Chip Gets Foot-N-Mouth Disease

After two years of this website, I have my first retraction. Several people have asked for one, but hey, it's my website, so "ummmm....NO!" Well finally, someone e-mailed me with a point that is more than valid. He never asked for a retraction, and has even agreed to give us his opinions from time to time to be posted here on the site. So, when I screw up, I am man enough to admit it...sometimes.

I contend that I had nothing to do with the article titled "Chip's Tax Plan." No sir, I contend that someone must have broken into my computer and composed this bit of text.

Don't buy it? Okay, how about this one? At the time of writing that article, I was under the influence of paint fumes, from painting my wife's quilt rack? She told me to take it outside, but it was cold. So I painted it in my basement, and now have an outline of a quilt rack on my basement floor. One would probably think a quilt rack has been murdered in my basement, with such a good outline drawn on the concrete.

So my point is, with all the fumes I inhaled painting this thing, I can not be held accountable for anything I wrote that day.

Just like my article "Lake Monster," I was astonished at how many people wrote me to express what a good idea my tax plan was. I must agree however, that my plan is equally as feasible as anything I've seen so far from Nashville.

But along with all the letters I received about this article was one from a very famous person. This dignitary is Representative Mark Goins of Tennessee. Mr. Goins called me on the carpet about a sentence I used in the article. Here are the couple of lines he referenced:

"The only legislator to ask my opinion of this issue is Mike Williams. For a large part, he's the only politician to ever ask my opinion of anything."

Now, Mr. Goins pointed out, rightfully so, that he had indeed asked my opinion on several occasions. So I stand corrected on that. Rats! I hate to be wrong.

What I meant by this was that Mike lives near me, and often came in my father's shop. Dorothy see's me at the post office every week. Barbara (Mike's sister in law) made us some great Christmas fudge. Ralph (Mikes brother) has often stopped at Hillbilly Market and got a hotdog, then came and watched TV with me while he ate. Most likely because Barbara would have killed him, had she known he was eating a hotdog.

So it was very unfair of me to lump Mark Goins into the group of legislators in Nashville, that feel compelled to vote their conscience instead of mine. No, I must say that I am corrected, Rep. Goins has indeed asked my opinion. Further, he continues to take out ads in local papers to ask opinions of residents. He has created several local phone numbers of the people he represents to call him. Even going so far as to create a toll free number, 1-800-449-8366 for concerned citizens to voice opinions.

Now while I do not agree with everything that Rep. Goins does, I will say that he does try to be accessible. I am glad to see him support farmers in our area. I don't smoke, and am not a huge fan of the tobacco industry, but I do support the tobacco farmers. These people are trying to make a living as they have for years. Mark Goins is one of few to champion their cause. Several legislators champion the cause of tobacco, but it's at the RJ Reynolds level. Mark is one of few, to help the industry on the farm level. By farm, I mean old Joe and his kids with the John Deere. Not some conglomerate in the midwest complaining about the net yield being off three million dollars from last year. What I would like to see is a program to encourage local farmers to grow a different cash crop. There is more money in other crops, with less work.

Mark helped establish an "Elder Law Hotline," (1-800-386-0128) giving free legal advice to Tennessee residents aged sixty and above. And even helped with a resolution to honor John Ward for his years of service to the University of Tennessee.

So my major influence by politicians to date is from my years of hanging around my dad's business while in school:

I shook hands with Al Gore once. If he's elected President, I will have shaken hands with the President.

Got to meet Jim Sasser, who by the way has a cold handshake.

Met Jim Duncan, who was a friend of my grandmother, the father, not the Jim Duncan of today.

Met Don Sundquist while he was campaigning in Maynardville (stopped by dad's business.)

But mostly, my experience is with politicians carrying chrome shovels to break ground for some bizarre new project. A new project, they would have me believe that without them would never have developed. News flash, it would have happened regardless of which politician gave this corporation a gazillion of my tax dollars to locate there. And finally, the most idiotic politician of all. The ones that get on TV and stand behind the President while he announces some new initiative to raise my taxes and give jobs to Mexico. You know the politians I'm talking about. The politicians incapable of an independent thought on their own. So they stand there with idiotic grins on their faces. Most likely they think, "If this project goes well, all the voters in TV land will think I had something to do with this."

Or local politicians who get on TV and say "I don't care what happens...they can fire me if they want." And then get voted educator of the year.

I think I had a point to all of this...

Oh yes, my point! It's easy to see why I, or anyone else become cenical with politicians today. They pander to us like we're idiots, and disturbingly it works. But, it is very unfair of me to lump them all into one pile.

Maybe I've become complacent in the fact that we seem to have two decent politicians in Mike Williams, and Mark Goins. I'm not saying I agree with them, even most of the time. But in the sea of debauchery that has made American politics the object of jokes throughout the world, I shouldn't forget even one politician that has asked me what I think.

You can e-mail Mike and Mark both, by going to my article titled "Inform on Your Neighbors," you will see their links to the left. My error in the fact was by inferring, that these politicians hadn't asked my opinion. Both have and both have taken out ads to ask everyone's opinion locally. That's more than any local politician seems to do anymore.

But remember, it's up to us the voters to decide our own future. With less than thirty percent of our population voting, it's hardly possible to say that anyone has been elected by popular vote.

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