Knox County Republican Party Immediate Past Chair and Citizen Advocate Randy Pace submitted a column and I am publishing it here.
I stopped watching baseball many years ago as a result of a player’s strike. Another game, “Insider baseball” more commonly known as the political process, has always been a thorn in my side. Deciding to no longer sit on the sidelines and watch other people play the game, I found my time better spent playing the sport and involving myself in the political process. We are all responsible for fair play in a society that self-governs.
The Knox County Commission recently held its annual reorganization meeting. As a result, a majority of the County Commissioners (republican) elected a new Chairman (a Democrat) of that governing body. For the countless number of people that were caught by surprise, angered, happy, disappointed or otherwise emotionally impacted by the outcome of the reorganization meeting of the Knox County Commission. Grab your glove, your ball, your bat and your hat and meet me at the next County Commission Meeting. You can begin to learn first hand how government works and how its impacted good and bad by all the players.
If you are looking for someone to blame or thank for the outcome of the Knox County Commission reorganization, look first in the direction of former Mayor turned gossip columnist,Victor Ashe and local Editor, Steve Hunley. It’s the nature of their game, they drive more votes for all the wrong reasons than anyone else in Knox County with perhaps the exception of the KNS. The amount of division caused within the electorate and the pressure placed on elected officials by these so-called news outlets is unacceptable.
Secondly you might ask yourself how badly were the incoming group of newly elected republican commissioners and the general public treated to cause such nonsense. While the aforementioned newspaper folks will point fingers in all the wrong directions, this was simply the result of the game of insider baseball. Most of the players knew this was happening and did little to prevent it. In some respect, their actions over the past 20 years have accelerated it. The strings of government are being pulled by deep pocketed people who believe their interests supersedes the publics.
Like it or not, much of this recent kerfuffle didn’t start when the two newspaper men decided they wanted a Democrat to run for the State Legislature on the Republican Primary Ballot (the Mannis affect). But it certainly accelerated it. Along with their weekly baseless diatribes regarding the local republican party leadership one can only wonder if they have been planning this all along.
The undue influence of a few results in unintended consequence for us all. Stop sitting on the sidelines and form your own opinion and seek factual information, we will all be better off for it.
