Newspapers / The Chowan Herald (Edenton, … / July 17, 2019, edition 1 / Page 4
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A4 CHOWAN HERALD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 17,2019 Serving Edenton and Chowan County since 1934 Opinions The Chowan Herald Michael Goodman, Publisher Nicole Layton, News Editor Beverly Alexander, Advertising Representative A publication of Cooke Communications North Carolina, LLC OuR View Candidates help democracy work D emocracy is at its best when there is competition among various candi dates or political parties, because the marketplace of ideas becomes a little more open for business. Though politicians don’t necessarily al ways like running against an opponent, it forces them to sharpen their game by di rects engaging the voters. Put simply, if s boring when someone runs for office unchallenged. The two-week candidate filing period for Edenton Town Council began about a week ago and continues until noon Friday, July 19. So there is still an opportunity to put your name forward. There are three seats on the Town Coun cil —1st and 2nd Wards and the at-large seat —are up for grabs, along with the mayor’s gavel The cost to file is $5 for the mayor’s seat and town counciL Other duties range from committee meet ings to ribbon-cuttings, council meets twice a month. Annual salary for mayor is $7,200 and for councilors, if s $4,800. We’d like to see, at minimum, two candi dates for every office. That isn’t a knock on any of our candidates who have filed to run. However, we don’t want the election to degenerate into what became of the un wieldy multi-candidate primaries for folks seeking to win their party’s nod for 3rd Con gressional District seat The Chowan Herald does not endorse candidates for public office, but we encour age folks to run for office because voters need choices. So if you have ideas to help make our community a better place, Eden ton needs you on the ballot GOP Primary had 2 winners BY DAN PERRY F rom God’s sovereign perspective we had two winners in the recent Republican Primary run off for the third Congressional district Congratulations are in order to Dr. Greg Murphy for winning the popular vote by a wide mzyority. As a conservative, he is set to run against Allen Thomas, the liberal Democratic candidate, Libertarian Tim Harris, and Constitutional Party Candi date, Greg Holt, in the Sept 10 general election. It is my thinking that out second winner was Murphy’s opponent, Dr. Joan Perry who personally ran a vigorous above board campaign. Her consistent exem plary conduct further endeared her to her many friends as well as her winning the admiration of a host of her political oppo nents. Any negative advertising against Dr. Murphy did not originate in the mind of Joan Perry. It was a political decision cre ated by a group of her supporters as a nec essary ploy in answer to some false asser tions that she was once a liberal Demo crat and a present supporter of Nancy Pelosi. For the record, she has always been a conservative Republican and has never been a Pelosi supporter. Joan Perry was a winner in both the Pri mary Run-offs for three basic reasons: 1. She sought God’s will. She is a strong Christian woman, who after much prayer and genuine thought felt led by the Lord to offer herself as a candidate. It was not just aspur of the moment decision. She and her faithful husband, Jimbo, spent many prayerful hours together seeking God’s highest will not only for themselves, but for their five boys and their families and extended family. I truly believe it was God’s will that she run. 2. She sought to glorify God. That was the motivating force that led to her final decision to run. Actually, it was ajoint de cision, shared by both Joan and Jimbo. She felt confident all along that no matter how it came out, she would be a winner, for the Lord was giving her the opportu nity to learn and grow spiritually from the unique opportunity of running as “a pedia trician, not apolitician.” The bottom line is she fulfilled her mission to glorify God, giving Him all the credit 3. She fought the good fight She gave it her best It was a strenuous, time consum ing effort, with no regrets, for she ran an exemplary campaign. The Lord of grace did her a great favor by allowing her to have a realistic glimpse in the real world ofpolitics, with all its frailties and failures. I, along with her many friends and sup porters were present to hear her conces sion speech in which she graciously asked us to support Dr. Murphy in the general election. But more importantly, she thanked her sovereign God for the privi lege of running and for meeting her every need along the way. Joan Perry truly understands and humbly appreciates her spiritual insight in seeing that God’s hand at work in every thing makes life a great adventure. Dan E. Perry is an attorney andKrnston native. He is an uncle to Dr. Joan Perry through marriage. Rethinking the definition of ‘term limits’ N o, not that kind of “term.” Yes, the idea of putting definite limits on time-in-office is a hot-but ton topic in politics today. But this article is not about that issue. Rather, it is about the “limitations of terms.” That is, it is about the hard fact that hot-button words like “conservative” or “liberal” have changed in meaning over the years, and those changes have gone wild at times. In other words, just be cause these labels have changed over time, maybe we should take them with more than a grain of salt. In Moscow of the 1960s, dissidents like Dr. Andrei Sakharov and his friends had ajoke they liked to tell about “limitations of terms,” and the uselessness of political labels: “What is the difference be tween Capitalism and Com- munism? Capitalism is the ex ploitation of man by man. Communism is the exact op posite.” (That’s just pure Rus sian melancholy humor.) That reminds me of a great line from my favorite political humorist (and fellow-Sooner) Will Rogers: “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the govern ment and report the facts.” Politicians on all sides of the aisle have exploited this “limitation of terms.” It seems that in the last 20 years or so if a candidate is liberal, then all his or her opponents must be extreme right-wingers. And the converse is also true: If an office-seeker is conservative, then all his or her competitors are abjectly liberal, or collabo rators with the liberals (which seems to be worse). Some times, if you’re a very lucky politician, you can even get a talking head on cable TV to ramp up the labeling in car toon neon (and a concomitant lowering of IQ). This makes for a lot of slap stick comedy. Prior to the pri mary, competitors denounce each other’s character in ways that would make Pontius Pi late blush. But after the con vention, primary losers praise the same characteristics of the party nominee that they had, only weeks before, char acterized as the wickedest thing since Hitler. This kind of stupefying • rhetoric helps produce the Breaking Big Wind may relieve rate payers To the Editor: Utility customers don’t ben efit from approved and/or proposed wind and solar projects because Big Wind hasn’t documented any real purpose or need anywhere their green projects bloom, other than the real benefit of destroying pristine horizon views. Okay, let’s say turbines and solar panels are needed. If ex isting electric rates don’t sup ply a fair Return on Equity (ROE), as Dominion con tends, why is more utility cus tomer money needed to chase Dominion’s bad investments? (This isn’t a good business model given their public ap plication numbers.) In other words, how much of the up coming Dominion Energy rate increase request ($30M) represents new wind and so lar projects in Chowan County? Their rate increase applica tion outlines $1.3 billion for a generating station, $132 mil lion for a solar facility and $410 million for two new solar facilities. These figures don’t include $268 million in exist ing improvements and an other $200 million in pro posed improvement invest ments. This is money Domin ion corporate, wind develop ers and solar developers won’t have to spend to make GRID projects a reality. Do minion’s reimbursement sce nario comes from customers paying the power companies who share the wealth with wind and solar developers. This is how all wind and so lar projects make their money back, which will include wild changes of words. There is also the fact that people get used to their conditions, and they start thinking that what they are familiar with now is “what has always been.” That is, new things become old very soon, and as cus tomary as Deuteronomy. Here is an exam ple of “change CotuMNisT JONATHAN TOBIAS -ability” from about 80 years ago: In the New Deal era prior to World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his crew launched a great many new federal initiatives that were unsavory (to put it mildly) to most conservatives (like both my grandfathers and probably all four of my greatgrandfa thers). I remember my mater nal grandfather, usually a taci turn Mennonite, broke out of his normal reticence about politics and launched into un reserved invective whenever he heard the mere mention of FDR’s name. That said, why is it that many post-modern liberal po litical scientists look upon these same New Deal initia tives with contempt (again, to put it mildly)? The reason for this surpris ing reaction is that most of the New Deal legislation sought to protect and reinforce the family (nuclear and ex tended). In particular, Social Security—as originally con ceived in the New Deal con text — assumed that one per son in the family (usually the father) would be the bread- winner, the mother (usually) would be the chief care- provider. The children were not identified as “little con sumers,” but were expected to be brought up to take their place as responsible Ameri can citizens. But since FDR, the “libera tionism” that exploded out of the 60’s has rejected any no tion of traditional family structure. For that reason, FDR and friends (yesterday’s “leftists”) are jilted by leftists of today. This sort of change-over has happened many times in the past. Liberals of 19th Readers Write Chowan’s Timbermill Wind Project should it be built. Tim bermill, as one example, is es timated to cost $350 million over its suspected 20 year construction and operational cycle. A $30 million request now means a rate increase of $30 million every two years span ning 24 years just to recover the cost for one proposed Timbermill project, if the numbers contained in Domin ion’s application remain con sistent every year. And that’s just for Apex. These numbers don’t include Apex profit or any Dominion reimbursement income. So, Dominion seeks the first installment on its above mentioned projects at an in vestment total of $1.84 billion. At a rate increase of $30 mil lion per year with all things the same it will take over 60 rate hearings to make up the investment costs listed in their current rate hearing pa perwork. With one every two years that’s 120+ years to see any money equilibrium if we project Dominion’s current numbers out, with Dominion not expanding its business model with any new projects over the next 120 years. This investment scenario suggests what happened with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) in 2001. It looks like Dominion Energy will be in bankruptcy territory over the long haul, along the lines of PG&E’s rolling blackout and rate manipulation inviting government intervention. Analyzing wind and solar in vestments how are they af fordable to Dominion’s stock holders, let alone its North century Europe fought for the civil rights of the individ ual. Conservatives of the same society usu ally supported the in terests of the govern ment, including pro tection and regula tion of a wide range of social and eco nomic activities. While it sounds odd today to hear it, it was Conservatives in those days who en acted the first factory laws — reforms that are today near and dear to labor and union movements. The mon eyed business interests were usually on the side of Liberals. In politics, labels and move ments can be counted on to do only one thing consistently — and that is to change. ■ Jacques Barzun, the great cultural historian who wrote the magisterial “From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Pre sent” (a text that ought to be taught in every freshman year everywhere), made a long study of such changes. He concluded his observations with this intriguing list of so cial accomplishments, and just who brought them about. This list might surprise you: “Free enterprise, free trade, freedom to vote and run for office, free speech and reli gion are Liberal achievements ‘Tariffs, the income tax, the S.E.C., zoning, and generally the regulation of social, eco nomic, and even moral behav ior, rest on Conservative ideas; “The post-office, the police and fire departments, public schools, city buses, and na tional parks are [historically] Socialist institutions” (Jac ques Barzun, “The Great Switch,” in Columbia Magazine, 1989). Today, things are topsy turvy (and wrong). Free en terprise, free trade and free dom of religion are chalked up to the Conservative side. Liberals are typically blamed for taxation, zoning and regu lations on the economy and the environment. And every one wants to take credit for institutions that are, truth be told [historically], legacies of the 19th century Socialist movement in Europe. Carolina customers who are presently being manipulated into subsidizing Dominion’s excursions into the Dark Side of electric power creation? Their current application should be denied, and suggests millions of dollars no smart in vestor would choose to risk. Tell the North Carolina Utility Commission to say “no” to an swer Dominion’s current rate increase application request. PATRICK FLYNN Edenton As humans, we are all stewards of the Earth Even if you thought, per haps incorrectly, that your child’s illness was completely natural in origin and nothing you did caused it to occur, would you sit back and sim ply watch her sicken, weaken, and possibly die? Even if you thought death was inevitable, would you refuse to comfort her? Would you block efforts to cool down her raging fever? Of course you wouldn’t, because you are a good and loving parent. The preponderance of ob jective, non-political, scien tific evidence points to the fact that human activity has caused asharp rise in global Each of these achieve ments (freedom to vote, free speech and religion, the post office and police and public schools, etc.) has its own ra tionale, and each has value (even taxes, though I’m loathe to say it). Each achievement is the result of long discus sions of robust ideas about politics and civilization (some of these discussions have gone on for centuries, even millennia). Most of the time, the people involved have been well-meaning. Most of the ideas have been good (or were intended to be so). Some have been downright stupid. Some have been out right evil. Labels like “conservative” and “liberal” have never helped the discussion. In the hard work of ideas and con versation, the words “Repub lican” and “Democrat” histori cally have done more to con fuse and distort. It is better to stick to the discussion of ideas without labels. It is bet ter to look at a candidate’s character on your own, with out looking up his or her en dorsements or affiliations. It is better to think with dis cipline (and a lot of history, with maybe a smidgen of clas sical philosophy) about the candidate and her or his plans. It is better to drop the party label and those useless words “liberal” and “conser vative.” It is better to filter out every negative newsbyte about competitors and every single oppo-research tweet. To every candidate, I’ll do my Jack Webb impression from Dragnet: “Just the facts, ma’am (or sir).” Give me your ideas, your plans and aspira tions. Share with me your phi losophy. Talk to me about his tory. Tell me about God, and what love means. But start throwing those “limited terms” around, I’ll get a headache for sure, and I’ll probably say “Have a nice day.” And go away unseen. There have been enough piles of that speech already, littering the civic green. Jonathan Tobias (jan- otec77@gmail.com) resides in Edenton, and is a lecturer in systematic and pas toral theology at Christ the Savior Semi nary near Pittsburgh. A semi-retired Eastern Orthodox priest, he is also an oc casional gardener at the Cupola House and sings with the Albemarle Chorale, and the Mighty Termightees. warming, which could lead to the demise of our planet’s health. Please read an infor mative page on NASA’s web- site: https://climate.nasa.gov Even if you can’t bring yourself to accept this, would you want your great-grand children to look back on your generation of earth-dwellers and realize you sat back and did not do eveiything in your power to help relieve the sit uation? Even if you thought it might be futile? Even if it meant exerting influence over people outside your own country’s borders? Would you not find a way to offer some relief? Some way to bring down the earth’s fever? What we do now or refuse to do now, has direct influ ence on the lives of our chil dren of the future (and that is not a far-distant future.) Our own individual actions, and those individuals we elect to make our collective actions, demonstrate where our hearts and spirits lie. We are both child and par ent of the earth. This earth, this home — God’s gift to us to thrive within and care for. KATE AHEARN Edenton
The Chowan Herald (Edenton, N.C.)
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July 17, 2019, edition 1
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