During President Obama’s upcoming European trip, he’ll be engaging in important diplomatic and political discussions, including the Nuclear Security Summit, hosted by the Dutch government, and a U.S.-EU Summit in Brussels. But perhaps most anticipated by observers of church and state — and where the two intersect — will be the president’s planned March 27 get together with Time’s Person of the Year, Pope Francis.
Yes, Greensboro Four pioneer Franklin McCain, you did plenty
CHARLOTTE — Franklin McCain never thought he was doing enough.
An icon of the civil rights movement, McCain was one of the Greensboro Four, college students who changed the world by sitting down at a whites-only lunch counter at F.W. Woolworth. Their simple request for service denied inspired many others in Greensboro, N.C., and across the country, where the “sit-in” spread.
But when I interviewed him 50 years after that Feb. 1, 1960, event, and asked the man who continued his activism throughout his life to grade himself, McCain thought for a bit before he said, “C-plus.” He continued: “I look at the all the situations I’ve been in and all the efforts I’ve been a part of, and I ask the questions, ‘Could I have done more? Could I have done it in less time? Could I have impacted more people?’ Each time I ask those questions, the answer is ‘yes, yes, yes.’ ”
McCain also gave advice to those who felt a little self satisfied: “Look around you. Do you see things that are not just? Do something about it.”
Franklin McCain died Thursday in Greensboro, his family has announced. While the world lost a civil rights champion, I lost someone who inspired me – not from a history book – but close up.
Jan102014
Congressman Clay Aiken – what are the chances?
North Carolina is determined to make you look.
The state is not merely content to give observers whiplash by turning from a narrow vote for Barack Obama in 2008 to installing a Republican-controlled legislature in 2010 whose laws over the past year – on everything from voting restrictions to education cuts — have protesters marching.
Now a sprinkling of show business has added razzle-dazzle to the political mix.
Last week, the big news was a report that well-known 2003 “American Idol” runner-up and North Carolinian Clay Aiken, 35, is considering a run for Congress. Compared to that headline, the Indian Trail (N.C.) Town Council member who wrote portions of his resignation letter in “Klingon” was just a distraction.
Jan062014
Tim Scott treads – carefully – through South Carolina and D.C. political thicket
Tim Scott, the junior senator from South Carolina, is a reliably conservative vote, most recently his “no” on Wednesday’s bipartisan budget agreement. But while the Republican’s record mirrors that of other tea party-backed members of Congress, his rhetoric is noticeably cooler.
That much was clear during his recent conversation with members of the Trotter Group, a national association of African-American columnists, who spent a few days in Washington meeting with policymakers from various parties and persuasions.
Dec192013
Why Sarah Palin is here to stay
CHARLOTTE – Merry Christmas spoken here.
That could have been the slogan at Sarah Palin’s book-signing on Friday at the Billy Graham Library. As she greeted admirers, surrounded by the lights, trees and decorations, her message came across loud and clear.
“She’s gorgeous,” someone said, after she appeared to loud applause from the crowd. And she was, dressed in black pants and a black patterned lace top – glasses on, hair up and pen ready.
Many of those waiting in line wore a pin that read “It’s OK to Wish Me a Merry Christmas,” carrying through the theme of Palin’s book “Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas,” which sees the freedom to express the Christian values of the season under siege.
Dec092013
The message of Pope Francis can survive Rush and the rest
Did Pope Francis know what he was getting into when he spoke from his heart and from the heart of Roman Catholic doctrine? At the very least, if the pontiff didn’t know who Rush Limbaugh was before, he sure does now.
Dec062013
In N.C. Senate race, it’s the tea party vs. Karl Rove vs. Kay Hagan, etc.
CHARLOTTE — U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan this week congratulated former UNC-Chapel Hill head basketball coach Dean Smith on receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a move she had urged President Obama to make. Besides establishing her Tar Heel bona fides, it was one thing the North Carolina Democrat could do without anyone objecting.
A year before her re-election bid, Hagan’s face is all over TV, in ads made to attack and — from the other side — bolster her record. But the effort to doom her chances by defining her as an Obama clone is complicated by her own record, by a state that isn’t quite as deep red as its Southern cousins and by a GOP opposition that disagrees on the candidate that would have the best chance against her.
Nov222013
Could a movie cure politicians of their slavery-metaphor addiction?
The film “12 Years a Slave” is one of great beauty about a great horror. Director Steve McQueen’s account of the American slave business – and it was an American economic institution that trafficked in flesh, blood and human suffering – is not particularly easy viewing, though you can’t look away. I saw it a few days ago, and once was plenty. But I would gladly see it again if politicians who can’t quit their slavery metaphors agreed to a movie date.
Nov132013
