Coble throws volunteers under the bus

I’m still in disbelief over last week’s meeting of the Wake County Commissioners in which chair Paul Coble completely dissed a report on sustainability that the Commission itself requested and whose task force Commissioner Joe Bryan chaired.

I have served as an unpaid, volunteer member of various city boards for over three years now. I don’t do it for the money, or to enrich myself, or for the prestige. I do it because I love Raleigh and want to help it grow. The countless hours I’ve devoted to these causes; all the evenings I missed tucking my kids in for bed; all the soccer, baseball and basketball games I’ve missed; those are sacrifices I’ve accepted because I feel its important to serve the greater good. Like everyone else, I have only so many days to live on this planet and I like to know that my time matters.

That’s why I am so galled by what Coble did this week. Over sixty-five bipartisan, unpaid, citizen volunteers met every month for 18 months to help craft a report on sustainability. They, too, put in long hours and missed time with their families because they wanted to serve their community. In a matter of minutes last week, Coble completely disrespected their many hours of effort and sold them out all in the name of a cheap political ploy. Pandering to the tea bagger crowd, Coble insinuated some sort of asinine, United Nations plot against Wake County in an effort to prop up his sagging Congressional bid against Republican George Holding.

Here’s some advice to Paul Coble: when you ask citizens to offer their service to the community, you damn well better respect their effort and commitment. They aren’t there to help boost your campaign, they’re there to serve the greater good.

The next time Coble and the board ask for volunteers to step up, they may find themselves hard-pressed to find any suckers fool enough to trust them.