Triad Today

The other day I spoke with my friend and pioneering legislator Larry Womble about the controversial Confederate statue that stands in front of the old Forsyth County courthouse on 4^th street. Larry, a life-long resident of Winston-Salem said, “I was never aware of what the statue represented. It wasn’t on my radar screen.” But today that statue is on everyone’s radar screen. Critics decry it as a symbol of racism and intimidation. Defenders say it’s merely a memorial to boys and men who died in the not-so Civil War. Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines says it’s a public nuisance, and Police Chief Catrina Thompson told me, “It’s a safety hazard.” That’s because the statue has already been vandalized more than once, and city officials fear more of the same. Even worse, they worry that protests could escalate into violence.

The statue was erected in 1905 and is owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Joines has given UDC until January 31^st to make plans to re-locate the statue, or else face legal action by the city. He has suggested moving the monument to Salem Cemetery. Thus far, UDC has balked at that suggestion. Meanwhile, Winston Courthouse, LLC, owners of the 4^th Street site since 2014, when the building was converted into apartments, also wants the statue removed.

Emotions are running high on both sides of the controversy, and local NAACP president, Rev. Alvin Carlisle didn’t help matters when he said, “The dead soldiers that [the statue] represents were racist traitors.” Those words, along with the city’s threat of a lawsuit, have only served to throw fuel onto the fire. Now, groups like Forsythe Rifles and Heirs to the Confederacy are vowing to stage protests and fight against removal of the statue.

This is a mess that began in earnest when white nationalists marched on Charlottesville to protest the removal of a monument to Robert E. Lee. The armed protestors drew praise from President Trump despite the fact that, during the protests, an innocent woman was killed by a crazed white supremacist motorist. That incident triggered anti-Confederate rallies around the country, including one in Chapel Hill where Silent Sam was torn down by a bunch of vandals. Now, the movement has made its way to the Triad.

A friend of mine recently wondered aloud why there were no local monuments to African Americans who fought and died in the Civil War. That’s a good question, and perhaps one day we’ll correct that oversight. In the meantime, for better or worse, the 4^th street statue needs to be re-located, and wherever it lands, it should be protected by a tall, wrought iron fence to protect against vandalism. Beyond that, white people need to stop glorifying the Confederacy, and black people need to understand that not all southerners are racist traitors. We all need to work together to fight against modern day evils, like racial profiling, voter suppression, corrupt politicians, environmental hazards, and budget-busting healthcare premiums. Those are the battles that should be on our collective radar screen.

 
 

In the two years since Donald Trump was elected, women across the country have staged some pretty impressive rallies to make their voices heard. They marched on Washington, they launched the #MeToo Movement, and this past November they elected a record number of their own gender to local, state, and federal offices. Mission accomplished, right? Not exactly. For example, last year, women’s groups spent a great deal of time shining a much-needed light on sexual harassment, and their protests netted results. Men in power who had sexually harassed or assaulted women, were identified, fired, fined, tried, convicted, and otherwise disgraced for their behavior, while the rest of us guys were schooled on what not to do or say to women, especially in the workplace. All that’s well and good, but meanwhile the most widespread abuse of women at work continues unabated… a systematic disparity in pay.

Late last year the Greensboro News & Record reported on a new study by the American Association of University Women which detailed the level of pay disparities in every state. Here in North Carolina, women fare a bit better than the national average, but they still only earn about 84 cents for every dollar a man makes for doing the same job. Even worse, that pay gap isn’t projected to close until the year 2060. This, despite a number of laws that have been enacted over the years which should have fixed the problem by now.

In 1963 President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act at a time when women were making 59 cents for every dollar a man earned. The problem is that, initially, the EPA only applied to women in blue collar jobs. In 1972, the Act was amended to cover women in white collar jobs as well. But progress was still slow, and in 2009, President Obama signed into law the Fair Pay Act, which hasn’t made a dent in the problem either. In 2015, I wrote a column about this very topic and at that time, women in North Carolina were making 83 cents to every dollar earned by men. Congratulations ladies, it’s nearly four years later, and you’ve closed the pay gap by a whole penny. So why aren’t we making more progress?

One reason pay disparity still exists is that none of the three Acts addressed the problem of how we calculate equal work. The original EPA was structured so that a woman with a grievance had to file a sex discrimination claim, and prove that she was making less money than a man who was doing the exact same work. But let’s say a man was asked to work overtime, and his female counterpart wasn’t. Their job descriptions may have been the same, yet she ended up making less money. It was a grievance she couldn’t win. On top of that, she may hold the same job as a man, but if he was reviewed by a male supervisor as having a higher level of productivity than the woman, then she was also out of luck.

The other reason that the gender pay gap still exists, is because most companies are still run by men. According to a 2015 report by ThinkProgress.org, there are only 48 female CEOs heading up the top 1,000 corporations. That means only 4.8% of the top jobs in America are held by women. And even when women head up a company, chances are their board is still dominated by men. I’m not saying that male CEOs only hire men, but, for the most part, a male executive isn’t going to be as sensitive to the problem of pay disparity as would a woman executive. Unless that dynamic changes, or the #MeToo Movement expands its mission to include salary harassment, or females take over Congress, then women in the workplace will have to endure another 41 years of “labor pains”.

 
 

With apologies to Charles Dickens, last month was the best of times and the worst of times for the town of Kernersville. Ten days before Christmas, East Forsyth High School brought home a State football championship, certainly the best of times. Then, only days later, a female teacher and a female volunteer at the high school were convicted of sexual misconduct with their male students, certainly the worst of times. The juxtaposition of these activities spins a tale of victors and victims, but identifying the former is much easier than identifying the latter.

In two unrelated cases, Rebecca Carol Swinson, a 39-year-old English teacher, and Jennifer Ann Pike, a 44-year-old school volunteer, were convicted of multiple crimes involving students. According to testimony, two 17-year-old male students pursued Ms. Swinson, then, after getting what they wanted, talked about their sexual encounters to people who then reported the incidents. Meanwhile, Ms. Pike admitted to texting a male student, saying, “If you want it, you have to come get it now.” The male student rushed over to Pike’s business apartment, had sex, then took a photo of his condom for a trophy. The student bragged to someone, and suddenly a call went out to CrimeStoppers about the incident.

Pike received a suspended sentence and is on probation for three and a half years. Swinson will serve 6 months in prison, and after her release she must register as a sex offender. Neither woman had a prior criminal record, which under the law, kept them from doing hard time. But Swinson will live in her own kind of prison forever, because being registered as a sex offender means that she will be tagged as some sort of pervert, and thought of as a child molester, which she is not.

Let’s be clear about something. It’s wrong for a teacher or adult volunteer to have sex with a student, even a high school student. Moreover, teachers who are convicted of having sex with their students should be fired, and never allowed to teach again. But it’s also wrong for the courts to treat consensual sex as a crime. In North Carolina the age of consent is 16, yet that law doesn’t apply when a teacher is involved. I’m all for holding teachers to a higher standard than the rest of us, but you can’t have one rule for teachers and one for everybody else. I’m sorry, but a teacher who has sex with a 17-year-old student is not the same as a teacher who has sex with a 14-year-old student. Unfortunately this type of selective justice is not uncommon.

A few years ago, a male teacher in North Carolina had inappropriate sexual contact with a 17-year-old female student, and he pulled a brief stretch in prison for his “crime”. Afterwards, he had to register as a sex offender, and was not allowed to come near children in public places. His son is now old enough to play high school football, so recently the former teacher asked his son’s principal if he could attend football games, so he could see his son play. The principal granted special dispensation, but as soon as the “ex offender” showed up in the stands, a parent spotted him and called the police. All this because he once had sex with a consenting 17-year-old female, which is legal if you’re anyone else but a teacher.

Despite all of the negative publicity about cougar teachers, there is much to celebrate at East Forsyth High School. There’s also a lesson to be learned:

In football, the rules apply equally. In life, not so much.

 
 

The Piedmont Triad is replete with agencies, organizations, churches, and businesses who routinely help those in need. We have food banks, homeless shelters, crisis centers, and free clinics. Our taxes go to help neighbors who lose their home to a natural disaster, and to those who lose their job through no fault of their own. We choose to lend a hand when necessary because that’s what communities do, and we do it without asking for collateral. One of our neighbors, Bennett College, could use a hand right about now. That’s because the clock is running out on Bennett, who must raise $5 million dollars by February 1, in order to regain their accreditation from SACS, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

I won’t go off on a tangent about SACS, but suffice to say that organizations like that can’t always see the forest for the trees. Bennett College is and always has been academically sound, and has contributed greatly to the community and to the nation. Earlier this year I was reminded by the Reverend Jesse Jackson that it was Bennett women who sustained the Greensboro lunch counter protest in 1960. Without them, the movement for equal access might have died. Bennett has also strengthened our nation by turning out strong women leaders. On those two counts alone I’d say Bennett has plenty of collateral and plenty of credibility, and that’s why we owe it to Bennett, and to ourselves to keep the doors open at 900 East Washington Street.

I know what you’re thinking. “Hey Jim, why can’t Bennett alum come up with the $5 million?” First of all, Bennett’s alumni base is small, and second, unlike most every other college in America, Bennett doesn’t have a cash-cow athletic program and a bunch of millionaire football boosters who can raise funds for a stadium expansion in a few hours. Money doesn’t grow on trees at Bennett because they’re not in the money business, they’re in the learning and leadership business. SACS doesn’t care about that because they have a cookie-cutter formula for how much money a college should have on hand, and to hell with what that college means and has meant to its students, to the community at large, and to the nation.

I’d like to think that, given time, individuals and groups in our area would send in enough donations to bail Bennett out. But time is what Bennett doesn’t have.

So what’s the solution? At the risk of sounding like Polyanna, I believe the best short-term solution is for college and community foundations and business foundations to come to the rescue. True, every foundation has its own specific mission, but that mission never operates in a bubble. UNCG, High Point University, GTCC, NC A&T, Guilford College, the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, and others are all about improving quality of life and strengthening the community they serve, so, theoretically they could pledge enough funds to Bennett to keep the “accreditors” at bay. Once that’s done, Bennett would have some time to develop a long-term strategy for meeting and sustaining fiduciary requirements set by SACS.

Black History Month is just around the corner. So is the 59th anniversary of the lunch counter sit-in. Let’s mark those commemorations by supporting Bennett College, and contributing to the legacy of the young women who answered the call when America needed them. We all owe Bennett a debt of gratitude that’s worth a lot more than $5 million dollars. It’s payback time, folks.

 
 

In the entertainment business, a triple threat is someone who can sing, dance and act. It’s also someone who’s accomplished on stage, in film and on television. I guess that made Ken Berry a double-triple threat because he could do just about everything in any venue. I first got to know Ken some years ago when I was preparing an event for the Television Academy. We stayed in touch periodically after that, and I last spoke with Ken on November 3rd to wish him a happy birthday. He sounded a little less bubbly than usual, and confessed that he was dealing with some health issues, nevertheless, Ken was upbeat, and he thanked me for remembering his birthday. Last Monday I was headed out to the post office to mail a holiday card to Ken, when I learned that he had passed away two days earlier. Ken Berry was 85. My thoughts drifted back to a conversation we had had in February of 2015 in which Ken talked about his career.

Born in Moline, Illinois on November 3, 1933, Ken was drawn to performing at an early age. As a teenager his considerable skills as a dancer landed him a spot in the Horace Heidt Youth Opportunity Program, which performed all over America and Europe. After graduating high school, Ken enlisted in the Army, and was stationed at Fort Bragg. It was his first introduction to North Carolina but not his first connection. More on that later.

In the second year of his enlistment, Ken and other soldiers from Special Services Corps toured the country and entertained other troops. It was during that time that he won the All-Army Talent Competition. Thanks to YouTube, you can catch his winning act via The Big Picture, a weekly TV series produced by the Army in the early 1950s. If you’ve never seen an athletic dancer do his thing, then treat yourself to this video gem.

Ken’s biggest supporter in those days was Sergeant Leonard Nimoy, the future Mr. Spock, who had already dabbled in acting and knew the ropes in Hollywood.

“I was going to be on the Ed Sullivan Show because Ed put the winners of the AATC on the air every year. And Lennie said, ‘You really ought to get in touch with the heads of the talent departments at major studios, and see if you get any response.’ And I said, ‘I don’t know how to do that.’ So Lennie said, ‘Well then I’ll do it for you, [laughs]‘ and he got two bites—one from Fox, and one from Universal. I can’t remember why, but we settled on Universal, and I went out there after I got out of the Army. I did a screen test that turned out very well I thought, and I don’t usually think that about my work.”

Despite the successful screen test, Ken’s first regular TV series work was still several years away. In the meantime, he continued to hone both his academic and artistic skills.

“I was going to school on the GI Bill. I wanted to stay in school and keep studying because I wasn’t well-rounded, and I wanted to be a better song and dance man. I didn’t have any money, so I took a job in Vegas working with Abbott and Costello. I made a whole $125 a week. They weren’t really getting along, in fact, it was the last time they ever worked together.”

By now, Ken was ready to make his move, but while his timing was perfect on stage, it couldn’t have been worse for a career in singing and dancing.

“I realized that the studios weren’t making motion picture musicals anymore. It’s like aspiring to be a basketball player and things are coming along, then you pick up the newspaper, and it says ‘Basketball canceled.’ I couldn’t believe it.”

But while musicals weren’t in demand, Ken’s acting abilities were, and he landed roles on The Ann Southern Show and Dr. Kildare. Then in 1965, Warner Brothers hired Ken to play a bumbling cavalry officer in F-Troop, a spoof of the old West. The role called for a lot of physical shtick, but Ken was up to the challenge. In fact, his pratfalls earned him high praise from his idol Buster Keaton. F Troop was ABC’s second-highest-rated comedy and an instant cult hit, outperforming such classics as Gilligan’s Island and Star Trek, the latter of which starred his old sergeant. Despite its popularity, however, F-Troop was canceled after two seasons, presumably because Warner’s new owner, 7-Arts, didn’t want to incur the high costs of producing a series in color. Fortunately for Ken, Mayberry, North Carolina came calling.

“My wife read that Dick Linke was President of the Personal Managers’ Council, so she wrote to him asking if he would watch a Carol Burnett special I was going to be on with Carol, Frank Gorshin and Rock Hudson.”

The letter worked. Linke, who was also Andy Griffith’s manager, took Ken on as a client, and before long Andy hired Ken as the lead in a spin-off series, titled Mayberry RFD.

“I always knew how lucky I was to get that job,” Berry said. “I think they were scraping the bottom of the barrel, that’s how I got most of my jobs [laughs].” In the series, Ken played farmer Sam Jones, a widower who was also head of the town council. He was now the straight man for all of the old familiar Mayberry characters, and the show was an instant hit, ranking 4th in the Nielsens, with a 25 rating for the first two seasons. To put it into perspective, Seinfeld usually garnered no more than a 21 rating, and Friends averaged about a 15. If RFD aired today, CBS would have to bring in a Brinks truck to pay Ken each week. Instead, some puny-brained network executive decided to purge all of the so-called rural comedies from its line-up in 1971, and once again, a Ken Berry show was canceled at the height of its popularity.

The following season, Ken hosted his own variety series, titled, appropriately, Ken Berry’s WOW Show! The program was short-lived, but it gave audiences a glimpse of Ken’s prowess as a singer and dancer. In 1974, he appeared on an episode of The Brady Bunch in what was to be a spin-off series, with Ken playing the father of three multiracial children. But Kelly’s Kids never made it onto a network schedule. Afterward, Ken appeared in several films and a number of stage plays, before being cast as the dim bulb son of Vicki Lawrence, in the long running series Mama’s Family.

On that day almost four years ago, Ken joked about his retirement, telling me, “I don’t have anything going on until April.” “What happens in April?” I asked.

“Nothing happens in April. I was just kidding,” he said.

Before we ended our conversation, Ken said he had one more thing he wanted to tell me: “When I was stationed at Fort Bragg, I had a strange feeling of being at home in North Carolina. Not long ago I got in touch with a genealogist and learned that the Berry family settled in Orange County. One branch then went South into northern Alabama, and my branch wound up in southern Illinois. But I always did feel at home in North Carolina.”

Praise indeed from the head of the Mayberry town council. Rest in peace, Ken.

 
 

In a previous column I noted how Phil Berger and company have manipulated the system to favor Republican candidates, including making an end-run around the Supreme Court by crafting voter ID as an amendment to our state constitution. Like him or not, Berger’s feat is even more impressive in a year when Democrats won enough seats in the General Assembly to deny the GOP a veto-proof majority. In fact, the voter ID referendum was supported by 55% of North Carolina voters, and its passage brings us more in line with 30 other states, including 17 who specifically require a photo ID when voting.

Last week, senators met inside the Capitol to flesh out details of SB 824, while outside, about a hundred people gathered to protest photo voter ID. One of the speakers was former state NAACP president William Barber who at one point shouted, “If necessary, we’ll return this state to civil disobedience.” I am a liberal independent, and a proud, card-carrying member of the NAACP, but Barber’s call for civil disobedience made me angry. To be honest, I’ve never been a fan of Barber and his opportunistic bombast, but last week he went too far. There are plenty of issues and policies that deserve our anger and protest, but voter ID is not one of them. Regardless of the GOP’s original intent, SB 824 in its present form, does nothing to prevent anyone from voting. On the other hand, Barber’s threats to fight voter suppression were themselves a form of voter suppression, given that over half of the people in this state voted for the photo ID Amendment. His rhetoric was, therefore, both ironic and divisive.

Should Barber and the rest of us be angry about voter suppression? Absolutely, and Republicans have been guilty of it for years. Their past offenses have included: eliminating polling places near large blocks of black voters; limiting number of early voting days; trying to purge voter rolls of African-American Democrats who failed to vote in past elections; using HB2 to trample on civil rights; and gerrymandering districts so as to minimize the number of blacks elected to state and federal offices. But it would be inaccurate and unfair to include voter ID in this list of discriminatory practices. Here’s why:

According to a report by WRAL.com, under the new voter ID law, there are no less than eleven forms of identification that are acceptable, those being:

• a North Carolina driver’s license
• ID card issued by the NC Division of Motor Vehicles for non-drivers
• United States passport
• a tribal enrollment card
• a student ID card from a University of North Carolina college
• community college, or private college
• an employee identification card issued by a state or local government entity
• a driver’s license or ID card issued by another state if voter registration took place within 90 days of the election
• a military ID
• a veteran’s identification card issued by the department of Veteran Affairs
• a voter ID card created by the new Senate bill
• any of the aforementioned ID cards even if they have expired, so long as the voter is at least 65 years old, and the ID expired on his 65^th birthday.

The new legislation also allows several exemptions for hardships and “reasonable impediments”. And, you can even opt out if you have a religious objection to having your photograph taken. In other words, the new photo voter ID requirements make it easier for everyone to comply with the law, and restricts no one from voting. And, although we’ve never experienced widespread voter fraud, SB 824 will guard against any potential fraud, whether deliberate or accidental, and it will cut down on time spent processing so many provisional ballots.

No doubt many Republican legislators have attempted to enact a number of shameful shenanigans in order to retain their power, but it’s hard to criticize photo voter ID as being a partisan, discriminatory law, when it leaves no one behind.

Rev. Barber can scream and threaten all he wants to about voter ID, but this is not an issue that calls for civil disobedience, because SB 824 violates no one’s civil rights. Of course, Barber can always claim he has a religious objection to having his picture taken, but that’s not likely. After all, when has he ever missed an opportunity to get in front of a camera? We all need to step back, take a deep breath, and be selective about our outrage. There are plenty of things we need to fight against, but voter ID isn’t one of them.

Last week, Democratic congressional candidate Kathy Manning talked to the Associated Press about her mid-term loss to 13^th district Republican incumbent Ted Budd. Said Manning, “We did everything we could, but we just could not overcome the gerrymandering.” Were he alive today, founding father James Madison might take issue with Ms. Manning’s assessment.

In 1788, Patrick Henry persuaded the Virginia General Assembly to re-draw the 5^th Congressional district to favor his friend James Monroe, who was running against Madison, a sworn enemy of Henry’s. But despite Patrick Henry’s map manipulation, James Madison still defeated Monroe. The reason was simple. Voters who showed up at the polls simply preferred Madison over Monroe. Though it fell short initially, Patrick Henry’s plan to craft a district in favor of one party over another was the first documented case of gerrymandering in America, and served as a template for a form of voter suppression that has remained a part of the political landscape for 230 years.

Perhaps it’s not fair to compare election outcomes that are two centuries apart, or two candidates with such distinctly different resumes. After all, Madison is famous for writing the Constitution, while Manning is mainly famous for writing checks to Democrats. Still, Madison overcame a rigged system to win, and that’s no small feat. Which raises the question, if Kathy Manning only lost because of district-wide gerrymandering, then how did two local Democratic candidates defeat two GOP incumbent sheriffs? And how did Democrat Michael Garrett beat Republican incumbent Trudy Wade for a seat in the State Senate? It’s because the folks who turned out on November 6 were selectively energized. They proved that a coalition of inspired Democrats, independents, and first-time voters could thumb their noses at the architects of gerrymandering, while refusing to be a lemming for every single Democratic candidate.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not downplaying the corrupt nature of gerrymandering. In fact, I continue to call for the creation of a non-partisan commission to re-draw district lines. I’m just saying that until such time as those boundaries can be drawn without respect to party politics, that there is a way to beat back gerrymandering. How? For one thing, unaffiliated voters now constitute the second largest block of registered voters in North Carolina (2 million, compared to 2.5 million Democrats and 1.5 million Republicans) and when enough of them are energized at the same time as Democrats, then upsets can happen.

The problem is that in most gerrymandered districts, North Carolina Democrats and independents don’t all get energized at the same time over the same issues, which explains why even though Democrats accounted for nearly half of the popular vote for Congressional candidates statewide, Republicans still retained 10 of our 13 congressional seats.

Regardless of what the courts might order us to do about our gerrymandered map in the short term, we know that two years from now, the state legislature will draw up an entirely new map based on the 2020 census. Between now and then, a number of organizations, and men like former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, are focused on getting people registered to vote and keeping them energized to participate in the political process. If they are successful, then new coalitions of voters can play a significant role in thwarting the goals of gerrymandering. To paraphrase Senator Cory Booker, “the power of the people is more powerful than the people in power.” James Madison believed that to be true in 1788, and it is still true today.

 
 

Presidents are only human, so they make mistakes. No, I’m not talking about Donald Trump’s claim that he only hires the “best people”, or George Bush’s decision to invade the wrong country after 9/11. I’m talking about John Kennedy, and how he misread history, unintentionally insulted the Commonwealth of Virginia, and was compelled to make amends.

The story begins on Wednesday December 4, 1619. That’s the day 38 English settlers from the London Company, navigated their ship down the James River and onto Berkeley Hundred (Harrison’s Landing), in what is now Charles City, Virginia, just 20 miles upstream from Jamestown, which had been settled twelve years prior. The landing party was led by Captain John Woodlief, who, as prescribed in the company charter, ordered a day of Thanksgiving to be observed upon their arrival, and every December 4th thereafter.

Over time, Berkeley became known for its historic firsts. The first bourbon whiskey was made there in 1621 (by a preacher no less). “Taps” was played for the first time while the Union army was encamped at Berkeley in 1862. And, of course, it was the site of America’s first Thanksgiving. More on that in a moment.

In 1907 Berkeley was purchased by John Jamieson who had served as a Union drummer boy during the army’s encampment at the plantation. Ownership later fell to his son (and my friend) Malcolm, who passed away in 1997. Mac loved Berkeley and was aggressive in marketing the historic site, including through the use of promotional videos and commercials which I helped to produce. He invited the public to tour the house and grounds, sold Berkeley boxwoods and bourbon, and held an annual Thanksgiving pageant which attracted tourists from across the country. But the celebration wasn’t always widely recognized.

One hundred years after his father beat the Yankee drums at Berkeley, Mac was upset by something another Yankee did. In the fall of 1962, President Kennedy issued his yearly Thanksgiving Proclamation in which he recognized his home state of Massachusetts as the site of America’s first Thanksgiving. And so, on November 9th of that year, Virginia State Senator John Wicker was prompted by Mac to write to the President, and point out Kennedy’s faux pas. In his telegram, Wicker referenced historical records about Berkeley’s celebration, which took place one full year before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620.

Later that year, Kennedy confidant and noted historian Arthur Schlesinger sent a reply to Wicker with a tongue-in-cheek apology from the President. According to Berkeley records, Schlesinger “attributed the error to unconquerable New England bias on the part of the White House staff.”

The following year, on November 5, 1963, President Kennedy had to eat crow during his annual Thanksgiving proclamation, saying, “Over three centuries ago, our forefathers in Virginia AND Massachusetts, far from home, in a lonely wilderness, set aside a day of thanksgiving.” Kennedy’s New England bias wouldn’t allow him to disavow Plymouth entirely, but Mac was happy that Berkeley finally gained official recognition for holding the first Thanksgiving, even if it was a shared honor. Sadly, it was to be Kennedy’s last proclamation. He was assassinated seventeen days later in Dallas.

The holiday season is now upon us, and it’s a time for celebrating with friends and family, and for remembering fondly those who are no longer with us. And in this season of giving thanks, perhaps we would all do well to emulate those weary English settlers, and just be thankful for surviving another day of our long journey. So here’s a Berkeley bourbon toast to Captain Woodlief, a little drummer boy, old Mac, and to that Yankee president who finally set the record straight. Happy Thanksgiving!
 
 

Day after day, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stands behind an all-too familiar podium, and proceeds to repeat, justify, and validate the lies that her boss has uttered in the past 24 hours. In doing so, she occasionally makes up new lies of her own. Huckabee is a disgrace to the journalism profession, but worse, she is an enabler for a man who, according to New York Times fact checkers, has told over 6,000 lies since taking office.

Like Trump, Sanders continually dodges questions posed to her from the White House press corps, then berates reporters who dare to demand an actual answer. She is rude, arrogant, and seemingly shameless in performing her duties as presidential shill. Last week, Sanders hit an all-time low.

On the day following our mid-term elections, President Trump held a press conference where he continued to brag about his victory the night before. Sure, Democrats took back control of the Congress, and made huge gains in state legislative races, yet somehow the “Emperor With No Clothes” believed he had won. CNN’s Jim Acosta, who has covered the White House for over five years, stood to ask Trump about the fearmongering TV ads that the President had aired which were meant to energize Republican voters by mischaracterizing the Central American caravan as being filled with Middle Eastern terrorists. Trump dodged the question, changed the subject, then cut Acosta off. But the CNN reporter stood his ground, and refused to surrender his hand-held microphone in hopes of pressuring the President into giving an honest response. A female White House intern then tried to grab the microphone from Acosta, and Jim momentarily moved it out of her reach, before acquiescing. Trump called Acosta a terrible person, then moved on.

Later that night, Acosta showed up at the White House gates to do a live shot for Anderson Cooper’s program, only to have secret service demand that he surrender his press credentials. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, obviously acting on orders from His Majesty, had revoked Acosta’s priveleges and the veteran correspondent was denied access to the White House. Why? According to Sanders, it was because Acosta had assaulted the female intern by “placing his hand on her”. The problem is that there WAS no assault. There was no grabbing, no groping, no screaming or cursing. Acosta’s only crime was trying to get the President of the United States to answer a question that he didn’t want to answer. The assault charge was merely a smokescreen lie that Sanders made up in order to deflect from her boss’s bad temper, inability to communicate honestly, and his vengeful nature. A number of correspondents and other witnesses came forward to refute Sarah’s claim, while actual video showed that Acosta had no physical contact with the intern. Never mind the truth, this was vintage behavior from the tag team of Trump and Sanders. If someone disagrees with you, or challenges you to tell the truth, you simply attack their character by spreading a false narrative.

For what it’s worth, I’m no fan of Jim Acosta. The man is arrogant, rude, obnoxious, self-absorbed, and disrespectful to the office of the Presidency. In fact, if I were in Trump’s place, I would have revoked Acosta’s credentials long ago. But this isn’t about an overly aggressive TV reporter. It’s about an abuse of power which is likely to continue for at least another two years. So what should the news media do? After all, they have to cover and report on our Commander in Chief, don’t they? Not necessarily.

A free press is essential to our democracy, but that doesn’t mean the news media has to tolerate being lied to and berated every day. Yes, transparency is expected from the Executive branch, but if the truth is never forthcoming, then why give coverage to the falsehoods? Donald Trump is the worst kind of narcissist and he thrives on attention, so my advice to the press corps is, just stop covering him. Don’t videotape him in meetings where his cabinet heaps rehearsed praise upon him. Don’t interview him or any of his staff, and don’t publish any information emanating from the White House. Try the boycott for six months, and I’ll bet that Trump comes completely unglued. Why? Because our president is like a spoiled five-year-old at the playground who demands that we look at him every time he soars high on the swings, or successfully teeters on the totter. If we ignore him, he will probably throw a tantrum until he tires himself out, then he’ll eventually give up and go home. I don’t think impeachment will ever drive Donald Trump from office, but ignoring him might.

We journalists are naturally drawn to superlatives. Something is either “the first of its kind”, or it’s “the most comprehensive”, or it’s “the largest in the area”. It’s not surprising, then, that last year’s Las Vegas concert massacre was known as “the bloodiest mass shooting in our history”, and last week’s attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue was reported as, “the worst massacre of Jews on American soil.” No doubt those superlatives apply because they give us perspective, but sometimes we get so caught up in the horrors of large tragedies, that we lose sight of the smaller ones that seem to happen every week.

Last week two teenage boys got into a heated argument in a hallway at Butler High School in Matthews. Reportedly one boy had been bullying the other, but it isn’t yet known which student did the alleged bullying. Regardless, as 16-year-old Bobby McKeithen walked away from 16-year-old Jatwan Cuffe, young Mr. Cuffe shot McKeithen in the back, and killed him. Cuffe then admitted his crime and surrendered peacefully. Ironically, that same day, the US Agency on Healthcare Research and Quality, released a report on gun injuries involving children and teens. It couldn’t have been more timely.

According to the report, gun injuries sent 75,000 teenagers to hospital emergency rooms over the past nine years, and 6% of them died. But those numbers are deceiving. Authors of the AHRQ study admit that their data does not include gun victims who never made it to the hospital. Meanwhile the Bureau of Justice Assistance reports that 64% of juvenile arrests involve violent felonies, and a study by the US States Attorneys says that the number of juveniles under 18 arrested for murder is on the rise. In fact, nearly 18% of all serious violent crimes are committed by juveniles, and homicide arrests of kids ages 15 and over, is up by 24%.

Many of us in the media have advocated for a ban on assault weapons, but most gun-related injuries and deaths among children come from the use of handguns, so a ban on rifles won’t abate our current crisis. The gun problem is one of access and opportunity, so that raises the question, “How do we put a stop to school shootings?”

Let’s suppose that tomorrow the federal government banned the sale and manufacture of all guns. Would that stop kids from shooting kids at school? No, because they would still have access to guns that are already in circulation. According to a 2015 report by the Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham, as of 2013, there were 357 million civilian firearms in circulation. That means there are 40 million more guns in America than there are people.

Don’t get me wrong. We still need to ban assault weapons, and restrict the sale of handguns and shotguns by requiring comprehensive background checks, and increasing the wait time between application and purchase. Local sheriff’s departments must be able to interface with FBI and ATF databases, and vice versa, so that local trouble makers, domestic abusers, patients treated for mental illness, and people who have been charged with, but not convicted of a violent crime, will be red-flagged by gun shop owners. We also need to put restrictions on the sale of ammunition because a gun without bullets is useless. But, again, as it stands now, a kid can still get his hands on a loaded gun by borrowing or stealing one. Such was the case with Jatwan Cuffe.

So how to do we keep guns out of schools? Very simple. Install metal detectors and have controlled entrances and exits. Local school officials will tell you that there’s no budget for installing a metal detector in every school, and that it’s impossible to have locked doors on school buildings. As for the latter, Joe Clark, the legendary New Jersey school principal proved that locked doors are feasible. As for the former, metal detectors are reliable, and yes, they are costly, but we can always find money for priorities. We hold referendums to pay for building upgrades, and we apply for grants to buy computers, so why not invest in security measures? It’s time for local, state, and federal officials to get serious about school safety, and that doesn’t mean just funding metal detectors. It also means hiring additional security personnel to monitor those detectors, and control who comes and goes through the main entrance throughout the day.

The NRA might have our elected officials hog-tied from banning certain types of weapons, but even the NRA can’t oppose legislation that would increase school security. New science labs, more computers, and re-modeled bathrooms are important, but they’re of no use if students don’t feel safe using them.

The last mid-term election we had was in 2014, and in that year, only 46% of registered North Carolinians turned out to vote, as compared to the 2016 election, when 67% of voters showed up at the polls. This year, Democratic candidates running in heavily Republican districts are hoping that normally apathetic voters will be energized by the #MeToo movement, or by a Congress that is controlled largely by white, misogynistic men, or by right-wing lawmakers in Raleigh, or by President Trump’s own disturbing behavior, and that they will show up at the polls in record numbers on November 6. Republicans, meanwhile, are hoping to hold on to power at the local, state, and federal levels. Given the space constraints of a newspaper column, I’m going to limit my focus to three congressional races, two state senate races, and two sheriff’s races. I’ll begin with the candidates for sheriff in Guilford and Forsyth counties.

I’ve never met Danny Rogers and know very little about him, except that he has ten years of law enforcement experience, and has allegedly been embroiled in some financial and legal problems. What I do know is that BJ Barnes has been an outstanding sheriff in Guilford County for the past 24 years, and beyond that I just like the man. I disagree with 80% of his conservative Republican politics, but I am a 100% fan of his ethics and honesty. A former Marine, BJ Barnes is both tough and amiable, and he deserves another term as sheriff.

I have similar feelings about the sheriff’s race in Forsyth where Democrat Bobby Kimbrough is challenging Republican incumbent Bill Schatzman. Kimbrough appears to be a serious man who, as he told the Kernersville News, believes that “leadership saves lives.” Schatzman, a former FBI agent, has served as sheriff for 16 years, and during that time he’s been accessible to citizens and has tackled the county’s drug problem head-on. As with my pick in Guilford, I support Bill because I respect the job he has done.

All 50 of our state senate seats are up for grabs on Tuesday, and Democrats must pick up an additional six of those seats in order to break the GOP stranglehold over Governor Cooper’s veto power. I’m hoping that two of those net gains will come in the 27^th and 30^th Districts. Republican incumbent Phil Berger of Rockingham’s 30^th District is the big dog in Raleigh. Since becoming Senate President Pro-Tem, Berger’s handprint has been on every major piece of legislation, and on every major issue, from voter suppression to transgender rights. Who but Phil Berger could stall and frustrate the courts by continuing to offer re-drawn districts that are gerrymandered for either race or party. Who but Phil Berger could pull an end run around the Supremes by crafting Voter ID into a Constitutional Amendment after the court had rejected it as a bill. Berger has to go, and perhaps Jen Mangrum is the person to show him the door. Mangrum is a college professor at UNCG [full disclosure: I am a UNCG grad and member of the Alumni board], so education and workforce development are important issues to her, as is accessible, affordable healthcare. Berger is a solid favorite thanks to gerrymandering, but if Jen can inspire large numbers of women and young people to turn out, then she might upset the incumbent.

While Berger is drunk on power (that’s a figure of speech), those who do his bidding can be just as dangerous. One prominent politician described 27^th District Republican Trudy Wade as someone who,”carries water for Berger”. In return Phil gives Trudy the latitude to introduce some really wacky, partisan legislation. Her attempt to re-align the structure of Greensboro City Council was described by former Governor Pat McCrory as “legislative overreach”. After all, state lawmakers aren’t supposed to meddle in local politics, but Trudy didn’t get that memo. Fortunately her ploy to stack City Council with Republicans, and muzzle the mayor, fell short, but that didn’t stop her from using her office to get revenge on another Greensboro institution, the News & Record. Though she has denied any vengeful motive in introducing legislation that could cost the GNR and other local papers to lose tons of money, the fact remains that Trudy’s so-called pilot program to allow counties to bypass the print media and post all legal notices on county websites actually targets only Guilford county newspapers who have never endorsed her. Voters may not care about the plight of local print media, but they should care about abuse of power, and cast their vote for Wade’s Democrat opponent Michael Garrett.

Last week, on my Triad Today television program, I moderated discussions with candidates from three congressional districts. The 30-minute Voter Education Special included a solo interview with 5^th District Democrat DD Adams (incumbent Virginia Foxx declined to participate), and debates between 6^th District Rep. Mark Walker and his Democratic challenger Ryan Watts, and between 13^th District GOP incumbent Rep. Ted Budd and his challenger, Kathy Manning.

DD Adams is a member of Winston-Salem City Council and a dedicated public servant who advocates for affordable healthcare, and who believes that term limits are needed for Congress. Virginia Foxx is a hard-worker, but she has been in lock-step with every hare-brained policy put forth first by George W. Bush, and now by Donald Trump. Also, Foxx is the first one who misled voters into thinking that passage of Obamacare would create death panels for seniors. That was not only a false narrative, it was a cruel joke to play on the most vulnerable among us. Virginia has served seven terms, and it’s time for her to let someone else give it a try.

Ryan Watts is a business consultant from Burlington who favors more gun controls including a ban on assault weapons. He also favors a less restrictive immigration policy, and he supports a Public Option for healthcare. While I agree with most of Ryan’s positions, and Lord knows I think we need more Democrats in the House, I’m not sure he’s got the gravitas to survive in D.C. just yet. On the other hand, two-term incumbent Mark Walker, a former minister and missionary, entered Congress with highly developed people skills which served him well in building coalitions with members of both parties. Mark is also a great listener who has acted on constituent input to re-work legislation. Mark is a true, compassionate servant of the people, and he deserves a third term in Washington.

That brings me to the contentious 13^th District race between first term Republican congressman Ted Budd and challenger Kathy Manning, an attorney from Greensboro. In past columns and on Triad Today, I have made it known that we need more women in Congress, and while I agree with Manning on almost every issue, she might not be the right woman at the right time for this district. Two years ago, Ted Budd wrested the GOP nomination away from a host of more seasoned candidates mainly because he had a half million dollars in D.C. PAC money at his disposal. Those funds allowed him to purchase lots of TV ads and build his name recognition in a way that his underfunded opponents couldn’t. Spilled milk. Ted, the owner of a gun shop and shooting range, is against a ban on assault-style weapons, and he is against Medicare-for-All. Yet, like Mark Walker, Ted is a personable, humble man, almost devoid of ego, who is willing to listen to opposing views. He also handles criticisms with a smile instead of a snarl. When it comes to policy, Ted and I are polar opposites on most issues, and yet I think it’s OK to support someone you disagree with, so long as he isn’t disagreeable. That’s why I’m endorsing Ted for another term in Congress.

In the end, my opinions might not count for much, but your vote does, so please show up and be counted next Tuesday.

Earlier this month, infamous TV personality Jerry Springer turned up at the Dixie Classic Fair, and was asked by a reporter from the Winston-Salem Journal what kind of food he liked. Replied Springer, “I like everything that’s not healthy.” It was a fitting response from the man who almost single-handedly turned television into a repository of raw sewage, and American society into a laboratory for dysfunctional discourse.

Springer came to national prominence in 1991 at a time when Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas had retired, and when traditional daytime talk shows featured entertainers, authors, and politicians who engaged in thought-provoking topics. It was a format that Phil Donahue and, later, Oprah Winfrey and Rosie O’Donnell would embrace. And though Donahue had his share of controversial guests, there was almost always something constructive to glean from his interviews. Not so with Springer, who didn’t just push the envelope of good taste, he tore the envelope open with unashamed aplomb.

It may be difficult for anyone under the age of 40 to fathom, but there was a time when certain things just weren’t discussed on television, or anywhere else for that matter, and we were emotionally healthier as a result. Jerry Springer broke those norms with topics like:

• “Bizarre Sex Jobs”
• “I Slept with 251 Men in 10 Hours”
• “I’m Pregnant by a Trans Sexual”
• “I’m Pregnant by My Brother”
• “Secret Sex Fetishes”
• “Bra-less Brawlers”
• “I Married a Horse”
• “Adult Babies: Grown Men Who Dress in Pajamas and Stay in a Baby Crib”
• “I’m Happy I Cut Off My Legs”
• “The Man Who Cut Off His Own Penis”
• “A Pimp Who Thought He Was the Pope”
• “Man Wants His Leg Back From His Mistress”

But it wasn’t just Jerry’s daily circus of freaks that had a negative impact on our collective psyche. It was also the way those dysfunctional folks communicated while the cameras were rolling. There was shouting, screaming, slapping, punching, kicking, and, of course, foul-mouthed cursing which was not very well disguised by Springer’s bleep machine. That kind of violent discourse gave rise to today’s angry Town Hall confrontations, and to pundits screaming at one another on cable news panels. It also sent a strong message to his viewers that it is OK to display loud, obnoxious behavior in restaurants, stores, airplanes, and other public venues.

Finally, we can thank Jerry for giving birth to every dysfunctional reality show on TV today, including every Kardashian, every desperate housewife, and every contestant who’s ever been naked and afraid.

Fortunately, Jerry Springer’s nationally syndicated show was cancelled earlier this year, but by then, he had already done incalculable damage. Taking Springer’s toxins off the air after 27 years and expecting Americans to be more civil to each other, is like giving up a five pack-a-day habit for the past 27 years, and hoping that your lungs will be free of scarring. The fact is we will never completely heal from the scars that Springer wrought because his disciples, descendants, and imitators are still around to re-open the wounds. And then there’s Jerry himself, who continues to do his thing, even if it’s not in front of the camera. Case in point, Springer’s recent visit to Winston-Salem, where he emceed micro wrestling matches at the Fair. Micro wrestling is the PC name for what used to be known as midget wrestling. “As long as it’s all taken in fun and people enjoy it, that’s cool with me,” Springer told the Journal. Yes sir, there’s nothing more fun and wholesome than a bunch of big people watching little people being tossed around. Maybe next year, Jerry will referee a bout between an adult baby and the mistress who stole her boyfriend’s leg. The three of them will deserve each other.