Local Developer Tells Lie That Will Help Line His Own Pockets

This week, a blatant example of a local Greenville resident using conservative propaganda to further his own self-interest came to my attention.

Greenville developer Keith Schemm was given some editorial space in The Greenville News this week, which he used to post a sly editorial concerning a local development controversy concerning the fate of a parcel of land attached to the Graceland East cemetery at the corner of Woodruff Rd. and Hwy. 14 in Greenville County. Schemm's development plan has drawn some well organized opposition from a group which has been formed to give citizens a voice in area development plans, calling themselves the Greenville Residents Coalition.

Read the editorial here, then use your back button to return here.

I wanted to confirm whether or not Schemm's statement about the ACLU was correct, so I emailed the GRC to ask for a statement about Schemm's editorial. I received the following prompt reply from the GRC:

{Truthsmack) -

The ACLU has no involvement in the Greenville Residents Coalition.

One of our members also has an affiliation with the ACLU but his membership and involvement with our organization is strictly on a personal basis. I cannot guess at Mr.. Shemm's [sic] motivation for implying otherwise.

Many of our members have personal affiliations with other social, religeous or fraternal groups without those groups having any involvement with the Greenville Residents Coalition.

Jerry Wallens

Let me state for the record: I have no intrinsic quarrel with the idea of "development." What I *do* think is that there should be some community-based standards for *how* we develop. Having a wonderful, livable, community is not going to happen by itself. It will only happen if "we the people" lend our voices to the process. It is not only our right--it is our RESPONSIBILITY.

HOW DARE someone like Schemm suggest that we who live here and pay taxes here should have no say in what happens here.

The problem with this editorial is that Keith Schemm has put out a propagandistic call to conservatives to help him get his own way. In referencing the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), he is trying to provoke conservatives by using what's called "loaded language" (a hallmark of cults), deceitfully suggesting that "liberals" are to blame for the fact that he can't do as he pleases.

The ACLU has long been a target for conservatives to demonize. But does being a member of the ACLU mean you forfeit your rights as a private citizen to have a say about what happens in your own community? Of course not!! What happens if the GRC member in question belongs to the (so-called) Traditional Values Coalition instead of the ACLU? Should I then assume that the Christian Right, or all conservatives, are behind "it" (whatever the issue at hand may be)?

The fact that fundamentalist Southside Fellowship (used to be Southside Baptist Church, formerly located on Augusta Rd.) is right across the street from the parcel in question might influence my thinking on this particular controversy--but since I haven't investigated this angle at all, it would be silly for me to make any assumptions about it. My point is, why assume, why write nasty editorials about it, when you can uncover the facts for yourself? Schemm, it appears, preferred to get nasty because the truth didn't serve his self-interest.

Mike Cubelo (whom I have never met or communicated with, as of today's date) is simply a private citizen working with other private citizens--no harm, no foul. If Cubelo or anyone else has done a good job organizing the opposition to disrespectful, greedy developers, he should be commended for that, not castigated.

Schemm apparently has a bad case of "sour grapes." He also seems to consider conservatives to be zombies who can be manipulated by cult fear words and tactics (and if they actually are, they shouldn't be in positions of power where their insanity might infect others). If I was still a Christian and a conservative, I would, frankly, be insulted by Schemm's approach.

If you visit the GRC's website, they specify that the organizations involved with them, beyond individual private citizens, are "grass roots smart growth" organizations (i.e., NOT the ACLU). If anyone would like to know the names of the groups that *are* involved in the GRC's efforts, I suggest you get off your lazy, ignorant asses, contact the GRC directly, and ASK.

Cubelo, the GRC member that is also associated with the ACLU and was singled out in Schemm's editorial, was given space to write a rebuttal. You can read Cubelo's rebuttal here.

Cubelo is apparently more polite than I am.