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A4 I FEBRUARY 22,2017 BERTIE LEDGER-ADVANCE Opinion The fabric of Bertie County since 1832 One-on-one A'new' BBQ holiday... How about a new holiday that would sup port North Carolina’s “First in Freedom” slogan and, at the same time, call atten tion to our pride in our distinctive favorite food: barbecue? Got your attention? The Campaign for Real Barbecue, an or- ganiza- tion led ^^Washington's name is still everywhere." D.& MARTIN by bar- b e c u e gurus John Shelton Reed and Dan Levine, proposes to celebrate a “Wilmington Bar becue” holiday on the fourth Monday of February. Reed and Levine usually use their plat form to extol the virtues of “real” North Carolina barbecue, which is meat cooked slowly over wood coals. “When so-called barbecue is cooked over gas flames,” Reed told me, “1 can smell the gas when 1 eat the meat.” But Reed and Levine also educate us about the connection between politics and barbecue. Their search for such connec tions took them all the way back to late February of 1766 when “the Royal Gover nor of North Carolina, William Tryon, at tempted to win the New Hanover militia’s good will by treating them to a barbecue. He did not succeed: citizens of Wilmington threw the barbecued ox in the river and poured out thf beer. Reed and Levine explain that this “expres sion” of discontent with British authority came seven years before “the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when some rowdy New Eng landers threw boxes of tea in Boston har bor to protest a British tax.” They argue that the Wilmington event was not only “seven years earlier than the Tea Party, its story is much more colorful. While the Tea Party offers only a pitiful at tempt to avoid the blame by dressing up as Mohawk Indians, the barbecue story in volves a stand-off between the local militia and the British Navy, a conflict between the Governor and the courts, a duel to the death, and a suicide by disembowelment.” Reed and Levine ask why the Boston Tea Party has gotten all the attention, and they answer, that it is a matter of superior pub licity by publishers located in the North east states. “And the regional disparity in public relations skill persists to this day: Boston has a Tea Party museum entirely devoted to ‘the event that lead [sic] to an American Revolution!’ while the Barbecue has been almost entirely forgotten, even in Wilmington.” “In the latter part of the month of Feb ruary, there being a general muster in the town of Wilmington, the governor, with a view to please the militia, caused an ox to be barbecued and had a few barrels of beer unheaded; but the people, displeased with his endeavors to counteract their opposi tion to the stamp act, threw the roasted ox into the river and spilled the beer on the ground.” The disorder continued, reminding us that our current president is not the first po litical leader to lambaste judges. Governor Tryon accused the chief justice of favoring a defendant charged with participating in a fatal duel arising out of the disturbances. The chief justice was so devastated that he “fired a pistol in his own mouth; the fire not proving mortal, he took out his pen-knife and, ripping open his belly, drew out part of his entrails and soon after expired.” Back to the present. So far, there has been no official action on the proposed Wilmington Barbecue Holiday. But there is no stopping us from taking matters into our own hands, gathering at our favorite barbecue eateries on Monday, and raising our glasses of sweet iced tea to the people in Wilmington who stood up to British oppression long before the Boston Tea Party. D.G. Martin hosts “North Carolina Book- watch,” which airs Sundays at noon and Thursdays at 5 p.m. on UNC-TV. Farm Wife Life Please make up your mind Spring has sprung, much to my dismay. The flowers are budding; fruit trees are in full bloom. What the heck? This isn’t South Flori da. Mother Nature has taken on a schizophrenic temperament. I think she must have forgotten to take her pills. Usually I’m excited for spring to be here, but like a spoiled sur prise birthday party, she’s has ar rived way too early. Punxsutawney Phil can no lon ger be trusted. Maybe he took her pills. We are due at least one more snow since we were gipped last time the skies rained down frozen precipitation. We were promised up to eight inches - which translated into an inch and a half of ice. I’m still holding a grudge about that. Speaking of wardrobe, what do you wear when the weather can’t make up its mind? It’s too early for the bright colors of Spring, but gray on a beautiful 70-degree day just seems out of place. It’s cold in the morning, but by mid afternoon you are shedding cloth ing like a second skin. Mid-February is not the time for all this gorgeous weather. Honestly, I do love this weath er, but deep down 1 would much Today in N.C. ^^I'm still holding a grudge about that." - DEBORAH GRIFFIN rather be skiing. There is nothing like being out in freezing weather speeding down a snowy mountain intent upon giving you frostbite if you weren’t wrapped up in techno gear. It’s a little bit like defeating the odds. There is something ex tremely thrilling about that. But on the other hand, if we have spring for three or four months, who am I to complain? My youngest son mowed down the green onion stalks in the yard yesterday. It smelled and felt like summertime. It brought to mind the time when I was in the third grade and we lived in the suburbs of Tulsa, Okla. Not the country, but not the city. There was a large field catty- corner to our house, which gave the illusion we were further out from the city than we really were. That field was our personal playground for my sister, my brother and me. We flew kites and played hide Locking in the future Legislative Republicans are act ing as though their days are num bered. Having remade the state’s fiscal structure in their own likeness. Re publicans are now looking to lock in their personal income tax rates with a constitutional amendment and their flush savings reserve, a.k.a. “The Rainy Day Fund,” with statutory funding requirements and draw down limits. If they expect to keep winning elections, and thus to stay in power, it’s odd that they would impose such restrictive measures on themselves. This is especially so considering the state’s current political game board. Republicans have veto- proof majorities in both houses, a legislative districting map that promises to keep returning those lopsided advantages in 2018 and 2020. Yes, they might have concerns that their voter suppression laws and the gerrymandered maps will be ruled unconstitutional in the federal appellate courts, but such decisions would only be tempo rary once the high court is safely in conservative hands. In short, it appears that any Re publican concern of a return to ...seems a half-century premature." PAUL O’CONNOR Democratic rule in North Carolina seems a half-century premature. As many good parents have advised their children, however, “plan for all eventualities and be prepared for the worse.” With the personal income tax now at 5.499 percent, a 5.5 per cent constitutional cap would not change anything immediately. But this cap would be almost im possible to raise in the future. Not many people vote to raise their owrt taxes. A capped income tax does not, however, mean Republicans can’t, and won’t, raise our taxes. There are other ways to raise in come taxes. They could cut the standard deduction or reduce deductible items like home mort gage interest. They might repeal tax credits. They could also raise other tax es. The sales tax is the most likely because it hits the poor hard-. and seek in our bare feet until the streetlights came on and we knew it was time to come home. Summer nights it was lit up by lightning bugs, which we some times put in mason jars. In the winter it was a blank pal ette on wHich we scripted our plays. One summer, the grass in the field was so high it had to be at least to my shoulders. In my memory it was over my head. My father did something I will never forget. He took the push mower and mowed a maze through the grass. It was thrilling to go through it, not being able to see anything beyond the three feet in front, of you. It couldn’t have been easy, and probably was illegal since it wasn’t our property. Every time I smell cut grass I think of that maze and how much fun we had running through it and coming up with stories of what it was and where it led. In retrospect I love all seasons. I just like for them to behave the way they are supposed to. Deborah Griffin is a Staff Writer for the Bertie Ledger-Advance. She can be reached at dgriffin@ncweek- lies.com. est. It now stands at 6.75 percent statewide with numerous local add-ons allowed. In recent years, as legislators have cut the per sonal income tax to mostly help the affluent, they’ve expanded the items on which we pay sales tax, mostly hurting the non-affluent. Similarly, the House bill that would require a steady flow of money into the reserve fund and limit what can be withdrawn does not assure steady growth of that savings account. So, the constitutional amend ment that would cap personal income taxes wouldn’t guarantee that, overall, your taxes wouldn’t go up, just that your income tax rates wouldn’t go up. And the sav ings reserve bill wouldn’t guaran tee a steady increase in the Rainy Day Fund, either. So, what would these two initia tives guarantee? They’d guarantee that Repub lican politicians could go before voters in 2018 and 2020 and pro nounce, in what almost passes as the truth in today’s politics, that they’d guaranteed that taxes won’t rise and that state reserves will. Paul T. O’Connor has covered state government for 39 years. Bertie Ledger-Advance The fabric of Bertie County since 1832 The Bertie Ledger-Advance was establismeo in 1928 through the HERfTAQE OF ThE WINDSOR LEDGER AND ThE AuLANDER ADVANCE. The newspaper traces its history to 1832 when it was first published AS THE Windsor Herald and Bertie County Register Kyle Stephens Deborah Griffin Group Publisher Staff Writer kstephens(a)ncweekliesj:om tlgriffin@ncweefclies.com Angela Harne Leslie Beaehboard Group Editor Staff Writer ahafne@ncweekiies.com ^ ibeachboarl@ncwee]tiies.com' • 'Ihadd White Jim Green Editor Sports Editor twhke@ncweeklies.com jgreen@ncweeldies.com Mkhelle Leicester Creative Servkes . mleicester@ncweeldies.com Jessica Mobley Advertising Manager jmobley@r(cweeklies.com Lanny Hiday Copy Editor bertienews@ncweeklies.com The Bertie Ledger-Advance (ISSN 051-700) is published EACH Wednesday for $26.69 (plus tax) per year (n Bertie, Hertford, Martin, Nortmamp- oouNTiEs) by Cooke Communica tions North Carolina, LLG, 109 S. King St., Windsor,. NC ,27983. Periodicals postage paid AT Windsor, NC and entered at ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES. Postmaster: ADDRESS CHANGES TO THE Bertie Ledger-Advance. P.O. Box 69. Windsor, NC 27983. Contact Us: Bertie LedqerAovance P.O. Box 69, Windsor, NC 27983, ^ Phone: (252)794-3185 Fax: (252) 794-2835
Bertie Ledger-Advance (Windsor, N.C.)
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