North Carolina Legislature

I first visited North Carolina in 1955. I was a student at the University of Mississippi. A year earlier, in Greenwood, Mississippi, the town where I started to school in the first grade in 1943, a prominent local citizen started the White Citizen's Council.

North Carolina was a very different place. It stood out as a southern oasis. North Carolina had men and women of vision. A manifestation of that vision was the election of Terry Sanford as governor in 1960.

I was happy to move here after I retired. Decent people. Progressive initiatives like the Research Triangle. Fine institutions of higher education. University of North Carolina. Duke. A fine community College System. Sailors. Good public schools. Efforts to improve the environment. One of the best election systems in the nation. Thoughtful public officials dedicated to making the state an even better place to live.

Earlier this evening, I watched the weekly legislative summary on public television. I had already read some of the bills introduced in the state legislature. What I heard and read brings back recollections of Mississippi in the 1940's and 1950's.

That isn't where North Carolina needs to go.