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A4 CHOWAN HERALD, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2019 Serving Edenton and Chowan County since 1934 Opinions The Chowan Herald Robin L. Quillon, Publisher Nicole Layton, News Editor Beverly Alexander, Advertising Representative A publication of Adams Publishing Group Never too late W hat lessons can we learn from one of North Carolina’s most colorful political figures who served as attorney general, lost a guber natorial election, won election as secre tary of state, lost that position in dis grace, and then came back as a suc cessful lawyer and lobbyist? In a recent column about Rufus Edmis- ten’s book, “That’s Rufus: A Memoir of Tar Heel Politics, Watergate and Public Life,” I promised to share lessons from that book. Edmisten’s most important lessons are gathered in a chapter titled “Hubris” near the end of his book. Writing that although Columnist D.G. MARTIN he could find excuses for his “bad be havior” as secretary of state, he con fesses, “It was nobody’s fault but my own. This has not been easy to accept, but sometimes the truth isn’t easy to take.” He compares his conduct with those of the Watergate figures he had earlier helped bring down as an aide to Sen. Sam J. Ervin. Edmisten writes that he, like them, “brought catastrophe upon themselves in part by becoming full of themselves, feeling a false sense of enti tlement and making unwise choices.” Edmisten explains how his long years in office and in the public spotlight led to his problems. “Getting too impressed with myself resulted in bad things hap pening to me. When you hold public of fice or any position others perceive as one of power, a lot of people say a lot of nice things about you. While some of them might be true, many of them are simply intended to win favor. This works about as often as you might ex pect you really can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. It can also really puff a person up. Everybody wants to be liked, after all.” His situation came to a head in 1995. “I had been doing some things that were foolish, to say the least. As I per ceived myself to be more and more powerful I danced closer and closer to an edge I should never have gone near. I didn’t intend to do wrong. I was just playing loose and easy with some rules I should have abided.” A report by the state auditor and arti cles in the Raleigh News & Observer al leged, according to Edrnisten’s book, the misuse of employees, misuse of a state car, abuses by subordinates, and improper hiring practices. In this deluge of criticism, Edmisten announced he would not run for reelec tion, and, he writes, “I actually thanked God my daddy had died before this mess started.” Why did it happen? That is Edmisten’s lesson for us. It was the excessive pride that arose from his long years at the center of pub lic attention that led to his troubles. He warns his readers, “Once hubris gets a foothold it grows incrementally and accelerates until it is expanding ex ponentially, and in leaps and bounds takes over. No doubt the sycophants of the world recognize the hubris-infected when they see one and scamper to that person like crows to a fresh corn field. They converge and the convergence only adds to the inflated sense of self- worth of the Terrible Toad of Hubris be cause they are all paying attention to him. I forsook the humility that my up bringing instilled and became enthralled by the deluge of flattering attention.” This lesson about the dangers of hubris is not the end of the story. In in spiring chapters at the end of the book, Edmisten chronicles how his wife and friends led him back into the practice of law and other areas of service. His wife told him, “We are not going to whine.” “At the age of fifty-five,” he writes, “I put aside all petty things and began a new life.” In making his new life, Edmisten gives us another lesson. It is never too late to turn an old life into a new one. D. G. Martin hosts "North Carolina Bookwatch, ” Sunday 11 a.m. and Tuesday at 5p.m. on UNC-TV. The program also airs on the North Carolina Channel Tuesday at 8 p.m. and other times. LETTERS Letters must include the author's name, ad dress and daytime phone number (for verifi cation purposes). Unsigned letters will not be considered. Submissions will be edited. Please keep letters to 350 words or less. Letters for the upcoming municipal election will be accepted until Friday, Oct. 18, two weeks prior to the Nov. 5 election. SUBMIT LETTERS Submit letters to Opinion Page Editor Miles Layton vie email at mlayton@ncweeklies.com. Letters can also be dropped off at our office, 423 S. Broad St., Edenton. READER Writes Thanks goes to Chowan Herald My name is Della Copeland-Rob bins, a graduate of JAHHS Class of 1972. I am writing this letter to compli ment you and express my great satis faction on the articles you published about JAHHS Class of 1972 Reunion which was held the weekend of September 6-8,2019. I feel with the articles being published and you using the Chowan Herald as a media resource, reached classmates that we were not able to due to not having their contact infor mation. This added to our attendance, a successful, full-filled, and remem brance class reunion. Thanking you again, for sharing our memories and the newspaper being such a support system! DELLA COPELAND-ROBBINS Newport News, Virginia More reasons to keep JAHHS in Edenton F rom a previous downtown busmess owner's standpoint Holmes’ students, parents and faculty represent daily in come to downtown proprietors and tax rev enue to the town. Accordingly, my current Holmes school position is firm—keep Holmes downtown. Outlining my position with the following Why I don’t want and don’t deserve reparations M y great-great-grandfather Silas Burgess came to America shackled in the belly of a slave ship. He was sold on an auction block in Charleston, South Carolina, to the Burgess Plantation. Orphaned by age 8, he was, fortu nately, surrounded by elder slaves who, though physically chained, mentally en visioned themselves as free men. They escaped, taking young Silas with them, making their way to West Texas. Silas worked hard and saved his money. Eventually, he became the owner of 102 acres of farmland, which he cultivated and paid off within two years. I proudly carry the name of my first American ancestor —- who, like mil lions of others drawn or brought to our country, struggled past overwhelming obstacles to live the American Dream. Silas founded the first black church, the first black elementary school in his town. He was a Republican, a Christian, and a pillar of his community. He was proud and industrious and taught his children to be the same. Now, because great-great-grandpa Si las was once a slave, so-called “progres sives” want to give me money. Never mind that, like him, I am an en trepreneur who received an excellent ed ucation, built businesses, raised a re markable family and, unlike most white Americans, earned a Super Bowl ring. Because of work I’ve never done, stripes fve never had, under a whip fve never known, these progressives want to give me money fve never earned. The fact that this money will be forcibly taken from others who also dreamed, worked and sacrificed for it, Tm told is not my concern. But it is. At the core of the reparations move ment is a distorted and demeaning view of blacks and whites. It grants superiority to the white race, treating them as an oppressive people too powerful for black Americans to overcome. It brands blacks as hapless victims, devoid of the ability which every other culture possesses to assimilate and to progress. The reparations movement conve niently forgets the 150 years of legal, so cial, and economic progress obtained by millions of American minorities. It also minimizes the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of white Americans and a Republican president who gave their lives to eradicate slavery. I think Grandpa Silas would have seen this loss of American lives as payment in full Every grateful black American, then and now, would feel the same. The reparations movement also rein forces a view of racial relationships that undermines America’s Judeo-Christian foundation. It defies the ideals of for- Columnist BURGESS OWENS giveness and sec ond chances and scorns individual ac countability. Proponents of reparations believe that black Ameri cans are incapable of carrying their own burdens, while white Americans must bear the sins of those who came be fore them Propo nents do not trike into account the ma jority of white Americans who never owned slaves, who fought to end slavery, or who came to America long after it was ended. This divisive message marks the black race as forever broken, a people whose healing can only come through the guilt, pity, and benevolence of whites. Tragi cally, we now see this playing out on our college campuses. As young white Amer icans acknowledge their skin color as a “privilege,” young black Americans— with no apparent shame—accept their skin color as one that automatically con fers victim status. In doing so, they seem unaware that this perception of blacks was shared by the 1960s Southern white supremacists of my youth. Those who seek repara tions have accepted the theory that skin color alone is capable of making one race superior to the other—that with no additional effort, values, or personal ini tiative, white Americans will succeed, while black Americans will fail At its very core, this represents the conde scending evil of racism It certainly does not represent black America’s potential. Forty percent of black households to day live the middle-class American Dream There are thousands of black Americans among our nation’s top 1% of income earners—doctors, lawyers, en gineers and professors; not to mention music, TV, film and sports stars. Many of our society’s most revered and cele brated citizens are black. The journeys of these Americans to wealth and prominence vary, like those of their white counterparts, but many benefited from having ancestors like Grandpa Silas, who embraced the oppor tunities their country provided and who left behind a legacy of proud, productive, patriotic, and successftil families. Why should white Americans—my neigh bors, friends, and fellow citizens—owe me anything? If Grandpa Silas were here, Fm certain his message to everyone, whether black or white, would simply be this: Good character cannot be bought by bribery. Burgess Owens wrote this for Prager University. PATRICK FLYNN reasons should explain the many thoughts and feelings I have regard ing the issue. Looking at the dual enrollment Holmes/ College of tire Albe marle (COA) perspec tive, relocating Holmes to the County unneces sarily burdens college- bound students with out cars. Driving an ex pected 20 minutes be tween COA and a new high school, especially if a driver doesn’t have a part-time job to pay for gas, will be a game changer. From a student’s standpoint Holmes’ kids won’t be able to sit in a variety of seasonally comfortable environments without a car to drive back downtown with the potential of losing ajob there. This contrasts dodging 18- wheelers on Rt. 32 in the County. Another disadvantage with a new Holmes is not be ing able to watch the marching band set up or practice while driving to or from down- town errands. Always cool! Holmes in the County probably means a field/gym in a gal axy far, far away from a main road. To introduce a pro-environment, anti-Big Wind commentary into the Holmes question is another important consideration that may suggest how dangerous Timbermill will make Chowan’s future. Testimony before Chowan Commissioners back in the day ex plained White Oak Elementary and the mid dle school would be screened from Timber- mill turbines. Infrasound is not so screened. A recent Finnish study documents Infra sound broadcasting up to 4060 KM in dis tance. If built, an unwritten conflict will be the intensity of the Infrasound waves that will assuredly plague most, if not all, Chowan residents. A new school near the Commu nity Building will bring students that much closer to the negative, health-altering effects of operational wind turbines, effects that contributed to most European countries abandoning wind power. Further, everyone in the County will be more Infrasound-affected than people living downtown because Timbermill would cre ate a 14 KM (9 Mile) broadcast range radius from a turbine origination center, (emitting an 18-mile circle of negative, health-related influence according to an earlier study.) Timbermill has been a song a dance routine from its inception. Turbines aside, my accountant antennas go up when I hear student enrollment esti mates have dropped from when they were first planned. If building size and cost are es timates several years old, using those num bers means designs will not be proportional to current needs. Accounting numbers shouldn’t be so inflated before committing to a bond issue or borrowing bank money. For me, the debate becomes a new facil ity will create a better educational environ ment Let’s hope so. The bottom line for Holmes is the quality of the opportunities in side the bricks and not how the budget will slap together new ones or tear down old structures and build them anew. High school students and the health of Chowan residents will be the priority wherever it is built. PalrickAynnisalocal businessman dedicated to environmental awareness in Chowan County. No check could substitute for an apology B e honest. When you hear the word “repa rations” in relation to compensa tion to African Americans for the sin of slavery, you think of a check from the U.S. Treasury, one in the amount of “priceless” for more than two centuries of free and forced labor followed by the ongoing impacts and persistence of racism, discrimination and white supremacy. And then you wonder where that money is going to come from and who’s going to get it. My colleague Charles Lane tackles the latter question in a sobering column that asks a question of its own that I had not yet considered: Would reparations be constitutional? “Maybe not” is his re sponse. “Any financial benefits awarded to African Americans in compensation for historical discrimination would collide with well-established Supreme Court precedents,” Lane writes before going on to explain. In the end, given Supreme Court precedents, it could boil down to an individual being able to show that they personally and directly suffered or were injured by slavery. Reaching that point requires getting through a hornet’s nest inside a Pandora’s box wedged into the smallest of the Matryoshka dolls. Though focusing on the compensation aspect of reparations is understand able, it misses a larger dis cussion this nation has yet to have. I’ve written this before so forgive the repetition. A national conversation about reparations is more nuanced than promising black folks a check. The path set forth by H.R. 40, which had a historic hearing on June 19, is the one the nation needs to follow. The preamble of the bill sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) spells it all out. To address the fundamental injus tice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commis- sion to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subse quent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces an living African-Ameri cans, to make recommendations to the Congress oh appropriate remedies, and Columnist JONATHAN CAPEHART for other purposes. Two phrases stand out for me. “Appropriate remedies” is the golf umbrella of legislative terms. Just about anything can fit under it. Thus, a “proposal for reparations” with its myriad facets would be among those remedies. And it would force us to broaden or outright change the definition of what repara tions are. All would be up for dis cussion, from providing direct cash payments to figuring out how to destroy the school-to- prison pipeline to instituting real efforts to break racism’s vice grip on our political and cultural life. All remedies should be considered and de bated. What doesn’t need to be debated, but is an absolute must, is “a national apol ogy.” Yes, the bill language says “con sider a national apology,” which leaves the possibility for none. But to walk down the path of H.R. 40 with all the monstrous evidence already strewn about it would be a disgrace. We must face our history. “We need to be honest about not just See CAPEHART, A7
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