Small But Significant Events; Huge Equivocations

Our local three-times-a-week news rag, the redoubtable Watauga Democrat, came out editorially yesterday calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq ... or at least that's how we read the following sentence: "Let's get our troops and money out of Iraq and bring them to bear on this wound in our national side [the devastation from hurricane Katrina] before it's too late."

That's a small but significant event.

The huge equivocation came in another article (evidently not available on-line) in Friday's Watauga Democrat, headlined "Lottery gets mixed local reviews." For that article, our state senator John Garwood was interviewed. He as much as admits that he actively participated in the lottery's passage BY NOT SHOWING UP FOR THE VOTE, and that furthermore he's clearly happy it passed:

"Garwood, who had been hospitalized with a leg infection and was recovering at his Wilkesboro home, said he could have 'paired' with a senator who supported the bill and prevented the tie [which was broken by Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue]. Under Senate rules, such pairing is allowed when a legislator is out of town and an opposing legislator agrees to withhold a vote. Garwood said he chose not to take that action because he felt the lottery was only a matter of time and would have been approved in the spring."

Said the teenager to her mom, "It was only a matter of time before I lost my virginity, so I thought, 'Why not tonight?' You understand, don't you, Mom?"

"I have mixed feelings," Garwood said. "I did not seek a pair [and don't HAVE a pair?] that could have forestalled it. The lottery is inevitable. We've got one now, only three other states are getting the money .... I'm not as upset with it as perhaps some of my colleagues are. We've never had enough money for education. This will help counties that don't have the tax base they need to keep their schools up .... There's more conservatism in my district, and I'll probably suffer for it. I didn't vote for it, and I didn't vote against it."

We believe that's a textbook case of equivocation.