All in Columns
I’ve never really been a victim of cancel culture. But that’s not to say my critics haven’t tried to make me one. I began my syndicated column in 1986. It ran initially in a couple of newspapers in eastern North Carolina, then spread to dozens of others over the ensuing decade. On several occasions, left-wing activists have tried to get editors to drop my column. It never worked. In my experience, local newspaper folks didn’t like obviously orchestrated attempts to dictate editorial decisions.
If you want to know what to cook that is in season, this time of year it’s soup!! It’s the season for turning on the logs, donning your fuzzy socks and grabbing a warm blanket, and of course a cup of warm comforting soup!!
Today I want to talk about the passage of time and how we handle it. Life is NOT about how far we can go, how high we can jump, or how much weight we carry. Life IS about family, friendships, experiences, and memories. We all suffer heartbreaks over such things as losing a loved one or seeing a child suffer, but broken hearts can give us strength, understanding and compassion toward ourselves and others, and help us to appreciate life's peaceful moments.
Due to GOP tax policy over the past decade, in other words, North Carolina’s state sales-tax burden went down, not up, by hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Alas, some of this effect was offset by increases in county sales taxes. Who is responsible for those hikes? Democrats, overwhelmingly. Democratic politicians authorized those sales-tax referenda and Democratic voters were most likely to favor them.
Whatever happened to tax credits and tax deductions? How many more payments will people expect in the future before we declare the pandemic over? The utter reliance and potential household budgeting for future stimulus payments disincentivizes Americans from using their skills and creativity to find a way to meet their obligations. The unintended consequence of stimulus payments may very well be a methodical way of killing the American dream by taking away all incentives of hard work and individualism.
Some may be uncomfortable reading my words today, but they need to be said. As a community, we need to take action. Last week I wrote about Barbara Johns of Farmville, Va., who organized a walkout at Moton High School on April 23, 1951.
For those of you who prefer to stay home and cook a sweetheart meal for two, here are some simple but delicious recipes for you to give a try.
“One of the most unhappy series of events in the state’s history began in 1835,” stated a textbook used in elementary schools across North Carolina. “As more and more white people came into their territory the Cherokee Indians had been driven further into the hills, but white settlers looked with greed on all their territory.”
I plan to talk today about Valentine's Day, and I will do so, but first I want to open my Column with a huge salute to our Lenoir County Health Department for the superb job it is doing in administering the Covid-19 Vaccine to multitudes of people in our area and beyond.
When I started researching the Adkin High School Walk-out of 1951, I heard about another student walk-out – one that occurred in Farmville. Since I had taught at Farmville Central High School in Pitt County, I assumed the walk-out occurred there. We all know what happens when we assume. I had missed the location by roughly 170 miles. That walk-out took place in Farmville, Va., in Prince Edward County.
Poverty is a state of life that I have been intimately familiar with for the better part of my four decades on this planet. At first glance, Senator Mitt Romney’s Family Security Act sounds like a solution to elevate 5.1 million people out of poverty.
With the constant barrage of Negative Reporting on Donald Trump, a casual observer might conclude that he accomplished very little during his 4 years as our President, but as newsman and political activist Mark Patricks pointed out last week, he accomplished a lot.
On January 26 I received an email from Professor Michael Aceto of East Carolina’s Department of English. He wrote to let me know that Dr. McKay Sundwall passed away on January 20. McKay’s wife Marilyn wanted me to know. Dr. Sundwall was one of my English professors at East Carolina. I first met him when I audited a class in Medieval Literature as I was preparing for my oral comprehensive exams for my Master’s degree.
I love that description of all of us proclaimed by Allen McIntosh that we are walking, talking, living breathing miracles, born in the Image of God, and bound for the Promised Land."
Now that Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress (however narrowly), they will probably approve a new round of federal borrowing to bail out state and local governments with shaky finances. In other words, Washington will punish North Carolina and other prudently governed states by saddling us with the cost of other states’ mistakes.
The wife of one of my former students wrote these words recently:
“I am not one to usually post things like this BUT having to sit here this morning and comfort my girl as I watch tears roll down her cheeks over virtual schooling is NOT okay… her exact words: ‘I just want to be back in school mommy, how long is this going to last?’
It's time to "Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative'" and hopefully we are headed in that direction. I will briefly comment on some recent news on the political front, and then I want to recall the words from some beautiful old hymns about things that REALLY matter.
