Who are the "same people"?

Editors Note: Again I found myself part of a story that the e-Lee Dispatch comments on. The circumstances were basically the same. I attended the Fair Tax Committee meeting last Thursday, April 10, initially intending to be an observer. Again, a representative of the Friends of Lee County High School was not present, and I subbed for her. It was during that meeting that I made a comment that became the basis of headlines in the Sunday Herald. I believe my comments were taken too broadly. Since I was a participant, I am going to use the technique I used before and write this entry from a personal perspective.

I arrived at the meeting and immediately noticed that papers had been distributed assigning membership to committees. Nowhere did I see my name, letting me know I was viewed as only a substitute. The newspaper is, therefore, incorrect when it says I am member of the committee. By the start of the meeting, I noted that Arlene Jackson had not arrived as one of the representatives of the Friends of Lee County High School, so I pulled a chair up to the end of one of the tables.

At some point, I made note of having seen the "Repeal Business Tax Now" signs on the way to the meeting. It was at that point I made the statement quoted in the paper “The same people that oppose the business privi­lege tax will oppose this (sales) tax too,” Clark said. “It’s no accident that the signs are going up now.” My reference to "the same people" was to the half-dozen or so people who go to Lloyd Jennings strategy meetings--not the larger public. My reference was not meant to include a wide group of people or even that Charles Taylor's decision to push for repeal now was related to the sales tax. I did, and do believe, that Americans For Propensity would like to build a general anti-tax sentiment in the community.

The Fair Tax Committee quickly broke into committees. It turned out that the one committee that did not have a meeting was the one for which I was a substitute, so I waited around for the conclusion of the meeting and left having felt that I had done my job. As I sat there and watched the other committees hard at work, I realized again how late in the process this effort had begun and what a failure of leadership it represented on the part of the Board of Commissioners.