I have been the face painter for the Memorial Day and Labor Day festivals in Highlands for the past four years. Just before this past Labor Day festival, I heard that some of the local store owners thought we were taking business away from them. From my past experience, this is exactly the opposite from the truth. First, most of the vendors themselves (80 or more of them) eat their evening meals after the festival in your fine restaurants, and I’ve been known to take the opportunity to shop your lovely stores myself, as I’m sure do other vendors. Besides this, my husband, who has free reign while I man our booth, does his own share of shopping and he says that there are few free parking spaces available in your beautiful shopping district plus most of the stores seem to be doing good business. I, therefore, took it upon myself to take an unofficial survey. My question was: Did you come into town only because of the festival? 12-yes — 6-yes, but we’ll eat lunch here, too; 7-yes, but we plan to shop in a local store; 8-no we had business in town, but wanted to see the festival.

I want to talk a little bit about politics and government.

I want to talk about whether our form of government is or should be a republic.

In a nutshell, democratic government is rule by the majority, while republican government is rule by a majority of minorities.

Wildflower is back, and a lot of people are worried, especially here in the northern part of the county. From the time the first developer spoke to a crowd of over 200 at Cowee School and said, “You people will need to upgrade your community for my clientele,” and “You people (How could the man think that was an acceptable way to address the people whose community he was moving into?) are going to need affordable housing ...” the thing has not set well on our minds. Then came the flood of sediment into streams, trout ponds and the river as the steep roads were gouged out. People were buying lots sight unseen on the internet, because real estate was hot and was only going to get hotter.

Then came the crash—with foreclosures, lawsuits, damage to our local financial institutions—and to the reputation of Macon County.

It is often said that people are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.

Apparently, the Chairman of the Macon County Democratic Party believes he is entitled to both.

He hurled facts by the wayside in a recent op-ed, attempting to blame North Carolina’s education and economic woes on Republican legislators.