Because I can’t. An excerpt from a release that just came in from Occupy Columbia:
On Thursday, Governor Nikki Haley said that unions are behind the Occupy Wall Street movement. We contest that accusation. This is a leaderless movement that welcomes participation from all groups, but neither bows down nor endorses any. We’ve publicly invited all people or organizations, whether they be Unions or the Tea Party, to come take part in a conversation about economic injustice and a system that is rigged to benefit the 1% at the direct expense of the 99%.
We challenge Governor Haley to produce evidence to back up her claim. If she would attend one of our General Assemblies (held every day at 10:00am and 7:00pm), she would realize that all decicions made by Occupy Columbia are voted on by those in attendence. We require a 90% threshold for consensus, and no group, Union or otherwise, has the ability to control that.
Whom should I back here? This is a toughie…
Seriously, though — I don’t think the gov should have said that about them, without justification. Shades of her tale about the drug-addled unemployed.
But then, I don’t agree with OC that Nephron locating here is a bad idea. The rest of the release:
On the other hand, it was the Governor herself who said, earlier this morning, that she is the “number one employee” of a pharmaceutical company and that their success is her “number one goal.” This company, Nephron Pharmaceuticals is the same company whose private jet she used to fly to a fundraiser in Dallas, TX last month, according to Fits News.
We had members in attendance for this morning’s announcement, one holding a sign reading “Who owns you?” Her number one priority should be the success of the people of South Carolina, not the non-body person that is a major pharmaceutical company.
By her statement, she is the personification of the merger of state and corporate interests. We applaud her bold honesty, but find it hard to believe that she can be expected to be accountable after such a declaritive pledge of allegiance to the highest bidder.
So I’m where I started, without a side. But that’s my usual position…
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Nikki Haley could be a union organizer for Halloween and scare everyone around her.
Seriously, OC’s point is that instead of grovelling for admittedly much-needed businesses, the governor is supposed to be the number one CITIZEN first. While the interests of the citizenry and business may often align, it is hardly a one-to-one correspondence.
I didn’t see anything in the photo or the release that indicates OC has any issues with Nephron locating here. I think the issue is Haley’s comment that she works for Nephron. She’s not supposed to work for them. She’s supposed to work for us.
She was just being gracious, in her way, and trying to be a good public servant.
It was welcome-wagon stuff — welcome to our community; now that you are part of it, I, the public servant, am your servant.
Rhetorical fluff, in a sense, but harmless.
OC thinks there is something sinister in ties between government and corporations, and that rhetoric tied perfectly — like a puzzle piece finding its space — into their own rhetoric, their own paranoia. They believe that government only serves the corporate world, and presto! They hear Nikki promising to serve Nephron.
Actually, if anything, she was welcoming the Kennedys home (crony capitalism!). They are from here, and are expanding their business in Mrs. Kennedy’s home county. People who think there is some sort of wickedness in accepting a plane ride for a private purpose (whaddya want, for the gov to fly to a fund-raiser on the taxpayers’ dime?) see this sort of coziness as threatening. And it can be, especially with someone as naive, and yet transparently self-interested (perhaps the one way in which she is truly transparent) as Nikki Haley. But it can also be benign. And in this case case, it appears that Nikki’s perceived self-interest and the economic interest of our community overlap.