Triad Today

The COVID-19 virus has taught us some painfully valuable lessons. For starters, it showed us how ill-prepared we were to deal with a pandemic, and it underscored disparities in our healthcare system. The pandemic has also given our elected officials an opportunity to either shine or shrivel under pressure. For example, it is widely accepted that Donald Trump lost last year’s election, in part, due to his inept handling of the virus. But while the White House fell short in identifying a national strategy to protect us, it was the state houses that people blamed for restricting our movements and closing our local economy. Even those who supported their governor’s attempts to stop the spread of COVID could be heard complaining about closures and lay-offs. Then there were those who took their complaints to extremes. In Michigan, a radical mob stormed the state capitol in protest of Governor Gretchen Whitmire’s handling of the pandemic, and a gang of conspirators even plotted to kidnap her. In California, New York, and other states, governors were called out for inconsistencies in determining which types of businesses would be closed. Now, after nearly a year of shutdowns, public complaints are turning into political action.

As of last week, no less than eight governors were the subjects of a recall campaign. They include: Kate Brown of Oregon; Doug Ducey of Arizona; Mike Dunleavy of Alaska; John Bell Edwards of Louisiana; Phil Murphy of New Jersey; Gavin Newsome of California; Jared Polis of Colorado; and Gretchen Whitmire of Michigan. If petitioners gather the required number of signatures, they can force a recall election, but doing so is a long shot. In fact, only four recall attempts have ever made it to the ballot, one of which was in California back in 2003. That’s when Democrat Gray Davis was recalled, and Republican movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor. One reason that recalls are rare is that only 20 states allow them. They are: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Reasons for recalling a governor vary from state to state. In Alaska, a recall can proceed if the chief executive has, among other things, neglected his or her duties. In Georgia, misappropriating funds will do the trick. A Montana governor can be recalled for lack of mental fitness, while in Rhode Island, being indicted for a felony is sufficient grounds for removal. In Virginia, a conviction for a drug-related misdemeanor qualifies. Of course, in this COVID era that we inhabit, terms of a recall can be applied and interpreted in a number of ways. Again, though, that’s only in states where it’s legal even to attempt a recall. For example, an increasing number of New Yorkers want their Governor removed for allegedly causing the deaths of thousands of seniors living in nursing homes. However, in the Empire State, a recall is not allowed. Nor is it here in North Carolina where Democrat Roy Cooper has been accused of abusing his emergency powers during the pandemic. That brings me to the need for enacting reforms and redefining roles.

Former Lt. Governor Dan Forest took Cooper to court last year for failing to consult with the Council of State when making decisions to close schools and businesses. Cooper prevailed, but he shouldn’t have. No governor should have unlimited emergency powers. That’s why, at the very least, our General Assembly needs to redefine the terms of executive powers during an emergency. For example, a governor’s ability to act unilaterally during a pandemic should be limited to a finite term, such as 90 days (Cooper has been a virtual lone wolf since last April). Second, state lawmakers should hold a special election for voters to decide if we want the power to recall a governor. If these reforms succeed, we’ll have the pandemic to thank for teaching us that people deserve more power and governors deserve less.
 
 

For over 20 years now, Richard Burr has managed to enrich himself through unethical means, mislead the American people about a deadly virus, oppose letting Americans buy cheaper drugs from Canada, take money from industries he was supposed to regulate (then push for tax breaks for them), and vote against the creation of a job corps that would employ veterans. And after all that, the only rebuke he’s ever received was from the State Republican Party, who, earlier this month, censured Burr for voting to convict Donald Trump of behavior which Burr had enabled for four years. This would be funny if it weren’t so serious.

Burr is being hailed by Democrats and the media alike for “voting his conscience,” but if that’s the case, then it may be the only time the Senator has ever done so. Let’s begin with Burr’s vote against the passage of The Stock Act. In 2012, members of the United States Senate overwhelmingly decided to take action to make it illegal for a member of their body to profit financially from insider information derived from Senate briefings. Only two senators voted against The Stock Act, and Richard Burr was one of them. Burr’s vote should tell you something about his priorities and his proclivity for making money the easy way. According to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, when he entered Congress in 1994, Burr’s net worth was under $190,000. By 2018, opensecrets.org reports that his net worth rose to over $7.4 million. That’s an increase of 3,600% at a time when, according to Ballotpedia, the average American’s income rose by less than 1%.

Of course, that 7.4 million dollars could now be approaching $9 million after Burr’s controversial stock trades of 2020, and that brings me to the second example of the Senator’s so-called conscience. On January 24th of last year, Dr. Anthony Fauci briefed Burr and other senators about the seriousness of the spreading COVID-19 virus. According to Reuters, three days later, Burr as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, began receiving daily COVID updates. Then, coincidentally Burr began to liquidate his stocks, including all of those in the hotel and hospitality industry. On three separate days, January 31, February 4, and February 13, he made a total of 33 stock trades worth an estimated 1.7 million dollars. But what makes these suspicious transactions even more odious is that several days prior to the stock dump, Burr penned an op-ed for FOX News in which he assured the public that America was “better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats.” And you’d think that Burr knew what he was talking about. After all, he wrote the Federal Pandemic All-Hazards Preparedness Act in 2006. But Burr knew what he’d written in the op-ed was at best misleading and, at worst, a lie. Still, he had to protect the value of his stocks before he could unload them. After doing so, Burr came clean when speaking to the Tar Heel Circle, a private group of high rollers. Having just profited from the 33 trades, Burr told the group that COVID-19 “is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything we have seen in recent history.”

When news of Burr’s stock trades was made public, Democrats and Republicans alike started calling for him to resign. Some said that if Burr had been straight with the American people right after his first briefing, he could have helped to save lives. Even FOX’s Tucker Carlson excoriated Burr, saying, “There is no greater moral crime than betraying your country in a time of crisis, and that appears to be what happened.” The FBI investigated Burr’s stock transactions to see if he had traded on insider information. However, Burr claimed he only used public information to make the trades, and the FBI bought his story.

The point is that Burr could have been censured long ago, not just for his stock trades or for taking money from industries he was supposed to be regulating, but the Republican Party chose to look the other way. Now, with plenty of money in the bank and nothing to lose, Burr is retiring from the Senate, so he took no risk in voting to convict Trump of inciting an insurrection. On the flip side, if Burr were running for re-election, you can bet your portfolio that he would have voted to acquit the former president. Thus, Burr didn’t cast a vote of conscience. He cast a vote of circumstance. That’s why I have two problems with the GOP censure. It was issued for the wrong reason, and it came 20 years too late.
 
 

During his storied career, Hal Holbrook portrayed, among other things, a president, a senator, a secretary of state, and a “Deep Throat” whistle-blower, all of whom spoke eloquently about life, politics, and the human condition.

But it was Hal himself who often articulated views that were befitting of the characters he played, such as this gem from a private conversation we had in 2013:

“What’s more important in a democracy, that somebody should become a billionaire at the expense of others, or that people who run things should make sure that the people of the United States have work, and can feed their families?”

It’s unfortunate that Hal never was a senator or a president in real life, but he left us with a body of work that entertained and inspired us, and we are better for having experienced it. Hal Holbrook passed away on January 23. He was 95.

Harold R. Holbrook may have lived a storybook life as an adult, but his childhood was almost Dickensian. Abandoned by his parents when he was only two years old, little Hal was shuffled off to live with his grandparents for a while, then sent away to military school. From there he made his way to Dennison College where he studied acting, and met his first wife, Ruby. The couple developed a two-person stage show in their senior year, prompting their drama teacher, Ed Wright, to help them make an important career connection. Hal recalled the story to me:

“Ed ran into this man from the Southern School Assemblies company who was looking for actors to perform educational plays. Ed told the guy that Ruby and I did scenes from Shakespeare, Hamlet, and Mark Twain.”

That led to a job touring a variety of venues.

 

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Hal: The first time we performed a Twain number was in the suicide ward of the Chillicothe insane asylum, and the next time we did it was for the Kiwanis in Newark, Ohio.

Jim: What was the difference between the Kiwanis and the asylum patients?

Hal: Well, mainly we didn’t know which ones were nuts.”

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After the tour was over, the Holbrooks only had $200 dollars in the bank and a baby on the way, so Hal went looking for work. That’s when an agent suggested that Holbrook start doing a one-man show of Twain. Hal took his solo act on the road and, buoyed by an album and a spot on Ed Sullivan’s show, he signed with CBS to televise a live performance of Mark Twain Tonight in 1967. He would continue to portray the famous humorist for another fifty years.

Along the way, Holbrook starred in such films as The Fog, The Firm, All the President’s Men, Star Chamber, and Midway, and in countless television shows, including The West Wing, Evening Shade, North & South (as Lincoln), and the ground-breaking 1972 TV movie, That Certain Summer, about two gay men. Hal also headlined a one-season run of The Senator, for NBC. His many awards included four Emmys and a Tony.    

I first met Hal through his third wife, actress Dixie Carter (Designing Women) who had participated in a panel I convened for the Television Academy in 2000. During that event, titled, “Women in Drama”, Dixie recounted stories of how she loved to read as a child. Naturally, then, I assumed that Hal had read all of Mark Twain’s books when he was growing up. I was wrong, as Hal explained.

“I didn’t know anything about Mark Twain at all. He was a total stranger to me. But I do remember reading “The Rover Boys” books. You could call them corny, but they must have implanted something in me that gave me the kind of drive and work ethic that I began to develop through my life because I had no family, and I had to develop stuff on my own. I think reading those books gave me a sense of purpose.”

Hal and I met up in 2013 when he performed Mark Twain Tonight at the Carolina Theatre in Greensboro. Dixie had passed away three years earlier, and the tour was starting to tire him out. Hoping to lift his spirits, I showed up backstage with an early edition of his favorite “Rover Boys” adventure. His long-time friend and assistant Joyce Cohen would later tell me how touched Hal was to receive the book.  

I once asked Hal if he ever changed his Twain material from one performance to the next, and he said that he did. Just prior to visiting Greensboro, for example, he had played in Nashville, where he allowed Twain to ponder the “hypocrisy going on in religious circles.” But hands-down, my favorite piece from Mark Twain Tonight is about the time that the author arrived in San Francisco with a really bad cold. Said Hal as Twain, “A lady at the hotel advised me to drink a quart of whiskey every 24 hours, and another friend recommended exactly the same thing. That makes a half a gallon.”

Hal is survived by his children Victoria, David, and Eve, and by millions of fans around the globe who have enjoyed his stage and screen performances over the years. Rest in peace, Rover Boy.

 
 

I had only known Cloris Leachman for less than thirty minutes when she asked me to take off my clothes. More on that in a moment, but suffice to say it was one of those things that sort of sticks in your head, much like everything Cloris did, and she did a lot. Cloris passed away on January 26. She was 94.

Cloris Leachman was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1926, and grew up during the Great Depression. She once told me that she got her sense of humor from her mother. Said Cloris, “She was quite magical and a darling woman, and she told funny stories.”

Cloris attended Northwestern on a drama scholarship, where she appeared in plays alongside her pal Charlotte Rae. And while she had a natural talent for acting, it was her natural beauty that opened some early doors. At age 20, Cloris was crowned Miss Chicago, then competed in the Miss America pageant, after which she immediately boarded a train for New York City, where she landed a job as an extra in a film. That lucky break launched her into television, where she racked up a number of cameos in live dramas and anthology series, until landing a starring role in Lassie. Feeling that the part did little to challenge her as an actress, Cloris left the show after just one season, and stayed busy in episodic television, on such programs as The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

After playing a prostitute in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, she was cast by Peter Bogdanovich to play a neglected housewife in The Last Picture Show. While filming one day, Cloris had a particularly emotional scene to play in which she had to get angry and throw a coffee pot at Timothy Bottoms. She told me of her shock at only being allowed to do one take.

 

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We ran through the scene, and Peter said “CUT”, and I said, “Wait a minute, aren’t we going to do it again?”

He said, “No, you’re going to get an Academy Award for that.”

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And so she did.

Cloris followed that film with her signature television role as Phyllis Lindstrom, first on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and then in her own series, Phyllis. Leachman won two of her nine EMMYs while appearing on Mary’s series. I spoke with her co-star on “MTM”, seven-time EMMY winner Ed Asner: “She was a sophisticated rebel who broke all the rules, and it was a fun ride being with her while she was breaking them. Cloris was also a real hottie.”

Another member of the MTM gang was Gavin MacLeod, who later went on to star in The Love Boat. Gavin recalled his affection and respect for Cloris: “I first saw her when she toured with Kate Hepburn, and I was enamored by her. Later, we ended up shooting an episode of The Road West, in which I had to pretend to slap her. She thought I was really trying to hit her, so after our first rehearsal for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, we all sat down together for dinner, and Cloris said, ‘I’m not going to sit next to Gavin, because he tried to hit me once.’ Despite that, we became friends, and on days when her car wasn’t working, I would drive her home.”

From 1986 -1988, Cloris took over her friend Charlotte Rae’s job as the house mother on The Facts of Life, a show that was written by Academy Award-winning writer/director Paul Haggis (Crash). He shared his thoughts with me about the experience: “It was my first attempt at being a head writer, and I had always been a fan of hers. Cloris was such a versatile actor, and always found the truth in the characters she portrayed. She was an absolute marvel to watch, as she took my ridiculous dialogue and highly questionable plots, and somehow grounded everything in reality, simply by her talent and belief. I feel blessed to have worked with her.”

Not surprisingly, Cloris’ talents continued to be in high demand, both in film and on television almost up until the time of her passing.

I first met Cloris in May of 2008 when she participated in “A Mother’s Day Salute to TV Moms”, which I produced and moderated for the Television Academy. Needless to say, Cloris took over the event, and kept everyone in stitches. She talked about the time she posed naked for a health magazine, and then suggested that I disrobe right there on stage in front of 800 people. After things settled down, I asked the panel (which included Marion Ross) if there was a TV Mom they most wanted to be like:

 

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Cloris: I wanted Marion Ross’ job.

Jim: You mean you liked Marion in Happy Days?

Cloris: No, I just wanted the job.

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Marion, still laughing, then mentioned a film in which Cloris had played a female trucker with huge breasts. Said Marion to Cloris, “You had the lowest bust I ever saw!”

Cloris: Yeah, I put a pack of cigarettes up in my sleeve, and I had been taught to drive this big semi. Anyway, I had this great big chest, and a woman with a baby came up to me on the set, and I said, “Get that baby away from me because he looks hungry.”

Dressing up like a trucker was no problem for Cloris. Neither was donning witch-like make-up to play a sadistic nurse, or Frankenstein’s Frau. She was a beauty queen who only cared about how the performance looked. Perhaps Gavin MacLeod said it best when he told me, “As an actress, Cloris could do anything.” And I’ll sure miss seeing her do it.
 
 

I have lived through the last 17 presidential inaugurations, including one I attended in person and another that I was assigned to cover. In each case, I was struck by the majesty and awe of the occasion, and that includes our most recent inauguration, despite its scaled-down nature.

My family’s history with presidential inaugurals dates back to January 1953, when my parents were invited to attend General Dwight Eisenhower’s first swearing-in. Mom and Dad were life-long Republicans, and Dad had even been one of Ike’s campaign directors in North Carolina. I still have the engraved invitations that my Dad received to attend the ceremony and formal ball that year. Publicly, Eisenhower made history by taking the oath on two different Bibles, one that had been used by George Washington, and the other that Ike had kept from his days at West Point.  Behind the scenes, there was tension between the Eisenhowers and the Trumans. Ike agreed to ride with Harry to the Capitol but refused to come in for refreshments beforehand. Still, President Truman observed tradition and attended his successor’s big event.  Back then, outgoing presidents didn’t dare break protocol. Not so today.

Sixteen years later, on Monday, January 20, 1969, I accompanied my parents to Richard Nixon’s first inauguration. It was 35 degrees outside, and the rain wasn’t the only thing freezing that day.  After about a half-hour, I could no longer feel my feet. Those were the days before TV weather forecasters talked about wind chill, but it felt more like 10 degrees than 35. On that day, Nixon gave the nation hope that he would end the Vietnam War, and he made good on that promise. In doing so, he probably saved me from coming home in a body bag. During his six years in office, Nixon would do many other good things and one very bad one. I first met Richard Nixon when I was just ten years old, at which time I told him that I had been his campaign manager for a mock election held at my grade school four years before, in 1960. I scored a win for Nixon at Brunson Elementary, but JFK won the national election. Upon hearing of my service to his campaign, Mr. Nixon touched his finger to my face and told me that one day I would become president. It was the first time that a president ever lied to me, and, as it turns out, it wasn’t the last.

Perhaps the busiest news day in inaugural history was on Tuesday, January 20, 1981. As Ronald Reagan prepared to take his oath of office, 52 American hostages, who had been kidnapped a year earlier, had just been released by Ayatollah Khomeini and were on a flight bound for Washington D.C. On that day, CBS was short-staffed, so the network hired me to stake out the State Department and cover any announcements that might be forthcoming. I had covered candidate Reagan during the campaign, but this was different. It was Inauguration Day, and history was unfolding on two fronts simultaneously.  As it turns out, the hostages landed safely, and my journalistic services were barely needed. However, I did get to see a lot of celebrities who paraded in and out of the State Department to attend a pre-inaugural party. Among them were Jimmy Stewart and Ginger Rogers, the latter of whom I had met when I was 12 years old. On that occasion, I had told Ms. Rogers that she had great legs. On the day of Reagan’s inauguration, I reminded her who I was, and believe it or not, she remembered the incident and laughed loudly during our brief reunion. That evening, I watched fireworks from my hotel room and reflected upon what had transpired on that historic day.

I suppose I’ve watched every inaugural ceremony since then, but only from a distance. Still, I felt a personal connection to the recent Biden/Harris festivities, almost as if I had worked on their campaign or was a friend of the family. The reason is that, like millions of Americans who witnessed the Capitol insurrection, which occurred just two weeks earlier, I was heavily invested in wanting those thugs and the rest of the world to see that our institutions and traditions were still in place. That’s why, on that day, Lady Gaga’s rendition of our national anthem held a special meaning for me. On that day, Joe Biden’s speech gave me hope that we could defeat two pandemics at a time—one medical, one social. And on that day, I was reassured that America would have many more inaugurations in her future. To paraphrase our new president, we endured, and we prevailed.
 
 

Donald Trump stirred up a bunch of angry white people, asked them to storm the Capitol building, and disrupt a Constitutional proceeding. It was a sickening site to see as these Trump sycophants breached a secure area, yelling and creating chaos. No, I’m not describing the siege on January 6. I’m referring to the mob scene from October of 2019, when scores of Republican Congressmen pushed their way into a closed hearing, in which testimony was being taken in the first impeachment of their maniac president. On that day, unhinged Florida representative Matt Gaetz, who had just recently been reprimanded for intimidating a witness, led the charge to disrupt the deposition of Laura Cooper, a Pentagon official who was sharing her knowledge of Trump’s quid pro quo call to the Ukrainian president.

Gaetz and others had lied to the Trump base about the hearing, saying Republicans had been denied access to the secured room. Not true. In fact, Ms. Cooper was being questioned by GOP and Democratic lawmakers alike, and any Republican Congressman not involved in the questioning could have observed the proceedings. But Gaetz and company weren’t going to let facts get in the way of a good story, so they characterized the hearing as a “Soviet-style process”, in which they were denied access.

Trump and his enablers lied about one thing or another for the past four years, always for the purpose of inciting their base, while also fleecing that base of hundreds of millions of dollars in donations.

In that regard, the white-collar mob scene of 2019 was much like the white-trash mob scene of 2021, except absent the violence. The 2019 breech should have informed us of how easily Trump can snap his fingers and command others to do his bidding. It should have also warned us that a violent siege was not only possible, but probable. In an ironic twist of fate, some of those same congressmen, who once stormed a House hearing room, got a taste of their own medicine when they had to flee from a mob who stormed the Capitol. For the Gaetz clan (including Cruz and Hawley), it was a case of cowards running from the cowards they had helped to incite.

In the aftermath of January 6, much has been written about how our republic has suffered here at home, and how our image abroad has been forever damaged. But over the past few days my thoughts have turned to the children of America, and what they must have thought about the images of our Capitol under siege. Dave Anderson, a clinical psychologist with the Child Mind Institute, told the Washington Post, “We need to assume our kids are internalizing their emotions after learning of the events at the Capitol…it’s affecting them, and making them think about ‘What does this mean about the world we live in?’”

Of course, each parent must decide how best to deal with their child’s internalizing, but most experts agree that it’s always better to talk frankly about a disturbing event. Given that the President incited the recent Capitol riot, author Kate Messner suggests discussing stories from history and reminding kids “what a good leader looks like”.

Speaking with CNN.com, Ken Yeager, director of the Stress, Trauma, and Resilience Program at the Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, said, “There are many teachable moments from this [riot]…and how much you tell the child depends on their age and maturity level.”

Meanwhile, after interviewing a number of educators, the AP’s Michael Melia and Carolyn Thompson wrote that most high school teachers focused their lessons on the importance of the Capitol riot, but also “pushed back against the creeping sense that violence is the inevitable end to political division”.

Perhaps, though, Ms. Messner offered the most succinct civics lesson of the week, telling the Post’s Amy Joyce, “We’re raising kids, but we’re also raising citizens and voters and leaders. They need to be well prepared and informed, and capable of critical thinking.”

In other words, we need to teach our children to know the difference between fact and fiction, and right from wrong. Sadly, those simple lessons were never taught to the Capitol insurgents, nor to many of our elected officials.
 
 

Four years ago, Hillary Clinton made a statement that backfired on her. While enjoying a comfortable lead in the polls, she showed disdain for Trump supporters by referring to them as “deplorables”. Not surprisingly, that slur served to motivate millions of folks to show up on Election Day and vote against her. At the time, many of us thought it was unfair for Hillary to stereotype all of Trump’s followers in that way. But that was then, and this is now. Following last week’s insurrection and assault on the national Capitol, we must now conclude that Hillary had it right all along.

The Trump followers who stormed, then vandalized the Capitol and caused the death of at least five people, are, at the very least, deplorable. More than that, they are murderers. They weren’t protestors, they were rioters. They weren’t activists, they were lawbreakers. They weren’t patriots, they were insurrectionists. And guess who made them that way? Guess who told them to march on the Capitol? Guess who told them that their country had been stolen from them, and that they should help him overturn the election? None other than their hero, Donald J. Trump, leader of their cult. Like Pavlov who made his animals adhere to his will by having them salivate over food, Trump controlled his deplorables by having them salivate over lies. The more lies he told them about a “stolen” election, the more his followers salivated. Every time he tweeted, they responded. If he said march and disrupt, they obeyed. Then, after Joe Biden admonished the President to call off his dogs, Trump tweeted a message for them to stand down and go home, and they did. But in that tweet, Trump also wrote, “We love you. You’re very special.” This is the same man who praised the Charlottesville Nazis as “some very fine people.”

In the days ahead, pundits and prosecutors will be consumed with assigning blame for the Capitol riot, and there will be plenty of it to go around. Trump is to blame for what happened last week because he is the one who fomented the insurrection. The deplorables are also to blame for blindly following their leader. Others share the blame too, like Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley. Those two clowns kept Trump’s base fired up by continuing to lie about voter fraud, thus giving the mob reason to believe that they could help overturn the election by disrupting a joint session of Congress. Finally, EVERYONE who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 is partly to blame for what transpired last week. They knew of his boorish, erratic and mean-spirited behavior from the get-go, but excused those dangerous qualities as harmless eccentricities. It shouldn’t have taken a violent siege to make them realize that they had backed an egocentric maniac.

So what now? First thing’s first, the FBI should continue to identify as many of the Capitol trespassers as possible, and have them arrested for committing a federal felony. These under-educated, white trash cowards deserve no mercy when caught, and they deserve to spend the rest of their lives in prison. Next, we should punish the man who incited the insurrection. It is rumored that some White House officials are saying the President is insane, and are considering removing him by activating the 25^th Amendment. Long-time presidential adviser David Gergen suggests Congress should issue a formal censure of Trump. Others say Trump should be impeached so that if convicted, he would be disqualified from running for president again. But my favorite punishment comes from social media giants Twitter and Facebook, in which the latter blocked Trump’s account indefinitely, and the former did so permanently. Other social media platforms are considering similar bans. That means going forward, the outgoing president will have no readily accessible platform for lying to and mobilizing his deplorables, and they, in turn, will have no one in the White House to fuel and encourage their Negrophobia, homophobia, Islamophobia, Hispanophobia, xenophobia, and epistemophobia. January 20^th can’t come soon enough.

Postscript: Once calm was finally restored at the Capitol last Wednesday night, lawmakers worked into the next morning to officially count electoral college votes, and declare Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election. Trump then pledged to leave office peacefully, but still claimed that he won, and added that his was, “the greatest first term in presidential history.” Deplorable. Simply deplorable.
 
 

In the annals of pop culture there have been three great debates: Coke or Pepsi?, Ford or Chevy?, and Ginger or Mary Ann? The answers to the first two questions may never be settled, but the third is a no-brainer. The overwhelming majority of men and women everywhere prefer girl-next-door Mary Ann Summers, a fictional character from the ‘60s comedy series, Gilligan’s Island, played expertly by Dawn Wells. Dawn was a stage and screen actress, a teacher, and author of What Would Mary Ann Do? Dawn Wells passed away on December 30 from complications of COVID. She was 82.

Dawn Wells was born October 18, 1938 in Reno, Nevada. Her father Joe was part owner in a Las Vegas hotel, and her mother Evelyn was a homemaker, and a bit overprotective of her daughter. “My mother knew where I was every single second. My junior year in college, I’m driving from Reno to Seattle with my boyfriend, and the highway patrol pulls us over. I rolled down the window and the policeman said, ‘Is there a Dawn Wells in the car?’ ‘Yes’, I said. ‘Call your mother,’ he said. [laughs]”.

Dawn won the Miss Nevada contest in 1959, competed in the Miss America pageant, then caught the acting bug in college. Soon afterward, she found steady work on television, often guest starring in Westerns like Cheyenne, Maverick, Wagon Train, and many others. She was a natural fit for Westerns because her great-great-grandfather was a stagecoach driver, and Dawn had ridden horses since she was a child. “I remember one of the first western episodes I did, they asked me, ‘Can you drive a buckboard?’. I hadn’t driven a buckboard in my life, but I said ‘Of course I can!’ My horse got away and they had to come get me (laughs).”

Dawn portrayed Mary Ann from 1964 until 1967, but thanks to syndication, Gilligan’s Island has been playing somewhere in the world ever since. As a result, Dawn became one of the most recognizable actresses on the planet, and was in constant demand at nostalgia conventions and on talk shows.

I first met Dawn in 2013 when she attended the Western Film Festival in Winston-Salem. We re-connected five years later when she performed at the High Point Theatre to promote her book.

 

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JL: Why did you write the book in the first place?

DW: Because we don’t have a Mary Ann today, and I think it’s very difficult being a parent, or a best friend. There’s no guidelines. My generation was pretty black-and-white. There were no drugs, no sex before marriage. Now with all of the temptations and all of the permissiveness everywhere, it’s much harder to raise a child. But there still needs to be a guideline behind it, and I think that’s Mary Ann.

JL: Mary Ann herself had a pretty good upbringing because she never engaged in intimate relations with the Professor on Gilligan’s Island.

DW: Back then there was never any romance. They couldn’t even show my navel. We’ve come a long way. If we were doing the show today, we’d all be living in the same hut (laughs)”

JL: Your touring show is for the entire family, especially for fans of Gilligan’s Island, but what do you want the audience to take away from your presentation?

DW: When you’re in the audience, I want you to know that I’m relating to you. I’m not talking to you, I’m one of you, and that’s what I feel Mary Ann is. And what do I want you to take away from it? Don’t lose the values you’ve been raised with.

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That’s pretty good advice from America’s girl next door. Rest in peace, Dawn.

 
 

Looking back on 2020, no one would disagree that COVID-19 was the biggest story of the year, but for much of the first quarter, it wasn’t a story at all. We began the year with President Trump being impeached for alleged abuse of power. Not surprisingly, the Republican-controlled Senate voted not to convict. Trump was emboldened by the verdict and looking to ride a strong economy into a second term. Ten months later, he was denied that prize by Joe Biden, then spent his lame-duck period trying to prove the election was rigged.

Speaking of politics, North Carolina was in the national spotlight as Democrat Cal Cunningham mounted a challenge to incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis in what would turn out to be the most expensive Senate race in history. Coming down to the wire, Cal had the race all but won when his campaign was derailed by a sex scandal. Meanwhile, Congressional candidates were scrambling to figure out which newly gerrymandered district they might run in. GOP Rep. Mark Walker decided not to run for another term because his 6th district had been redrawn to favor a Democrat. That left the Triad with an open seat, and five Democratic challengers, including Greensboro attorney Kathy Manning, and former Guilford Commissioner Bruce Davis.

Over on the Republican side, local party chair Lee Haywood and data analyst Laura Picardo vied for the nomination. Manning would go on to trounce Haywood in the general election, and Walker would announce his intention to run for retiring Richard Burr’s Senate seat in 2022. Burr made headlines himself early on in 2020, as the FBI launched an investigation into his dubious stock trades based on alleged insider information that he had heard about a new disease called COVID-19. Ironically, as the pandemic grew, Burr’s scandal was all but forgotten. By all rights, the two stories should forever be linked because Burr’s silent greed and failure to share what he knew about the virus probably cost lives. So did Donald Trump’s endless delay in taking COVID seriously.

Meanwhile, other lives were being lost, not just by the virus, but by out-of-control cops and violent white supremacists. George Floyd’s death and the shooting of Breonna Taylor became rallying cries for much-needed reforms in police and sheriff’s departments around the country. In that regard, at least those tragedies served to awaken a majority of Americans to the inequities of criminal justice. Unfortunately, though, racism is ingrained in other Americans, like the three Georgia rednecks who chased down and murdered a black man just for jogging through their neighborhood. That kind of hate can’t be fixed systematically, but it might be less emboldened by new leadership in the White House.

Speaking of race, 2020 marked a year full of debate over Confederate statues and over buildings that were named after slave-owners. One by one, many of those monuments were taken down, and objectionable names were removed from buildings. Confederate flags even disappeared from NASCAR, thanks to Richard Petty and his young driver, Bubba Wallace. Perhaps now, we can begin to erect long overdue monuments to African-American leaders, such as Larry Womble, a pioneering former state lawmaker who led the fight for compensating victims of forced sterilization. Larry passed away this year, but the legacy of his work survives.

Had my friend Larry lived a little longer, he would have been angered (but not surprised) by voter suppression efforts here in North Carolina and throughout the nation. Those included efforts by Greensboro’s own Louis DeJoy, who, as Trump’s postmaster general, removed mailboxes and high-speed sorting machines, in addition to cutting back on employee hours, all of which could have resulted in mail-in ballots arriving too late to be counted. When these and other actions were widely reported, DeJoy denied trying to suppress votes and quickly began to restore human and technical resources in local post offices.

All of this comes full circle with a record number of people voting by mail because they didn’t want to expose themselves to COVID. In fact, avoiding in-person gatherings became a way of life for most Americans. Governor Cooper closed schools, put thousands of small businesses out of business, and threw tens of thousands of folks out of a job. Parents had to become at-home teachers, and students had to forfeit social interaction in favor of online learning.

As this column goes to press, over 300,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. The good news is that vaccines are being shipped to our area, with a promise that we might really turn the corner on this deadly virus by late spring. In the meantime, Gov. Cooper has put new curfews and restrictions in place in an effort to minimize the spread of COVID until such time as vaccines are available to all who want them.

2020 left us with two unresolved pandemics, one clinical and one racial. It left us with a bad taste in our mouths about politics in general, and sycophant politicians in particular. And, it left us a divided nation with deep wounds that need to be healed. It also left us with hope that things can get better in 2021.
 
 

As we do our best to celebrate this holiday season, let‘s not forget that there are people beyond our immediate circle of family and friends who are suffering, and could benefit from our love and generosity.

Party-going restrictions of COVID-19 notwithstanding, this holiday season is still the perfect time to remind folks not to drink and drive. Unfortunately, it’s a reminder that needs to be uttered in every season. That’s because, according to the Centers for Disease Control, intoxicated drivers get behind the wheel no less than 112 million times per year, and cause the deaths of 30 people each day. The CDC also reports that one person dies every 48 minutes due to an alcohol-related crash, while the National Highway Safety Administration says 16,000 people die each year in such crashes. No doubt, making it illegal for kids under 21 to buy booze has helped to keep these statistics from growing at a faster rate. However, the number of young people who drink and abuse spirits is still a major problem, and that brings me to the recent hare-brained scheme by New Mexico State University.

Last month New Mexico State became the first university in America to launch its own brand of booze. Pistol Pete’s Six Shooter Rye Whiskey, as it is called, is bottled by Dry Point Distillers in Las Cruces, who is also a partner in the venture. But hold on. Pistol Pete Rye is not NMSU’s only foray into spirit making. The University began offering golden ale in 2017, and this past October, added wine to its roster of drinks. Speaking of which, the Associated Press reports that over twenty colleges now license their own brand of craft beer, while several others (including Wake Forest) have entered the wine market. The question is why? The answer, according to NMSU athletic director Mario Moccia, is simple: money.

“For us to be the first, I think it’s a source of pride…because in today’s day and age when the budgets are being reduced, it’s incumbent upon us to do things to generate our own revenue,” Moccia told the AP’s Susan Bryan.

Moccia justifies the new business by blaming pandemic-related cutbacks, but how does he justify saying that making whiskey is a source of pride? What’s next? Post secondary craft cigarettes? Hey, I get that a growing number of colleges have ties to the wine industry, but that’s usually because they are located in an area replete with local wineries, and can better offer courses to students who seek employment in that field. But licensing your own brand of hard liquor is something no university should be engaged in, especially given what’s going on today with binge drinking. In fact, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) published a report in which college presidents say binge drinking is their “most serious problem on campus.”

Together, CSPI and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism offer us a litany of statistics and consequences to ponder, among them:

• 7.2 million students are binge drinkers;
• 44% of students attending a 4-year college drink at binge levels;
• 600,000 college students receive unintentional injuries while under the influence of alcohol, and each year over 1,800 of them die from those injuries;
• Nearly 700,000 college-age students are assaulted by another student who has been drinking;
• Nearly 100,000 college students are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape;
• 30,000 college students require medical attention after binge drinking;
• About 25% of all college students have academic problems due to alcohol use, including missing class and poor grades; and,
• Each year, more than 150,000 students develop an alcohol-related health problem, including depression, anxiety, and suicide. The CDC concurs, adding high blood pressure, stroke, heart and liver disease, and cancer to the list.

Meanwhile, the CDC reports that more than 95,000 Americans die each year from excessive alcohol use, and that binge drinking specifically is most common among younger adults. Maybe I’m missing something here, but given these statistics, I just don’t get the whole “source of pride” thing that New Mexico State University officials espouse when describing their involvement in a whiskey-making venture. To my way of thinking, any college president who claims to oppose binge drinking while being involved with a distillery, is guilty of and is engaged in a dangerous hypocrisy. It’s akin to Melania Trump excoriating bullies while being married to one, only worse.

I dare say that every college in America now has a stated or implied zero-tolerance policy when it comes to things like sexual harassment and racism, and most have also taken a stand against drinking on campus. Therefore, licensing and selling your own brand of whiskey is, at best, inconsistent with those and other moral prohibitions, and is, at worst, being an enabler of deadly behavior.

 
 

As we do our best to celebrate this holiday season, let‘s not forget that there are people beyond our immediate circle of family and friends who are suffering, and could benefit from our love and generosity.

Over the past decade, I‘ve been able to showcase scores of community organizations on my Triad Today television show, and in the process, I‘ve learned that there are several ways we can help these agencies help others. The first is to donate goods. Second is to donate money. And, third is to donate our time. Of course, some nonprofit groups can benefit from all three types of giving. Here, in no particular order, are just a few organizations to which you might lend your support.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC: Even prior to the pandemic, the Piedmont Triad had one of the worst food insecurity problems in the nation, and that included the problem of childhood hunger. Now, with thousands more of our neighbors out of work, the problem has worsened. Meanwhile, at-risk students who had to learn from home much of the year, found themselves without the nutritional safety net that schools provided. To help alleviate the hunger problem, Second Harvest Food Bank has stepped up its efforts to distribute food to churches and nonprofit agencies that feed hungry people in an 18-county area. The Food Bank also partnered with a number of area companies to provide meals for kids. You can write a check directly to the food bank, or you can drop-off non-perishable food items at a number of locations in our area. For more information call 336-784-5770, or visit HungerNWNC.org.

Cancer Services, Inc.‘s stated mission is “to enhance quality of life for those living with cancer, and to provide the gift of life through education”. Their services include patient advocacy, medication and financial assistance, providing equipment and supplies, offering peer support groups, and much more. 90% of funds donated to Cancer Services, Inc. goes directly to providing client services. In addition to money, you can also donate used equipment and supplies. Call 336-760-9983, or visit CancerServicesOnline.org.

Greensboro Urban Ministry is on the front lines when it comes to providing emergency assistance. Greensboro Urban Ministry provides homeless families in Guilford County a safe, temporary environment. Volunteers are needed to prepare and serve meals, manage shelters, tutor children, and perform a variety of other duties. Monetary donations are also much appreciated. Call 336-271-5959, or visit GreensboroUrbanMinistry.org.

Mtn. Valley Hospice is a nonprofit agency that serves an 18-county area in North Carolina and Virginia, and provides personalized care for patients at the end of life, as well as comfort to families. Mountain Valley Hospice has six regional offices, and operates two hospice homes. They also specialize in care for terminally ill children and veterans, and offer grief support for kids and adults. To give money or inquire about volunteering, call 1-888-789-2922, or visit MtnValleyHospice.org.

The Petty Family Foundation: NASCAR legend Richard Petty and his family support a number of charitable organizations including Paralyzed Veterans of America and Victory Junction Camp, the latter of which provides an uplifting experience for children with severe disabilities and terminal illnesses. To make a donation or learn more, visit PettyFamilyFoundation.org.

Say YES to Education Guilford provides qualified students with college scholarships, and much more. Say YES to Education Guilford also provides students with support services that are designed to help them be successful in life. Their equity-based program begins in kindergarten and includes everything from tutoring to career counseling. Say YES relies in part upon donations from companies and individuals. To learn more about scholarships, or to make a donation, visit SayYesGuilford.org.

Carolina Donor Services and Red Cross … There can be no greater gift at this holiday season than the gift of life, and that‘s why you might consider donating blood, and signing a donor card. Either gesture requires only a few minutes of your time, and will almost certainly result in saving someone‘s life in the future. You can reach Carolina Donor Services at 1-800 200-2672, or at CarolinaDonorServices.org. You can call the Red Cross at 336-333-2111, or via the internet at RedCross.org.

Please remember that your donations of time, money, or goods to area community organizations is vitally important, not just now, but throughout the coming year. It‘s also a way for us to expand the circle of people we care about, and that‘s something worth celebrating in this season of giving.