Maybe I'm wrong but I believe most people know this. They know the national debt is unsustainable. They know inherently that the state, city and county cannot continue to spend more than they take in.

    So when I sit and listen to a School Board and its superintendent ask for more money such that it would compel a tax increase on top of a 64% increase in school spending over the last five years I have to wonder "just what are these people thinking?"

    And then I sit and watch grown people who had the ability to get elected to the highest legislative body in the state talk about spending more money, when they've already got a $2 billion deficit, I have to wonder "just what are these people thinking?"

    Here's what I have learned: They are not thinking. They are feeling. Or as some of my colleagues who are into "Brain Science" would say, they are thinking with their right brain rather than their left brain. The right brain is where emotions reside. The left brain is where we do logical, concrete, linear calculations.

    So what I have learned is that those who think with their right brain don't really understand, or care, about the numbers. And those who think only with their left brain seem to miss the fact that all these numbers have a real-world impact on real people's lives.

    Another way I filtered what I was watching at the School Board meeting and in the House was to contrast the debate to children versus adults. Adults are supposed to be able to defer gratification...take a longer view; while children want what they want and they want it right now. And when they get it, they want even more. Children are insatiable in their wants. Adults (at least some of them) have learned that not everything we want is necessarily the best thing for us to have.

    So why would adults in very responsible positions advocate spending more than we can pay for?

    That's where my understanding has faltered. I must admit, I simply don't understand how any elected officials these days can argue that we must raise taxes in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression...and in fact is a Great Depression for one out of five households in this state, and more in this county. If someone out there can enlighten me and explain to me why anyone would want to raise taxes on someone who has lost their job and has not been able to find another one for months and has no prospect for finding work anytime soon I would really like to be able to understand that.

    You see, that was a right brained statement. I feel for people who are on fixed incomes and those who have had a cut in income. And I don't understand how anyone who claims they want to "help people" would impose more taxes on those people. And I don't understand how anyone cannot accept that people being able to keep more of what little they make is better than taking money from some to give it to others who then become dependent on the government. I don't understand why an official would take money from those people who are struggling and spend it on things that could be put off until times are better. I just don't understand that thinking.

    But what I have learned is that is does boil down to how a person thinks about what government should be about.

    But for the life of me I can't fathom why so many really smart people don't understand that it is better for a person to know how to fish and be determined to catch fish than to be given a fish today that is not paid for and without any way for the "giver" knowing how it will be paid for in the future. And the corollary, it seems to me applies: Why kick a man when he's down?

    Do these people who do not want to cut government spending not realize that the fiscal chickens eventually come home to roost? Do they not believe debts have to be repaid? Do they think money grows on trees or there is no bottom in the bucket? Do they not care about their children and grandchildren's future?

    Please, would someone explain this to me.

    Publisher's Note: This commentary is a truthful opinion from our friends at the Beaufort Observer of where we are, and where we should be going.