Let's scrap North Carolina's upcoming pay-to-play inaugural festivities   

In just over three weeks, North Carolina will have a new governor and slate of statewide elected officials. Hooray! It's an exciting time and an exciting change. All of us should take pride in the fact that our Council of State will, for the first time, be majority female. January 10 will be a great moment in state history.

It will also be a terrible moment in state history. At the same time that the state will be inaugurating Governor Perdue, Secretary of State Marshall, Treasurer Cowell, Superintendent Atkinson, Auditor Wood, and Labor Commissioner Berry (as well as Lt. Governor Dalton, Attorney General Cooper, Agriculture Commissioner Troxler, and Insurance Commissioner Goodwin) the state's economy and public revenues will be in the midst of a freefall.

In scores of communities throughout the state, unemployment, home foreclosures and the rate of people without health insurance will be soaring. Meanwhile, dozens of essential public services – from public education to mental health to law enforcement and probation oversight – will be stretched to (and past) the breaking point. Indeed, it's not too strong to say that our new state officeholders will be arriving at a time of profound crisis.

Responding to the crisis

So what should our new slate of leaders do immediately upon confronting such a harsh reality? Surely, there must be some act – even if it's merely symbolic given that the General Assembly will not convene until late January – that the new governor and her team can take on Day One to emphasize their recognition of the urgency of the problems that confront us.

What should it be? See if you can guess which of the following options appears to be the leading contender.

a)      Issue a series of emergency orders

b)      Do a special "fly around" to inspect the state's broken system of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse

c)      Have each member of the Council of State try to sit and understand the details of a family's home or farm foreclosure story

d)     Have each spend the day with an overworked probation officer or unemployment claims worker or examining the crumbling apartments and manufactured homes that millions of lower income people are forced to inhabit

e)      Throw a series of giant, fancy dress parties sponsored by corporate bigwigs

If you guessed option "e" you're a winner. According to a special website run by the Junior League of Raleigh (www.ncgovernorsball.org), the weekend surrounding the inauguration will be chock full of all kinds of opportunities for North Carolina's political and corporate elite to put on their overpriced tuxes and evening gowns and hobnob with each other.

According to the website,

"The 2009 Ball weekend features a wide variety of festivities. The full schedule includes: Council of State Reception, Rock the Ball Concert, Governor-elect's Reception, Gala Presentation, and Inaugural Ball…. The Inaugural Ball is a formal event. Ladies wear long dresses or skirts and gentlemen wear tuxedos. Cocktail attire is appropriate for the Council of State Reception and all other events, except the Friday evening Rock the Ball concert, which is casual."

The bill for all of this fun will be footed by an array of corporate heavyweights and lobbyists who have, out of the goodness of their hearts and despite the recession, volunteered to pony up hundreds of thousands of dollars. Leading the way, of course, is the ubiquitous NINO (that's short for "Nonprofit in Name Only") Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, which is the sponsor of the "Governor's Reception."

Not to be outdone – at least by much anyway – other top sponsors include Nortel (which is flirting with bankruptcy), Duke Energy, AT & T, GlaxoSmithKline, a lobbying firm called McGuire Woods and, weirdly enough, the University of Phoenix. The "Governor's Circle" includes a list of 17 entities (including gambling and tobacco interests, NASCAR teams, financial institutions, law firms and teacher's and state employee associations) that have all contributed at least $15,000.

Bad symbolism and substance

The inaugural events are not, apparently, without some modest redeeming qualities. According to the Junior League, net proceeds from the events will benefit the group's "Center for Community Leadership." That's a nice gesture. Local haberdashers are also presumably up for the revenue boost. But is that really the extent of the productive energy and symbolism that North Carolina can muster out of such a momentous political transition? Surely, in a time of such profound crisis, North Carolina's incoming leaders can squeeze more useful symbolism and substantive progress out of the transition than a simple charitable gift and a bump in clothing store profits.

Last week in Montana, Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana announced that, given the tough economic and budget picture, 2009 was simply no time for big celebrations and canceled plans for a ball in Helena. Good for him. Other chief executives have taken similar steps in the past.

In Washington, inaugural festivities are a force beyond the resistance of mere mortals, but at least the President-elect's team is trying to make sure that things are done with some measure of sobriety. Moreover, the Obama team appears to be bent upon hitting the ground running and even signing a new economic stimulus package into law as early as within hours of taking office.

Anything of this ilk would be a welcome change in North Carolina – especially in light of the recent scandal enveloping Governor Blagoevich of Illinois. That event, of course, served to remind Americans of an important and inconvenient pair of truths about politics: 1) some elected officials are overtly corrupt and 2) the line between what's illegal and what's merely acceptable political horse trading is blurry and shifting.

In other words, in an era in which "pay-to-play" politics is under sustained nationwide attack and in which North Carolina has had more than its share of dark stains, wouldn't it make sense to at least send some kind of message to anyone paying attention that access to North Carolina's high political leaders is not (always) for sale? Couldn't the new Governor and her fellow "inaugurees" have at least one, alternative "people's ball" in which the invitees would consist of, say, a few hundred randomly selected average folks who would come for a barbecue dinner or maybe even a potluck? Or how about inviting a group of veterans from the battle for women's equality for a "job well done" gathering?   

Unfortunately, no such inspiration yet seems to be forthcoming from North Carolina's new Council of State. Instead, in keeping with the Governor-elect's evident intention to rely first and foremost upon the state's corporate Brahmins (almost all of whom are rich, white and male) for advice and counsel, the "galas" and "balls" and "receptions" will go on as if everything is hunky dory. The ship of state may be dead in the water and listing to starboard, but the orchestra will play on. 

Going forward

None of this is to imply that there isn't a place for ceremony and celebration at important moments of institutional renewal in our democracy. No one's saying we shouldn't fire some guns or have a nice parade. But if such celebrations occur they ought to belong to all of us and be conducted with some eye toward the tenor of the times. At this point, next month's celebrations look like they will amount to nothing more than business as usual in a dreadfully unusual time.