Category: political activism

D.C., political activism

Women’s March on Washington

Laurie

A selection of photos from the Women’s March on Washington, D.C.

^^^Making the posters the night before.

^^^Waiting to get on the Metro in Alexandria. It ended up being pretty awful. We were crushed after the second or third stop and got off the train at a station where they were managing the crowds better. The way back was better.

^^^Trying to get out of the Metro at L’Enfant Plaza.


^^^Where we ended up before we crossed Independence Ave., found a bathroom in the Freer-Sackler Gallery, then joined the march on the other side of it. There were people everywhere and we couldn’t see past the people around us and so everyone just moved toward the White House.


^^^My favorite sign (so many to choose from!) was “Free Tic-Tacs if You Can Define Consent.”

We took Carty to the Air and Space Museum for an hour then had a much better Metro experience on the way back.

^^^After we checked out of the hotel on Sunday we rode the Metro back and went to the Museum of the American Indian and the Freer-Sackler Gallery to see the “Art of the Qur’an” exhibit. Beautiful manuscripts! I know manuscripts and they were the BEST manuscripts! One of them was HUGE!

^^^Some people came back out and left their signs on Sunday.

coffee pot posts, political activism

Random thoughts at lunchtime

Laurie

Wow – this may be the craziest spam comment I’ve ever gotten: “I looked inside portable vaporizer and I was in a perfectly and there
is no disturbance due to the future king. I adore, but, like wind, during the
upward motion. You can follow any responses to the Earth’s magnetic field,
we were talking about. I can’tjust sleep with noisiest sheep ever in a corner and talk to anyone,
portable vaporizer they might be turned on and or enhanced.
So, it’s when the pull from behind portable vaporizer the store.
There is less and less opulence.”

What do you suppose he was selling? 😀 Well, I hope that you’ll be able to find a portable vaporizer if your search brings you here, but I ain’t selling them, sorry. However, that is close to poetry.

I think of so many things to put on this blog but I just can’t get inspired enough to type on my tiny Kindle keyboard and my laptop is dead. Then by the time I get to use a real keyboard, the thoughts have vanished.

One thing is that I miss the mulberry tree on our street. It was cut down last year just before the berries were ripe, for no reason that I can figure out, in the church parking lot redo. There were no parking spaces put down where the mulberry tree was. Maybe they didn’t like the birds bombing their cars with purple splats? Oh boy, maybe I will let all the pokeweed grow to fruit stage for the birds (and dyepot) this year. I figured out something after picking mulberries from the trees along the creek at the Greensboro Farmers’ Curb Market on Saturday. Mulberries are delicious eaten straight off the tree, but they lose their magic when you put them in a bag to eat later. I miss showing up for work in June with mulberry stains all over my hands.

I’m getting all jiggley with anticipation for my workshop at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in two weeks. I went to Value Village thrift store on the last Wednesday of May (half-price on everything) in search of natural fabrics to dye in the indigo pot. I scored with a new-looking white cotton muslin sheet set and 6 shirts of cotton, linen, and silk with a grand total of about $12.50. The problem is that I have to wash them so many times in Charlie’s Soap to get the perfumes out. I understand why they use such strong detergent to wash used items but jeez Louise the scent was killing me! The third wash in hot water finally made it tolerable but I would love it if anyone had some tips for me to solve this problem. I am terribly allergic to many fragrances.

About to head out to my first Moral Monday rally of the year in Raleigh. I’d promise photos but I think that my battery is almost dead. I don’t volunteer for civil disobedience but every single body there in support of our civil rights and against the devastating extremist legislation coming out of the Tea Party government in our state capitol makes a difference, especially now that they have passed new laws to try to take away our First Amendment rights.

Feeling pretty good and I’ll have both an art and a Back Forty update up within the week.

North Carolina, political activism

Moral Monday, July 1, 2013

Laurie

I almost skipped Moral Monday because of the torrential rains we’ve had here in North Carolina, but Deb convinced me at the last minute to go. It was muddy, but it didn’t rain much until we were on our way home. We didn’t stay as long this time. There will be a tenth wave of Moral Monday protests on July 8. I don’t know how long the NAACP will continue these but it keeps growing. There are protests on Wednesdays around 1 p.m. as well.

On July 1, 2013, long-term unemployment benefits were cut for North Carolina citizens. We have the fifth highest unemployment rate in the nation. We are the only state who refused an extension of federal unemployment benefits. 71,000 lost their benefits yesterday. I have a special sympathy with the unemployed. I understand the desperation and depression of long-term unemployment and underemployment. With state cuts adding more to the unemployed, and fewer jobs available, this is simply another way to balance our budget on the backs of the poor. It boggles my mind that the unemployed are demonized and punished in this society which claims to be overtly Christian in outlook.

North Carolina, political activism

Moral Monday, June 17, 2013

Laurie

The North Carolina NAACP began a movement several weeks ago they call “Moral Mondays.” Every week draws more protesters and activists who are pushing back against the regressive policies and outright meanness of the current GOP controlled state government. It is a spiritual as well as a political event, with many of the state’s clergy participating in civil disobedience and getting arrested for trespassing. I decided that I needed to be a supporter of these fine citizens, so I went with my friend Deb to the seventh Moral Monday in Raleigh on Monday, June 17.

This movement has drawn the usual ridicule and name calling from the nastier faction of the far right, as well as outright lies about the protesters being mainly “outside agitators.” That was very nice compared to most of the other names we’ve been called for exercising our first amendment rights, but we tried to put this fabrication to rest on Monday so there are a lot of signs referring to being an North Carolina resident. Researchers from UNC Chapel Hill interviewed a sampling of the crowd and found that 311 out of 316 were from North Carolina.

There are many stories in the regional, national, and international news about Moral Mondays right now. I’m not going to try to write a long post about it. I’m proud that my sister and brother-in-law and I are a part of it. The Reverend Barber is an inspiring speaker and I’ll quote him from his Guardian article here, and follow it with a few of my photos. As usual, please ask permission if you would like to repost or use one of my photos. Thank you.

“To date, over 300 people have been arrested and thousands have lifted their voices in opposition to the avalanche of extreme public policies. The measures include:

  • Cutting the payroll tax credit for over 900,000 poor and working people
  • Slashing state unemployment benefits and rejecting federally-funded Emergency Unemployment Compensation to 170,000 laid-off workers
  • Rejecting federal funds to expand Medicaid to cover 500,000 North Carolinians without health insurance

“In sum, the NC general assembly is making it harder for those who are sick to get healthcare; for children to get an education; for the incarcerated to be redeemed; for people to vote. At the same time, they make it easier for the rich to get richer; for the sick to get sicker; for private schools to profit while cutting funds for public schools; to implement the flawed death penalty; and to get guns.”

The protesters who were arrested for trespassing and failure to disperse volunteered to be arrested. The police were respectful and professional. There were many songs uplifted and lots of chanting. This was not an overly rowdy crowd, but I, for one, would like to see one of these protests be a silent vigil. As Rev. Barber pointed out, on July 1, many of our unemployed are going to lose their benefits. People’s lives are going to be hurt. It is a sad occasion and should be treated as such.

Back Forty, coffee pot posts, depression/anxiety, political activism, whining

Saturday afternoon coffee pot post

Laurie

Yes, I had to correct the word “morning” in my title because I see that it is now 12:13 p.m. I normally don’t drink coffee after noon, but I spent a glorious morning mostly sleeping. Insomniacs will understand. I got up at 9 to feed the cats before they started nibbling on me, went back to sleep until 11! Oh, how BLISSFUL to feel totally rested. I have absolutely no obligations or plans for two one and a half days.

I’ve spent the last few months really struggling with depression, anxiety, insomnia, and hot flashes. Last summer I doubled my anti-depressant dose on the advice of my GP and my gynecologist, who said that it might help with my hot flashes as well. It did get me out of the hole, but it did a number on my already estrogen-withdrawal stressed brain. After talking to a therapist in the fall when my anxiety got high (this medication doesn’t really help with anxiety) I gradually lowered my dose back to the original. And several months ago I went back in the hole. Hot flashes intensified. One of the aggravating things about menopause for me is that I’ve been going through it for YEARS. Peri-menopause started for me in my late 30s! So every time my troubles die down, I get my hopes up that it is done. I hate depending on pills. But I hate the hole worse, so here I am, back on the higher dose and my brain is functioning at a much lower level again.

So I’m trying to adjust to this. I’m making a few lifestyle changes and working on my overall health. I’m being kind to my Self and letting her take breaks and sleep late on days off. She doesn’t have to cook if she doesn’t want to, but she does need to eat healthy food, drink plenty of water, and get some exercise. And I let her quit Elements Gallery. I told her that she has a paying full-time job so she doesn’t have to get anxious about not turning out artwork for sale or display. She can do it for fun and not worry about what other people think. Learning to nurture my Self is what started my Slow Turn toward the light years ago.

I had bloodwork done last week and my cholesterol has gone down about 30 points. It still needs to go down about 20 more. There were lots more positive results – my blood sugar and liver, kidney, and thyroid functions are fine. The big surprise was that I am vitamin D deficient. I take a good multi-vitamin every day and try to eat D-rich foods, but I don’t get much sun because I am prone to sun poisoning. So I’m adding another pill to the handful that I take, which includes a multivitamin for menopause, fish oil, red yeast rice, citalopram, loratidine, and naproxen. Hopefully this and some more diet and exercise tweaking will get me back up to speed and help with my depression and energy problems.

(And, although I welcome comments, if you want to tell me that I do not NEED anti-depressants, just save your energy. I came to this place after years of rejecting them, and the fact is, I need them to live my life fully. If YOU don’t need them or have been able to find alternatives, I am quite happy for you. I am thankful every day that they work for me.)

Last weekend was spent in a major effort to clean house. We could have made a third cat out of all the cat hair we cleaned up. I love living in an older house (built in 1922) because of the little things that give it character, but I do not enjoy how much dust it generates. Granted, we ignored cleaning the floors and ceiling fans for much longer than we should have, MUCH longer. There is still much to be done, but it is much more liveable here now.

My garden has been ravaged by rabbits. They have eaten my fennel, my peas, and my little squashes. I am now in “what the hell” mode and I’m going to buy my veggies from the farmers’ market and Deep Roots and plant flowers, herbs, and dye and paper plants instead. Hopefully we will still get peppers and tomatoes and green beans, and the figs are about to get ripe, so it is not all bad.

On Monday, I plan to go to Raleigh to the Moral Monday protest at the State Capitol with a friend. My task this weekend is to come up with a sign. The Tea Party decimation of our once centrist state is overwhelming, so picking one issue will be difficult. I’ll probably choose public education since my job is at a public university, and it is vital to train our citizens how to communicate and think about all sides of a problem or issue if we are to save this country.

Maybe the next post will be art related. I’m going to mordant some fibers this afternoon, and boil some seaweed in soda ash to break it down for papermaking.

art, book arts, political activism

Life update

Laurie

I think that I’ve pulled myself together again. It’s been a a little over a week since Guido passed on, but really the whole bad situation started last December. In a way, it is a big relief that I no longer have to make the decision, and certainly it is a huge relief not to hear him cry and wonder if it is senility or pain. The last few days he had stopped eating, although he was getting around okay. It was time, and I didn’t want to forcefeed him or pill him or take him back to the vet or watch him starve to death. The vet’s office made a house call and he never had to get off my bed.

I’m pretty happy about the national election. It went as well as I hoped and a little more. North Carolina continues to spiral downward with a total Republican majority in the house and Senate and governor and lieutenant governor. Yet most of the state offices such as attorney general, etc. remain Democrat. North Carolina is a very strange political state. I am ready to leave here but I am lucky to have a great job that I enjoy so I’ll probably grit my teeth and bear it. At least I live in a university town which is one of the blue spots on the electoral maps. Of course, I still have many issues with Democrats and President Obama and I will remain unaffiliated until they come back from their center right positions.

I’m proud of myself for getting off my butt and arranging this election night get-together at Sessions in Greensboro. I am not a social gal and generally avoid parties and crowds of people like the plague. But these are my peeps and it was a wonderful occasion to get together with this crowd.

Art making has ground to a halt and I’ve decided not to try to force it. I’ll make art for myself for a while and see if anything comes out of it that I’d like to put up for sale. In the meantime, I did put three new blank books in the gallery. Looks like I’m going to start doing the computer inventory entry for the gallery soon.

Oh, and for only the second time in my life (the first being about 20 years ago) I had my hair colored, at Leon’s Beauty School. The base color is “cherry cola” and there are blond streaks on top. I like it a lot – part of my image transformation. I got tired of the fading mousy brown look. I don’t mind gray or white, but I am ready for a change. In 2013 my vision insurance kicks in and I’ll get a funky new pair of glasses. I’m wearing earrings again every day. Hell, at this rate, I might have to invest in some “organic” make-up. I haven’t worn make-up in years. Will dental caps and a chin tuck be far behind? Um, yes. Very, very, very, very far behind.

political activism

Occupy Greensboro protest and random updates

Laurie

Howdy.

I’m taking my lunch to work and I am going to find a few more corners to cut in order to save up for a trip to here: http://www.artparadiseinportugal.com/ with Sandy next year. It will be our 25th wedding anniversary year. Leighanna Light is going to teach a class there and I just loved the one day class I had with her a couple of years ago. This prospect has picked up my spirits considerably.

Susanne had another pulp painting class in her back yard a few weeks ago and I really, really loved doing it. I’d like to work with this some more after my hands get better. I miss making paper. It is doable as long as somebody else is schlepping around the heavy water vats and pulp buckets, but obviously I don’t have a servant at home.

It’s funny but although I miss making paper, I don’t really miss making books that much. Maybe I just needed a break. I have plenty of blank books for the gallery right now, so I’ve switched all over to weaving scarves and stitching occasionally on my magic cloth, which has magically transformed into a healing cloth. My back studio almost feels like a meditation room when I am not playing music or podcasts. I lose track of time so it is good to play This American Life episodes since I know that an hour has passed. I weave for 1-2 hours before I need to take a break for my hands and back. Weaving is not so hard, but preparing the warp and tying it on the loom is, so as much as I look forward to the next color combination, I also wish that I had a weaving elf to do that part for me. Surgery on my left hand is scheduled for December 23. This way I only have to take one sick day from work, since I have the week off after Christmas anyway.

Sandy and I marched as two of the 99% last Saturday in downtown Greensboro, and that made me cheer up more as well. It was a very family-friendly event with a diverse crowd. The organizers of Occupy Greensboro did a fantastic job, and they are still working their butts off planning more educational events and protests from their encampment downtown next to Festival Park.

For a video showing the entire “parade” of marchers, see this. If you had any stereotypical images of the protesters, it will surprise you:

Definitely not a bunch of homeless hippies or elitist radical hipsters or old-school Democrats. Certainly no Republicans, except for a few trying to ambush people with economic questions on video, and except for one guy dressed as Gumby carrying a sign that said “Thank God for the Rhino Times.” (How sad is that.) I wish that I had a demographic breakdown of this crowd. My guess is that many of us are unaffiliated or thinking about going that route. There were libertarians and socialists and anarchists there, but there were plenty of people who were not extremists and were simply disgusted with the way corporate money influences every aspect of our political system.

To solve a problem, first you have to admit that there is a problem. Then you bring awareness to those around you about the problem. I don’t expect the Occupy Movement to solve our vast economic problems, but I’m thrilled that they are waking people up out of their apathy to voice their grievances and demand some action from our so-called leaders. That is the value that this movement brings. The protesters don’t have to have answers. We elect people and pay them to come up with the answers, and they aren’t doing their jobs.

In conclusion, my butterbeans are producing heavily and are very delicious cooked with a few pieces of bacon.

Back Forty, coffee pot posts, political activism

Saturday morning coffee pot post

Laurie

This Saturday we woke up to snow on the ground. Again. Every frickin Friday for the past three weeks it’s been some kind of frozen weather. At least we don’t have three feet like our neighbors to the north. But everyone over the age of 12 seems to be pretty much sick of it around here.

Last Saturday the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market was closed for the second Saturday in a row, and it really should not have been. The roads were not bad. So Donna Myers and Greensborough Coffee collaborated to host a “Fair Weather Farmers Market” on State St. on Sunday. Sandy and I went and purchased cheese, beef, and eggs. It was a great idea that I believe they are planning to do again, but on weekdays when I can’t go.

I’ve been very lazy at home this week. Busy at work, though. We’re in the middle of graduate school application review and course scheduling for next year. I come home and tend to be in bed by 8:30 or 9 p.m.! I don’t quite know what’s up with that, but I figure that I must need it. A lot of times I am content to lay there, hug Theo, and just let my mind drift. Or if I fall asleep, I wake up in the middle of the night and read for a while. I attribute this to the prolonged cold weather and also my sinus infection, which is much better but probably has run me down quite a bit despite all the vitamins and neti pots and Mucinex.

So I’m pretty boring right now, don’t have much to say. I’ll post the latest update on my embroidery later.

An interesting group on Facebook has organized – Join the Coffee Party Movement. They are quite seriously developing a movement for progressives. I recently ditched the Democrats so I’ll follow this to see if they actually get something going. The Green Party lost me when they cost Al the election in 2000. I’d like to see a strong grass roots movement of something to counteract the Tea Party crazies. I assumed that the tea partiers would crash and burn under their own ridiculous paranoia, but in the same country where Dubya was elected twice I should know better. Americans are such sheep. The majority of us want to be told what to think for convenience’s sake.

Sandy and I will probably head down to our neighborhood corner bar, College Hill Sundries, for the first time in a long, long time later this afternoon. They are having a fundraiser for Save College Hill. We have a great lawyer for our side, but of course we need to pay him. And the signs and flyers all cost money too, but I believe that it has all been money well spent. I just wish that our city councilperson, Zach Matheny, would advocate for his constituents in this matter. By all indications, he might even vote for the developer, which would be a real blow for true democracy, considering that the vast majority of residents oppose this particular development and he knows it. I think that he will definitely be voted out if he doesn’t vote on our side, because the rest of the neighborhoods in his district are watching too. One can only hope that he will pay attention and do the right thing.

Latest addiction: Mahjong Titans, that came with my Windows 7 games. Augggghhh. What a time waster.

Thinking about the garden for this year. Cherokee purple tomatoes, lots of butterbeans and peas again, Choppee okra if I can get it past the rabbit, hot and sweet peppers in pots. Cotton – Erlene’s green and Nanking, a copper colored one, both from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. Garlic and leeks. I believe that I’ll buy tomato and pepper plants from Handance Farm this year instead of growing from seed. This will be the first year in a long long time that I have not started seeds indoors. I will be able to harvest my asparagus if it survives the cold and the weeds I let grow in it this year. I have enjoyed Tuscan kale all winter, but now with the snow covering everything for so long the rabbit has eaten the rest of it.

The flock of robins that showed up yesterday is totally confused. They thought that they left the snow behind. They bombed my car with bird crap yesterday to the point that I could not possibly drive it to the car wash without washing it first. I mean, it is covered. At least maybe this snow will soften it up so that I can sponge it off when the weather warms above freezing and then I’m parking on the street for a while, out from under the tree. Damn birds. It’s a good thing that I don’t need to drive this car often.

Okay, time to go to the market and then I promised myself some art time.

augggghhhh, coffee pot posts, fiber art, Local food, political activism

Saturday morning coffee pot post

Laurie

I wonder if anybody in this country is happy with our government right now. It seems to me that the Republicans have the ethics of hyenas and the Democrats have the ethics of jellyfish. I have finally gotten so fed up with politics that I am finally doing what I have threatened to do for years – I have filled out the form to change my party to “unaffiliated” and it will go into the mail today. It may not seem like much, but I am a firm believer that small actions do matter, especially if taken up by many. Landslides are made up from many individual rocks, you know.

I’m sick of Obama’s lip service to change and his appointments of Big Ag and Monsanto shills to important positions in government. I’m sick of the Democrats’ groveling and whining and I’m sick of the Republicans’ hatred and bullying. I’m sick of hearing about the magic filibuster-proof number and the partisanship. I’m sick of people expecting Obama to fix eight years of the GOP’s economic destruction in one freaking year in office. I’m sick of people who are not only unwilling to do the right thing, but who don’t even have the human compassion to know what the right thing is. I’m sick of corporations being in charge of this country. This country is not a republic, it is an oligarchy. The only politicians I like right now are Al Franken, Dennis Kucinich, Pricey Harrison, and Don Vaughan. I’m ready to emigrate to Canada.

Rant over. I’ll still write letters, emails, and sign petitions. I’ll still vote in all elections and primaries. But I’m done with the political parties in this country. Done.

I’ve been using a neti pot twice a day for the last week, the last resort in trying to clear out this sinus infection. Man, do I HATE getting water in my nose. It took a long time for me to learn to swim because I hated it so much. As much as I hate it, it does seem to make me feel better. This infection is persistent but not severe. It has been going up and down in intensity since September, when I took two courses of antibiotics. So I think that antibiotics may not be the answer. The main problem is that after this long, I am very run down, although I take a good multivitamin and fish oil every day. I missed some work this week and I spent a lot of time asleep or watching Hulu or reading.

Speaking of which, I finally finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics, which turned out to be very good, despite a slow start. I thought that it could have been edited back in size by about a quarter, but once I got about a third of the way in I was hooked. Now I am reading The Book of Salt by Monique Truong. I have so many good books to read now, all either gleaned from the free shelf at Ed McKays or given to me by a retiring professor.

And on Hulu, I highly recommend a one-season show from 2007 called Journeyman. Yes, that’s Owen from Grey’s Anatomy. Why is it that so many well written shows are cancelled after one season? I was sorry to see the last episode because there were so many directions where it could have headed. At first I thought that this is just a knock off of Quantum Leap, but it was richer than that because it dealt with his family and present life as well.

Other than that, I’ve been working on my lemon embroidery and I’ve been cooking more. Today I’m making a pot of beans with onions and garlic and tomatoes and Tuscan kale and chicken curry sausage that I bought at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market last weekend. We ate some of this sausage with scrambled eggs (wonderful double yolks from another farmer at the market) earlier this week. It is so good and lean. The dried beans are from Deep Roots. I soaked them all day yesterday and cooked them with chicken broth that I make a couple of times a year with the bags of frozen collected vegetable scraps and the bones and broth from a whole chicken in a slow cooker. The tomatoes are frozen stewed tomatoes from the garden and I just picked the Tuscan kale fresh. Tomorrow I’ll make some beef stew from Rocking F beef in the slow cooker to eat over the week ahead. The carrots and herbs will come from my garden.

And yes, I did get the new plumbing fixtures put in the bathroom and kitchen. This has made me so happy that I wonder why I waited SO LONG to do it. Sometimes it is the little things that make a difference.

political activism
Laurie

I haven’t qui-i-i-i-te been drawn into the Christmas spirit yet, but there’s still hope. Today I wore a Christmas sweater and I mailed off two giveaways that I did on the Art Journal list and a surprise package for a friend in Alaska. I might even dig out my Christmas earrings. Ooh, sparkly!

Monday night I participated in some civic engagement. Our historic district neighborhood association is fighting against a developer who wants to build a huge dormitory in a little space without the streets to support the traffic about a block and a half from my house. I would be sandwiched between this behemoth and the university. Needless to say, most of us ain’t happy about it. We’d like to see the property redeveloped, but almost anything else would be better. So we filled the zoning commission chamber and we won the first round – the zoning commission recommended against the development. The biggest battle will be next, in front of the City Council, who can still approve it over the Zoning Commission. Which begs the question – why the hell do they even have a zoning commission or spend money on comprehensive plans when they don’t bother to follow the recommendations?

But being a part of the winning team on Monday night was heady and fun. The lawyers for the developers sat behind me in the chambers and they were clearly stunned from the beginning at the way it was going against them. They had about 5 supporters in the chambers other than themselves and the other approximately 80 people were opposed. They fretted and muttered and sputtered. They had a powerful lawyer named Henry Isaacson whose practice is built upon winning these kind of cases. At the end, I turned around as I put on my coat and caught his eye. We locked eyes for about three long seconds, and I simply grinned like a happy fool. That felt good.

Don Vaughn, our state senator, was our lawyer and he did a great job. I didn’t like Don before because he named Craven Williams as a role model at one time, which led me to believe that he was either clueless, gullible, or crooked. However, I have to admit that Craven had a ginormous number of good people fooled – most people did not have the perspective and knowledge that I had of his true character. (I used to work at Greensboro College where he was president for years.) So I’ve changed my opinion of Don and I’m happy that he is my state senator.

A lot of people just don’t get why we don’t want this project here. It’s a beautiful thing, all right. But it needs to be over on Lee St. or some other area nearby that is a large enough tract and has large enough streets to support it. That’s not so hard to understand if you live here and deal with the parking and traffic on the streets every day. And they seem to think that these students, rich enough to rent a room in this high-end residence hall, won’t ever drive anywhere. Or at least they want us to believe that students never go anywhere but class and home.

Plus, we wouldn’t necessarily mind apartments. But this is for 725 students, aimed at the age group of 18-22, rented by the bedroom. What we’d really love to see is a mixed-use development with small shops, offices, and living areas.

Some of the morons commenting at the N&R say that the College Hill residents are afraid of losing rental income to this development. I don’t know anyone who opposes this who has rental property. And students aren’t the only people who rent in College Hill. These commenters make huge assumptions that have little basis in reality, yet they won’t shut up. What makes people speculate in public about subjects that they are totally ignorant about?

The development company has claimed that UNCG is in favor of this development, but UNCG has not spoken out. In fact, UNCG wanted to buy this property but were outbid by this company. Yet they have raised the name of UNCG again and again as if they are partners with them. I think that this backfired on them, because one of the zoning commissioners pointed this out.

Just the fact that I’ve had my faith somewhat restored in my government this week has made me pretty happy. What a rare feeling. Guess I’d better savor it while it lasts.