Board of Aldermen

Dan Coleman will be missed in Carrboro. I have a couple of sisters who lived in Australia. I've already written to Dan offering what help I can with his transition. But I know that he will enjoy his new adventure in Australia.

Which means. A vacancy will soon be opening on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen. And my mind turns to matters of political ‘establishment,’ the righteousness of challenge in a community, and what makes me itchy.

Now. Let's get clear. There is a political ‘establishment’ in Carrboro. This is not necessarily a bad thing. So, why the itch?

Well, I get itchy at any appearance of an 'establishment' coronation.

I get itchy at any sense that one has to be a part of an homogenous 'establishment' to make progress. That the primary attribute of a candidacy should be that one has worked one's way up the ladder of 'establishment,' allowing its members to get comfortable with one.

I get itchy at the suggestion that a community is, indeed, homogenous. When patently no community is homogenous.

Alderman Dan Coleman plans to introduce a resolution against corporate personhood to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen. In an e-mail to his colleagues on the board, Coleman asked that the draft resolution be added to the board's January 17 agenda. The resolution responds to the 2010 US Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, which essentially cleared the way for unlimited election spending by corporations and other groups.