Thoughts on the eve of the City Council primary

By Cecil Bothwell

Editor's Note: Published in its entirety, this personal note was emailed to Cecil Bothwell's political campaign supporters on Mon., Oct. 5, 2009, on his journey to become an Asheville city councilmember.

This year has been an amazing one for me, mostly because I have had the extraordinary experience of seeing what a political campaign looks like when it's run by the people and for the people.

The word "grassroots" has new meaning for me. I have arrived at this high point on a journey that really began with a great personal loss -- the passing of my partner of 25 years -- in the fall of 2001 when I was 50 years old.

In addition I lost most of my life savings, my home and my principal job. Soon thereafter, I relocated from southeast Buncombe County to a small apartment in Asheville.

For a while I made my rent buying and selling clothing on eBay as I weighed the upheaval in my life and considered my next moves. But by the summer of 2002, I began to regroup emotionally, obtained a loan, bought a one-bedroom condominium downtown and signed on as Managing Editor of Asheville’s Mountain Xpress.

I renewed friendships I had formed over my decades of local artistic and political activity and made many new acquaintances who soon became friends. The toughest part during this time was rebuilding my self-confidence in relating to others as I grappled with my post-bereavement rebound. When I asked myself what was most important to me I discovered that the answer lay in strengthening the social web that supports us all and the affirmation of what King called the beloved community.

Part of my healing process was to throw myself into my work, particularly my investigation of the criminal activity of Buncombe County Sheriff Bobby Lee Medford. I worked the story on my own time, tried to ignore death threats from the law man, and considered but rejected advice to purchase body armor and a gun. One thing Susan's premature death had taught me was that tomorrow isn't guaranteed and I became comfortable living each day as if it were my last. I am ever reminded of Shakespeare's observation, "It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come."
   
My battle to expose criminal activity that “everybody knew” but no elected official would mention led me to basement meetings with informants and interviews with former FBI and CIA agents, even as the newspaper refused to publish the exposé I turned in two full years before Medford was finally indicted.

In December of 2007 Medford’s bill of indictment read like an outline of the story I wrote that never ran and included many of the elements in the detailed letter I had sent to the U.S. Attorney in Charlotte in fall of 2005. Medford is now serving a fifteen year sentence in federal prison.

Eager to get my hands into real dirt again, I abandoned the convenience of downtown living  and bought a postage-stamp sized lot with a sagging 1905 home a few blocks north near Five Points where I dove into the pain and pleasure of endless repairs and the ever recurring joy of perennial flowers.

Throughout my life I have been torn between the private pleasure of writing, music and art, and public involvement in social and environmental causes. After I left my very public role with Mountain Xpress and returned to writing books, building and painting in 2007, I was drawn to spread my public service wings and ran for Buncombe County Board of Commissioners in the 2008 primary and although I lost that race by .8 percent to a 20-year incumbent, the support I received within the city was amazing. Almost 11,000 city voters had affirmed my candidacy.

This year, still motivated by a strong belief that government by the people requires that average people step up and participate, I decided to run for Asheville City Council. Your response has been beyond my greatest imagination. By any measure our campaign is the largest grassroots campaign in Asheville Council history, and I do mean “our.” As my musician friend Daniel Barber sings it, “This is what democracy looks like. This is what democracy looks like.”

My heart swells with joy and hope and gratitude because it's your work that has gotten us this far and that might take us to a seat on City Council. Whatever the outcome this Tuesday and on November 3, I want to thank each of you for being a part of the heart and spirit of our campaign.

Sincerely, Cecil
 
Cecil Bothwell for Asheville City Council
POB 1877, Asheville, NC 28802
www.cecilbothwell.wordpress.com