Award-winning columnist, writer, speaker and editor
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — On a recent afternoon, Rose Hamid sat at a table at one of the busiest business intersections in the city’s center, sharing information about her faith and handing out copies of the Koran in English and Spanish.
Hamid, president of Muslim Women of the Carolinas, finds peace living in the so-called Bible belt. “Charlotte is a city where people are strong in their faith,” she said. “That’s something that’s comforting for me.”
When President Bill Clinton was winning two elections and presiding over economic boom times, his “Slick Willie” nickname highlighted a penchant for wanting to play all sides to stay on top. He was praised for feeling the pain of Americans and rode into a post presidency on a wave of high approval ratings, but the flaws are evident in his latest forays into his wife’s unexpectedly tough presidential primary campaign.
Though Bill Clinton’s telling off protesters in Philadelphia holding signs and interrupting his speech to remind him of the consequences of his 1994 crime bill may actually help his wife win some voters who believe the demonstrators deserve what he dished out, the image of the red-faced former president wagging a finger and dressing down young activists is not a good look. And his “I almost want to apologize” backtracking was condescending and too cute by half.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – It doesn’t take much to re-brand a state. Ask North Carolina.
Here’s the formula: Have the general assembly call a special session to pass a law that revokes an LGBT-anti-discrimination ordinance approved by the state’s largest city — plus throw a few other restrictive goodies into the package. Then wait for the headlines that compare you unfavorably to Georgia, whose governor just vetoed a related “religious freedom” bill. You then become the headquarters for boycotts and petitions on one side and thankful prayers on the other. And, just like that, watch a once touted label as a progressive outpost in the South disappear.
– See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/north-carolina-lgbt-bill-political-personal#sthash.zKuDL6WC.dpuf
After decisive primary, it’s still a battleground, and the state likes it that way.
Here’s an easy prediction to make: The historic election and two-term presidency of Barack Obama will provide endless material to future academics, journalists and commentators. Many books will be written examining every aspect of the first African-American president’s campaigns and years in the White House, with few agreeing on anything except the fact that President Obama did, indeed, make history. He and his policies will be loved, loathed and everything in between.
But you get the feeling that the information flood will somehow miss certain Americans, including those leaders who shared those Washington years with Obama, and spent many of them in denial. In the American history books Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for example, chooses for his library shelves, will the Obama years be mysteriously missing?
Whether the presidential race just got a lot more entertaining or frightening is the question.
In true “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” fashion, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie endorsed New York billionaire Donald Trump in the race to be the Republican nominee, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio must be sweating more than is his wont.
Who’s to blame for the water that poisoned the residents of Flint? Was it Environmental Protection Agency officials whose political squabbling with state and local leaders delayed getting word to residents? Was it the governor and his appointed emergency manager who, with eyes on the bottom line, made critical life decisions for a worried city?
After finishing first in the Iowa Republican caucuses in 2008 and 2012, respectively, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum were relegated to the undercard and mostly ignored pre-debate debate. Then the duo rushed (or perhaps hastily sauntered) to Donald Trump’s veterans’ event, one timed to clash with the main stage debate from which the front-runner was conspicuously absent because of his high-profile feud with Fox News.
So the leaders of yesteryear spent Thursday night at a Donald Trump veterans’ rally at Drake University — the Pips to Donald Trump’s Gladys Knight, background voices catching a bit of the spotlight but decidedly not the person the crowd and cameras had come to see. (Yes, in reality there were more than two Pips, but the fact that you had to think about it only proves the point.)
When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. admonished the Southern white religious leaders who called his civil rights actions “unwise and untimely,” he did it with empathy and understanding. In his 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King prefaced his own strong, morally held belief in equality by calling his critics “men of genuine good will” whose words were “sincerely set forth.” Think of it: A minister in jail, rejected by fellow men of faith, was nonetheless respectful of those who failed to come to his aid, who failed to see his fight — rooted in the words of the founders and the principles of faith — as their own.
On this day to honor him, politicians will utter and issue statements of praise for this man the nation honors, while ignoring every one of the lessons he taught. Respect those who disagree? Give them credit for being good people and patriotic Americans? Not this season.
