Wednesday, December 19, 2012 Tryon Daily Bulletin / The World’s Smallest Daily Newspaper
Letter to the Editor
Tryon Stroll success To the editor
The Tryon Downtown Development Association (TDDA) appreciates everyone involved with the Tryon Christmas Stroll. The festive atmosphere with music, treats, Santa, decor, etc. allowed for a very pleasant eve-
• Money
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cities, and in run down inner city tenements. They have little privacy or respite from their neighbors, from each other, and from their trials and tribulations. Yet the rich can isolate themselves from all the messiness of everyday life. As the housing market rebounds, note the increasing number of gated communities, around 12 percent and growing, as the wealthy rush to separate themselves from everyone else.
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ning with a lot of smiling faces “strolling” about the town. Paula Edwards, Kim Nelson, and Shelly Block did a great job coordinating the event, and TDDA would like to thank all the volunteers and performers, especially Bill Jones who filled in as a last minute Santa. We would like to show appreciation to the local merchants who decorated their businesses and participated, as well as the multitude of others who gave their
time and efforts to beautify Tryon and make this a great “kick-off to the holiday season.” But special recognition should be directed toward Erin Thompson, Mary Prioleau, town manager Caitlin Martin, and the Town of Tryon employees, who worked diligently to get the downtown decorations in working order (a result of apparent vandalism), as well as the Tryon Police and fire departments for spending their evening directing
traffic and keeping participants safe. We “tip our hats” to Caitlin for the job that she has done thus far, especially in a position that tends to lean to the “thankless” side. Seeing her riding around in the town truck along with her staff members shows her enthusiasm and initiative, and we feel the Town of Tryon is lucky to have her here. – Steve Cobb, TDDA president
Additionally, we’re fast approaching the time when private security guards outnumber a declining public police force. In a lot of small towns, police have disappeared altogether. Moreover, if you’re a Bernie Madoff and have to go to jail, you can even buy a prison-cell upgrade. 3. Education and health care. A good education now largely is for sale. Increasingly, public education slowly is being strangled, replaced by for-profit schools, by Christian and private academies. Regardless of yowls of protest from their supporters, that also means a con-
striction of opportunities for those who cannot afford class-conscious private schools. Health care? Many physicians and small regional hospitals like St. Luke’s now have been purchased by larger ones, and, from that, you’ll be “billed and tested up” despite entitlement write-offs. If you watch the evening news, you might also notice as did Sandel the energetic promotion of drugs to alleviate pseudo-illnesses like erectile dysfunction, at first blush the number one health issue in the nation. Yet despite the growing inequal-
ity, little protest will emerge. Why? First, those in the bottom 47 percent spend most of their time just trying to survive. Not even shoving the poor and middle classes over the fiscal cliff will matter. Class warfare? Nah. You have class warfare when peasants storm the castle, draw and quarter a robber baron or two, ravage the women, and rob the granaries but not when you recreationally occupy Wall Street. Still, the striking fast food workers in New York City just might storm Goldman Sachs ... – Milton Ready, Tryon