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,6 THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7,2015 Perspectives Addresses NC SENATE Erica Smith-Ingram (D) 919-715-3040 16 W. Jones Street, Room 1118 Raleigh, NC 27601-2808 Erica.Smith-lngram@ncleg.net NC HOUSE Bob Steinburg (R) 919-733-0010 NC House of Representatives 300 N. Salisbury St., Room 306 A2 Raleigh, NC 27603 bob.steinburg@ncleg.net US HOUSE G.K. Butterfield (D) 2305 Rayburn HOB, Washington, DC 20515 202-225-3101 252-237-9816 US SENATE Richard Burr (R) 202-224-3154 336-631-5125 217 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 http://burr.senate.gov/public/ Thom Tillis (R) 202-224-6342 G55 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Letter to the Editor Racist beliefs not backed by any facts ' Dear Editor, I agree with Joseph Hoffler’s Sept. 30 letter that the Perquimans Weekly shouldn’t be a platform for “racial hatred and negative stereo types of Blacks,” Hispanics, or any group of people. Unfortunately, this paper continues to provide such a platform. In his Sept. 23 letter, Mr. Warren Boisselle stated categorically that “Blacks boys do not finish school.” Did he provide study findings or data from the US Department of Education? No. He drew his con clusion from looking at graduation pictures in his local papers. ' In an earlier letter, he compared Southeast Virginia school systems Former NC Governor Martin as a catalyst know the kind of candidate the Republicans need to beat Hill- ary Clinton or any other Demo cratic candidate in next fall’s pres idential election. ; It is not any of those running how. ■ That party needs somebody smart who can get along wi th the far right in the party without fright ening the middle-of-the-road vot ers in the fall. They need someone with proven experience in politics and government who is still not an ordinary politician. Former North Carolina Gover nor and former U.S. Representa tive Jim Martin, if he were 10 years younger, could be that person. Martin’s successful campaigns for Congress and governor paral leled the rise of the Republican power in North Carolina, a state traditionally dominated by Demo crats. What were the ingredients of his political success? How much did he ride the rising tide of the Republican Party in the South? How much did his special and unique campaigns and character contribute to that rising tide? John Hood’s new book, “Cata lyst: Jim Martin and the Rise of North Carolina Republicans,” ex ¬ and blamed the differences on the racial makeup of the schools. I pointed out that he failed to ac count for the stark difference in the dollars invested in tire schools he cited. In other words, the white schools got more money per stu dent than the black schools. Mr. Bob Bose commented in his Sept. 16 letter that there are factors other than funding that contribute to schools failing their students one being the quality of teachers. I agree. The 2008 study, Given Half a Chance: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males, identified both funding and teacher quality as critical factors. The study found that schools with amines these questions. Hood, former presi dent and current board chair of the John Locke Foundation, combines a traditional biography of Martin with the politi cal history of the rise of the Republican Party' in North Carolina. The book’s title, “Cat alyst,” gives a clue to Hood’s idea of Martin’s place in the growth of Republican political power. One definition of that word, according , to Merriam-Webster, is MARTIN “an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action.” Hood’s recounting of how Martin’s successful political cam paigns for Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners and U.S. Congress and, especially, his two terms as governor, show how he played an important role in speed ing the change from Democratic to Republican control of our state. Martin might be more comfort able with another definition of catalyst, also from Merriam-Web ster: “A substance that enables a chemical reaction to proceed at a usually faster rate or under dif- black majority enrollments often do not have libraries, have inad equate supplies of textbooks and computers, and fail to provide art and music programs and science labs (i.e., they have funding-based resource disparities). But, the re port concludes that when black students attend schools with tal ented, caring teachers, well-trained support staff, and challenging cur ricula, black males graduate at rates similar to white males. I’m sure this report will not sway Mr. Boisselle, who contin ues to believe that “blacks are dysfunctional.” Nor will he accept that people of Spanish descent can legitimately identify as white. May be he thinks Spain isn’t part of the ferent conditions (as at a Columnist lower temperature) than otherwise possible.” As Hood reminds his readers, Martin was a chemistry professor long before he became a po litical catalyst. It was in this role that I first came to know him. He was the lab instruc tor in the chemistry class I took at Davidson Col lege in 1962. Although we are not related, our families have been close. I sat beside Jim’s brother, Joe, in David son’s chapel services three times a week for four years. We were good friends until his death from ALS in 2006. Our fathers were loy al Davidson graduates and long- time friends. Hood credits my father for opening the door for Jim to run for county commissioner. My fa ther, Grier Martin, was Davidson’s president. When Republican lead ers approached Jim about a coun ty commissioner candidacy, he knew he needed approval of the college leadership. According to Hood, textile mag nate Charles Cannon and other “white” Europe he wrote about. Not surprisingly, Mr. Boisselle continues to protest that he is not bigoted; he’s just conservative and truthful. Well, here’s some truth for you, Mr. Boisselle. The Center's for Disease Control and Preven tion collect data on unwed moth ers by age and race. In 2013, 69 percent of unwed mothers age 19 and younger were white. Black women represented 27 percent of the unwed mothers age 19 and younger. You may want to consider these facts before you advise young black people to “act white”. Nancy Theodore Hertford Davidson donors “had expressed unease about what was perceived as the increasingly leftward tilt of the faculty.” Thus, my father and Faculty Dean Frontis Johnston saw the prospective candidacy “as a great opportunity to mollify the critics.” Hood continues, “The way Pres ident Martin and Dean Johnston saw it, even if Martin didn’t win the election, his candidacy would serve to showcase the college’s ideological diversity. And if he did end up on the county commission, so much the better for Davidson. The two gave Martin their full sup port.” Could he really beat Clinton or Bernie Sanders if Martin were the Republican candidate next year? Following the reasoning of my father and Dean Johnston, in the face of the increasingly right- ward tilt of the Republican Party, his candidacy would showcase the party’s ideological diversity. If he won, they might say again, “so much the better for Davidson.” Too old to run? Maybe not. Mar tin is only five years older than Sanders. D.G. Martin hosts “North Carolina Book- watch, " which airs Sundays at noon and Thursdays at 5p.m. on UNC-TV Peter Williams Irene made the best of it I n one way or another, we all usually get second chances. What we do with them is what matters. Irene Bailey Overton, a high school friend, was the recipi ent of a second chance. Back in 2000 she needed and got a double lung transplant. I had heard of a double-lung transplant but until Irene, I’d never known anybody who got one. Hearts, livers, kidneys, those are far more common. It wasn’t because she smoked or led a nasty lifestyle; her genes were simply stacked against her. The lungs she was bom with weren’t doing the job. I wasn’t there when the doc tors gave the prognosis, but I’m sure it wasn’t 15 years. But that’s how much longer she lived. The end came Sept. 29 at Sentara Norfolk Hospital. She was 56-years-old. What makes Irene’s story powerful to me is the way she handled those 15 years. We all know people who suffer the smallest thing and embrace themselves with pity and invite others to do the same. Irene wasn’t wired that way. She suffered, but largely she didn’t complain about it. She was too busy trying to lift up everybody else’s spirits. She became a gentle, but powerful advocate for organ donation. “I didn’t know Ms. Irene long but felt a long bond neverthe less,” wrote one of her friends on Facebook. “She inspired me and gave me hope for my future.” Sadly, I don’t have enough newsprint or ink to print all the fond comments about Irene. Mind you she didn’t like be poked and probed in the hospi tal. One of her last postings on Facebook was of a red pincush ion with pins sticking out of it. She that that’s what she felt like at the hospital. She didn’t like spending months away from home when she was in the hospital. She hated the fact the she couldn’t go fishing with her husband Randy. Yet she asked that dona tions be made to Free and Open Beaches C/O Red Drum Tackle, Buxton, NC 27920 so others can keep on fishing. I will remember Irene for both the girl I knew in high school and for the stoic woman she grew up to be. A woman who knew a second chance when she saw it and woman who encouraged all of us to of fer someone else that second chance. I signed up to be an organ do nor years and years ago. When you go to get a driver’s license and they ask you if you want to be an organ donor, and you say “yes” and then it goes on your driver’s license. No muss, no fuss. My 86-year-old Mom has kicked that up a notch. As a for mer nurse she’s signed on to do nate her entire body to the ECU medical school so students can practice. I’m not ready to sign on for that, but I admire Mom for doing it. If you believe in God, as I do, you’ll understand that when you die God is going to give you a brand new body. The one you are using here on Earth can stay here on Earth and help others. That’s the kind of recycling effort that would make Irene smile. The Perquimans Weekly A PUBLICATION OF COOKE COMMUNICATIONS NORTH CAROLINA, LLC Tire Perquimans Weekly (USPS4284)80) is published each Wednes day by The Daily Advance, 215 S. Water St, Elizabeth City, NC 27909. Subscription rates are $27.00 per year plus sales tax in Perquimans, ESTABLISHED 1934 111 W. MARKET ST. MIKE GOODMAN, Publisher/Editor BEV ALEXANDER, Advertising REPRESENTATIVE Chowan, Pasquot ank, Camden, Currituck and parts of Gates counties; and $31.50 per year mailed to all other addresses in the continental US. Sales tax is required for delivery to all Noth Carolina counties at the sales tax rate in that county. 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The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, N.C.)
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