Progressive vs. Regressive in NC | Eastern North Carolina Now

    We all know the days of oil and fossil fuel dependency need to end for the future of our planet. We have solutions now --- and coming down the pike --- in solar, wind, water, nuclear, and who knows what new concept to power humanity. Nobody in the South wants to give up their HVAC system. Were it not for such, the South would still be too hot to endure!

    I first lived and worked in NC 1967-70 as I matriculated to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and lived in Wake Forest. I was the first Baptist Chaplain to the Wake County Juvenile Court and, before that, worked on the Alcoholic Ward of Dorothea Dix Hospital as a Nurse's Aide. NC was the first state to recognize the need for public Mental Health Care.

    When I left NC to begin my ministerial career in SC my comment was: "Raleigh will never be more than a Capital Cow Town with Jesse Helms shouting in the corner over WRAL." I was chagrined to have come from Atlanta as Lester Maddox's conservatism was sworn into their governorship. Atlanta was booming, much of GA was still as rural as NC relished its textiles and tobacco to sustain itself along with tourism. There was little eye to the future in 1970!

    Something happened in the interim while I was gone until 1986. I came to Rocky Mount and represented Ministers Life Insurance Company over eastern NC. I relished the good environment for our growing children and the flat roads that brought me back home most nights---even from Wilmington or Manteo. We had great connections for me in my travels.

    Something dramatic had happened while I was gone. The RDU Triangle had boomed and Greenville now hosted a growing University and Medical School. All the things were a direct result of political decisions to open NC doors to clean industry and PROGRESSIVE THINKING. . .

    I so love it when the "small government / no help from tax dollars" Conservatives have to admit solar energy (which is most PROGRESSIVE) is a direct result of tax use to promote the future of NC! My car tag even had the RTP letters on it which showed part of my tag fee went to PROGRESSIVE things such as a Commercial Jetport at Kinston, along with the progress in Greenville and the RDU Triangle. NC did it without undue taxation or abject favoritism.

    I see NO PROBLEM with PROGRESSIVE thinking / I see great problems with REGRESSIVE outlooks controlling our Legislature in the past 10 years. We are all suffering from lack of vision and political infighting. Give BOTH Democrats and Republicans a hand when they have cooperated in the past for growth. We have lost most of our Textiles and now Tobacco is not the great source of wealth it once was. When you can't smoke on the Campus of Beaufort CC, we have become a bit too REGRESSIVE for me

    We have lost our way with Big Oil now Fracking NC and threatening to put Offshore Drilling in the Graveyard of the Atlantic---between our pristine Outer Banks and the Gulf Stream. We, in Beaufort County, could well become a crude oil sandwich between aquifers corrupted by Fracking and a guaranteed oil spill just as they had in the Deep Horizon fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico. I am told tar balls are washing up on the Outer Banks and lower parts of our coast.

    North Carolina has presented itself as a natural wonderland welcoming tourists. We have some of the best visual things imaginable. Growing up in Atlanta, we went to the Ridgecrest Retreat Center near Black Mountain. We would always do some touring each time. I was astounded by Blowing Rock, Vanderbilt Mansion, Mount Mitchell, Blue Ridge Parkway---to name a few. The mountains in August give afternoon showers, flowers of late summer, cool evenings beckoning the fall. Astounding colors as summer ends and the promise of autumn leaf color is a delight.

    We got married in 1968 at Rocky Mount. Our honeymoon took us from Durham to the Cliffdweller Motel at Boon. We enjoyed a special elegant dining evening at a fine old establishment. We saw Price Park, another section of the Parkway, a beautiful white mansion perched on the hillside, the Mast Store and Valle Crucis along with Grandfather Mountain. That was pretty much a Piedmont adventure.

    We have had the furniture industry around Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point. We have some of the best wines grown in the USA. Sports are outstanding with farm teams all over and college basketball beyond compare. Any college or university is a great visit. The Observatory at Chapel Hill always has shows. Raleigh is full of museums. Historic sites are within an hour's drive from one another. This state goes back to the founding of the country. Don't forget the Zoo at Asheboro and NASCAR racing. NC is an astounding tourist attraction and great place to retire and live because of our mild climate and agrarian look.

    Our future can be bright with new thinking of a Progressive sort. NC State has made significant contributions to the Space Program. It is the instigator of solar energy and other innovations with miniaturization and battery clean power . . . They could help the tobacco farmer compete in the World Flower Market as we now have Commercial Jet service where large transports could speed fresh flowers around the word---in competition with Amsterdam.

    I am inviting you eye to look at the natural beauty. My great fear is that our lust for fossil fuels could destroy or diminish it all. Imagine the smell of rotten eggs as sulfur comes up with oil. Methane gas burning is a byproduct of Fracking. I remember visiting Copper Hill, TN, as a child and the odor burned my nose, not to mention hillsides denuded by mining. It looked like some giant hand had raped the landscape over money and greed.

    It REGRESSED natural things any area had. NC had gold mines long ago, but they operated without destruction of all the land. A few open pit operations took place around Lake Gaston and Littleton, but that was short-lived and now closed. Commercial forestry has replaced the bare earth.

    This state has been wise in tending to its rivers and streams. The chemicals of textiles have been poured into many of them, but with the reduction of textiles a side effect is stopping that pollution. No matter what, any operation, with proper care, can leech out harmful chemicals headed to waters or air. Across from me, the PCS operation has smoke stacks with scrubbers to clean out caustic substances. I see government inspectors sampling water and air to protect Beaufort County. It is a source of concern, but seems to be reasonable and gives jobs to many.

    A PROGRESSIVE outlook gives a balance between growth and development / a REGRESSIVE outlook puts the lid on a future and protects the vested interests.

    In closing, I give an example from my childhood outside Atlanta in the little town of Clarkston. It was almost identical to Bath in the early 50's---all 12 grades in one school / houses from the 1920-50's construction / some old farmhouses and even a dairy on the outskirts. Atlanta was 15 miles away and this was a rural small town suburb. People were just beginning to move there and some new housing was built, but very little. Atlanta offered jobs, DeKalb County offered the nice feel of rural suburbs.

    The problem at Clarkston was a few who ran the show. You could describe them as "REGRESSIVE ON STEROIDS." They wanted to own the political power to keep their land so it would skyrocket in price. Instead of selling for subdivisions they were looking at building apartments and renting them for perpetual income.

    Another town of similar location and size was Tucker. Their school had already doubled over the size of my school. All around were subdivisions under development. The downtown was 3 times the size of Clarkston and far more diverse. It was becoming a community on its own participating in Atlanta metro growth of the 50's. It was on a PROGRESSIVE mode of growth.

    I visited both towns this Spring. There is a vast difference now. Clarkston is a dump / Tucker is a thriving place. Clarkston is a conglomeration of foreign languages and apartments. Tucker is surrounded by lovely subdivisions and a sense of community. Atlanta has a growing community of black folks. Much of these 2 towns are now dark when it was lily-white in the 50's. Still there is a vast difference---because black folks moving up want nice homes like those around Tucker. It is devoid of the crime and gangs that exist at Clarkston. Tucker seems safe. Clarkston is scary and you skin has its warning hairs up!

    Outlook has more to do with the future than we imagine.

    What is yours??? PROGRESSIVE or REGRESSIVE????