Comments by Gene Scarborough | Eastern NC Now

If you are going to see Beaufort County become progressive, it takes all to work for the good of his County. I am appalled at what is going on. Any good government is done by cooperation rather than a small segment dictating to the rest.

I have been a 1 Board Meeting where the hate was obvious. On top of that, the input from citizens was "cordial" and it was obvious it was a charade of listening when decisions were already made!

We can do far better as colleagues in a small and impoverished County. Let's do such in the future, if you please.

Commented: Friday, October 10th, 2014 @ 8:49 pm By: Gene Scarborough

O-O-O-O-O-O Let's stone her for missing a meeting when many more are scheduled on the same subject!

I'm having a hard time with the hate speak campaign of Tillis. Does anyone note his part in the Fracking of NC and the budget fiascoes---starting with the lack of taxing on the rich to balance the budget with us working taxpayers????

If such conservatives have "conserved anything" but hate, I don't see it. Hagan has served only 1 term / had made headway with seniority / has tried to get something progressive done in a "NO" environment of Republicans already on Capital Hill.

If Tillis should get lucky and go to Capital Hill, you can guarantee the first move will be to try and Impeach a President already on his last less than 2 years!

Sorry, I remain unconvinced the Mr. Tillis is the right person to represent NC in Washington.

Commented: Thursday, October 9th, 2014 @ 7:21 pm By: Gene Scarborough

Joe Stewart is "spot on." Had Tillis paid attention, he just might have had a chance in the Hagan Debate last night. As it was, Tillis climbed the monkey tree again and clearly showed his tail to all in NC.

I hope he has enough money to make a living in NC in the next few years because it won't be in Washington---unless NC citizens hate the President enough to buy Tillis' only campaign promise. Hagan is running on positive plans for the future / Tillis is wanting to destroy bi-partisanship in Washington and try to Impeach the President along with total idiots going against a Constitutional Lawyer in the Oval Office!

Commented: Wednesday, October 8th, 2014 @ 8:17 am By: Gene Scarborough

AT LAST --- a Commissioners Meeting that resulted in some progress!!!

YOU DA MAN, STAN!!!!!!!

Commented: Sunday, September 28th, 2014 @ 12:30 pm By: Gene Scarborough

How do we distinguish ISIS "crazy" from Homeland "crazy"???

Maybe Republicans should re-consider the closing of our mental hospitals and shipping patients to communities and half-way houses, etc. --- or to jobs on Legislative Hill from Dix Hill in Raleigh!!!!

Commented: Sunday, September 28th, 2014 @ 12:14 pm By: Gene Scarborough

I think we need to add another level of LOGIC to Global Warming ~~~ what happened with the Ice Age / what the geologic record shows across the Pamlico River at PCS.

No temperature trend is instant, rather over eons of earth history. The "Sandhills" around Fort Bragg is nothing but the former NC beach when the earth warmed, the polar caps melted, the oceans rose. That geologic record shows clearly that the Pamlico River was some 200' UNDERWATER!!!! The things they are digging from the sediment they are mining are Megalith sharks / other oceanic remains / layers upon layers laid down for eons at the bottom of the sea at the time.

Another consideration on weather is the growing intensity of hurricanes. It is my contention that we are clear-cutting the rain forests in South America. Our gigantic logging machines can take down an acre per hour and leave the bare ground to heat like an oven eye the storms from Africa as they form into hurricanes such as Katrina.

A low-altitude ride in a private plane over rivers or that ribbon of highway, NC-64, tells you air currents rise or fall in a curtain of convected air. Where, once, summer storms slowly went to the south as they traveled toward our sounds --- now they are steered more due east. At Tarboro you can count on heavier snow as that moist winter air crosses the highway.

I think we are being fools NOT to consider mankind's effects on weather. The more of us there are --- and the more we can change the earth with damming rivers and building highways as well as de-forestation ---- the more we are a factor in natural cycles of warming and cooling along with rain and storms.

We are but keepers of that which God created. If we abuse our little blue dot in the heavens orbiting a small star, that blue ball can reduce us to a manageable portion of the earth. If you doubt me, ask the mammals and dinosaurs what happened to them.

Commented: Saturday, September 27th, 2014 @ 9:37 am By: Gene Scarborough

I would add: Try Dick Cheney for profiting over war / also George W. Bush for putting us in over lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction (if should have been "distraction")

Commented: Saturday, September 27th, 2014 @ 8:53 am By: Gene Scarborough

My God, Stan---can the hate rhetoric or, at least bring it down a notch.

Heck, you now have what you want the Conservatives are still crying like children at the check out counter over the candy they insist their parents buy. I would take mine by the hand and give them more than a time out, brother!!!

ENOUGH pouting already!!!

Commented: Friday, September 26th, 2014 @ 5:47 pm By: Gene Scarborough

The best thing I can say about the next few weeks leading up to the Mid-term Election is that Media gets rich / we need to get real about who and what we are as Americans / enjoy it while it lasts ~~~ what the heck will we have to entertain us after we get whatever leaders we get!!!

Commented: Thursday, September 25th, 2014 @ 2:45 pm By: Gene Scarborough

I have lived in NC / SC / GA. Each state is somewhat unique. Only GA is larger than NC in population and area. The big difference in GA population is Metro Atlanta with its some 8+ million residents.

Since my birth in 1946, it was a given that the "South voted Democratic." The main reason was what FDR did for the farmers to save them from the Depression. Then in the 50's industry moved South, mainly because of a lack of Unions and lower cost of living. That began a large influx of Republicans from, mostly, the North and Mid-West.

From the mouth of Lyndon Johnson as he signed legislation voting rights and War on Poverty came these words: "Well, there goes the South to the Republicans!" He was a political master, no matter what else he was. I believe he hit the nail on the head!

Let's face it---the prejudices of race are still a big factor. To a person, Republicans want to say the color of the President is no factor. Among the many political lies said, that is the one furthest from the truth. The black vote for a black presidential candidate was a serious factor. Before, the religious conservative vote was a big factor for Reagan and the Bushes.

It was an assumption that "Conservative" means conserving everything. Frankly, I haven't seen much "conserving" in recent years. The Supreme Court is now packed with "conservative" Justices giving "conservative" rulings and appointed by "Conservative Republican Presidents."

NC has, in the past, been a "PROGRESSIVE" state. The rapid growth of Research Triangle and East Carolina Medical School have had tremendous growth for those parts of this state. Textiles have gone away. That is attributed to NAFTA rather than Reganomics. NAFTA was a Clinton measure. The current tax code favoring corps and the rich is a Republican concept.

I am INDEPENDENT and cherish my ability to step back from Party and vote for Candidate. My personal and business strife are directly attributable to the crash of the US Economy under Bush and Reaganomics.

Commented: Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014 @ 6:35 pm By: Gene Scarborough

The current Attorney General was a back door neighbor of mine in Rocky Mount / Senator representing Nash County / personal friend I admire for his honesty and integrity.

I think his information for college students is both wise and needed. The trouble today with the busted economy means that they graduate with little opportunity to get good work and repay the debt.

I see ads all over for people to go back to school and get a degree. Colleges are offering courses all over to make it more convenient to attend as well as get a degree via Internet.

I it my contention that until the VooDoo of the current tax code is addressed / the savings in taxes come with a condition that investment and hiring---as well as banking---be done inside the US / we find ways to quit taxing the working class to death while rich investors get a virtually free ride / we put some controls on the cost of Oil ---- we will continue in the valley of Recession/Depression.

This situation was address by government under Franklin Roosevelt. They started with help to the poor farmer (largest small business segment at the time) and they quickly paid their debts! NOT SO with the corporate and banking entities given monster amounts of tax money under Bush.

Us Taxpayers owned 61% of GM after their bail out ---- did the price of their cars to the public get a single dollar of reduction to those of us who paid????

Commented: Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014 @ 10:39 am By: Gene Scarborough

I am always amazed by Monday Morning Quarterbacks --- you certainly qualify, my friend.

The major difference is that a good Monday Morning Quarterback would meet eye-to-eye with the coach and suggest to him what he might have done better next time. No coach responds well to people wanting to fire him from before he took the position---and never changing nor helping.

When I hear Conservatives making positive contributions over abject criticism, I will pay attention. Otherwise, it is a futile exercise in abject criticism!

Commented: Monday, September 22nd, 2014 @ 7:04 am By: Gene Scarborough

I totally agree with the foolishness of shutting down our NC Mental Hospitals. Dorothea Dix was a compassionate and understanding person that some people need special care due to mental defects.

In Germany the Nazis exterminated the Gypsies / mental cases / Jews. Many states have done what NC has "in the interest of a balanced budget." That sucks, in my view. What we are doing to the mentally ill is tantamount to extermination because some of them have been involved in "suicide by cop" in recent years.

I worked as a Nurses Aide on the Alcoholic Ward at Dorothea Dix as my first NC job to get through Graduate School. I also took a Chaplaincy Course at Southeastern Seminary where we were given exposure to all the aspects of Dorothea Dix. We witnessed Electro-therapy used on schizophrenia. The electrodes applied to each side of the patient's head induced a seizure. We visited a woman's outbuilding ward where a lady told me her demented tale of being in "her world" as opposed to the outside being "another world." Her back story that filtered through the dementia was of being molested as a teen by her sister's husband and that sent her over the edge to what she was in her 40's that day.

At Dorothea Dix the patients lived in a safe place with their meds monitored and administered. Today, those same people are doing the best they can. Some are sleeping under the stars and behind storage bins.

What has happened to COMPASSION??? Are we really so focused on building highways and promoting our state and Education ~~~ that mental illness is forgotten???

My son lived in Traverse City, MI. Their hospital is now an empty hulk just like Dorothea Dix. It was never fancy, but it was safe and patients were secure. I know of a friend from another state who was a Mental Health Professional. She told me the sad story of one of her clients who committed suicide rather than carry his demons inside his head for another day outside their closing Mental Hospital.

Commented: Sunday, September 21st, 2014 @ 9:35 am By: Gene Scarborough

Lester was a "unique" character. He owned and operated the Pickwick Restaurant in Atlanta. When blacks insisted on being served, he denied them service. He had a big ax handle to enforce it!

After that, enterprising Maddox had a basket of miniature ones for sale in his lobby!

I have a picture in my Emory yearbook of him participating in a fraternity event called the "Great Bed Race." He was the occupant as the brothers pushed against their competition. He was a sport as well.

I had an Emory classmate from Adel, GA. She was more than lovely---which was unusual for Emory coeds of "brainy" extraction. I all got far more lovely when women's lib hit the campus and they all burned their bras!

It seems many most intelligent women are endowed in proportion to their brains! Why did I have to graduate in 1967 and go to Southeastern Seminary where such things were off their radar --- as well as the radar of Capital City women by and large.

Silly me.

Commented: Sunday, September 21st, 2014 @ 9:07 am By: Gene Scarborough

Do you get high on hate, my brother??? If there were a sneer emoticon, you should just use it to save words!

I grew up in Atlanta. Charlotte reminds me much of that big city as it surpassed its first million residents. Now Atlanta has some 8+ million and to drive through metro Atlanta takes a good 2 hours --- 3 if you get in a traffic jam of the hour!

The problem with taxation for Atlanta was always the quick grow demands for new schools. I graduated with 63 classmates in 1963 from a little town the size of Bath. It now graduates some 400 each year. Few are white. Most are dark-skinned and from nations around the world. That part of metro Atlanta is a true melting pot of cultures. The crime of DeKalb County is high because so many stressed financially people live there now. My sister just retired early at the end of 20 years because her new student were not of the caliber as the earlier ones.

The thing you must realize about big cities is that traditions are challenged and things change fast. When I left GA for NC back in 1967, I was glad to get away before Lester Madox of ax-handle fame became its governor. I arrived in Wake Forest to tune in the news from Channel 5 Raleigh. Jesse Helms was delivering his nightly editorial and I could not help but say, "Be darned, Lester's first Cousin of Conservatism lives in NC!!!"

Lester did not ruin GA / Jesse did not ruin America while in Congress

Would it not be a most dull world if everybody thought alike ~~~ especially in a nation built on freedom of speech and the press? With the current political race I know 2 things:

(1) The media is getting rich off advertising and distortion.
(2) The wise voter looks to see which media and money is backing a particular candidate for office.

Viva la difference, Sir!!!

Commented: Saturday, September 20th, 2014 @ 11:11 am By: Gene Scarborough

I suspect with nuclear power, he would push the button to turn the Middle East into a big bowl of glass!

Commented: Friday, September 19th, 2014 @ 2:06 pm By: Gene Scarborough

Last night's episode switched the focus to FDR / his muscular disease / his relationship to Eleanor / his winning of the Presidency as the Great Depression took over and ruined the US economy.

More insights on "then is now" in my view.

Commented: Thursday, September 18th, 2014 @ 11:43 am By: Gene Scarborough