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2A THE NEWS-JOURNAL Raeford, N.C. January 1, 2014 Viewpoints Let’s not forget these underrated leaders When politics is the topic, there is always more to talk about. So it is with the book on North Carolina politics that was the subject of a recent column. I keep going back to East Carolina University Professor TomEamon’s “The Mak ing ofaSouthem Democracy: North Carolina Politics from Kerr Scott to Pat McCrory.” Why does the bookkeep drawing me back to it? One reason is its positive at tention to political figures whose contributions have sometimes been underrated. Eor instance, Dan K. Moore, whose service as governor from 1965 through 1969 is, according to Eamon, often underrated. “By any traditional yardstick that measures success by new programs and improved infrastructure, Moore should rank as one of North Carolina’s most successful gover nors. Nonetheless, many opinion makers—academics, newspaper editorialists, and outside observ ers who chronicle progress in the state—offered restrained or only mildly positive assessments of his administration.” Eamon attributes these attitudes to several reasons including Moore’s defeat of the progressive Richardson Preyer in a 1964 Democratic pri mary that was “tinged with racism,” his attacks on Terry Sanford’s “pro grams and spirit,” and his limited speaking skills. Eamon asserts, “Moore’s legacy is solid.” He reports that William Eriday “unhesitatingly” named Moore as the most underrated 20th Century North Carolina governor. Political rivals, Eamon writes. One on One D. G. Martin ‘ ‘commended him as a good listener andmanof soundjudgment. Behind the scenes, Moore had attempted to build consensus on controver sial matters. He was among the most successful of governors in getting his programs through the legislature.” Another underappreciated po litical leader, according to Eamon, is former Senator Robert Morgan. Some liberals have never forgiven him for his role as campaign man ager for segregationist I. Beverly Lake in the 1960 gubernatorial pri mary race against Terry Sanford. Conservatives fault Morgan for his support of Erank Porter Graham in the 1950 U.S. Senate primary, his votes in favor of the Panama Canal Treaty and other liberal programs while he served in the U.S. Senate, and for his enthusiastic support of Eritz Mondale in the 1984presiden tial election. Eamon puts in perspective Morgan’s support for Lake, who had been Morgan’s Wake Forest law teacher and mentor. Eamon writes, “Morgan had economic populist instincts and would have backed Sanford if Lake had not joined the race.” After defeating incumbent Attor ney General Wade Bmton in 1968, Robert Morgan mmed the office into “the people’s advocate.” His high-profile consumer protection division investigated complaints. and “Morgan used the power of the office to rein in utility rates. He was an economic populist and the brightest new star in the Democratic Party.” In 1974,Morganwonalandslide election victory to the United States Senate, succeeding Sam J. Ervin Jr. Six years later, Morgan “was the heavy favorite for a second term over Republican John East.” Nevertheless, East beat Morgan by arazor-thin edge. Eamon cites three factors in Morgan’s loss: “First and most important, 1980 saw the Republican Party landslide.’ ’ Second, “the Panama Canal ‘giveaway’ resonated in a state with a strong nationalistic and military bent and where national pride and patriotism rivaled and at the same time reinforced chauvinism.” “Third, the Morgan campaign was flawed—as it turned out, fatally.” Eamon also points out that Mor gan also had a serious illness that diminished his normal strengths as a campaigner. Had Morgan survived the East challenge, it is likely that he would have been reelected in 1986. In that year, Terry Sanford recaptured the same Senate seatfortheDemocrats. Conceivably, had he won in 1980, Morgan would have served many more years in the Senate, where his ability to work across party and ideological lines would have been a great asset to that body and to our country. So, thanks again to Tom Eamon for putting North Carolina political history in perspective and remind ing us about these two important leaders. TODAY’S HOMEWORK (Notes on Education) Tf you do a Job where someone tells you exactly what to do, he will find someone cheaper than you to do it. And yet our schools are churning out kids who are stuck looking for jobs where the boss tells them exactly what to do. Do you see the disconnect here? Every year, we churn out millions of workers who are trained to do 1925-style la bor" —Set Godin, in "Stop Stealing Dreams (What is School For?)" Tn 1914, a professor in Kansas invented the multiple-choice test. Yes, its less than a hundred years old. {snip} In the words of Professor Kelly, 'This is a test of lower order thinking for the lower orders.'" —Set Godin, in "Stop Stealing Dreams (What is School For?)" "This is not, however, what you will read or hear in any mainstream media. Instead, we are told that 'you can't just throw money at the problem' (unless it's tied to test scores) and that the biggest variable in a child's learning is 'teacher quality.' This has no basis at all in fact. The reality is that the biggest predictor of a child's future is what their parents do which has everything to do with class and the grow ing economic inequalities in this country. Despite all the diversions in the media, the profound inequality in funding that plagues our schools is still at the root of the problems we face in our schools today." — Megan Behrent, "In Defense of Public Education" / U They really mean that ventilation stulf In the mid ‘90s, we made the first addition to Frog Holler, a master suite wing. We chose a nice wallpaper above the chair rail. There’s just something about wallpaper that tends to get old after awhile and that time had come. We recently decided to replace it with paint. Dreading the task of removing the wallpaper, I decided to paint over the paper. This was really going well until halfway down the first wall, I looked back to see the paper bub bling in places. My heart sank as I put up the paint, cried for a few minutes and prepared to go to Plan B. After the paint had dried, I went back in and, to my joy, found that the bubbling had disappeared, at least to an acceptable level. I decided to take a chance and go ahead with the paint. This was successful except for one wall where a border strip was just not going to do. I set out to remove the border and patch as needed to make the job acceptable. The removal of the narrow strip was a major pain in the posterior and reinforced my original decision not to try to remove wallpaper. Once that job was complete, now on a roll, it was time to redo one of the other bathrooms. Once again, there was wallpaper that I just could not imagine ever picking out. Having learned that painting over paper is risky busi ness, I felt obliged to remove the paper first. In my Swiss cheese memory, I was certain that there were two layers of wallpaper on these walls, making the prospect Frog Holler Philosopher Ron Huff of removing it doubly frighten ing. Well, it takes a lot for me to bring in outside expertise in such matters, but removal of the small strip in the bedroom had cured me. I called in some people for estimates and after one outra geous one and another high one, I got a decent quote from a man who could get it done right away, giving me time to finish before Christmas. When the day for removal rolled around, I called the contrac tor only to find him on the way to the hospital with chest pains. I’ve heard enough crap from contrac tors to know that he was not lying. You can’t be mad at a guy who is heading to the hospital, but after it seemed certain that he was not going to make it that day, and time was short, I went into the bathroom and pulled at one piece of paper. It slipped off like the protective layer of plastic on the screen of a phone. Wow! Amaz ingly, there was not another layer of wallpaper under it, causing me to seriously question my own san ity. If the other layer had actually ever existed, it had been removed by me before installing the current layer. Had I really imagined the whole original layer? Forcing a decision, I jumped in with both feet and within two hours, I had We Get Letters Spirit of Christmas under attack To the Editor: Merry Christmastothepeopleof North Carolina. I enjoy this period of reflection as I believe that for a millisecond we humans are free of evil behavior toward our fellow man. Two thousand years ago, a man walked among us talking to us about our commitment to our fellow man and of his father. I, like the rest of you, have not seen or heard him speak. It is only through the spirit of his presence that I believe in him and of his desires that we humans should have not conform toward evil behavior within ourselves and toward others. Judeo-Christian practices over the past two thousand years have celebrated the birthday of Jesus of Nazareth in many different ways. Today, throughout the world we recognize Christmas as the day of celebration of his birth. Over the years, Christmas has come under attack by people who are trying to take the spirit of Christmas out of Christmas and make it impersonal. In the United States and North Caro lina, I firmly believe that my rights under the 1 st Amendment of the US Constitution are being violated by our political governments and from the minority against Christmas and religion interplay. As a wounded combat veteran, I am ashamed of the Veterans Administration’s em bargo of any type of greeting if it is religious-related, either Christmas cards or others within its establish ment. I am frustrated and appalled by our religious leaders who serve two masters—God and politics. They wear their religious vestments to political activities and invite politi cal overture from their pulpit. These same overtures two thousand years ago help to fulfill scripture through Jesus of Nazareth. In parting, I thank those who do outstanding things in the spirit of Christmas. John Harry Shannon U.S. still living in the 1900s There has been a great deal of discussionrecentlyconcemingracial problems in this country. It seems that one incident can occur that triggers emotions that affect theentire country. These problems accelerate when the economy is at its lowest point because the economy affects the actions of the public. My contention has been that the more we try to bring people together by discussing race, the more we are separating from each other. The reason for that is, in this country, we have always focused on race, when the subject of race is not the problem. When I think of race, I think of the human race, which we ALL belong to. This country, “the United States,” was one of the few in the civilized world that had mles and laws that were based on race. iC:r- Paul Burnley the paper totally removed, sav ing me a good sum of money, an undetermined amount of time and the stress of wondering when the contractor would be able to do it. Incidentally, behind the toilet tank I found the indisputable evi dence that there had indeed been another layer of wallpaper that had been removed. I was relieved but shocked as to the state of my memory. I had been advised to use an oil- based primer under the new paint and so it began. I had left the old flowered wallpaper on the floor as a drop cloth and I proceeded with the primer that smelled to high heaven. As I neared completion of the priming, I looked around to notice that the walls seemed to be wavering like wheat blowing in the wind. Startled, I looked around more only to notice that the flowery vines on the old wallpaper seemed to be growing and mov ing. Now, a little alarmed, I got up off my knees and headed out of the room on rubber legs as if walking down a long narrow cor ridor, which didn’t exist. I headed for the outdoors and fresh air. I sat for several anxious minutes with what can only be described as hal lucinations, and wondered what had been in my lunch and who was trying to poison me. Thankfully, the hallucinations subsided and I figured it was time to read the directions on the can of paint I was using. Man, I tell you, when they say use in a well-ventilated area, you better believe it! More later. As I have reported many times in my columns, the problem of race was caused by government actions more than200yearsago. The English abolished slavery in the 1830s, more than 30 years before the U.S. When the British ended slavery, there was a proclamation(muchlikeourconstitu- tion) that stated that freed slaves had the same rights andprivileges asANY other Englishmen. Also, during the time the British practiced slavery, the slaves were taught to read and write andreceived some form of education. Thi s act gave the freed slaves the right to own land, attend any school, etc., which enabled them to more easily fit into society. Morethan30years later, when the U.S. freed their slaves, they were re leased with no education, no ability to earn aliving, otherthan as farm labor, and no ability to function in society. A very few had any skills that would enable them to support themselves. It took more than 1(X) years before this country took any action to address this situation. In parts of the country, for over a century, descendants of slaves were denied entrance and services in businesses such as hotels, restaurants, and schools, as well as access to em ployment, because of what we in this country call race. Many today wonder why the descendants of slaves are so far behind the rest of theU.S. society. The United States is the only country in the civilized world that has rules and laws that are designed against “people of color.” There are people of color in the majority of European counties butyourarelyhear of any racial problems. As far back as WWI and WWII, many men of color that had fought for the freedom of this country remained in these European countries because they were accepted as equal, had more opportunities and were treated better than they were in their own country. In many respects, this country was built on segregation and discrimina tion. People of color were not the only people that were discriminated against in this country. In the early 19(X)s, immigrants from Ireland and Italy were discriminated against in housing, jobs and other instances. But because of skin color, it became harder to distinguish people by nationality. This is why today in this country the term “minority” is deter mined by skin color. In the world’s population, and in this country, we are rapidly moving to the point where the white population is the minority. This hang-up concerning racehas been the main cause of the decline of the United States’ reputation around the world. We condemn, criticize, and have entered wars with other countries because of the way they treated their citizens, when we have committed the same acts of violence against our citizens. Many other countries around the world view us as hypocrites for not practicing what we preach. I am the first to admit there are good andbadin very group;however, in this country the government has passed mles and laws, and the media has portrayed minorities as trouble makers. This is causedbecauseof skin color. It places a particular group of people in a category that sets them apart from the majority. Until the attitudes of the people in this country change and ALL people are respected and viewed the way the constitution intended them to be, we will have racial problems in this country. We spend time, energy and money upholding the views of the 19()0s, yet we demand that other countries around the world move forward and recognize the rights of ALL their citizens. Paul Burnley can be reached at plbumley @ aol. com. The News-Journal Published every Wednesday by Diekson Press, Ine. Robert A. Dickson, President • Anne Dickson Fogleman, Secretary/Treasurer 119 W. Elwood Avenue, Raeford, NC 28376 • (910) 875-2121 Home Page: www.thenews-journal.com . PRINTED WITH ^SOYINK a® Ken MacDonald (ken@lhenews-journal.com) Publisher Catharin Shepard (cshepardQlhenews-journal.com) Reporter Hal Nunn (hal@thenews-journal.com) Sports Writer Hal Nunn (hal@thenews-journal.com) Sales Representative Wendy Tredway (wendy@thenews-journal.com) Sales Representative Sheila Black (sheila@thenews-journal.com) Office Manager Robin Huffman (robin@lhenews-journal.com) Composition Design/ Legal Advertising email ads to: ads@thenews-journal.com email classifieds to: classifieds@thenews-journal.com email legals to: robin@thenews-journal.com Periodical Class Postage at Raeford, N.C. (USPS 388-260) Postmaster: Send address changes to: P.O. Box 550 Raeford, N.C. 28376
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