Opposing Mass Transit is not racism

The always clueless Michael Dresser of the Sun uses a "progressive Democrat" to mock the people of Carroll County:

Last week's column on commuter bus routes - and the mortal fear they strike into the hearts of some in Carroll County - brought this from Neil M. Ridgely of Finksburg:

"When I first moved here there were still Klan meetings in Gamber and a bar under the Bagel Shop in Westminster that closed rather than integrate.

I've run for County Commissioner twice as a progressive Democrat. Unsuccessfully - no wonder - although land use, not race, was the major topic in each campaign.

Mass transit in Carroll County is just code for "them people," meaning anybody other than us Anglo-Saxons. It's a hard place to adjust to. Some never do make the adjustment after as many as 30 years."

Give yourself another 30, Neil, and maybe you'll fit in.

The Sun should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this kind of drivel to run in their paper. As someone who has spent a lot of time in Carroll County, the issue with mass transit in Carrol County has nothing to do with race and everything to do with land use and growth. The fact of the matter is that the preponderance of Carroll County residents are tired of seeing growth with the flight of suburbanites from the inner suburbs to places like Finksburg and Eldersburg, only to have them come out to Carroll County and complain about all of the things they don't have in the suburbs. I haven't seen race baiting this bad directed at Carroll County since last summer.

And for Dresser to use the words of a frustrated Democrat who twice got his ass kicked running for County Commissioner because his views are so far to the left that folks in Montgomery County may wince is bad form.

True, the issue of race in Carroll County has not always been pleasant. But county opposition to against mass transit is about problems with growth, not race. As usual, Dresser lets his liberal political bent cloud a column when it's not appropriate....