On July 21 the Burlington[NC] Times-News printed a sample of replies from readers about the July 10 NY Times editorial titled "The Decline of North Carolina." Even readers in red Alamance County soundly approved the editorial: "What do you Say? Responses to editorial by the New York Times about North Carolina." Excerpt from one of the letters printed:
What the Republican majority North Carolina Legislature and Gov. Pat McCrory...have done and are doing is shameful. All the areas of cuts stated in the New York Times will leave North Carolina in an absolute state of shambles.Particular states tend to identify with particular states of mind. I always considered where I grew up to be a backward place, but after spending time in North Carolina, the place where I grew up now seems progressive. North Carolina seems to have four basic groups:
Being a former educator, I am particularly horrified by all the cutbacks that have been made in education. One of the most outstanding programs we had for finding the best teachers available has been junked. The Teaching Fellows program was an excellent way to obtain top quality people in the classroom. Now it is gone.
Eliminating the Teaching Fellows is just one of many examples of how the Republicans have played havoc with our quality of life, all in the name of cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy....
- Self-centered, racist, Republican, uneducated, environmentally unaware backwoods types;
- Self-centered, racist, Republican, highly-educated, environmentally aware but don't give a damn because they are big-city and/or want-to-be-rich types and feel that since Jesus is coming back any day now we shouldn't waste time worrying about the environment or anything else beyond the tips of our own noses;
- Self-centered, very discretely and only moderately racist, Democratic, highly-educated, academic types who are environmentally and socially aware but do nothing for anyone else because they are modern day carpetbaggers who live their lives in academia and gated communities until they can retire and take their money and flee back to the West Coast, or the Northeast, or whatever foreign country they came from; and
- The fewer than 10% who don't fit any of the previous profiles and who do all the heavy lifting (like the Moral Monday protesters at the capitol, and the environmental activists, etc.) in a vain attempt to lift the state out of its pre-Civil War ethos.
Bringing change to the Southeast is not unlike trying to do the same in Iraq or Afghanistan. Change is a multiple-generations process that is slowed by hardcore conservatives that stymie every bit of social progress they can. In some parts of North Carolina the influx of liberal northerners and foreigners seems to have pushed local thinking to the left. In other parts it seems the locals have pushed newcomers' thinking to the right.
The biggest difference I see between newcomers and natives is in their view of The North. As in, “Who the hell is The North to tell us anything?” That tends to be the native point of view, rooted in post-Civil War issues that may yet take decades to resolve.
I’d like to think that less than half the state is racist–contrary to the point of view expressed above. But I could certainly be wrong about that. I talk to a lot of people frustrated by race in this state and America in general. North Carolina may be no better or worse than anywhere else in that regard.
There are far-right-wingers here, and that’s obvious. How else to explain Jesse Helms? But I know many more moderate people. There is a shortage of people on the far left.
I’d be interested to know how many actual natives are in the General Assembly now.
Beautiful New Zealand:
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| Marte Deborah Dalelv sentenced to jail for having sex outside of marriage after reporting a rape |
Update on the story above: On July 22 Norwegian Marte Deborah Dalelv announced she had her passport back and was free to leave Dubai: "Woman in Dubai rape case free to leave." We don't have an official answer as to why, but it's possible that Dubai officials realized the outcry around the world could be bad for business, or that there is a tradition of clemency during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, or that Dubai leadership realized it was time to at least bring their court system up to medieval standards.
Your blog has shown quite an interest in helping protect the environment through encouraging people to minimize the amount of water, chemicals, and fossil fuel they use in lawn care. So we thought this might be on interest.
But not in a good way. Here is the backstory: "Whoosh! Honda unveils 130 mph lawn mower."
What was the name of the opera? I will say this much, you are the first person in all these years who has had the balls to ask me that question. That's like asking Mrs. Lincoln: "Sorry about your husband's being assassinated, but how was the play?"
Zhangjiaje Stone Forest in Hunan, China:
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| [Photo from The Voice of Russia website] |
For myself, I can envision a huge difference between driving somewhere to watch American-style movies on a big, blank white screen in a huge gravel parking lot along with too many other people, and walking around a quaint Old-World city in the middle of the night watching a variety of movies projected onto the sides of ancient buildings, and understand the advantage of the latter approach, even though I have incredibly fond memories of several American drive-in experiences. And on rare occasion those memories actually involved watching a fairly decent movie.
We Don’t Care How They Do It In California
A few states in the Mountain West have had a history of anti-Californian-immigration sentiment:
- Keep Montana Beautiful—Put a Californian on a Bus
- Don’t Californicate Idaho
- Don’t Californicate Colorado
No We Don't Want to Hear How You Did It Up NorthCandidate for best bumper sticker ever:
When I die I want to go peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather.Limerick of the Week:
Not wide awake and screaming like everyone else in his car
The Reverend Dr. Merrihew_______________
could not take off with clerihew:
he'd finish the first couplet fine,
then not get right the next one's rhyme.
He did better with limericks, where he flew.
Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean
| Please comment |
My wife, daughter and I attended the Moral Monday rally the week of the Trayvon Martin verdict, and it was a very personally enriching experience. Emotional when we raised our hands to bless the ministers, doctors, teachers and others who moved through our throng to be arrested. Most inspirational moment was when the NAACP prez told people with hateful signs to put them down because this was about love.
ReplyDeleteNow a couple of peeves:
1. I am sick of the myth perpetuated above that "liberal" Northerners move to NC and are turned conservative by their backward neighbors. Many of these people are corporate employees or retirees whose children are either grown or in private schools, and they don't give a damn about sustaining the educational and racial progress made by NC, e.g., the Republican school board members who tried to re-segregate the Wake school system. Some of us have lived in the South all our lives, and we don't run off to Central America because we're scared of the Tea Party or to California because the weather's better (good luck with that). We stay here and try to make NC a better place and endure the scorn and bigotry (Chris Matthews, MSNBC, e.g.) which is apparently still politically correct.
2. We have attended the weekly Sunday sessions at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh where many of the Moral Monday protests have been organized. Protesters meet there to get instructions before being arrested. Sister Simone (look her up) spoke there on immigration reform a couple of weeks ago. At the Moral Monday protest, the people to be arrested are always led by ministers, rabbis, and priests--not atheists. Just sayin'.
Of course all Northerners who move to NC are not more liberal and progressive than all the natives, but I'm guessing that more than 75% of newcomers to NC the past 30-40 years were more liberal than the folks who were already here: Would you say that is a fair estimate? And would you think it accurate to say that many of their children are less liberal than their parents, mainly due to growing up here, rather than where their parents did? That is the way I see it.
DeleteThe Moral Monday protests are a wonderfully symbolic effort, but have they accomplished anything? Exactly what does it achieve to be peacefully arrested? I don't know how many atheists have been there, but I hope they are saving their energy until someone gets serious about protesting to create change, rather than theater. It is great to have church leaders at least helping do something to bring attention to what is happening in state government, but are they capable of formulating a plan to address the problems happening right now, or are they, as usual, more concerned about the after-life rather than real life?
Yep, most of California has better weather than NC most of the year, and much of it has better weather all of the year. In fairness, it is a much bigger state, so better options are inevitable.
Does anyone following what is happening in NC know if there is any sort of effort being launched to recall Governor Pat McRory? If so, how does one get involved? If not, what does it take to get such an effort launched?
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter and more positive note: Fantastic photo from New Zealand!
"North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 123 Impeachment" (http://law.onecle.com/north-carolina/123-impeachment/index.html) covers impeachment of an official. Article 1 describes the court (which is the Senate). Article 2 describes the procedure, an Article 3 "the effect."
DeleteArticle 2, Paragraph 6 begins: "All impeachments must be delivered by the House of Representatives to the presiding officer of the Senate, who shall thereupon cause proclamation to be made...."
Impeachment in North Carolina seems to be modeled on the procedure in the U.S. States Congress.
Of course, a majority of Republicans in North Carolina's House must support any action to impeach Governor McRory. One reason they might do that is if he became persuaded that the Moral Monday protestors, for example, were correct and that most of the things he and his party have done so far have been wrong, wrong, wrong and should be undone.
My memorable visit to N. Carolina was in 1971. I lived in the Bay Area of N. California at the time. I was dispatched to Raliegh for a two-week training. I was assigned a black roommate, also from N. California. We went to dinner together the night of arrival. He received a message that was pretty clear -- even if his employer had sent him to this training, he was not welcome at the inn where we were staying. He spent the rest of the two weeks walking quickly from class to the room where he ordered from the room service menu. I got to see some of N. Carolina, the beach I remember. He didn't.
ReplyDeleteI might have anticipated this kind of racism when I arrived -- there was a black boy hitching post at the front door.
Sounds like the tolerance in attitudes among the natives hasn't changed much in the last several decades.
I wish I were surprised.
Dean, your comment reminds me how surprised I was twelve years later (in 1983) to hear, in perhaps the same company's cafeteria, in Research Triangle Park—of which Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill formed the three points—contemptuous racist comments about some of our black colleagues by at least three white UNC alumni (a man and two women—at least two of them, and maybe all three—native North Carolinians). I couldn't at first believe I was hearing this from three bright, liberal-arts-educated young people whom I liked (my juniors by about fifteen years) But I heard more over the years I worked with them, including allusions from the man that he was sympathetic to white supremacist views, and a scoffing denunciation of candidate Barack Obama in 2008 as "a tin messiah."
DeleteDean, the tolerance has changed only a little. The cleverness about disguising the lack of tolerance has changed a little more. It is now more genteel and cloaked in expressions spawned during the Reagan era, rather than pursued openly with baseball bats and ax handles. Unfortunately, the modern discrimination practiced in business, politics and law enforcement is just as accepted today, as the "N" word and black boy hitching posts were when you visited four decades ago.
ReplyDeleteIn a small town only 20 minutes from the liberal academic bastions of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and Duke University in Durham, I share an antiques and collectibles co-op with 20 other shops. Last year we brought in a new vendor who promptly started outselling all the rest of us combined with her great assortment of mid-century collectibles. Then she started taking her turn running the shop - and our customers discovered she was black. Her sales, and ours, plummeted. Most of our local customers who used to come in on a weekly basis have not been in for months. Our new business model is to use the shop as a great place to store products until we sell them online. We have a very few locals who still come in, but the bulk of our over-the-counter sales are to travelers coming in off the interstate.
I actually was quite surprised by this turn of events, for I assumed attitudes must have changed over these past several decades. Unfortunately, unless he was a star athlete or staying on a college campus, your black roommate would receive much the same welcome here today as he did in 1971.
I've been busy and just got back to the blog. I think I am right in assuming Jim was referring to me, when he mentioned running off to South America.
ReplyDeleteMy family was among the first people to settle this country and also Mississippi. My roofs in the South go all the way back to 1632 Jamestown, so when I speak of southerners I'm talking about family, and if you for one minute think you will find change and hope in a Southern Baptist Church, then you know very little about the history of your church. And, this is not the first time I left, it's just the last time. You speak of the scorn and bigotry (Chris Matthews, MSNBC---next Sunday, in church, reach over and scratch your neighbor. If your looking for bigotry you won't have to go very deep.
Moto outside of an armed insurrection,(which doesn't seem to have worked last time,) being arrested for saying something is wrong is about all a person in the south can do. While in itself the arrests change little, it is a way to let those who are afraid to speak up, know they are not alone. Not that that makes a difference either.
Kono, your mention of Jamestown prompted me to ponder some regional history. I assume you are speaking of Jamestown, VA, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. As you probably know, North Carolina actually had a head start in the settlement game, in the form of the Roanoke Colony, founded in 1584 in what is now Dare County, NC.
ReplyDeleteConsidering that NC and VA are next-door neighbors separated only by lines drawn arbitrarily on a map, the difference in their histories is amazing. While Jamestown endured and is today still a place of historical significance, Roanoke Colony became "The Lost Colony" and endures mainly as an outdoor drama by the same name with a history decades longer than the colony itself.
Virginia went on to provide much of the most important leadership in the American Revolution and is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. North Carolina, on the other hand, is best known for the Wright brothers coming down from Ohio and performing the first controlled and powered human flight. Three men born in NC have reached the White House, yet they all did so by leaving NC and building their political careers in Tennessee.
Since NC has apparently been an unlucky place short on accomplishment and progress from the beginning, perhaps we are being too harsh in expecting anything different from it today.
On another topic: armed insurrection actually has a 50/50 record here. The first one, the American Revolution, led by Northerners, succeeded. It was the second one, the Civil War, led by Southerners, that failed. Since most of the people most likely to take up arms against the current administration have Northern roots, if this revolt could catch fire it might succeed.