Triad Today

Ever since the 2020 presidential sweepstakes began, Democratic candidates have been on a continuous apology tour. Kirsten Gillibrand has apologized for once being a conservative and voting with the NRA. Elizabeth Warren has apologized for lying about being a Native American. Amy Klobuchar has apologized for verbally abusing her staff, throwing everything at them from notebooks to tantrums. Bernie Sanders has apologized for turning a blind eye to campaign workers being sexually harassed. Beto O’Rourke has apologized for making statements that smack of misogynism. Tulsi Gabbard has apologized for supporting homophobic policies while serving in the Hawaii legislature. And now, Uncle Joe Biden, a long-time senator and two-term vice president, has had to apologize for being a space invader.

Biden’s troubles began earlier this month when former Nevada legislator Lucy Flores claimed that Joe smelled her hair and kissed the back of her head while waiting to accompany her on stage at a 2014 rally, in which she was campaigning to be the state’s lieutenant governor. Flores’ five-year delay in feeling “uncomfortable” spawned a rash of similar #MeToo complaints from other women who now say that Joe put his hands on their shoulders, or touched their arm, or pressed his nose against theirs.

Some pundits speculate that Flores is motivated by politics given the timing of her announcement, and considering that, should Biden become a candidate, his chief competition would be Bernie Sanders, a man for whom Flores worked in 2016. But video is worth a lot more than speculation, so I reviewed footage of the 2014 rally, and discovered that right after Flores and Biden emerged from the alleged hair-sniffing incident, Lucy grabbed Joe’s right hand with her left hand, and thrust them up in the air together, as if she was a boxer declaring victory in the ring. She was smiling broadly during the hand clasp. Clearly she invaded Joe’s personal hand space, but Joe didn’t complain. No reasonable person would. And yet, five years later, Joe Biden is having to explain and apologize for being Joe Biden.

Last week, iconic women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem told the Associated Press, “I think women are more than smart enough to know that Joe Biden is who he is, and hugs everybody.” Steinem is correct. Joe hugs, kisses, and touches men and women alike. He is a touchy-feely guy who is now having to re-think his way of communicating. But while Joe is re-learning 21^st century etiquette (Nancy Pelosi advised him just to shake hands from now on), Steinem’s comment should also serve as a warning to women who are taking the #MeToo movement in the wrong direction. In an era when these same women complain of too much vitriol in Washington, their scolding of Joe Biden is ironic, for he is one of the few politicians who always exudes civility.

Certainly, there are valid reasons not to support Joe Biden for president, including his thumbs-up on a crime bill that filled our prisons with first-time drug users and a disproportionate number of black men. He also failed to give Anita Hill a fair hearing when she bravely accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. On the flip side, Joe has been a stalwart supporter of women’s rights, he single-handedly forced Barack Obama into endorsing same-sex marriage, and he has a straight-shooter appeal that could derail Trump in the Rust Belt and Midwest. Given those assets and a wealth of government experience, it would be a shame if hair-kissing and arm-touching forced Biden to exit the presidential race before he even enters it. If that happens, then the #MeToo movement might be responsible for handing Donald Trump the keys to the Oval Office for another four years, and that’s a personal space we don’t need him in.

 
 

As a child actor starring in The Rifleman, Johnny Crawford had to memorize lines at a grueling pace. As an adult, he had to memorize lyrics to the songs he sang while conducting his own orchestra. Today at age 73, Johnny’s memory skills have been significantly diminished by Alzheimer’s, and the care he receives is expensive. That’s why his friend and fellow child star Paul Petersen (Jeff on The Donna Reed Show), along with members of Petersen’s support organization, “A Minor Consideration”, started a GoFundMe campaign to lessen the financial burden on Johnny and his wife Charlotte.

I first met Johnny at the 2014 Western Film Festival and have kept in touch ever since. He and Paul, however, have been friends since 1955 when they were both cast by Walt Disney to be in the original group of Mouseketeers. I spoke with Paul last week about Johnny’s condition, and about the fundraising effort.

 

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Jim: When did you first know that Johnny had Alzheimer’s?

Paul: Last Summer, my wife and I, Tony Dow, Johnny and others were at the Hollywood Museum to honor Annette (Funicello), and we noticed that something was amiss with Johnny. He seemed to be a little confused, but we covered for him because that’s what you do for friends. Later when Charlotte had to put him in a facility, we knew what it was and how severe it was.

Jim: When did you start the GoFundMe campaign?

Paul: Well we had to get approval from my board of directors, and most importantly we had to get permission from Charlotte because it would be a public affair. She was grateful for the help, and frankly kind of surprised because Johnny had always been the one helping other people, and now, here was the whole bunch of former kid stars taking care of one of their own. So we started the campaign formally about five weeks ago, and it just exploded right out of the gate because people know who Johnny is. He’s like everybody’s brother because we had all watched him grow up on The Rifleman..

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In recent years, GoFundMe pages have come to the rescue for people in special circumstances. Last Fall, for example, following complications from knee surgery, Dawn Wells, star of Gilligan’s Island, was faced with staggering medical bills. Paul and his gang of former child stars contributed to that fund, which raised over $200,000.

 

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Paul: It’s rare, when you try to help someone, that all of the monies end up going to the person who needs it. GoFundMe did right by Dawn.

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And while fundraising efforts like those for Johnny and Dawn offer financial assistance, that’s not the main focus of “A Minor Consideration”, a group that Paul and his wife Rana formed in 1991 to advocate for the rights of child actors, and offer them guidance and support as they transition into adulthood.

 

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Paul: In too many instances the parents take the money (that kids make).

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In fact, in 50% of all the troubles when it comes to high-profile kids, whether it’s sports or music, or the film business, the parents are at fault. They have not prepared the children and that’s a shame. In other cases, kids are cheated by managers and agents. In the other half of problems, chalk it up to kids who make bad decisions.

Paul knows something about the pitfalls of fame at an early age, and not long after his successful run on The Donna Reed Show, an award-winning former child star took the time to offer him support.

 

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Paul: Mickey Rooney showed up at my front door, barged into my front room, took over my couch, and said, “Paul, you’ve got to get out of town, get your education, and find something else to do because they won’t let you work for 25 years.” And I said, “What the heck are you talking about, Mick? Why are you saying that?” And he said, “Because Paul, it happened to me.” Mickey paid it forward to me, and I have paid it forward by having that same kind of conversation with other prominent kids.

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Paul’s pal Johnny Crawford has paid it forward over the years, too, and now, as fans, we can repay Johnny for the great joy he has given us over the years. To make a donation to the Johnny Crawford Alzheimer’s Fund, visit their page at www.gofundme.com. To learn more about A Minor Consideration, visit www.AMinorConsideration.org.

 
 

North Carolina’s gerrymandered congressional boundaries are, to say the least, confusing. For example, if you stand in the middle of NC A&T University’s campus, you’ll have one foot in the 6^th district, and the other foot in the 13^th district. And while the courts and our state General Assembly may alter those boundaries by next year, and while some residents of those districts may disagree with the politics of their respective representative, the upside is that Mark Walker and Ted Budd, both Republicans, are two of the most honest, congenial, and hard-working politicians I have ever known. High praise indeed from this old liberal Independent who often disagrees with them on public policy initiatives, many of which we discussed last week when both men stopped by the studio to tape a special edition of Triad Today, which will air this Saturday at 7:30am on abc45, and Sunday at 11am on MY48. An audio edition will air on WSJS radio, Saturday at 8:30am. During the half-hour program, we covered a wide range of topics, ranging from hate speech to immigration. What follows are some highlights from our conversation.

 

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Jim: When Republican congressman Steve King made racist remarks, you guys drafted a resolution condemning him, and even stripped him of his committee assignments. But when Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar made anti-Semitic remarks, her name was nowhere to be found on a resolution. Is that why the two of you voted against the final resolution?

Ted: It was nearly unanimous when Republicans spoke against the words of Steve King, but when it came to Omar, the Democrats came up missing. They didn’t deal with the committee assignments, they didn’t deal with the actual hate speech which she had repeated multiple times.

Mark: I was in the room when we made the decision to remove Steve King from his committees. We expected that the Democrats would offer the same decorum.

Jim: Speaking of resolutions, why not draft one that admonishes President Trump for his divisive rhetoric, which the Southern Poverty Law Center says is responsible for the historic rise in hate groups, and which the New Zealand shooter said inspired him to kill 50 Muslims?

Mark: I have no problem calling out hate and standing up for injustice anytime it happens, but I will push back a little on the Southern Poverty Law Center. Though they did great work in the beginning and should be commended for it, they list people like Ben Carson and the Family Research Council as hate groups, and I think the SPLC needs to be more responsible.

Jim: Nearly every mass shooting over the past 20 years has involved assault-style weapons and large capacity ammo clips. Do you support a ban on those weapons and clips?

Ted: Absolutely not. We have to deal with those who have terrorist intent, and those who have criminal intent. You have to deal with the people and not the device.

Mark: I’m willing to take a second look at anything that comes across our desk, but Republicans stand strong for background checks. Also, last session we worked on the “Fix/Nix” legislation which deals with the national criminal data base, to make sure there were no loopholes or gaps.

Jim: I am not a fan of President Trump, but he’s right when he says we have a border crisis. In February alone over 75,000 illegal immigrants crossed our southern border, and that number is expected to grow to one million by year’s end.

Ted: This has been a problem that is very bi-partisan. Go back to 2006, 2011, and 2013. $50 billion dollars was appropriated, and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were behind the “Secure Fences Act”. Now, all of a sudden when Trump is in office, they’re absolutely against him. It’s become hyper-politicized, and we need to realize this is a national security issue.

Mark: I’ve looked at these numbers, and there’s been a 572% increase in illegal immigration since the last administration, and now it’s a humanitarian issue because we’re seeing immigrant children being abused. Even Doctors Without Borders will tell you that one out of three of these young girls are being assaulted, and one out of six young men.

Jim: How are things different now that you’re no longer in the majority?

Mark: It’s a little different place, but you know what? It’s a privilege and an honor to serve the people of North Carolina, and we’re still learning. I’m happy to have the opportunity, and we hope to do the very best job we can.

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A noose was found hanging at a Boeing factory in North Charleston. A New York City youth was arrested for drawing Nazi swastikas on the school playground. A White Nationalist Coast Guardsman was arrested just before he was able to carry out a mass terrorist attack, and another White Nationalist murdered 49 Islamic worshippers inside a New Zealand mosque. All this, and we’re not even three months into 2019. And, if a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center is any indication, the next nine months could be just as bad.

Last month the SPLC issued its annual “Year in Hate and Extremism” report, in which the number of hate groups in the United States (now estimated at 1,020) is said to be at a 20-year high. Heidi Beirich, director of the civil rights organization, blames the sharp rise on divisive, hate-filled rhetoric and policies from Donald Trump. In a statement released to the media, Beirich said, “The numbers tell a striking story – that this president is not simply a polarizing figure, but a radicalizing one.”

But where does polarizing end and radicalizing begin? On the campaign trail Trump suggested that NRA members with guns could take care of Hillary. He also referred to Mexicans as murderers and rapists. Later, as president, he sought to ban all Muslims from entering the United States, and told his supporters that “Islam hates us.” And, just two days before the New Zealand massacre, Trump told Breitbart News that liberals who disagree with his political agenda better watch out. Said Trump, “I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of Bikers for Trump. I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough until they [liberals] go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”

Let’s be clear. Donald Trump has never told anyone to draw swastikas or hang nooses, nor has he ordered anyone to go out and massacre a church full of innocent people. On the other hand, if Beirich’s conclusion is accurate, then the President bears some responsibility when unstable individuals heed his words, and then act upon them. For example, in his nearly 80-page manifesto, Brenton Tarrant, the man charged with the New Zealand massacre, cited Trump’s rhetoric as an inspiration for his attack on Muslims. Still, after news of the attack reached Mr. Trump, he denied that White Nationalism is a rising threat. “I think it’s a small group of people who have very serious problems,” said the President. First, White Nationalists are not a small group of people, and second, if you think they have problems, then why throw fuel on the fire with hateful tweets and speeches? Why not allocate government resources to prevent and combat the growing threat of terrorism by White Nationalists? Why defend some of the Nazis at Charlottesville as “fine people?” The answers to those questions may lead us to conclude that Trump is a racist, but more probably he is just afraid of losing his mostly white base.

In the musical South Pacific, there is a song whose lyrics include a possible explanation for how someone comes to identify as a White Nationalist.

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear.

You’ve got to be taught from year to year.

It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear.

You’ve got to be carefully taught.

The implication is that children learn to hate from their parents, but as those children grow older, they can also learn to hate from the words of influential public figures.

During the 2008 presidential campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain, private citizen Trump kept claiming that Obama was born in Kenya. Later, a woman who had bought into Trump’s racist rhetoric stood up at a McCain town hall, and said, “I can’t trust Obama. […] He’s an Arab.” McCain could have nodded or smiled in tacit agreement. He could have worked the crowd up into a frenzied chant of “Send him back! Send him back!” Instead, McCain took the microphone from the woman and said, “No ma’am. He’s a decent family man and citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with.”

That’s how a real leader is supposed to sound. That’s how a real leader uses words to stand up to his base in order to defuse and denounce hate speech. That’s how a real leader inspires us to do our best, instead of inspiring others to do their worst.

 
 

A couple of weeks ago, YESWeekly editor Katie Murawski told me that this issue was going to salute Wonder Women of the Triad, and asked if I would participate.

Immediately my thoughts turned to the first two Wonder Women I ever met, both from the Triad. The first was Dr. Mary Griffith. In the 1940s and ’50s, Dr. Griffith supervised medical students, and was one of the first women named to the Wake Forest Baptist Hospital medical school faculty. She also brought me into the world, with help, of course, from the very next Wonder Woman I met—my Mom, Charlotte. One of them spanked me once, and the other one spanked me as needed. Mom had been a stand-out basketball player at the old Gray High School in Winston-Salem, and had a talent for creative writing. After marrying my Dad, she became a tireless volunteer for the Cancer Society, a long-time proof reader for Hunter Publishing, and, most importantly, the world’s greatest Mom. Unfortunately, Mom and Dr. Griffith are no longer with us, and I knew that Katie wanted me to write about women who are still actively working wonders in the Triad, so I decided to recognize just a few of the many thousands of ladies who have appeared on my Triad Today television program.

DD Adams has served on Winston-Salem City Council since 2009. She led the effort to raise pay for police, firefighters, and city employees, and in 2018, DD ran for Congress against incumbent Virginia Foxx. She lost that fight, but continues to fight for the rights of all people.

Karen Barnes is executive director of Venture Café, a venue for people to network with and be inspired by fellow innovators and entrepreneurs. In less than two years, VC’s Thursday night gatherings have attracted over 12,000 participants.

Avery Crump is the newly elected District Attorney for Guilford County. She is also the first woman D.A. and first person of color to hold that position. A former judge, Avery told me she gave up her black robes for a chance to prosecute criminals and perhaps help shape new laws in the process.

Eunice Dudley is co-founder of Dudley Beauty Products and Beauty School System. She and her husband Joe Dudley, Sr. went from selling Fuller brush products to creating a global presence in the beauty products industry. Eunice is dedicated to community service and sits on a number of local boards.

Ursula Dudley Oglesby is the daughter of Joe and Eunice Dudley, and she became President of Dudley Beauty Corp. in 2008. Ursula began working for her parents at age 7, went on to earn a law degree, then returned to the family business. Under her leadership, the company has expanded from 57 to over 300 products.

Margaret Elliott has been at the helm of Crisis Control Ministries for 20 years and during that time has met the emergency needs of countless thousands of individuals and families, while helping them to become self sufficient.

Sylvia Sprinkle Hamlin is executive director of both the N.C. Black Repertory Company, and the biennial National Black Theatre Festival. In 2000 she also became the first woman to lead the Forsyth County Public Library system.

Dr. Tina Merhoff, founder of Tina S. Merhoff & Associates Pediatric Dentistry, doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk. A dedicated advocate for children’s health, Tina holds an annual “Make a Kid Smile” event where she and her staff offer free dental care and procedures to children whose family couldn’t otherwise afford it.

Kim Record is the Athletic Director at UNCG who, last year alone, presided over five conference championships. She is responsible for overseeing 17 athletic programs, and in 2017, 169 of her student athletes made the Southern Conference honor roll.

Kimberly Roberts is Vice President of marketing and brand management for Crumley Roberts attorneys at law. Her passion is empowering women of all ages and educating families about child safety. Through the Roberts Center and her own Red Affect Boutique, Kim is able to fund and award college scholarships for students who are beginning their life journey, and women who are re-launching theirs.

Of course, no list of Wonder Women would be complete without a nod to my beautiful wife Pam Cook, who, in addition to running her own public relations firm, manages to find time to assist me with Triad Today, and keep me grounded. Not a day goes by that she doesn’t look at me and say, “Jim, there’s something really wrong with you.” Spoken like a true Wonder Woman.

 
 

In 1993, Ross Perot warned that within ten years, NAFTA would suck jobs out of America and spur a wave of plant closings. Turns out he was right. The Economic Policy Institute reported that, as of 2007, NAFTA had cost one million Americans their jobs. As if that wasn’t bad enough, greedy big banks and insurance companies were busy creating an historic home loan crisis that led to a near depression in 2008. The combination and convergence of those two disasters had a devastating effect on cities whose economy depended upon textile, automotive, and furniture plants. Danville, Virginia was particularly hard hit, with the closure of Dan River Mill, loss of tobacco jobs, and a decline in rail traffic. Now, Danville has an opportunity to bounce back big time.

Last year, Danville (along with economically depressed Bristol) commissioned a study by the Chmura Group which concluded that a casino resort would create nearly 7,000 new jobs, and net over $20 million dollars in annual tax revenues for the city, whose vice mayor, Lee Vogler told me, “Unprecedented jobs and revenues would be created. It’s the biggest economic development opportunity in my lifetime.” Buoyed by that study, Danville City Council planned to hold a local referendum this fall in which voters could greenlight a casino project. Unfortunately, lawmakers in Richmond slammed on the brakes, ruling that the General Assembly must first conduct an impact study before it can give permission to hold a referendum. That means it will be sometime in 2020 before a vote is taken.

Given the findings of the Chmura Group, a company who the General Assembly itself has relied upon in the past, I asked Vogler why another study was warranted. “I’m not sure about the logic of that,” he said. “Perhaps they want to know if there would be any negative impact on statewide economic development, but our local economic development office has found no negative impact. In fact, 40 other states have test cases, so there’s plenty of data available. I didn’t see any reason to delay.

Vogler admits that state legislators need time to meet and decide how casinos would be regulated and by who, but those kinds of procedural matters need not keep local voters from approving a casino project in principal. I smelled a rat, and asked the Vice Mayor why any elected official in their right mind would oppose or delay something that could benefit so many people in depressed cities.

“Some legislators don’t want casinos in their part of the state, like Northern Virginia which is flush with cash. They don’t understand the needs of areas like Danville and Bristol, and what the casino would mean to us. Right now we have $150 million dollars in capital improvement needs for our schools, and the tax revenues from a casino would help us build and improve schools.”

But an insensitivity to the economic needs of Danville isn’t the only reason that some legislators put up road blocks for a casino.

“There has been some opposition from people who say gambling is against their religious beliefs, which I respect. But when I ask them if they have ever bought a lottery ticket, or a church raffle ticket, they say, ‘Yes’. I tell them that’s gambling. They respond by saying, ‘Yes, but lottery sales and raffle proceeds go for a good cause,’ and I tell them, so will casino revenues.”

Vogler also suspects that some folks think a casino will bring organized crime to Danville, but there is no evidence to support that myth. Moreover, the American Gaming Association polled law enforcement officers who actually work around casinos, and they reported that crime has not increased on their beat.

For now, Vogler and his counterparts in Bristol and Portsmouth hope to educate state lawmakers about the benefits of casinos, and move the timeline up for a local vote. “I want to get it in front of our citizens. If this goes to a referendum, it will pass. I think the casino is coming sooner or later, said Vogler.”

Casinos almost always make money, thus the phrase, “Never bet against the house”. But the odds have been stacked against the folks of Danville for a long time, and a casino may be the only way for their luck to change.

 
 

Victoria Woodhull tried to do it. So did Belva Lockwood and many others. In fact, 34 women have run for president, representing a total of 17 different political parties, and while all of them tried, none were able to break the glass ceiling that has kept women out of the Oval Office for the past 230 years. All that may change next year. For one thing, the #MeToo movement has given a new momentum to the six women who have already declared for the 2020 race. Of course, there have been other movements in other eras, and this is not the first time we’ve had multiple women vie for the top spot in the same election cycle. It happened in 1972 when Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug, and three other women threw their hats in the ring. Five more women ran in 1992, and in 1996, eleven women tried to unseat Bill Clinton. And so, while the ladies who have announced this year are not breaking new ground, they may have the best chance to finally break that pesky old glass ceiling once and for all.

Thus far, six Democratic women have announced their intention to win their party’s nomination and send Donald Trump back to his tower. They are Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand, California senator Kamala Harris, Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, and Marianne Williamson, who is a spiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey.

Tulsi Gabbard, 37, is a political anomaly. For one thing, she’s a Democrat who supported Bernie Sanders in 2016. And, when it became clear that the DNC was stacking the deck in Hillary’s favor, she resigned her post as Vice Chair. She’s also a nouveau liberal who now believes in equal rights, but she’s had to apologize for her earlier anti-gay rhetoric and associations while serving in the Hawaii State House. After pulling a tour of duty in Iraq and Kuwait, she was elected to Congress, where she has since modified her more conservative positions.

Kirsten Gillibrand, 52, is the ultimate flip-flopper. While representing a mostly rural district in Congress, she was a conservative Democrat who was easy on guns (she once received an “A” rating from the NRA) and tough on immigration. But once she was appointed to fill out Hillary’s term in the Senate, Gillibrand recanted her old positions, including calling for the abolishment of ICE. She also positioned herself as a faux leader of the #MeToo movement by calling for fellow Democratic senator Al Franken to resign for having engaged in a couple of minor, non-sexual groping incidents. Her grandstanding probably cost the Dems control of the Senate.

Kamala Harris, 54, is a former prosecutor and California attorney general who was elected to the Senate in 2016. Last year she gained national attention for grilling Judge Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Despite supporting “Medicare for All” and other liberal policies, she has come under fire from some Democrats for her conservative prosecutorial record. As the child of a mixed-race marriage, Harris would become not only the nation’s first woman president, but also the first of both Asian- and African-American heritage.

Amy Klobuchar, 58, is a former prosecutor, and now a moderate Democratic senator from Minnesota who believes she can capture the rust-belt vote that eluded Hillary in 2016. She wants to overturn Citizens United, and supports legislation that would automatically register young people to vote when they turn 18. Klobuchar has one of the highest rates of staff turnover in the Senate, a fact that has given credence to recent charges of her being verbally abusive to her employees.

Elizabeth Warren, 69, came to national prominence as an advocate for consumers who had been screwed over by banks and insurance companies during the last recession. President Obama put her considerable expertise to work by naming Warren as special adviser to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Her political positions are closely aligned with those of Bernie Sanders, including “Medicare for All” and free college education. Recently she has had to apologize for falsely claiming to be a Native American when applying to the Bar Association.

Marianne Williamson, 66, is a Los Angeles-based author, teacher, and spiritual adviser to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry, and Kim Kardashian. She wants African Americans to receive $100 billion dollars in reparations for slavery, with monies going for economic renewal. One of her slogans is, “We need to wage peace”. Another is, “Love should be our bottom line”.

There are those who believe that some of these women are only trying to raise their profile in hopes of being the VP pick if Joe Biden gets in the race. That may be true, but If he doesn’t run, my money is on Ms. Harris to get the nomination, and give Trump a run for his money. I can hear the glass starting to break already.

 
 

If you’re not from Virginia, or haven’t lived in the Old Dominion for any significant amount of time, then you’re probably wondering how a Democrat governor of that state could have once donned blackface and not understand the ramifications at the time, or even decades later. I’ll offer some possible explanations in a moment, but first, a bit of background.

In 1984, a 25-year-old Dr. Ralph Northam submitted a number of photos to be included on his personal page in the Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook. Among those photos was a man in blackface and another man standing beside him wearing a KKK hood and robe. Earlier this month, following Governor Northam’s support for a bill that would ease restrictions on late-term abortions, the conservative website, BigLeague.com released the 34-year-old racist photo, and suddenly Virginia’s chief executive found himself embroiled in the worst political scandal since Chuck Robb confessed to receiving an extra-marital massage.

Soon after the Washington Post confirmed the authenticity of BigLeague.com’s find, Northam issued a written apology for appearing in the Jim Crow photo. But the next day, the Governor called a press conference to say that he wasn’t in the photo, and didn’t know how it even got on his yearbook page. No one was buying Ralph’s reversal, especially when it was revealed that his nickname at VMI was “coon man”. But things got worse when he admitted to having donned blackface while imitating Michael Jackson for a 1984 dance competition.

Following that racially tone-deaf press conference, elected officials from both parties were calling for Northam to resign, including Virginia’s white, Democrat Attorney General Mark Herring. But several days later, in a clear case of the pot calling the kettle black, Herring admitted that he too had once appeared in blackface while pretending to be a rap star. All this comes on the heels of Congressman Steve King’s defense of white nationalism, the violence in Charlottesville, and rallies to tear down Confederate monuments, including at least three of which were located here in North Carolina.

So why the burgeoning blackface epidemic among Virginia politicians? Perhaps William Elwood’s statement to WHSV-TV says it best. Elwood, who was the page designer for Northam’s medical school yearbook, said that the 1984 edition featured a number of similarly racist photos, but, “nobody thought of that as a significant problem back then.”

Back “THEN?”

We’re talking about 1984, not 1884. We’re talking about a time when the Rev. Jesse Jackson was making his first pzresidential run, and Doug Wilder was starting on his path to become Virginia’s first African-American to be elected lieutenant governor, then governor.

Northam and Herring are not stupid people, and they probably aren’t racists.

But they are, at the very least, insensitive to the feelings of people who don’t look like them. It’s an insensitivity that is borne out of centuries of racial prejudice, beginning with white slave traders in Jamestown 400 years ago, and continuing onto the Civil War, during which time, Richmond served as the capital of the Confederacy. This systematic insensitivity was memorialized in the early 20^th century when a series of statues of Confederate generals was erected along Monument Avenue, then dredged up in 1996 when whites fought against putting a statue of Arthur Ashe on that same street. Back then Wayne Byrd, president of the Heritage Preservation Association said the Ashe statue didn’t belong on Monument Avenue because it is “hallowed ground.”

To be fair, Northam and Herring are also products of our society’s historically mixed messages when it comes to race. After all, both white and black performers appeared in blackface during 19^th-century minstrel shows. In the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s, a number of A-list, non-bigoted film stars like Fred Astaire and Judy Garland sang and danced in blackface. In 1976, Richard Pryor applied shoe polish to Gene Wilder in Silver Streak, and in 1993 Whoopi Goldberg, herself a social activist, had no problem when her boyfriend Ted Danson dressed in blackface during a Friar’s Roast in her honor. Spike Lee did the deed in 2000’s Bamboozled, and in 2008, Robert Downey, Jr. drew high praise from black celebrities when he donned blackface in the film Tropic Thunder. But mixed messages or not, Virginia’s governor and attorney general shouldn’t have been unprepared for the visceral reaction to their decades-old indiscretions, especially after media darling Megyn Kelley was fired last year by NBC for having appeared in blackface. What’s changed in Virginia and throughout the nation is that we are now in an era of zero tolerance when it comes to racist behavior by public figures.

It remains to be seen whether Northam and Herring will resign, or if other elected officials will start coming forward with their racially-charged past indiscretions. Time will tell. Meanwhile, if you come across a white guy who admits to having worn blackface, feel free to call him the “N” word: “Nitwit”.

 
 

I suppose at one time or another we’ve all fantasized about winning the lottery or finding a magical genie in a bottle. I’ve never won the lottery, but last week I definitely met a magical “Jeannie”. Over the years Barbara Eden has materialized in a number of venues: in film, on stage, at USO shows, and in Vegas, but she is best known for playing the title character in NBC’s I Dream of Jeannie. On March 7, she will pop into town and team with another TV icon, Hal Linden, in a production of A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters at the High Point Theatre.

I spoke with Barbara last week and was struck by her youthful enthusiasm, her grand sense of humor, and her total lack of ego. The fact is, the lady just doesn’t realize how beloved she really is. During our time together we talked about her first acting job (she played a princess in a grammar school radio show), her encounter with a creepy studio executive, her relation to one of our Founding Fathers, and of course, her thoughts on the continuing world wide popularity of I Dream of Jeannie But we began our conversation with her take on Love Letters, a play that features two aging characters who have had a thing for each other since childhood. Over time, the pair wrote letters to each other, and now they are reading those missives aloud.


 

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JL: This isn’t your first time around performing Love Letters. What makes it such an attractive play to you as an actor?

Eden: First of all it’s a wonderful arc for an actor, and it’s beautifully written.

JL: And there’s no song and dance number, no special effects.

Eden: No, you don’t have any help. [laughs] Just the lights.

JL: What does Hal bring to the play?

Eden: Well, he’s wonderfully talented. And he understands the role he’s playing. He understands the character, from boy to young man, to older man, and he makes it quite clear in his acting how these two people are attracted to each other, and yet are so different.

JL: Do you write a lot of letters?

Eden: No. [laughs] Although I was forced to when I was younger. My mom would always make me write thank-you notes.

JL: I understand that you are a descendant of another letter writer, the great Benjamin Franklin.

Eden: Well that’s what my grandfather always said. Grandpa was born around Philadelphia and his name was Charles Benjamin Franklin. He told me that his aunt and uncle had real memorabilia from Benjamin Franklin. I would love to have proof of that.

JL: It’s no surprise to any of your male fans that you once won a beauty contest, but when you were first starting out in show business, I heard that some idiot studio executive at Warner Brothers told you that you were not “Hollywood pretty.” How did that make you feel?

Eden: I was crushed. [laughs] I was just crushed. My uncle had driven me there because I didn’t know how to drive, and he was furious. He was going to go right back in and give the man what-for. [laughs] The executive showed me a picture of his daughter and said, “Here’s what we want, big tits.” And I had never heard that word used.

JL: Who was this guy, the original Harvey Weinstein?

Eden: Just about. I was appalled at the whole thing as I stood there holding my white gloves. [laughs] Anyway I went home, cried a lot, then I realized, I thought, ”My goodness, they can’t just have all pretty people on screen. They have to have human beings, and I can be a character actor, nothing wrong with that. So I didn’t quit.

JL: We’re all glad you didn’t.

Eden: But the coup-de-gras came a year later. I was at Warner Brothers to work with an acting coach named Cutler. I was not under contract, but he was coaching me for free. I was walking to his class one day, and I heard someone shout, “Hey you!” I ignored it. Then he shouted, “Hey you in the yellow pants.” I turned around and it was the same man I had met with before, and my heart went down to my toes. He said, “We’re going to test you.” Can you imagine? The same man. So that really validated me. [laughs]

JL: My editor will kill me if I don’t ask you at least one question about “Jeannie”. What has made that show remain so popular for so long?

Eden: I think our group of actors were wonderful and we all worked together so well, but the basic story is so classic. It’s timeless, and strangely enough you can relate to it because she’s a fish out of water. Also it was funny. It was like giving the audience a little respite from all the worries they have. I also find it interesting that I still get mail from France, Italy, and from Russia and China, which is shocking to me.

JL: Maybe we should make you a diplomat.

Eden: I know.

JL: In your autobiography, Jeannie Out of the Bottle you wrote that you are not a star, you’re an actress. You can’t possibly think that you’re not a star?

Eden: Stars are people who win Oscars, you know. [laughs] They’re stars, I’m not. I’m just lucky because my part in I Dream of Jeannie hit home with people, and they like it, but it was my job, and that’s how I thought of it.

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If you’d like to see Barbara do her job in person, you can purchase tickets to Love Letters by calling the High Point Theatre box office at 336 887-3001, or visit HighPointTheatre.com.

 
 

There aren’t too many people on the planet who have won an EMMY, a Tony, and a Golden Globe, but then, there aren’t too many people like Hal Linden. By age 15 he was playing clarinet for a major symphony orchestra. In his twenties he sang and acted his way onto the Broadway stage. And, as middle age approached, he gained worldwide fame as TV’s Barney Miller. Now at age 87, Linden’s considerable talents are still in demand, and on March 7, he will put them on display at the High Point Theatre when he teams with “I Dream of Jeannie” star Barbara Eden in a production of A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters. I caught up with Hal last week, and we talked about the play, his co-star, television versus live theatre, and much more.

 

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Jim: Ever since Love Letters was introduced in 1989, a lot of famous actors have performed the play, including Charlton Heston and Elizabeth Taylor. What makes it such an attractive property for actors?

Hal: It’s an amazing property. The only action in the play are people reading letters aloud, and yet through the use of these personal letters between two people who have had a relationship since elementary school, you get to know how those two characters feel about each other. I suspect that’s the draw for actors because you can perform it just by reading a letter in the moment, about the moment.

Jim: Given that format, let me ask you about chemistry between you and Barbara. On television and in film, chemistry between the actors is crucial, but on stage, there’s no camera in your face. So is chemistry still important in a play like Love Letters?

Hal: It’s extremely important, but not as important as the chemistry between my character and the character that Barbara creates. That’s the person who gets to me. What she says as a character, and my memory of her when we were kids together, THAT’s what stokes the humanity and the feelings in the play.

Jim: And makes it believable.

Hal: Yes. I’ve played Love Letters with different people, and each person gives you a different dynamic when they read it. Barbara’s humanity is what’s out there. Her character’s past, her history is what I’m listening to. In other words, the past that she puts out there as opposed to any other actress. So it’s an acting challenge based on who you’re sitting next to.

Jim: Let’s digress for a moment. Do you think letter writing is a lost art these days?

Hal: Definitely. [laughs] When was the last time you wrote a letter?

Jim: I think it was to the IRS. [both laugh]

Hal: I mean, your mail box is full of bills and advertisements. Nobody writes letters. You get maybe a Christmas card or birthday card. It’s a dead art.

Jim: So you don’t write letters?

Hal: No, I was never much of a letter writer, except there was a period in my life, in my early marriage, when I had to spend extended times on the road with shows, pre-Broadway, or something that took me away for six or eight weeks. Then I wrote letters because we couldn’t afford telephone calls. [laughs]

Jim: Let’s talk about accessibility to the arts. We’re fortunate to have you and Barbara come to the Triad and perform on stage, but you can’t go everywhere. Plus, most people can’t afford to travel to New York or L.A. to see a major production. Would you like to see cable networks broadcast Broadway plays so that those productions are more accessible to more people?

Hal: I would much rather they go to their local community theatre and see the same plays. I don’t care if it’s professional or not. I would much rather have people see a live play, with performers live on stage. I think the live quality is important because that forces the audience to become part of the dynamic. I sat in the third row to see James Earl Jones play The Great White Hope, and one moment, he was furious and whipped his head around, and a bead of sweat came out and landed on my forehead. That was a long time ago, but it is as vivid to me today as it was when it happened. Those experiences of actually seeing living people BEING living people, is one you can only approximate on the screen.

Jim: I can’t let you go without asking one Barney Miller question. Why has that show held up so well?

Hal: It was a brilliantly written show. It didn’t settle for cheap jokes. Instead it was all about the frailties and humor of human behavior. We were also ahead of our time in presenting topics that are still relevant today.

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Tickets to Love Letters are still available by calling the High Point Theatre box office at (336) 887-3001, or visiting HighPointTheatre.com. You’ll get to see two great actors at work, and, if you’re lucky, maybe a bead of sweat will hit you in the forehead.

 
 

Kathy Hines is fighting an uphill battle. A resident of southwest Winston-Salem, Ms. Hines is trying to get the city/county Utilities Division to stop stinking up her life. For some time now, Hines has been complaining about sewer odors emanating from a wastewater treatment plant near her home. Just how bad is the odor? “How would you want to live in a place that smells like a dump?” she told Winston-Salem Journal reporter Fran Daniel. And the smell isn’t just an outside problem. It also permeates the inside of houses in Hines’ Griffith Park neighborhood, as well as throughout the Millhaven Landing subdivision.

Courtney Driver, director of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Utilities Division, says that the smelly gases pose no health risk. But try telling that to Ms. Hines. “My eyes burn and my nostrils burn, so I’m not sure why they think it’s not bothersome to anyone health-wise.” Hines has presented petitions to Driver’s department, but, thus far, the daily odors haven’t abated. What’s worse, it’s not an isolated problem.

On Saturday morning, April 3, 2017, my wife and I awoke to an overpowering sewer smell throughout our Kernersville home. I tried to isolate the source of the smell, but it was everywhere. I walked out onto the street to investigate further, but I was not alone. Residents from throughout the neighborhood had come outside to see if there had been a break in a natural gas line. Calls went out to fire and police departments, but none of the responders could explain the smell. I called Dave Plyler, Chairman of the County Commissioners, and Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines to see what could be done about the situation. Several hours later I received an email from one of Driver’s staff who told me they had been having trouble with odor scrubbers at a nearby pumping station, and that the equipment was scheduled to be examined by the manufacturer later in the week.

Meanwhile I learned that an identical incident had occurred on a Sunday morning two months earlier. On that day, businesses along South Main Street in Kernersville reported what they believed to be was a gas leak, and parishioners at a nearby Triad church were wondering if they should evacuate. Eventually it was discovered that the smell had come from the same pumping station that caused the problem in my neighborhood. So much for maintaining faulty scrubbers. In both cases, there were reports of people experiencing burning eyes, sore throats, and trouble breathing.

The odor problem seemed to abate after the April incident, but then on Sunday morning, September 23, 2018, it was back in full force. I called and emailed a complaint to Driver at 11:30am. I finally received a response from Utilities staffer Frank Crump at 8:32pm that night. It took nine hours for him to respond to a complaint about an odor that was having an effect on the health of residents.

In our back-and-forth correspondences, Crump first tried to blame the odor on weather and “changes in humidity”. Then he pledged to investigate the scrubbers to see if they were acting up again. The next day, Crump still had no explanation, nor a plan for preventing another smell attack. In my email exchanges with Mr. Crump I had also asked if any city/county personnel worked at the pumping station on weekends. “Unfortunately we do not have staff working during weekends or holidays at these facilities,” he replied. I asked what residents are supposed to do when an incident occurs. He advised that we should go on the internet and search for the municipal link to register a complaint. Of course not everyone has access to the internet, but it wouldn’t matter if they did, because my calls and emails resulted in a nine-hour delay in response time, and with no solution.

It has now been two years since the South Main street incident, and city/county officials are still sitting on their hands, offering the same explanations:

• The weather and humidity might be to blame;
• We have an equipment problem that is being investigated;
• The release of hydrogensulfates is at an acceptable level; and,
• The smelly gases pose no health concerns.

But never fear because Courtney Driver has a solution. She wants Ms. Hines and the rest of us to tour the wastewater treatment plants so that we can better appreciate the intricacies of sewer smells. Ms. Driver’s tone-deaf generosity, like the odors she presides over, simply takes my breath away.