Tragically, Mrs. Bellamy, you and the Asheville City Council (so help us, God) arenot supporting the U.S. constitutional “right to vote” (Article IV, Section 4) for the people who live at Biltmore Lake. Instead, you and your bureaucrats at City Hall are scheming to grab our homes and force us to pay property taxes at least 50% higher than what we face already. And in return? The City of Asheville offers us nothing!Water? We already pay for it. Sewers? We already pay for them, too. Trash and garbage pickup? Ditto. Police and fire protection? Ditto. Parks and greenery? Ditto. Roads and sidewalks? Ditto. Street lights? Ditto. We pay for it all. All that Asheville offers us is the “right” not to vote! Using the State of North Carolina’s totally unconstitutional, anti-democratic and anti-republican law of “annexation without representation,” you and Asheville City Council contemplate a sneaky end-run around the rules of fair play. This kind of trick would have embarrassed even Chicago’s Richard Daly. Instead, Mayor Bellamy, please emulate Martin Luther King and the thousands of other courageous civil-rights heroes (both black and white) who made it possible not only for all Americans to vote, but for you to be elected to high office.

So here is our offer to help you recover your ideals: Biltmore Lake residents invite you to come to our community and commit yourself once again to Abraham Lincoln’snoble American Way: Government of, by and for the people. FIRST, we shall have a fair, moderated debate on the proposed annexation between you and our volunteer group’s chairman. The venue will be Biltmore Lake Park on an upcoming Saturday or Sunday afternoon of your choice. In attendance will be our moms, dads, and children (the debate will be a great social studies lesson for the little ones, Mrs. Mayor), sitting on lawn chairs and blankets, and listening politely to both sides.

SECOND, after the debate, residents of Biltmore Lake will receive paper ballots for a straw vote on the simple, yes or no annexation issue, then turn them over to a panel of three neutral monitors for immediate tabulation.

THIRD, you and our debater jointly will announce the tally. If annexation loses, you will urge Council to drop its plan to grab us. If annexation wins, we will halt our battle. Mrs. Mayor, believing in the wisdom of voters is the same goal of democracy that now operates even in Afghanistan. Let’s practice it here, too.