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Richard Burr gave North Carolinians reason to be proud of its senior U.S. Senator when he voted to convict in the impeachment of Donald Trump because he chose to vote his conscience rather than toe the party line. By doing so, he represented the state with integrity. For his vote, the N.C. Republican Party, his party, chose to censure him. They censured him not for some moral or ethical transgression, but for doing what he believed was right despite enormous pressure to do otherwise. Republican representatives and senators from other states who defied party orthodoxy suffered the same fate. Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who voted to impeach Trump, not only got censured by his state party, members of his family wrote a letter calling him a member of the “’devil’s army,’ (Democrats and the fake news media).” The vitriol contained in the family letter Kinzinger received from cousins and other unnamed family members is an appalling display of the fracture in many families across the nation. Because he could not countenance an armed insurrection, incited by Trump, against a co-equal branch of government, his cousins, Greg and Karen Otto, accused him of betraying his Christian values. “How do you call yourself a Christian when you join the ‘devil’s army’ believing in abortion!” they demand to know. And then there’s Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, one of several Republican members of Congress who objected to certifying the results of the 2 020 election. Six of his nine siblings appeared in an ad for his opponent in the election and since the insurrection, they’ve called for his removal from Congress. Countless books and commentaries by social scientists and pundits have attempted to explain how we got to this place with such passionate feelings and irreconcilable differences that members of families have turned against one another or simply no longer discuss politics for fear of creating unbridgeable estrangements. One of those books is Ezra Klein’s “Why We’re Polarized.” Klein is a columnist, editor, cofounder of Vox (an explanatory news organization) and a self-described liberal. He points out that both the Democratic and Republican parties were more ideologically diverse until the 1960s, and that acted as a moderating influence on pol arization. But when the Democratic Party embraced Civil Rights, it alienated Southern Democrats, the Dixiecrats who had been part of the party since Reconstruction. “Still, at the moment of rupture, the parties remained blurred. It is remarkable, from our current vantage point where everything cuts red from blue, to see a debate that polarizes the country without splitting the parties. But that was the case with the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” Klein writes. The Democrats held majorities in both houses and the presidency, but 80 percent of House Republicans supported the bill while only 60 percent of House Democrats did. In the Senate, rather than go through the normal committee process, where powerful Southern Democrats would have killed it, President Lyndon Johnson worked out the legislation with then Senate minority leader, Everett Dirksen, an Illinois Republican. Southern Democrats filibustered the bill, but Dirksen corralled 27 of the 33 Republicans to break the filibuster. The bill could never have passed without Republican support, but Democrats get the credit, in part because Barry Goldwater, who became their 1964 presidential nominee, voted against it and proceeded to run on a state’s rights platform. The Democrats, who needed the Southerners to pass the New Deal and other national legislation, had accommodated their opposition to anti-lynching and other civil rights legislation. But the Civil Rights Act changed that. In 1964, South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond moved from the Democratic to the Republican Party. North Carolina’s Jesse Helms followed in 1970. Klein writes that Bill Moyers, who served as a special assistant to Johnson, recalls Johnson saying, “I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come,” the night he signed the Civil Rights Act. The realignment resulted in parties where there are no longer Republicans who are more liberal than some Democrats or Democrats who are more conservative than some Republicans. Because that ideological diversity within parties no longer exists, party identification becomes stronger. Our political identities are polarizing our other identities and becoming mega-identities, Klein says. He quotes Lilliana Mason who, in her book “Uncivil Agreement,” wrote: “The American political parties are growing socially polarized. Religion and race, as well as class, geography, and culture are dividing the parties in such a way that the effect of party identity is magnified… A single vote can now indicate a person’s partisan preference as well as his or her religion, race, ethnicity, gender, neighborhood, and favorite grocery store… Partisanship can now be thought of as a mega-identity, with all the psychological and behavioral magnifications that implies.” Klein uses the title of Will Blythe’s 2006 book “To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever” about the rivalry between Duke and the University of North Carolina basketball teams to illustrate the power of the emotional rivalry between groups. “Human beings evolved to exist in groups,” Klein writes. “To be part of a group, and to see that group thrive, meant survival. To be exiled from a group, o r to see your group crushed by its enemies, could mean death…” As Sen. Burr and other Republicans have learned, breaking with the group by undermining its message brings your loyalty into question and carries the risk of ostracism. What’s most distressing about this is that the very thing about American life that should be one of our greatest strengths is becoming one of our greatest threats. We are not participating in politics to solve problems but to express who we are. And in expressing the mega-identities we’ve come to inhabit – conservative, gun rights, pr o-life Republicans vs. liberal, gun-control, pro-choice Democrats – we’ve forgotten the man y things we have in common and the ways in which we are part of overlapping groups – teachers, parents, volunteers, firefighters, musicians, football fans, neighbors, siblings. Most importantly, we’ve forgotten our most important mega-identity. We are all Americans. If we could but overcome the threat we feel from our fellow citizens – in many cases our own friends and families – we might recognize the strength to be found in the differences we all bring to the table and learn to use that rich resource to solve problems. Joy Franklin is a journalist and writer who served as editorial page editor of the Asheville Citizen-Times for 10 years. Prior to that she served as executive editor of the Times-News in Hendersonville., N.C. Franklin writes for Carolina Commentary.

We approach a most joyous time of year, filled with festivities, family reunions and religious significance. But this year we will need to find creative ways to celebrate gratefulness, love and family. As the holidays loom, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken an ominous turn for the worse. During the first week of November, there were 17,759 new cases of the coronavirus in North Carolina. On Wednesday, Nov. 11, the state set a new daily record of 3,119 lab-confirmed cases, breaking the previous record of 2,908 cases set on Nov. 6. “This is not the milestone we want to be hitting, particularly as we head into holidays where people want to come together. I am asking North Carolinians to do what they do best, look out for each other,” North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy K. Cohen said during a briefing. As of Nov. 12, a total of 303,931 North Carolinians had contracted COVID-19 and 4,730 had died from it. Nationwide, epidemiologists, scientists and public health officials are warning that the worst days of the virus are ahead. The upcoming holidays create the potential for innumerable super-spreading events and set the country up for a “COVID hell” in the words of epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, who was recently named to President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus task force. On Nov. 9, Pfizer announced a vaccine that is more than 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19. But it appears unlikely that large numbers of people will be able to get it until the spring of 2021, too late to save us from a potentially deadly winter. Doctors have gotten better at treating the virus, but vulnerable people still die from it. On Tuesday, Nov. 10, Gov. Roy Cooper issued an order reducing the number of people allowed at indoor gatherings from 25 to 10. The order took effect on Friday, Nov. 13, and lasts until Dec. 4. But no executive order will keep us safe . Only by taking personal responsibility for following the guidelines that have proven effective in reducing the spread of COVID-19 can we hope to get through the next few months without losing hundreds or even thousands more North Carolinians to the virus. While the threat may seem abstract unless you or someone you love has contracted COVID-19, failing to adhere to those safety protocols is akin to playing Russian roulette with your own and others’ lives. The best way to reduce the risk of viral transmission is to limit travel and limit physical contact with people who do not live in your household, according to the NCD HHS. Instead of visiting in person, this is a good year to take advantage of virtual platforms to send greetings and to stay in touch with loved ones and neighbors. But if you have grown weary of prohibitions against gathering with friends and family, consider holding an outdoor celebration. For instance, throughout North Carolina there are brilliant winter lights displays where families and friends can rendezvous and share a bit of outdoor magic. You’ll find some of them listed below. Keep in mind that any gathering with people outside your own home poses a risk for COVID-19 transmission. But if you do choose to host a gathering, NCDHHS offers guidelines for hosting lower and moderate risk activities. Most importantly, if you do gath er with people outside your household, follow the advice of NDHHS Secretary Cohen to wear a mask, wait six feet apart and wash your hands often. “We’ve had more time to learn about this devastating virus and study after study shows that these three simple actions can help keep our family, friends and neighbors from getting sick,” Cohen said. With the announcement from Pfizer of a promising vaccine, we can begin to see our way out of this valley of despair. That gives us much to be thankful for this holiday season. But for now, doing all we can to keep our family and friends safe from a potentially deadly virus is the best gift we can give them.

Over the past decade, there’s been a growing militarization of hate groups that call themselves “militias.” These are people driven largely by white-extremists views. Many policy experts believe these people are very distraught about the growing demographic diversity of the United States. William H. Frey, Senior Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Program of the Brookings Institution, confirms the trend: “The nation is diversifying even faster than predicted, according to new center data.” Militias date back to 1792, when the U.S. Congress provided for their organization and empowered the President of the United States to take command of the state militias in times of imminent invasion or insurrection. The original Militia Act was repealed and replaced in 1795, 1808 and 1862 during the Civil War. The Militia Act of 1903 repealed and superseded the Militia Act of 1795 and established the U.S. National Guard as the nation’s chief body of primary organized military reserves in the country. “Militia” generally refers to a group of able-bodied residents between certain ages who may be, at some point, called up by the government to defend the United States or an individual state. I cannot think of any American, male or female, who would not rise to the occasion to defend the homeland against foreign or domestic invaders or terrorists. Our nation may be diversifying faster than predicted, but that fails to explain the global growth of far-right extremists. A study of German society’s biggest fears, released earlier this year by the Berlin Social Science Center, showed that one in three respondents feared “foreign infiltration” because of the immigrant influx. In Germany, militias say they patrol in locations where the police do not. This has caused many Germans to worry, as militias seek to bar immigrants from entering the country and receiving jobs and social benefits in Germany. In the United States, militias have a recent record of violence nationwide. FBI Director Christopher Wray in his statement before the House Homeland Security Committee in September, said: “The greatest threat we face in the homeland is that posed by lone actors radicalized online who look to attack soft targets with easily accessible weapons. We see this lone actor threat manifested both within domestic violent extremists and homegrown violent extremists.” Wray went on to say that domestic violent extremists are individuals who commit violent criminal acts to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as racial bias and anti-government sentiment. “The top threat we face from domestic violent extremists stems from those we identify as racially/ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVE). RMVEs were the primary source of ideologically m otivated lethal incidents and violence in 2018 and 2019 and have been considered the most lethal of all domestic extremists since 2001.” Will Carless and Michael Corey, writers for Reveal, of the nonprofit Center for Investigative Journalism, surmise the broader militia movement has been a breeding ground for racist domestic terrorism. The Southern Poverty Law Center followed 940 hate groups across the United States in 2019. In North Carolina, the SPLC tracked at least forty (40) hate groups, according to Keegan Hankes, a researcher who says the number is growing. You can follow SPLC updated information on twitter @hatewatch. The critical question is: What do you do about militia s and hate groups in America that conspire to take the law into their own hands, such as the would-be kidnappers in Michigan and Virginia who plotted to kidnap and possibly take the life of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia. Their goal was to instigate a civil war. What drove these men in Michigan to think that this is okay to kidnap and threaten American governors? Why are they anti-government and plotting for social unrest? Cynthia Miller-Idriss, director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab and Professor of Education and Sociology School of Education at American University, has studied the issue. “The goal of the extreme right is to establish white-ethnocentric status, deportation of nonwhites or non-Europeans, and the reduction of the rights for ethnic minorities,” she writes in her book; Hate in the Homeland, The New Global Right. The political polarization and the silence from our governmental and political leaders, who continue to wink and nod at the behavior of these anti-American groups is troubling, to say the least. For America to turn the tables on what the FBI director call s our greatest threat. We need the collective resolve of the people to change the hearts and minds of those who diminish nonwhite people and seek to destroy our government and our democracy. The road ahead will challenge us to reclaim who we are as Americans. Virgil L. Smith formerly served as president and publisher of the Asheville Citizen-Times and Vice President for Human Resources for the Gannett Company. He is the principal for the Smith Edwards Group and writes for Carolina Commentary.

The calendar says election day is Nov. 3, but here in North Carolina, it’s already begun. The State Board of Elections began mailing out absentee ballots Friday, September 4th to voters who had requested them. Some have already been returned. In North Carolina, any registered voter can request such a ballot and vote by mail. With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, that option is being explored by a record number of North Carolinians. As of last week, more than 640,000 requests had been logged, compared to fewer than 40,000 over the same period in 2016. Of those requests, 337,362 were from registered Democrats, 200,359 Unaffiliated and 103,620 Republicans. N.C.’s 11th Congressional District, which includes Jackson County, also saw a big jump, said Christopher Cooper, Department Head of Political Science and Public Affairs at Western Carolina University. He noted, “Traditionally, there has not been much of a partisan divide in NC on absentee by mail requests—this year is not following tradition.” Almost half – 44 percent – of the 540 requests were from Democratic voters. Cooper said, “Some of the NC11 counties have some of the biggest increases over 2016, including Buncombe (a 360 percent increase over 2016) and Haywood (375 percent). Henderson also rates high – 14 percent of registered voters in Henderson county have requested a ballot.” What do the early returns say? “I’ve been joking that reading the tea leaves into return patterns at this point would be like thinking you know something about a baseball season based on whether the first pitch of the first game was a strike,” Cooper said. “Still—it’s important to report, in my opinion, because it shows that vote by mail is working and that counties are processing the requests as they’re supposed to.” Voters can return their ballot by mail or return it to the elections board. One thing they can’t do is vote twice, despite some suggestions to the contrary in recent days. Karen Brinson Bell, N.C. State Board of Elections Executive Director, said it’s a Class I felony for a voter who has “intent to commit a fraud to register or vote at more than one precinct or more than one time … in the same primary or election… Attempting to vote twice in an election or soliciting someone to do so also is a violation of North Carolina law.” There’s been some irresponsible talk that people should mail in a ballot and then attempt to vote in-person to test the system’s integrity. We imagine “testing the system’’ is as likely to hold up in court as saying you yanked on the door of that armored bank truck just to make sure your money was safe. The deadline to request an absentee ballot is Oct. 27, but given recent issues with the USPS its recommended voters do so well before that date. In-person early voting begins Oct. 15. Will the surge in mail voting delay North Carolina’s count when the polls close at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 3? Possibly, but likely only minimally. Under state law, ballots postmarked on or before 5 p.m. Election Day and arrive before Nov. 6 are counted. In squeaky-tight races – like North Carolina’s 2016 gubernatorial race, decided by less than 11,000 votes – those late-breaking votes could be critical. But most results in the state should be obvious on election night. And remember, elections officials don’t declare winners on election night. They release official numbers following a canvass. Media outlets do declare election night winners; this year, if that doesn’t happen in some races, remember these words from Associated Press Deputy Managing Editor David Scott on horse-race winner calls: “It’s always been an unfair expectation ‘in time for your late local news’ on the East Coast. It was unfair before the pandemic. It’s definitely unfair in a pandemic now.” In other words, it’s 2020. Be patient in seeing how your vote impacts the election. The first step in that process, of course, is to be sure you cast it in the first place. Jim Buchanan is the editor of The Sylvia Herald, former Editorial Page Editor for the Asheville Citizen-Times and writes for Carolina Commentary.

North Carolina could miss out on an additional congressional seat and forfeit billions of dollars in state and federal tax dollars that rightfully belong to state citizens unless the people who live here get more serious about participating in the 2020 Census. North Carolina’s response rate is poor overall and abysmal in some counties where those dollars, sent to Washington in the form of taxes paid by North Carolinians, are desperately needed. Unless the census reflects an accurate count of Tarheel residents, North Carolina’s share of federal money will go to other states. As of August 13, North Carolina’s response rate of 59.6 percent trailed the national response rate of 63.6 percent by four points. Response rates in some counties were far worse. Examples include: Avery, 29.9 percent; Swain, 33.3 percent, Jackson, 33 percent; Dare, 34.8 percent, Hyde, 38.5 percent. The U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 2) requires that a census of the nation’s population occur every 10 years. The first one took place in 1790. The most basic reason for the census is to apportion the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The number of representatives is fixed by law at 435. Based on its population in 2010, North Carolina sends 13 to Congress. While some states are projected to lose seats after the 2020 census, North Carolina is projected to gain a seat. Census counts are also used for redistricting within the state, which means undercounted areas won’t get fair representation in state government either. By not participating in the Census you are disempowering yourself and your community and not just by the loss of fair representation in federal and state government. Based on Census data, states and local communities received more than $675 billion in federal funds for health, education, housing, and infrastructure programs during Fiscal Year 2015, according to one study. Every person counted in the Census brings about $2,000 in federal spending to the state over the next 10 years, another study estimated. Census counts are used by federal, state and local governments to plan the location of everything from post offices and schools to libraries and fire stations. A community that’s undercounted could face a longer drive (on poorer roads) to use a library computer or longer wait times for a fire truck or the EMS to arrive. Those extra minutes could make a life or death difference in some heart attack, allergic reaction or drug overdose cases. When scouting for locations, manufacturers, businesses and commercial outlets also use Census data. Undercounted areas are less likely to attract the jobs and opportunities they offer. And as any genealogist knows, Census data is an invaluable source of family history. The information – name, age, gender, ethnicity and relationship to the head of household of each person living at a given address – cannot, by law, be released by the U.S. Census Bureau for 72 years, not to the public or to any other government agency, including law enforcement or immigration authorities. All Census workers are sworn to protect this information and can be punished by a $250,000 fine and five years in prison if they fail to do so. Only demographic data is released. But for anyone wanting to know more about who and where they came from, once it’s released after 72 years, Census data provides vital information. For instance, the descendants of recent immigrants will one day be able to find their ancestors and mark the arrival of their family in the United States through Census data. The 2020 Census operation began in 2019, but was put on hold in the spring as a result of the pandemic. In April, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham asked Congress to extend the statutory deadlines. That hasn’t happened, but 48 senators are asking Senate and House leaders to include an extension in the next coronavirus relief package. In the meantime, the Census restarted in July. At the beginning of August, the Trump administration decided to end all counting efforts on Sept. 30, a month sooner than previously announced. If no extension is granted, the result is expected to be a grievous undercount, especially in poor and minority communities. Everyone living in the United States is required by law to respond to the Census. Census workers are being trained and deployed to knock on the doors of people who haven’t yet done so. These workers will have government identification badges, will be wearing face coverings and are being trained to follow other safety precautions to reduce the risk of spreading the COVID-19 virus. But without an extension, it seems unlikely they will be able to get a complete count. If you are one of those non-participants, you can save yourself from having your day interrupted by a census worker and help stake your own and your community’s claim to your rightful voice and share of assets by completing the Census online or over the phone. Both options allow you to choose your preferred language. It will take less than 10 minutes. Our founders understood that having accurate demographic information was essential to allocating power and resources equitably in a self-governing nation. Every North Carolinian ought to do his or her part to insure our state gets its fair share of both. Joy Franklin is a retired journalist who writes for carolinacommentary.com.

Asheville City Council members are to be commended for the historic and courageous move they took July 14 when they approved a resolution that calls for reparations for Black Ashevillians and issued an apology for the city’s role in the enslavement of Black people. The resolution recognizes the city’s participation in policies that stripped Black residents of the opportunity to build generational wealth, relegated them to second class status in every area of their lives, including health care and education, and caused them to fear law enforcement, the very institution that should have protected their safety. The city council is looking to the future by directing the city manager to come back in a year with short, medium and long-term recommendations to address the creation of generational wealth and opportunity for the Black community. There is no question that many White Americans benefited from slavery and have enjoyed a systemic advantage that includes wealth passed on from generation to generation. This resolution, approved unanimously, represents bold action by these locally elected officials during these times of civil unrest and crisis resulting from COVID-19. Some people may think reparations means a check is on the way in the manner of the legendary and unfulfilled promiseof “40 acres and a mule.” The Asheville City Council resolution does not mandate direct payments. Instead it will make investments in areas where Black residents face disparities. Reparations for slavery is a political justice concept that the descendants of slaves should be compensated for the bondage endured by their ancestors. It should be noted that slave owners received compensated emancipation, the money that some governments paid some slave owners when slavery was abolished, as compensation for the financial loss of free labor. It is too late to compensate the ancestors who suffered under slavery. It is not too late to give their descendants a fair and equitable opportunity to achieve the American dream, without being handicapped before entering the game, by breaking down the walls of institutional racism. The actions of the Asheville City Council seem intended to give an advantage to those who have been disadvantaged for generations. Reparations are not new to America. Americans have received compensation for injustices a number of times in the past. The Indian Claims Commission compensated tribes for land seized by the United States. Japanese-Americans interned during World War II received close to $1.6 billion paid to 82,219 eligible claimants. In other examples, reparations were paid to survivors of police abuse in Chicago, victims of forced sterilization, and Black residents of a Florida town that was burned by a murderous White mob. North Carolina became the first state in America to pass a law compensating survivors of the eugenics program that sterilized poor and disabled African Americans. The fund to compensate the victims was close to $10 million, according to Adeel Hassan, a reporter and editor on the National Desk at the New York Times. There have been many attempts to change historical symbols of racism. They are nice gestures, but they don’t go far enough toward addressing the economic and educational issues of descendants of slaves. What impact does removing Aunt Jemima from the cover of pancake boxes after 131 years and other symbolic gestures have on the lives of Black Americans? So what needs to happen? As the Asheville Resolution states, “Black People have been denied housing through racist practices in the private realty market, including redlining, blockbusting, denial of mortgages and gentrification, discriminatory wages paid in every sector and the list of injustices goes on. The Asheville City Council resolution is a vigorous attempt to undo structural and systemic racism, which has been in place in many forms since the days of slavery. As they have been reminded time and again, including the tragic change of policy during Reconstruction and the economic disparities of the 20th Century, Black Americans have been excluded since birth from equal opportunity in America. Black families have long told their children, that they cannot be average because they must be twice as good as White people. Silent and subtle racism has been a part of the nation for years. Blacks are not the only ones who have suffered; immigrants from every continent have faced racism, most recently by the Muslim ban and the anti-immigration policy for Mexico and Latin American nations. Racism is and has been a part of the fabric of America, but we enable it when we see the systemic unfairness and disparate treatment and fail to call it out. The Asheville City Council has risen above others and displayed courage to address structural racism facing Black Americans in their city. Their action challenges North Carolina and the federal government to join them in addressing the systematic discrimination against Black Americans. History will reflect favorably on their courage and action. Virgil L. Smith formerly served as president and publisher of the Asheville Citizen-Times and Vice President for Human Resources for the Gannett Company. He is the principal for the Smith Edwards Group and writes for Carolina Commentary.

There’s a saying in the sports world that nothing good ever happens after midnight. That’s because blue-chip recruits don’t call up a coach at 2 a.m. and commit to their program. No, the calls at 2 a.m. are usually to come bail somebody out of jail for getting in a fight after the bars close. We’re not talking about a bar brawl here. We are talking about doing anything in wee hours of the morning. Sober or not, it’s generally not a good idea. When it comes to legislating, it’s a really bad idea. Thus, as June rolled into July, we were treated to a spectacle in Raleigh over Senate Bill 168 marked by protests, arrests and a fair number of embarrassed faces in the General Assembly. SB 168 was supposed to be mundane legislation, referred to in lawmaker parlance as an “agency bill’’ to make technical corrections requested by the Department of Health and Human Services. What got passed appears to be quite different. The bill passed in a near-unanimous vote, with every legislator present in favor except one. In North Carolina laws that occur in jails, prisons or law enforcement custody must be reported to a county medical examiner. Public records laws exempt law enforcement investigations, but if investigations into deaths are passed to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, they become public record. SB 168 changes that, keeping those records from public scrutiny. The change was supposed to be a “clarification.” That’s a pretty big clarification. It opens the possibility that police car and bodycam video could be deemed as part of death investigations and be shielded. Currently such videos can be made public under court order. DHHS says it wanted the change because it would make law enforcement agencies less reluctant to turn over some records. Gov. Roy Cooper said, “I think most people don’t want to have that provision, and I think we’ll find a way to fix it.” Late Monday, Cooper vetoed the bill. When the history of the early years of the new millennium is written, the most important invention cited is likely to be the cell phone camera. Footage played by the public has proven invaluable in any number of cases where police abused their authority, and public cell phones have been the impetus for dashboard and body cameras becoming standard issue for peace officers. Such footage has helped sparked mass protests across the nation in recent weeks, galvanized by the gut-wrenching saga of George Floyd being essentially executed in broad daylight before a crowd of onlookers. North Carolina’s legislation provides an opportunity for all sorts of mischief by shielding the public’s eyes from official records. It does indeed need to be fixed. The public has taken notice. Leaders must follow. And in the future, legislators deciding on laws at 3 in the morning shouldn’t be reaching for the “vote’’ button. They should be reaching for a pillow. Nothing good happens after midnight. Jim Buchanan is the editor of The Sylvia Herald, former Editorial Page Editor for the Asheville Citizen-Times and writes for Carolina Commentary.

This month marks the third birthday for Carolina Commentary, a North Carolina-centric political blog dedicated to pursuing collaborative and realistic approaches to solving public policy issues. Virgil Smith, former president and publisher of the Asheville Citizen-Times, formed Carolina Commentary with three of his former editorial page editors in recognition of the challenges facing the state’s media. Since then, we’ve shown our readers why they should care about specific threats to North Carolina’s system of democracy, its economy and justice for all. Our particular public policy topics include the environment, education, immigration and health care. And we’ve added additional writers–academics and other moderate progressives who hope to promote thoughtful debate that renounces ideology in favor of dialogue based on facts. What do we believe? Integrity: We commit to the highest standards in professionalism, intellectual honesty and transparency. We will be balanced, accurate and fair in our commentary. Quality: We will provide content that is thorough, fresh and innovative. Diversity: Our content will reflect the communities we serve, responsive to a diverse public. Service: Our content will be free from outside influence, political pressure or economic interests. Commentary: We will comment on issues of public interest. In the last year we’ve published 18 commentaries, including those that recommended solutions: To ensure protection of voting rights during the pandemic To provide equal access to education for all children statewide To encourage state government to use the pandemic to experiment with solutions to remedy structural ills What do we ask of you? Our thoughtful, bipartisan editorials are for sharing on any platform, whether it’s a newspaper, TV or radio website, political blog or social media site. So please, republish and share as you can. All we ask is that you attribute the content to Carolina Commentary and link to our site, www.carolinacommentary.com. Let’s keep the discussion going.

The General Assembly’s Job Number One should be focusing on recovery from the economic devastation wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular attention paid to immediately fixing the state’s broken unemployment benefits system. But in the 2020 short session, lawmakers have also turned their attention to other matters, one of which is welcome news indeed. Reps. Steven Ross (R-Alamance) and Mitchell Setzer (R-Catawba) have introduced House Bill 1111, also known as the “Sunshine Amendment.’’ Simply put, the legislation gets serious about safeguarding the p ublic’s right to know what their government is up to. It would codify that right in the N.C. Constitution and add requirements that any move to curb current public access to government records and meetings would have to clear a supermajority – two-thirds of the vote – in both the state House and Senate. If the measure clears the legislature, it will be on the statewide ballot as a constitutional amendment in November for approval by N.C. voters. Similar measures have passed in California and Florida by wide margins. The need for such an amendment is obvious. Elected officials and the state bureaucracy work for and are paid by the taxpayers. It’s our right to know where our tax dollars are going and how decisions are made. The matter has added urgency here in the days of coronavirus, when the very nature of public meetings has changed radically from in-person gatherings to Zoom meetings, emails, instant messaging and texts. Those are all public record. Another good reason is the contraction of media in the state, particularly the press corps covering state government. We live in a state with a population of 10 million people, and a big, complex government serves their need. The press needs every bit of help it can in keeping the public informed. Media lawyer John Bussian, who represents the N.C. Press Association and the Carolina Journal, told CJ “Given the light the virus crisis has shed on the need for government accountability — and the need for the government to be upfront with people — there couldn’t be a better time for the Sunshine Amendment to be put on the ballot.” This one’s a no-brainer. We hope legislative leaders give it the attention it deserves.

The Coronavirus will change the world, the nation and North Carolina forever. When you consider what we have learned and what we have given up, how we have transformed our lives during this pandemic will change the way we live, work and play. Almost every aspect of American life will be altered going forward. We knew that at some point in time we would continue down the road of digital transformation. That’s been speeded up by the virus. Let’s review some of the changes we can expect in our lives. Social distancing will not go away and we will lose the centuries old common greetings of a hand shake and a hug. The handshake which originated in the 5th Century B.C. in Greece will be doomed in this new reality of practicing safe behavior. The handshake was a gesture of peaceful intentions by extending your right hand to show you were not holding a weapon. Now it’s about the elbow! The old-fashioned show of affection and friendship, the hug, which originated 450 years ago in Scandinavia, is now a practice that is taboo, a result of the fear of being contaminated. Hopefully, in time these two gestures of greeting and friendship will come back to our society and the world. Technology appears to be the biggest winner during this war against the plague. We can expect to see a transition from touch screens to voice controls, much like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Echo. Smartphones will gain greater importance for conducting business, banking, travel, etc., especially with the pending rollout of 5G. When you review the different aspects of how we live, all options are on the table. In education, more and more parents who can afford it, will opt for digital learning to gain greater control of the education of their children. For the children in rural North Carolina, the issue of broadband and access to computers becomes more and more important for equal access. Educators have discovered they can instruct students from afar with comprehensive lessons plans and interaction of students using video, instant research and engagement via broadband and laptop computers. In North Carolina, every child enrolled in school is being exposed to digital learning, which is impacting the education being provided during the pandemic. Educators and parents have to prepare themselves for the changes that emanated from this period for the near future. Colleges will offer more online classes potentially impacting the trend of rising tuition fees. The media, which is always important during crises, has been challenged and diminished as a result of the move to digital. The mainstream media, specifically print publishing will be forced to increase their migration to digital or risk extinction as a source of news and information, as people expect and deserve immediate access to news and information that impacts their lives. In the medical field, the increase in telehealth and virtual doctor visits will gain a foothold for medical care, with fewer visits to medical centers and hospitals. P rescriptions will be filled online and mailed to patients with greater frequency as patients try and avoid going to the hospitals for care. We can expect expansion of hospitals and medical care to combat the annual return of Covid-19. More online ordering of prepared food, grocery items and other goods will be done online and delivered to the sanctuary of homes via delivery services and in time with drones. Financial transactions and banking will accelerate and e-commerce will expand employing a cashless system. We can expect savings accounts to grow as people will want to ensure they have emergency funds and access to credit via mobile apps. Business meetings and conferences will move even more toward video conferencing and reduced air travel as we have learned to communicate and work differently. The new technology, 5G will accelerate internet speed of delivery for personal and business operations. We can expect a decrease in of non-violent crime incarceration to reduce overcrowding of jails and prisons. The world, the nation and local communities will be searching for ways to avoid another pandemic by forever changing their lifestyles and being well stocked on the important consumer products of toilet paper, paper towels and all of the sanitizing products that we long have taken for granted. We live in a different world and it will continue to change. The good old days are just that, old days. Buckle up for the new way of life that will emerge after the world gets the better of the Coronavirus.

There’s a lot of speculation around the state regarding how long the impact of the coronavirus pandemic will last in North Carolina. Weeks? Months? The betting line here is 10 years. That’s how long it will be before the next Census. The Census, mandated by the U.S. Constitution, strives to count every individual in the country. The data is used to determine political representation and determines redistricting at the federal, state and local levels. It is also used to determine the distribution of more than $675 billion in annual funding, or more than $4 trillion over the course of the decade the data will be used. The 2020 Census is underway, and North Carolina isn’t doing so well when it comes to self-response rates. As for March 28, the national response rate for the Census stood at 30.2 percent. North Carolina checked in at 27.7 percent. But some counties fell far, far below that number. In the western part of the state, Jackson County is a picturesque locale encircled by the Blue Ridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Blue Ridge escarpment. It’s home to Western Carolina University, Southwestern Community College and a wealthy retirement community in Cashiers at the south end. The response rate there was 11.9 percent. If that doesn’t pick up, it’s going to cost the county in federal funding for schools, public safety, seniors services, food assistance, you name it. The calculation for the county is that the Census count will deliver $1,600 in federal funding for each person counted, or $16,000 over the next decade. The response rates will pack a punch on a county that’s going to need help getting back on its feet – like every city, county and state in the country in a post-coronavirus world – if they don’t improve. Likely many mostly rural counties, Jackson faces some challenges with internet access in the rugged terrain of the southern Appalachians. The Census rollout has also been walloped by COVID-19. The public library had geared up to offer internet access for those who couldn’t access the form at home, but closed as a health precaution. Other community partners that stepped up also have had to step back. Another complicating factor comes with the thousands of students at WCU caught off guard by the shuttering of the institution after they’d departed for spring break. “In general, students in colleges and universities temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 virus will still be counted as part of this process. Even if they are home on Census day, April 1, they should be counted according to the residence criteria which states they should be counted where they live and sleep most of the time. We are asking schools to contact their students and remind them to respond. “Per the Census Bureau’s residence criteria, in most cases students living away from home at school should be counted at school, even if they are temporarily elsewhere due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” North Carolina needs to get its response rate up. There are no do-overs. Once it’s completed, we live with the results for the next decade. Next time you’re able to venture out, take a moment to slow down and think about the impact of tax dollars on your life and the lives of those you love. How are the roads? What’s the state of public transportation for those who need it? Are services for seniors readily accessible? How about child care? Census returns mean a lot to seniors, a lot to students and to young children. We can’t stress the latter enough, and children up to the age of 4 are at a higher risk of being undercounted. During the 2010 Census the Census Bureau estimated 25,000 young children weren’t counted in North Carolina, the eight-highest undercount in the nation. Should that happen again, that translates to $400 million off the table over a decade that should have been dedicated to a vulnerable population. If people don’t get counted, it’s not like money is being saved. The tax dollars work their way up the pipeline to be reallocated. What goes up, contrary to the saying, doesn’t always come down. Stand up and be counted. If not for yourself, for your loved ones and neighbors

It sometimes seems that when politicians of different political persuasions talk about the economy, and many other issues, they are like the old parable of the blind men and the elephant. The blind men know nothing of elephants. Each touches a different part of the elephant’s body and explains what an elephant is like based on his experience. Their explanations are so wildly different that they suspect each other of lying and come to blows. We’re all inclined to believe we know the truth based on our subjective experience which, despite our best efforts, is limited. That makes it extremely difficult for those of us who don’t have time to spend hours climbing all over a smelly pachyderm to grasp how we should approach the powerful animal. And, of course, there are plenty of politicians who shade the truth to their advantage, intentionally tell partial truths and/or downright lies. Take for instance President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech. In his version of the U.S. economy, “jobs are booming, incomes soaring (and) poverty is plummeting… I am thrilled to report to you tonight that our economy is the best it has ever been,” the president said. Then there’s Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders’ version. “This is the richest country on Earth and we have 40 million in poverty, 34 million with no health insurance and half our people living paycheck to paycheck,” he wrote on Twitter. What are North Carolina voters to make of this? Well, according to the North Carolina Justice Center, a non-profit that advocates for economic justice, while the stock market has doubled in value since 2010 when we began to recover from the Great Recession, wages for working North Carolinians have hardly budged. The Justice Center reports that the hourly wage in November 2019 was about $4.70 higher than in 2010, but inflation has wiped out virtually all of the increase. The center reports that throughout most of the 2000s, up until the Great Recession, well more than 60 percent of North Carolinians reported having a job. And while employment prospects have improved since the worst of the recession, recent labor market figures showed only 59.3 percent of North Carolinians had a job. The president said “real median household income is now at the highest level ever recorded.” But the Justice Center reports that median household income in North Carolina at the end of this decade still hasn’t reached year 2000 levels, despite recent growth. (Some of that growth has been driven by a tight labor market, and some can be attributed to raises in the minimum wage at state and local levels. The federal minimum wage hasn’t budged in a decade.) To the point of Trump’s market claims, according to a CNN Business analysis of how stocks performed under recent presidents, during the same first 763 trading days of their presidencies, stocks grew 42 percent under President Bill Clinton (the same as Trump), 45 percent under President George H.W. Bush, and 64 percent under President Barack Obama. In reality, the stock market growth under all these presidents, including President Trump, had more to do with when during the economic cycle they took office, than it did from any of their own actions or policies. That said, trade policies, regulation, monetary policy, taxes and government spending all affect the economy. But the president has only indirect control of most of these areas, as President Trump has learned. Then there are factors over which the president has no control, such as technological innovation and weather related disasters, that can impact the economy. Monetary policy is the realm of the Federal Reserve, and while the president nominates, the Senate must approve Federal Reserve governors who serve 14-year terms, meaning few presidents get to appoint an entire board. The president shares most of the power he has over the economy with Congress, where the federal budget, trade policies and laws from which regulatory policy flows must be approved. So, as we look to the coming elections, we need to take sweeping claims and soundbites about the economy with a grain of salt, no matter the candidate responsible for them. More importantly, we need to evaluate the economic proposals of our state candidates for the Senate and the House of Representatives, along with those of candidates for president. The economy, like so many other issues, is far more complicated than any politician can fit into a soundbite. Trump’s approach to improving it has been tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation and renegotiating trade policies. Sanders, who represents the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party, advocates higher taxes on the rich to fund social programs, a $15 federal minimum wage, and greater worker rights. More moderate Democratic candidates, like Pete Buttigieg, argue that investments in education, infrastructure and health would pay for themselves and stimulate the economy. Which of these approaches would actually do more to benefit average Americans? That’s the question we Americans will decide in November. As we make that decision, we should bear in mind that our system of government was designed to bring diverse approaches to the table in order to capture a more comprehensive picture of the whole and to allow for respectful debate and compromise. We should reject politicians for whom self-interest takes priority over public service, those who make grandiose promises they cannot achieve alone, those for whom “compromise” is a dirty word, and those who have gotten sucked into a culture of acrimony and negativism. It’s time we remembered that governing is a collaborative process. Before it’s too late.