Asheville -The Freakiest City in America?

Ah, again one can hear the sweet sounds of diversity in Asheville, North Carolina, where the major political opinion always blows from the left compliments of the winds from the front doors of the Asheville Citizen Times (ACT), as you will read below. Listening and watching the above video readily explains why Rolling Stone Magazine circa 2001 thought Asheville was the freakiest city in America. Over a decade later it still holds the title as ACT editors find joy when the label is mentioned, morphed now into the New Age Mecca.

The ACT is a Gannett-owned publication that has dissed military heroes outside of the area. We wondered when is a hero not a hero, local servicemen who gave their lives for their country having deserved photos and stories in the ACT while others who were nationally recognized for their outstanding service beyond the call of duty couldn't seem to find any white space for their names.

In fact it was the Asheville Citizen Times that wouldn't print the picture of a captured Saddam Hussein because (cough) it could be found in other media outlets so what was the point. My son in Afghanistan wanted a picture. We had to go online to find a photo since the local daily print media refused to show it.

It was also the Times that ran a cartoon in its op-ed section, calling an Asheville business group Nazis, the managing editor having to go out and meet with the group to explain the decision by his (cough) professional staff. And in an important Congressional U.S. House race, the ACT made fun of the conservative candidate, allowing him to be called NoPower for not accepting money from a political party that he believed had left its roots. Then adding salt to the wounds the ACT wouldn't attend some of the candidate's press conferences, as reported by the candidate. Knowing the ACT, it probably felt its Democrat-backed candidate for the U.S. House position was going to win the election anyway so again what was the point.

But this was just standard stuff for the ACT. I remember being stunned in 2004 after having moved here from New Jersey when the ACT dedicated an entire front page for a Saturday issue that Steven Spielberg [could be, might be, should be?] buying a condo in Asheville. The flippant editors reported they knew they may have reacted to a potential rumor. But it look more as if they were running a local high school gazette.

To be fair, my complaints have always been with the editors of the news department that seem to spin a progressive agenda while they knowingly color the news, as if nannies for their readers. On the other hand the sports edition prints the facts daily without political correctness while the entertainment editor runs a tight and professional ship, also having responsibility for an excellent weekly pub titled, Take 5.

In a city represented by the news from this daily newspaper, there was another troubling issue that the city sort of passed off as a so what.

In the early south blacks couldn't get service experiencing the jaws of discrimination. In early Germany Jews couldn't get service experiencing the jaws of discrimination. And in Asheville in early 2011 an African-America mayor felt the jaws of discrimination not being able to get customer service. Why? Because she believed marriage was between a man and a women. Gays had been upset, saying they were pushed into the closet by majority opinion. Yet in Asheville they saw no problem trying to put an African-American mayor into the closet, reminding her what happens when you don't "obey" the majority new-age opinion in downtown Asheville, a stronghold of the Democrat Party.

For a little history, you might not be aware that North Carolina became a Democrat-run state after 1898 and never looked back when Democrats murdered almost a dozen black Republican businessmen in a racist political event called the Massacre of 1898.

Then in the 1960s the Democrat Party named its annual state fundraiser after Charles Aycock, the White Supremacist who helped create the environment that encouraged the Massacre of 1898. The party continued to be reminded by others what Aycock represented, yet kept the name for almost forty years until 2010 when they realized they might lose control of the state. Their excuse was that Aycock was "mainly" an educator. However dying in 1912, Aycock didn't have much time to overcome his reputation as a White Supremacist. Here is what he said in a speech in 1903, nine years before he died.

"But there flows in my veins the blood of the dominant race; that race that has conquered the earth and seeks out the mysteries of the heights and depths. If manifest destiny leads to the seizure of Panama, it is certain that it likewise leads to the dominance of the Caucasian. When the negro recognizes this fact we shall have peace and good will between the races."

And then there were these news reports related to the 1898 Massacre from North Carolina history.

Politics of a Massacre, Discovering Wilmington 1898, produced by Eastern Carolina University

It's why I thought the Democrat Party's heart didn't seem to fall far from the sheets.

In the early fall of 2008, candidate Barack Obama had no problem coming to a Democrat fundraiser named after White Supremacist, Charles Aycock, to rake in more campaign money for his presidential election. Being from New Jersey, I tried to understand what was going on with politics in North Carolina. So I drove past the Grove Park Inn the evening of Obama's speech to local Democrats to see if there were any African-Americans protesting a Democrat fundraiser named after a White Supremacist that was to be attended by the first potential African American president. It was as if I was watching a good-old-boy-club attending their annual gathering with zero protestors.

So come on down to the City of Asheville, where a progressive bully on the city counsel believes a baby in its mother's womb is a parasite, Billy Graham the Prince of War, and atheism is experienced with such passion it's treated as a religion that trumps other beliefs. You can't get more radical than that, even by Obama standards.

The progressive bully was elected because Democrat voters were so confident a Democrat would be elected for city council in Asheville that only 14% showed up at the voting booths, half of those being far-left progressive radicals encouraged to attend what was to be a light election. It proved the saying that "sometimes the voters get the government they richly deserve." But this wasn't new, as the city council of the previous election had immediately gone over to Air America to nationally say they were going to make Asheville into the best progressive city in America. And looking at the city center today, they've obviously accomplished their goal.

It is a city government that seems to want to put illegal aliens in front of the line for jobs while believing the whiff of urine on a store front could be a sign of progress. It's a world filled with the kind of diversity where the odor of socialism could be just a street corner away. . . in other words sometimes to an outsider it looks like our way or the highway.

There is no doubt people do enjoy Asheville and it has many things to offer. But I believe most people moving down here are mainly interested in the surrounding mountains where they will find great music, entertaining theatre, art events, and fine dining in most areas of Western North Carolina. For instance, there are 18 theatre groups around the 23 counties of Western North Carolina. And our favorite restaurants are mainly north, south, and east of the center city quickly reachable by the two interstates that intersect around Asheville.

But not unlike the ideology of progressives, the city too often writes about itself as if all the mountains, waterfalls, and the events in the 23 counties of North Carolina were owned by this tiny approximate eight-square block area that is referred to as downtown Asheville. It's just a shame it chooses to be so weird to get a different position on the map, such as New Age Mecca. When the city does that it comes off as very arrogant, like its our mecca and keep remembering that when you visit.

For those interested, here is a REAL map of all of Western North Carolina and the reason many people retire here. On it Asheville is just a tiny area located in Buncombe county where I-26 and I-40 intersect. It just one county of 23 that makes up what Americans know to be Western North Carolina.

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