OPINION
The Chronicle
James Taylor Jr.
Publisher
Ernest H. Pitt
Founder, Publisher Emeritus
1974-2017
Elisha Covington office Manager
PAULETTE L. Moore Administrative Assistant
Our Mission
The Chronicle is dedicated to serving the
residents of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County
by giving voice to the voiceless, speaking truth
to power, standing for integrity and
encouraging open communication and
lively debate throughout the community.
Tevin Stinson
Shayna Smith
Donna Rogers
Timothy Ramsey
Todd Luck
Managing Editor
Sports Editor/Religion
Senior Reporter
Specialty Reporter
Advertising Manager
Speak out now
as lawmakers
reconfigure
districts
The grand solar eclipse is over. All the excite
ment has come and gone. The money made on peo
ple wanting to see and commemorate the hugely
popular event is in the pockets of many.
The eclipse excitement took away some of the
luster from the Charlottesville, Virginia, fatal event
in which a woman was killed and two state police
officers in a helicopter crashed and died as white
supremacists fought with peaceful marchers. Now,
nationwide and in Winston-Salem, people are hav
ing vigils and memorial services, praying for peace
and love and commemorating the slain woman, who
was killed when a car crashed into a crowd in
Charlottesville.
In Winston-Salem, attention has centered around
the statue saluting Confederates, as in the Civil War.
It has been defaced and celebrated and prayers for
peace and love have drifted across the street from it.
This outpouring of emotion is a huge contrast to
the little attention paid to the statue a little over two
years ago, when The Chronicle reported about that
same Confederate statue at the comer of Liberty and
West Fourth streets. It sits beside the former Forsyth
County Courthouse, where it’s been since it was
erected in 1905.
There was no peep about the statue in July 2015
when The Chronicle reported that the local United
Daughters of the Confederacy James B. Gordon
Chapter, who erected the statue more than a century
ago, still owned it.
There was no peep in 2015 when The Chronicle
reported that state lawmakers were about to make a
state law that would bar local governments from
removing any Confederate monuments and sym
bols. This action came after South Carolina
removed the Confederate flag from the top of the
State House in Columbia. That action came about
after nine church folk were killed in Charleston,
S.C., by a man who revered the Confederate flag
and white supremacy.
In 2015, the GOP General Assembly majority
proceeded to pass the bill that would take away
more authority from local governments and shield
statues that now many people want moved.
The lesson here is that people need to keep
abreast of what is happening in their governments
and their world. It’s easier to stop something before
it starts. Now there are cries to repeal the law that
protects Confederate statues on public property.
Now people want to figure out how to move the
Confederate statue in Winston-Salem from private
property.
The GOP-led General Assembly is now working
to reconfigure its senatorial and representative dis
tricts. Speak up now about this action so that you
won’t have to wish you had months or years from
now.
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COUUGO
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Humanity
overcomes
inhumanity
To the Editor:
While the country that gave birth
, to my soul searches for answers to a
barbaric tragedy which caused the
lives of three innocent citizens and
serious injury to many more, I am
fortunate to be comforting our 10th
grandchild and wondering how to
respond.
My instincts recall how my pater
nal grandfather protected me as a
child whenever danger was in the
community. Even then, humanity
overcame inhumanity. The threats
then were few. The threats now are
far more frequent and the need for
individual responsibility is para
mount.
The ideas that founded this coun
try included a declaration of the
unalienable rights of life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness. That duty to
protect the rights of the common cit
izen falls upon every citizen today.
All of us are individually responsible
to honor the liberties that define the
best of the dreams of our ancestors.
My grandfather was one of those
ancestors. He lived during the hor
rors of Jim Crow, lynchings and
institutional racism. Yet he found the
time to protect his grandson and
encourage him to be something.
We are the answer to our ances
tors’ prayers. We must speak up,
write, work and organize to keep
answering our ancestors’ prayers.
What happened in Virginia is an
example of inhumanity. I am con
vinced that humanity will overcome
inhumanity again.
Fleming El-Amin
Winston-Salem
Note: Fleming El-Amin is a
member of the Forsyth County
Board of Commissioners.
Teachers group
calls for fair
legislative
districts
To the Editor:
As a teacher, I would have to
give the General Assembly an A for
political gerrymandering and an F
for a fair election and map drawing
process.
Just like we need to return our
public school system to the beacon
it once was, we should demand and
expect more when it comes to creat
ing fair districts and elections.
Mark Jewell, President
N.C. Association of Educators
Raleigh
Note: This afternoon [Tuesday,
Aug. 22], NCAE President Mark
Jewell submitted written comments
to the General Assembly’s Select
Committee on Redistricting as part
of its public input and public hear
ing process.
NCAE supports the creation of
an independent redistricting com
mission.
NCAE s the state’s largest edu
cation advc cacy organization for
public school employees and repre
sents active, retired, and student
members.
Economic and national security
rely on American energy
independence
Algenon
Cash
I' “ i
Guest
Columnist
Every
year, American sends bil
lions of dollars to countries
engulfed in turmoil and
populated by people who
clearly don’t like us or the
values that are so impor
tant to our way of life.
These countries threaten
our national and fiscal
security by exploiting our
growing demand for ener
gy and increasing reliance
on their oil resources to
feed that demand.
Undoubtedly, we
understand the expansion
of domestic energy pro
duction can significantly
boost jobs, grow our econ
omy, and reduce burgeon
ing federal deficits - but
more homegrown energy
can also improve national
security.
World petroleum con
sumption is around 84 mil
lion barrels a day and the
United States consumes
about 25 percent of that
production, which makes
us the Number One con
suming country in the
world. Over 2 million bar
rels a day are imported
from countries that have
expressed disdain for
America - these are places
such as Venezuela and the
Middle East.
Energy is at the center
of life for most American
families and business own
ers; it directly or indirectly
drives the cost of gas,
food, and utilities. Relying
on countries that are clear
ly not our allies places
American strategic inter
ests in jeopardy.
Emerging technology
in energy exploration is
creating new options for
domestic production and
bringing forth the possibil
ity that America can
achieve energy independ
ence. Technologies such
as horizontal drilling is
helping oil companies to
restart what they once
thought were exhausted oil
wells and its largely
responsible for lifting U.S.
oil production 25 percent
since 2008, which has
reduced the cost of oil
imports by $75 billion.
The careful expansion of
offshore oil exploration
along the Atlantic Coast
could further improve out
put to meet growing ener
gy demand.
Other technologies
such as hydraulic fractur
ing have been around 60
years; a process that allows
energy production compa
nies to extract natural gas
from shale developments,
higher oil costs is making
the process more cost effi
cient.
The United States is
estimated to have enough
natural gas to meet 100
percent of current domes
tic demand for at least 90
years and shale gas
accounts for 10 percent of
the overall U.S. energy
supply. The unprecedent
ed growth of shale gas will
save Americans from
spending $100 billion on
importing liquefied natural
gas and deeply incentivize
companies to remain in the
country instead of search
ing for lower energy cost
5
I
countries to operate.
The 1973 oil crisis
motivated President
Jimmy Carter to consoli
date energy policy into the
U.S. Department of
Energy in 1977. The
department was given one
simple mission - reduce
America’s reliance on for
eign oil.
They were given a
budget of $5 billion in the
first year, under the current
administration; DOE’s
budget has ballooned to
$25 billion. Are we any
less reliant on foreign oil?
The only way to
achieve that coveted goal
is to increase domestic
production, which requires
less burdensome regula
tions so that we can access
more homegrown energy
assets.
Algenon Cash is the
managing director of
Wharton Gladden &
Company, an investment
banking firm, M is also a
national spokesperson for
the oil and natural gas
industry. Reach him at
acash @ whartongladden .c
om.
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