John Q. Public
♦ I’ve watched and listened as Salisbury’s alleged leadership makes excuses for their incompetent decision to bring “visionary” fiber-to-the-home service to all single family residences in town. (If you live in an apartment complex, Fibrant is off-limits for you.) I’ve also watched Salisbury’s per-capita violent crime rate climb to rates worse than Detroit, Michigan, as the leadership at a much-shrunken police department appear to reinforce the PR campaign that it’s not as bad as the “negative blog” proclaims.
I consider myself a free-thinker, so I’ve gone to the links of the FBI crime statistics. Now I’m convinced that the city’s leadership must be basically claiming a vast Government Conspiracy out of Washington, DC is conniving with “the negative blog” in some imaginary quest to destroy all that is sacred in Salisbury. Right?
I see incumbent city council members like Maggie Blackwell trying to lead guided tours of sugar plums, as they solicit inaccurate “magic math” answers to the question of diverting fund balances from water/sewer and the general fund to prop up Fibrant. I see Maggie, Brian and Karen shilling the false claim that Fibrant is “profitable” or could be given the right circumstances. Like if AT&T Gigapower, TWC Maxx, AT&T U-verse didn’t exist or if there were more people with spendable income in their poverty struck burg. The fact is there’s quite a few of the city’s poor who lack computers.
Then I’ve seen new blood on city council, specifically David Post and Kenny Hardin, getting scolded and thwarted in public meetings by incumbent Brian Miller for wanting to talk about the budget message publicly. Horrors! After a couple times getting shot down and belittled, Mr. Post stood his ground. We discovered in the process that the general fund subsidizes Fibrant to the tune of about $3 million annually. It was an eye-opener.
Then, in a bizarre twist of logic and imagination, Mayor Alexander waved her magic wand, and began an earnest campaign to promote the false premise that Fibrant is “breaking even”, that it was part of a heritage of “visionary leadership” that must be supported and promoted, and that Salisbury is truly the “Paris of the Piedmont”. Seriously. Now I’m wondering if Salisbury’s dystopic malaise could be cured by handing out about 28 grams per week of whatever Mayor Alexander ingested to every “negative” resident of Salisbury. Perhaps then they could all share in a collective hallucinogenic “Vision” of Paris beneath their feet. Maybe then everyone might be content with the status quo. Possibly they’ll stay home and stop the violence, stop the shootings, stop the home invasions, the carjackings, the quick street KO’s, and the drugland beatdowns that happen with disturbing frequency in the Bury. If the Mayor would just share her ‘stash’ of whatever she takes before each public appearance to boost the imagination of Salisbury’s leadership, there would be no naysayers left. They’d vanish away in a mystical haze. Only a placated electorate would remain, willing to smile ecstatically at every suggestion by Mayor Alexander about how great life really is in the fab-u-lous “Paris of the Piedmont”.
