Sexual Misconduct in Politics

Featured at WCCB Rising

CHARLOTTE, NC — President Trump has not exactly endorsed embattled Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore but he has come out saying Washington doesn’t need a Democrat like Moore’s opponent Doug Jones. And long-serving House member John Conyers has been revealed to have paid a settlement with a former staffer though he has denied her allegation. (Mary C. Curtis)

Will sexual harassment devolve into just another partisan issue – or will Democrats and Republicans see it as a problem that needs new policies in place? Political Contributor Mary C. Curtis weighs in.

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Nov222017 TAGS: , , , , , ,

Opinion: Remembering Recy Taylor and the Too Familiar State of Alabama

Featured at Roll Call

In “The Rape of Recy Taylor,” a recently released documentary, you see the face of bravery. It is Recy Taylor, the 24-year-old African-American — a wife and mother of an infant daughter — kidnapped in 1944 by a carful of young white men, some the sons of the “respectable” leaders of Abbeville, Alabama, where they all lived. A gun held to her head, she was blindfolded, driven to a remote spot and violated in unimaginable ways. She escaped being killed by promising to keep quiet.

But she did not keep that promise.

Taylor’s legacy can be seen in the women speaking up now about sexual harassment of all kinds, most recently Alabama women who on the surface have little in common with a poor black sharecropper from decades ago. In fact, Beverly Young Nelson, who became the fifth woman to accuse Roy Moore when she tearfully recounted her story of an alleged sexual assault, said she and her husband voted for Donald Trump, while Taylor, in her midcentury time, was not allowed to vote at all.

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Nov162017 TAGS: , , , , , , , ,

Opinion: Will 2018 Midterms Follow Scorched-Earth Playbook?

Featured at Roll Call

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – It was a nice little mayor’s race in the largest city in North Carolina, considering that Charlotte has gone through a lot of mayors (seven) in the past nine years. And that’s even taking into account Democratic incumbent Jennifer Roberts losing, in the primary, her chance to defend her spot because of her part in a “bathroom” bill that labeled the state in all the wrong ways and her handling of protests that turned violent after a police-involved shooting.

But all that aside, the scorched-earth campaign between two mild-mannered city council members competing to move into the mayor’s office was a bit unexpected. It reached a heated crescendo with a digital ad from the N.C. Values Coalition, which supported Republican Kenny Smith. The ad said Democrat Vi Lyles “is Jennifer Roberts” and featured an ominous voice-over, a man entering a bathroom to the frightened chagrin of a girl already claiming the space, scenes of rioting and the image of comedian Kathy Griffin holding a blurred severed head.

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Nov092017 TAGS: , , , , ,

Charlotte Elections 2017: What Happened? Why? What’s Next?

Featured at WCCB Rising

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Democrat Vil Lyles beat out Republican mayoral candidate Kenny Smith to become Charlotte’s first female African American to take the city’s top office.

Our political contributor Mary C. Curtis stops by to discuss Tuesday’s election results, what’s next for the city, and who the new voices are in our city government.

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Nov082017 TAGS: , , , , ,

Charlotte Will Have a New Mayor

Featured at WCCB Rising

CHARLOTTE, NC — Mayor Pro Tem Vi Lyles won the Democratic Primary over Incumbent Mayor Jennifer Roberts. Lyles will face Republican Kenny Smith in the General Election on November 7th.

Political Contributor Mary C. Curtis discusses what will be the key issues the General Election and why Roberts couldn’t hold off Lyles.

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Sep132017 TAGS: , , , , , ,

Opinion: The Terror Within — Those Who See Danger in Diversity

Featured at Roll Call

It was a stirring message of unity. On Monday, 16 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on American soil that saw planes flown into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and brave passengers divert one into a Pennsylvania field, President Donald Trump honored the memories of the dead and the heroics woven through the actions of so many.

At a 9/11 commemoration ceremony at the Pentagon, Trump recalled that moment: “On that day, not only did the world change, but we all changed. Our eyes were opened to the depths of the evil we face. But in that hour of darkness, we also came together with renewed purpose. Our differences never looked so small, our common bonds never felt so strong.”

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Sep132017 TAGS: , , , ,

Opinion: A Veteran Takes on a House Incumbent — and Other N.C. Political Tales

Featured at Roll Call

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Purplish-red North Carolina is hard to figure out. That may be why national eyes tend to watch local, state and federal races for clues of political trends, particularly whether or not the Donald Trump phenomenon is fading. Or perhaps it’s just the state’s unpredictability and the entertainment value of its outsize personalities who make news, even when they wish they had not.

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Sep072017 TAGS: , , , ,

Opinion: The Rule of Law, the Role of History

Featured at Roll Call

It was as predictable as clockwork. When I worked at a newspaper in Tucson, Ariz., the letter would arrive or the phone would ring and the message would be filled with outrage and surprise. Imagine being in a store or on the street and hearing two or more people having a conversation — in Spanish.

The spanking new desert denizen— just arrived from Michigan or Minnesota or somewhere else where it got cold in the winter — could not understand a word and this is America, right?

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Aug312017 TAGS: , , , , , , , , ,

Opinion: A Partial Eclipse of Bad News

Featured at Roll Call

Celestial event didn’t blot out Confederate statue stain

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Aug242017 TAGS: , , , , , ,

Opinion: Trump’s Ratings Hold Steady, but Is He Losing Key Groups He Needs to Stay on Top?

Featured at Roll Call

“You’re fired!” was the reality show refrain of the now president of the United States, Donald Trump. So when, on the campaign trail, candidate Trump said, “I alone can fix it,” with “it” meaning whatever was ailing the country and each one of its citizens, it was easy to for someone looking for answers to transfer his my-way-or-the-highway TV decisiveness to Oval Office success.

Could “The Apprentice” boss have bought into his own hype on the way to the White House, forgetting the behind-the-scenes writers and producers, and the reality of life after the director yells, “Cut”?

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Aug032017 TAGS: , , , , , , , , ,
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