Cartoonist Walt Kelly once had one of his comic strip critters proclaim, "We Have Seen the Enemy and It Is Us". That historic cartoon strip immediately came to mind after reading the editorial page of the Forsyth County News this weekend. The FCN, in chiming in on the latest re-zone controversy effecting Castleberry Rd, pleads with communities to remove the "emotion" from re-zones that directly affect their own neighborhood.

Indeed, the FCN has seen the enemy, and it is us.

And that is why their editorial misses the mark. The government, including those that we elect, is us, but to read it, the FCN thinks our local government is some disembodied force floating over us. The notion that communities of interest would band together to ensure the safety and well being of their neighborhoods is nothing to fear, it's a concept we should embrace and extend to more communities.

The Castleberry Rd re-zoning is yet another example of our diverse communities fighting back against a poorly planned and executed pattern of growth that we all have experienced in Forsyth County. The very idea the FCN wishes to protect, the importance of law and our adherence to it, is precisely the issue in this case. A land use plan that serves as a guide (we've all heard that before), was placed over clear violations of the UDC (our law) in the application of this case by our commissioners.

Make no mistake, these conflictions in our county are a fact. It's not going to be easy or comfortable digging our way out this mess. Clearly, doing the same old thing, fighting the same old battles, over and over again will not do. If this or countless other examples have told us anything, it's that we as a county need fundamental changes to our local governance.

And I think that begins with 2 critical reforms.

The first is real district representation through district elected county commissioners. In a few short years, our county population will approach the quarter million mark, yet we still elect leaders as if it was the home to forty thousand. Multiple commissioners running "at large" in a county our size encourages less accountability for commissioners who live in these distinctive communities, and it places far too much influence and power with commissioners that don't.

The second needed reform is the establishment of townships through the passage of the Georgia Towns Act, currently making its way through the legislative process. Townships in Forsyth County would begin to deliver government back to the people. Principally, it delivers zoning and land use authority back to smaller communities of interest where it rightly belongs.

These 2 reforms enjoy bi-partisan support, yet we lack the voices of leadership in our county government to help make them a reality. And that shouldn't surprise you, this election may be the first where a candidate runs and commits to actions that remove power from this commission by giving it back to you.

That's what I've pledged to do.