Concerned Citizens of Haywood - Defined

[Forum Member]

When a group of locals called "the Concerned Citizens of Haywood" catches the attention of the local tabloid enough to describe them as "simpletons", it might be time to define the group accurately rather than leave it to a tabloid.

I have been in Haywood County for more than 10 years. I've kept up with the local politics and developments that are now rapidly changing the landscape of our county. For years the only three official news sources were: (1) The Mountaineer, (2) The Smoky Mountain News, and on occasion (3) WLOS. The two local papers are religiously left-oriented. From the Mountaineer's very public promoting the increase in homeless facilities to the SMN calling a conservative group "simpletons", there has been no public tool for organizing and telling a non-slanted view of our county. And worse yet, the two local papers actively perform attack pieces on locals who speak out against left causes or in support of right causes.

The first Concerned Citizens of Haywood meeting I attended had perhaps 30 people in attendance -- which I'm told has also been as large as 100. It's very informal. There is nobody "taking names". There's no "list". There was a speaker and the conversation for that meeting was mostly (80%) oriented around the perspective of the speaker. Nobody was an "expert" though many had pieces and perspective to contribute. For putting 30 active and engaged people in a room, the conversation was very polite, orderly, and constructive. Very little speaking over someone and nobody shamed for having an opinion that differed.

Now for those in attendance. They were very impressive. Overall they seemed informed, engaged, and active. Some came with topics or questions written down and truly wanted to know a first-person, unbiased, non-spun answer to something. Some didn't speak at all but seemed to track every word said. Some in their participation in the discussion showed signs of having already taken their own initiatives and shared what they have learned previously and added material and perspective to the conversation. Sometimes (if not most times) a group will succumb to "group think". This forum had none of that. It seemed to me that the thread in common was that all in attendance would be critical and independent thinkers. And that's EXACTLY why I wanted to share my perspective here: quite the opposite of being simpletons or puppets as at least one local tabloid accuses.

This Concerned Citizens of Haywood is a godsend for our community. It's a grass roots organization that is probably mostly Republican and Independent -- but it wouldn't surprise me if a few mountain-values conservative Democrats were in the group. How this group forms their collective opinions is to be revered. What they do about impressing their opinions on elected folks and others in the community remains to be seen -- but we do now have all Republicans elected to offices since this group formed. They also don't seem to brag or flaunt their influence -- graciously so.

Now that the SMN has attacked this Concerned Citizens of Haywood group they might start to understand there is no head to cut off. Some in the group are more vocal. Some are more hands on. Some are more connected in the community. But there isn't really a leader. It wasn't even clear to me if the meeting was open or by invitation. That's going to make it very difficult to malign them. As for me, I've found that undercurrent of information and perspective that has been obviously missing from publications. And it didn't even cost me a dollar. The Concerned Citizens of Haywood is a new baseline of public opinion for the public to consider and elected people to represent. That's going to threaten the relevance of the local papers. Expect more attempts to malign the Concerned Citizens of Haywood from the local papers. But from my first-person experience and observations, I would stereotype anyone who attends such a meeting an informed, engaged, and independent/critical thinker until they prove to me otherwise.