Elevator Famous in North Carolina

Elevator Famous in North Carolina – by Liam Sweeny.

Corruption in our government. Graft at the foundations of the pillars of the social contract. Greed and avarice in an insidious dance ‘round the flagpole, encouraging cynical apathy.

Okay, so maybe this isn’t that. Or is it?

Case before us; an elevator in North Carolina. There’s 5,000 of them, take your pick. You get on and hope nobody is sharing it with you post-salami lunch. You hit your buttons, and listlessly gaze at the inspection sticker, and you notice there’s a face on it. You don’t think much about it, probably not at all, but you just saw the Commissioner of Elevators. It’s actually Labor Commissioner, but I thought Commissioner of Elevators was more to the point here. So today, the face on the elevator placards belongs to current commish’ Josh Dobson, who recently decided that his face would be coming off of the 5,000 elevators as they get new inspection stickers.

He wasn’t the first to do this. It’s been going on since predecessor Cherie Berry started doing it in the mid-2000s.

So, friends and neighbors, is this corruption? Is this like the most insignificant form of corruption in the country? Should all government be denoted in elevator stickers, like bribery is a thousand  elevator stickers worth of corruption and starting a war is ten million elevator stickers worth?

So back to the question; is it corruption? Here’s why yes. These people are elected. So they’re using government signage to get their face out there. I would say that’s corruption. But on the other hand, the statement given by Dobson went like this, that have a human face there, well, ‘humanized’ the government, letting people know that there are real people behind the scenes.

So I might not be the best person to ask. I design the Xperience Monthly covers, and I don’t even sign my name to them, and they’re artwork. Having my face on 5,000 elevators would go way beyond my comfort zone.

So what say you?

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