No matter how hard you try, you dream up more convincing excuses to keep that favorite shirt -- which would groan out loud if you tried to actually button it -- than you can find rational reasons to toss it.
The Orange County Board of Commissioners found itself in such a pickle last week as it attempted to reduce the number of advisory boards and commissions to which it appoints representatives. The thought of killing a commission was excruciating. Like that article of clothing hanging in the back of the closet that generates a fond memory or a fleeting impulse to go on a diet, each board had a constituency and a defender on the County Commission arguing against its demise.
None was more ripe for the sunset than the Personnel Hearing Board, but even it got a reprieve.
The board has met once in the past 12 years, and that was two years ago. The commissioners weren't certain if the board has any members, whether it meets regularly or what its precise function is. County Manager Frank Clifton and Human Resources Director Michael McGinnis gave repeated assurances that the old-time board is obsolete. State and federal laws and a multitude of county policies and hierarchical steps protect the rights of employees who are disciplined or dismissed after a personnel matter reaches the county manager level, they said.
"This is about, for me, due process," County Commission Chairwoman Valerie Foushee said. "This is not about you," she told Clifton.
So the Personnel Hearing Board, which meets less frequently than the Chicago Cubs have a winning season, is safe. For now.
It's hard to shrink Big Government. That would take a sea change at the ballot box to send a firm message, and a willingness from the electorate to be constantly vigilant.
Perhaps establishment of The Heritage Foundation's latest community committee in Chapel Hill will lubricate such an evolution here.
Yes, that Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. Yes, Chapel Hill, where leftists have a better home field advantage than the UNC basketball team.
More than 250 supporters from around the state helped to launch the North Carolina Committee for Heritage last week at Carolina Club's George Watts Hill Alumni Center. Howard and Lynda Schultz, owners and founders of The Learning Consortium in Chapel Hill, were the driving force behind the effort to get the 13th Heritage Foundation community committee started in North Carolina, which has 16,000 Heritage Foundation members.
"In my opinion, we need to go back to the founding principles that are in the Constitution and not suggest that government is the answer for everything we do," Howard Schultz said. "This country was built on individualism and responsibility and I see no problem with revisiting those ideas."
The statewide organization will be involved mostly in grassroots education and raising awareness about free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values and a strong national defense.
"I think that our society has desensitized people of those ideas," Schultz said, noting the ominous bipartisan nature of that perilous plunge. There are plenty of Republicans that are not grounded in the founding principles walking hand in hand over the cliff with Democrats.
Veering away from ideals such as personal accountability and moral responsibility have very tangible consequences, he said.
"When you think that in this country, 50 percent of the people are paying 97 percent of the taxes, that means the other 50 percent of the people paying less than 3 percent of the taxes have no skin in the games" and demand tax-paid entitlements as "quote-unquote a right," Schultz said.
Ken McIntyre, special projects editor for The Heritage Foundation, said the national organization wants to give the state committees "the resources to take a stand" and "to give people the confidence of their convictions" to promote conservative causes and actions.
"There's not an intention to have Heritage come in and weigh in as a heavy on local matters," McIntyre said, "but we want to be able to equip our members to do that."
Long-term, Heritage hopes to apply conservative principles and traditional, family oriented, all-American values on the local level through state and regional think tanks that can help to suggest solutions to more parochial issues. Even in Chapel Hill.
Pinch me. I'm dreaming.
Dan E. Way is editor of The Chapel Hill Herald. Send e-mail to dway@heraldsun.com or call 419-6654.
