Welcome to the latest, shiny, new edition of Ask Boomer With Attitude, coming to you live from Charlotte, N.C., where a proposal to employ a couple handfuls of people to service an industry that's on the skids because of the Japanese nuclear catastrophe, is considered exciting enough to be front page news. Sigh. By the way, just FYI, only one of the following questions is really from a reader.
Dear BWA: Why don't you come out and admit that if it weren't for black kids, we wouldn't have the kind of Uptown violence we've seen the past few years? — Politically Incorrect
Dear PI: What do you mean "admit it"? In a news blog last week (at www.theclogblog.com), I expressed the view that the two most obvious factors in Charlotte's occasional Uptown melees are aggressive young black guys, and aggressively ill-tempered cops. From everything I've read and heard, both of those played big parts in the recent violence Uptown. This writer has no ready-made solutions to help the city avoid melodrama and mayhem during big Uptown events. Past experience and common sense tell me a couple of things, however. Namely, the city has allowed the Transit Center to become a collection of problems waiting to happen, and the police did a thoroughly piss-poor job (not the preferred technical term) of crowd management. Powers that be, however, have elected to place blame for everything on the parents of young kids who were out past curfew — those parents' political powerlessness always make easy targets — even though the men involved in the shooting were in their early 20s and unaffected by the curfew. Chief Monroe, there is such a thing as effective crowd management, and I'm not talking about widespread harassment of people who are minding their own business, as a substantial number of eyewitnesses report occurred on the fateful night. Chief, other cities manage to hold huge events without yearly riots, so here's an idea: Ask around and find out how to manage a crowd without your guys being blustery jerks.
Dear BWA: Is it legal for Duke Energy to help the Democratic Party so much? They're giving the Dems a fat credit line, use of meeting rooms and such for the convention next year, but is it legal? I doubt it. — Call Me Disgruntled
Dear Call: Sure, it's legal, although Republican complaints about Duke's, er, contributions are understandable. The thing is, however, that if Pat McCrory were still mayor and he tried to bring the GOP convention to Charlotte, Duke Energy would be just as "helpful." They're pretty bipartisan, and why not? As one liberal pundit put it recently, it's the big corporations that own America, they just rent it out to the rest of us.
Dear BWA: What's this I hear about state Rep. Kelly Alexander using his elected position to line his own pockets? — It's Curtains, Rocky
Dear It's: You're probably referring to N.C. House bill 664, which I'm calling the Vulture-Enabling Sales-Booster Act. Alexander, a Democratic Charlotte funeral director, co-sponsored the bill along with Rep. James Boles, a Republican funeral director from Southern Pines. The bill, which passed the House and now awaits action in the Senate, would allow funeral home directors or employees speedy access to all the details of the deceased's life insurance policy. Life insurance benefits are often the main source of financing for many people's funeral costs, and this bill would make it easier for funeral homes to determine just how much is in the kitty, so to speak, before cranking up the casket and vault sales pitches. I'm sorry, I have to quit writing about this. I think I'm going to be sick.
Dear BWA: Since you love big government so much, I guess you're in favor of the big fine the city levied on a church for pruning its crepe myrtles. — Pissed Off Presby
Dear POP: First, thanks for turning a lifetime's worth of shifting political thinking and views into a handy cliché. But on to your question. It's my considered opinion that everybody involved in this "story" is full of it. Maybe it's because I'm married to a horticulturist, but I don't see how anyone with even the least concern for how their property looks could hack up a slew of crepe myrtles the way the master gardeners at Albemarle Presbyterian Church did. On the other hand, I support the city's tree ordinance, but for crying out loud, how about warning people first before hitting them with a $4,700 fine? Better yet, how about if the city did a better job of educating the citizenry about proper pruning?