Comments by Steven P. Rader | Eastern NC Now
Browse all Comments by Steven P. Rader...
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ABC = Anybody But Cooper
Commented: Sunday, August 9th, 2026 @ 8:12 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on Nick Fritz Tells Stan Deatherage Why he Resigned ...Nick, in no local government should elected board / council members play second fiddle to hired mangers. Elected officials are elected to MAKE the policy, and hired managers serve to carry out that policy. That is true whether it is a city council, county commission, or school board. Managers in local government are full time while elected officials are part time, so it is also incumbent on managers to keep a watchful eye on policy issues that need to be brought to the attention of their boards, present options on the issues, and make recommendations to their boards. Mangers should always adhere to the policies set by the elected officials, but it can be problematic for elected officials to try to micromanage.
Local government works best when there is a good working relationship between the elected board / council and their hired managers. Local government personnel below the manager are hired and fired by the manager, but board members should be able to discuss any personnel concerns with their manager, and he should give them consideration, although he is not bound by them. Budgets are proposed by the manager but only proposed. Adoption, including with amendments is the function of the board. As part of the budget, funding can be eliminated for positions in local government. No elected official should ever feel he is a "rubberstamp" because that is not the way the system is supposed to work.
Commented: Saturday, August 1st, 2026 @ 9:48 am
By: Steven P. Rader
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Van Zant, you are particularly well informed.
The conservatives elected to the school board in 2022 got some important policy changes made on the curriculum adoption process. The new written policy, proposed by board member Donald Shreve, gave the board a lot more oversight over the process, something it should have had all along. It is, after all, the elected board member who have the ultimate say over what curriculum is adopted. During the adoption process on the new science curriculum, the teachers evaluation committee, supported by their central office staff coordinator tried to do an end run around that new process and present the board with a single "take it or leave it" option instead of the minimum of three options required by the new policy. The central office staff involved in that has since been replaced. In dealing with that curriculum, the board informally used some new policies that produced a greater degree of information for the board from that teachers evaluation committee. It also became apparent that having cost information on curriculum proposals available early in the process to everyone would improve the process. I put revision of the written policy on curriculum development on the board agenda for discussion, and verbally presented a series of suggested improvements in the formal process, based on our experience with the adoption of the science curriculum. I went through each of a series of proposals and got no objections to any of them from other board members, so I stated I would draw them up in a formal policy amendment and present them for adoption. When I presented them, I ran into a buzz saw of organized opposition, led by board member Carolyn Walker. They objected to making any change whatsoever. They did not want to rethink just a point or two. They wanted no changes at all. Adoption of the curriculum is one of the most important policy decisions entrusted by statute to elected school board members, and one that members should take seriously. We need strong policies that maximize the board's responsibility and give it the best information to make its decision. Without appropriate written policies on the procedures in curriculum adoption, that responsibility may not properly be fulfilled. If some of the more liberal board members had any issues with my proposals, those should have been discussed openly at the first meeting this subject was on the agenda. I put it on the agenda then to try to get a consensus, which from all appearances had been achieved. If any of the proposals had received pushback, I would have presented two policy proposals, one with those that had consensus, and one where there was some division. From the responses, all of the issues had consensus so that was the way I presented it in a formal amendment.
Commented: Saturday, August 1st, 2026 @ 9:32 am
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on Two Resolutions, Two Most Important Issues whose worth Shall be Determined by Beaufort County's Commissioners."Gerrymandered", Theresa? Personally, I am very happy to be back home in the 1st district. As a resident of Washington, I served on the 1st District Republican Executive Committee from 1979 to 2007 when I resigned to take a job overseas. It was only when I returned in 2013 that I found that all of Beaufort County was now in the 3rd District.
All of Beaufort County was in the 1st District for many decades until 1992. Then, the county was split between the 1st and the 3rd from 1992 to 2011. That was a Democrat gerrymander that split many counties in our part of the state. Only since 2011 has Beaufort County been entirely in the 3rd.
Commented: Saturday, August 1st, 2026 @ 8:56 am
By: Steven P. Rader
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Glen Beck had a segment today on his radio show on the threat of these license plate reading Flock cameras to our privacy and freedom, with the big danger being in Flock's collecting all of this data from many cameras and aggregating it for permanent storage in data bases. He discouraged people from destroying or damaging the cameras, as seems to be going on some places, but that this issue needs to be addressed urgently with local governments. He suggested the key safeguard is to prohibit maintaining these records beyond a couple of weeks.
Commented: Wednesday, July 29th, 2026 @ 11:54 am
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on Flock cameras, big brother is watchingThe issue here is expectation of privacy. Case law, and where it bears on the subject statutory law has always presumed that people have no expectation of privacy when they are out in public. That may have made sense in the time before the era of widespread cameras, but what really calls for a rethink is the recent wave of data collection and retention for long periods rom these cameras. I don't think citizens have any reasonable expectation of that.
Rather than waiting for the courts, what needs to happen is passage of data privacy laws either by states or by the federal government. Those have already been adopted in some other countries. Those laws should govern both how retention of this data is allowed or disallowed and access to the data by third parties, which should probably be limited in most cases to law enforcement AFTER they get a warrant. If a business or homeowner wants to monitor their surroundings and who comes and goes, that should certainly be allowed both to put up cameras and to retain the images for a reasonable period. It is the transmission to and long time retention in a data base by thrid parties that screams for reform. Also, Kidwell was right that our government should not be doing this on a daily basis. There are also national security considerations. What happens if China, for example, buys Flock, or even hacks Flock's database? The surveillance state is inconsistent with democracy and human freedom.
Commented: Wednesday, July 22nd, 2026 @ 12:48 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Ray, there is way too much personal attack in local Republican politics, and there has been too much of it on both sides. Politics should be about policy, principles, and issues, not personal grievances with other Republicans. The Democrats undoubtably are left grinning from ear to ear when these personality conflicts within the GOP go hyper.
At every meeting of the Victory Committee I attended, all Facebook advertising was focused on electing the five Republicans running, not attacking Republicans or conservatives. I have seen the nastygrams you mention, and I suspect whoever did it left as little a paper trail as possible. Internal party wars only help Democrats.
Commented: Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 @ 10:36 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Hood, the paid campaign materials approved by the Victory Committee such as radio ads and mailers promoted all 5 Republicans running for city council. If one or more individuals who may have had party positions said anything disparaging of any Republican candidate, I am not aware of it but if they did it would be highly inappropriate. Such things should not even be done privately.
The Conservative Club's slate and the Republican Party slate differed on only one seat, with the club backing Joe Davis, a conservative independent, and the party backing Wiley Woolard, a Republican. If both of them had lost, there would have been a good argument that backing different candidates for that seat helped elect a Democrat by dividing the vote on that one seat. But that is NOT what happened. Joe Davis, with the support of two blocks, the Conservative Club and the Brabo for mayor campaign, predictably came in second and won a seat. As to the two Republicans who ran close but not quite enough, that split in support did not impact them. They were both on the county GOP slate and on the Conservative Club slate. Those who voted either slate already voted for them once and could not do it a second time. Where the real blunder came was that both the Beaufort GOP and the Conservative Club failed to check the box to endorse Brabo for mayor. Yes, she was an Unaffiliated and presented herself as a moderate, but her opponent was a Democrat, so endorsing her would not have presented party loyalty problems for the GOP since she was not running against a Republican. The important impact of that endorsement would have been that it would have pulled more Brabo supporters to vote for the two Republicans who ran close but lost. There was a Victory Committee meeting where that was decided which got rescheduled and I was not available for it as I was in Asheville for the NC School Boards Association Law Conference. I had talked to another committee member beforehand and thought I had that issue resolved but it did not turn out that way. The key to the endorsement of Brabo was its impact on the council races more than on the mayor's race. Both the party and the club screwed up on the one thing that could have pushed those two conservative Republicans over the top.
Commented: Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 @ 3:24 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Buzz, precedent is a key feature of English Common Law, which was adopted as it then existed in 1776 by the 13 colonies, and subsequently by the new United States and by all but one of the subsequent states. The exception is Louisiana, whose state law is based on France's Code Napoleon. That said, common law precedents are trumped by statute and even more so by the Constitution. Precedent is a factor in the SCOTUS following past interpretations of Constitutional or statutory provisions, but they are not bound by it.
The problem in the birthright citizenship case was a precedent that involved a child born to foreign citizens who were lawfully in the United States. That should have been a precedent as to Green Card holders but NOT as to illegal aliens or tourists. Even after ratification of the 14th Amendment, American Indians were not considered US citizens and a special law had to be passed to make them citizens. Since that was required for people whose ancestors had been in America longer than anybody else, something similar should have been required as to children of people who are illegally here in the first place. I am appalled at the positions of Roberts and Barrett in this case. Four justices correctly ruled that the 14th Amendment does not make the children of tourists and illegal aliens US citizens.
Commented: Tuesday, July 7th, 2026 @ 1:07 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Hood, the Victory Committee, like its predecessor the Campaign Committee of the local party, has never campaigned against any Republican nominee. Such committees ONLY operate during the general election campaign. In the last Washington City campaign, the Victory Committee promoted ALL of the Republicans running and promoted them equally. In many elections, like the one we are in right now, races that are more competitive will normally get more attention than races that are not competitive. With the bizarre limited voting system for county commission, it leaves all GOP "nominees" still running against each other in November, so it is hard to get involved in a practical way.
When it comes to candidates who are not Republican running against a Republican, party loyalty provisions of the Plan of Organization come into play about supporting such candidates. The state party sent out a specific warning on that applying it to officially non=partisan elections in 2025, and that was repeated at the Third Congressional District meeting. It was never an option for the party to support such candidates, regardless of how conservative they were. Also, as to officially non-partisan municipal races, both parties have been getting involved in those as long as I can remember. The Mecklenburg County Republican Party was heavily involved in Charlotte city races, which were officially non-partisan, back when I was first elected to the Mecklenburg County Republican Executive Committee in 1973, and they had been years before that. So were the Democrats. I have not seen the party's finance reports and cannot respond on those.
Commented: Tuesday, July 7th, 2026 @ 10:57 am
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on Republican Party Begins Sanitizing ItselfHood, your view on the new NCGOP Plan of Organization is very different from most NC conservatives.
A few weeks before the NCGOP state convention, I was one of five panelists on the subject of the then proposed new Plan at a statewide meeting of the Conservative Coalition of North Carolina (CCNC). Two panelists supported the Plan, with reservations> Three of us felt the concerns outweighed any benefits. After the panel, the CCNC as a body voted unanimously to oppose the new proposed Plan and circulate flyers on its flaws. Generally, the new Plan of Organization continues to increase the top-down control of the party at the expense of the influence of the grassroots. Some of the objections were: - Until now, there has always been at least one path to offer Plan amendments from the convention floor and pass them by simple majority. Now that has been raised to 2/3rds and only then after first submitting the amendment 15 days in advance to the Plan of Organization Committee. - the Arbitration Committee is no longer objectively established but instead is personally handpicked by the state chairman for each case. - Until now, party chairmen at all levels have had "general supervision of the party with the advice and consent of the executive committee". The new Plan removes the language on the the advice and consent of the executive committee.- - until now, the Plan has had roles for various party committees in legislative candidate recruitment. Those are all removed in the new Plan. This comes as legislative leadership, which historically has not been that conservative has been working to assert itself as the source of legislative candidate recruitment instead of the party structure doing it. Party activists tend to look for candidates who will represent local interests and conservative principles, while the legislative leadership is looking for yes-men who will do what they are told. - it makes amendments to the Platform and to the Resolutions report much more difficult. These can no longer be offered from the convention floor unless submitted 15 days in advance to the committee (and the party these days has not even been offering contact information on committee leaders). Most delegates have not even read those reports by that time, so they are denied an opportunity to participate. The new Plan also requires a 2/3rd vote to change anything the committees have done, compared to a simple majority vote now. There is lots more. I have been attending state GOP conventions since 1973 and served on the state Plan of Organization Committee myself five times, chairing it twice, and this ranks as the worst proposed Plan I have ever seen, even worse than last year's failed Plan. As to the Victory Committee, the local Republican Party has had something like it for a long time. When I was county GOP chairman in the 1980s, we called it the Campaign Committee. These committees operate to support all Republican candidates at General Election time and do not get involved in primaries. -
Commented: Monday, June 22nd, 2026 @ 4:46 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on A Partisan Snub of America’s BirthdayThis is an absolutely shameful act by Josh Stein, and an insult both to the state of North Carolina and to the United States. We need to kick this anti-American clown out of office in 2028.
Commented: Saturday, June 20th, 2026 @ 9:13 am
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on Reminder: Scheduled City Council MeetingIt is inconceivable to me that our local governments do not seek applicants for top management positions from the private sector. When I served in the Jim Martin administration in state government, almost all of our top management personal got their management experience in the private sector, NOT the public sector, and it worked fine. The bigger the pool of applicants for a local management job, the more choices the governing body has.
Commented: Thursday, May 14th, 2026 @ 1:22 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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The despicable power play being tossed around by the Democrats is to have the legislature reduce the retirement age of Supreme Court justices to something like 52, so they can create vacancies they can fill with their own political hacks. That tells you about all you need to know about today's Democrat Party,
Commented: Monday, May 11th, 2026 @ 7:31 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Gore was not the first to resurrect and politically weaponize the old CO2 climate theory. That first happened in the UK.
The CO2 global warming theory was put forward by a Swedish physicist in the 1890s but never got much traction in climate science. Mainstream climate science looked at known climate history which followed alternating multi-century cycles of warming and cooling, CO2 and greenhouse gases were not a factor in those cycles. In the early 1970s, a British science magazine, the "New Scientist" published an article that mentioned this then discredited and mostly forgotten CO2 climate theory. That got the attention of an advisor to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was then in major battles with the Marxist coal miners union and with Arab oil sheiks. Her government was pushing nuclear power as an alternative and saw this theory as something they could use for that purpose. They put out a bunch of government grant money for "science" that promoted this CO2 theory and found enough hungry scientists to jump on that grant money and give them the "science" they needed to resurrect the theory and play it in the media. After Thatcher got what milage she could out of this revived theory to promote her nuclear power program, others picked it up for their own political purposes, not only Al Gore, but also the UN hierarchy..
Commented: Sunday, April 19th, 2026 @ 4:55 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on Washington, N.C., Deserves Better Than ThisOne thing that struck me on the recruitment of both a new county manager and a new city manager was that there was no effort to bring anyone in with management experience from the private sector. I think many taxpayers would find private sector management experience a plus in running government more efficiently.
Having spent five years during the Jim Martin administration as part of the management team of the largest department of NC state government, I remember that all of our top level deparment management came from the private sector, NOT from government. Our department had a $3 Billion budget and 18,000 employees, a much larges operation than local governments, yet we had no one in top departmental management with those Masters of Public Administration degrees that local governments covet in their management staff. Having also worked several months into the Hunt administration as a consultant, their management staff in the department also came from the private sector. Private sector management experience obviously works fine in state government, so why is it not a resource to be tapped for local government? The problem lies in local governments using their state associations to seek applicants, and those groups are wired into career bureaucrats. A smart local government would also advertize where potential applicants with private sector management experience could learn of the vacancy and respond. Our local governments are not doing that. The larger the pool of applicants, the better the available choices will be. Even though the state pays for local school superintendents and therefore has more of a say in qualifications, they allow local school boards to hire applicants who have a bachelors degree and four years of management experience who do not have education related education or experience. Some years ago, Wake County hired a retired army general as their school superintendent under those standards, whose management experience came from the military, and he proved a good school superintendent. .
Commented: Wednesday, April 15th, 2026 @ 8:46 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on Radical teachers union spends $1.7 million to promote student anti-ICE walkouts from classVan Zant, from my observation, the splits within the Beaufort County Republican executive committee had nothing to do with the outcome of the school board primaries. The big factors were 1) the large turnout of Unaffiliated voters turning out for other races, 2) a network of teachers actively working for the ex-teacher candidates, 3) obvious networking between the two ex-teachers and the campaign of the special interest backed NC House challenger, both of whom openly operated out of his tent at early voting.
In my own race, I had support from both wings of the executive committee split, with members of both sides making financial contributions, endorsements, and doing volunteer work like addressing and stuffing envelopes. The only exceptions I am aware of were the Walkers, who had their own personal agenda in all the school board races and some other races There was one former county party officer, who is no longer active in the party who did get rather involved in pushing Charles Hickman's opponent and ran her mouth a few days at early voting against other conservatives, but she has no position in the party presently. Having three conservatives running for the Bath seat was a blunder that had a lot to do with losing that one.
Commented: Monday, April 6th, 2026 @ 7:55 am
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on Free speech bill published in UK as local gov'ts 'ban flying national flag & English flagStan, there is a Vote Calculus organization in the UK that has a pretty good track record. They take national polls and look what the resulting swing in each Parliamentary constituency would do. On a recent national poll, they projected a ReformUK majority in Parliament of over 100 seats over all other parties combined.
In partial local elections last year, ReformUK won ten of the fifteen counties that voted, as well as two of the four mayors that were elected. The same day they won a special election for what had been a "safe" Labour seat in parliament. Indeed, they are so viable that Labour has been trying to delay the next set of local elections on some sham theories.
Commented: Saturday, April 4th, 2026 @ 8:12 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on Free speech bill published in UK as local gov'ts 'ban flying national flag & English flagStan, they have one. His name is Nigel Farage, Member of Parliament and leader of the Reform Party. Reform now has a double digit lead over other parties in British polls.
Commented: Saturday, April 4th, 2026 @ 3:40 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on Big Ag PAC pushing Armstrong tied to group that tried to put NC shrimpers out of businessYou know, Keg, I kinda like having all of Beaufort County back in the First Congressional District. All of our county used to be part of the First District for many decades up until 1992. Then we were split with part of Beaufort County being in the First and part in the Third until 2011. It is only in the last 15 years that our county has been all in the Third District. Having myself served as chairman of the First District Republican Party from 1985 to 1992 when all of our county waw in that district, I am pleased to be back in it with our new district lines.
Commented: Monday, February 23rd, 2026 @ 3:57 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Jack, the main teachers union in North Carolina is the NCAE. While some counties have rather vocal local branches, I have not seen any activity at the local level from NCAE directed at the school board since I have been a board member. Most activity of the organization seems to be directed from the state level in Raleigh.
At one time it was easy to determine how many teachers locally were members because they had their dues deducted from their paychecks, and one could take the overall amount forwarded to the NCAE and divide by the amount of dues. At that time a strong majority of local teachers were members. Some years ago, due to the very political nature of the organization, the legislature ended the dues checkoff mechanism and members had to send their dues checks directly to the NCAE. Since that time, it is not so easy to know how many are members, but the numbers statewide seem to have declined. I would also note that not all teachers who join the NCAE subscribe to all of their political agenda. I have known local teachers who did not agree with all of their politics but wanted some of the insurance they provided and joined solely for that reason. Then there are issues pushed by the NCAE that probably all members agree with like better teacher pay, but of course lots of citizens support that issue, too.
Commented: Wednesday, February 18th, 2026 @ 7:16 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on School districts around the country trying to circumvent parents rights after SCOTUS rulingWe do not have any of this nonsense going on in Beaufort County Schools, As long as we keep conservative representation on the Board of Education, we will have a team that will be on the lookout for it if it appears.
Where we do have a problem is that some of our Board members are not yet fully on board with the parental rights landmark Supreme Court ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor. This showed up when I offered motions to amend our existing written school board policies covering how we handled materials that were controversial with parents and the community. For example, we have an existing policy that says decisions on controversial materials will be made based on opinions of educational staff. My motion was to change this to say that they would be made on the basis of the opinions of both parents and educational staff. Charles Hickman seconded my motion. Carolyn Walker spoke against it, saying we should rely only on the opinions of teachers. She got five votes for her position, which is a majority of the nine members of the board. After that meeting, I emailed all of the other board members several articles explaining the Supreme Court's ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor plus a full copy of the court's decision. I expect to bring this key parents rights issue back to the board in the future. Under the Mahmoud decision, all issues dealing with anything that could touch on religion are decided solely on the position of parents. The court ruled that issues related to homosexuality and transgenderism are related to religious beliefs but did not rule on any other issue areas yet. On those issues, schools are required to notify parents of any such content and allow parents to opt their children out of those activities that contain such materials or presentations. When it comes to any matter touching on religion, the Supreme Court has completely frozen out educational experts and left it 100% up to parents. As long as I am a member of the school board, I will continue to stand up for parents rights.
Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 5:15 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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The provisions of the school board policies I moved to change on parent input were some that had come down from Raleigh before I was on the board. They fly in the face of the landmark US Supreme Court decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which was decided last summer and upholds parental rights on a wide range of controversial school materials. Indeed, if the issue in any way can be related to religion, as LGBTQ materials were in that case, parental rights now trump eveyone else. I want to see our board revisit this issue so that we can align our policies with the US Surpeme Court ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor.
Commented: Saturday, February 7th, 2026 @ 5:37 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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There is too much pork barrel waste in that bill, but at the present time that is not the important issue. Illegal immigration is the big issue. Democrats are working to derail the efforts to remove illegal aliens from the country. If weak Republicans in Congress let them do that, it will kill GOP turnout in the midterm elections and hand Congress to the Democrats.ICE was given long term funding in the Big Beautiful Bill, so Republicans in Congress need to stand their ground.
Commented: Sunday, February 1st, 2026 @ 10:21 am
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on Curriculum pushing climate alarmism and open borders roils Iowa as Gov & legislature push backBeaufort County Schools are facing this same issue with our science curriculum. The top vendors have given us proposed curricula that push the climate activist position without mentioning other scientific viewpoints. During their presentations to the school board, I asked about this and the vendor representatives said they would look into it and get back to us.
The liberal Democrat dominated state school board has included the climate activist view as something students will be tested on, but our local board could and should require students be taught that there are other scientific theories on climate Students should be informed of all sides on controversial issues so we are teaching them how to think, not what to think. The UN and the WEF push the CO2 global warming theory heavily, and students should be aware of it, but there is also some very serious science that refutes it, too, and students should be aware of that as well. One excellent presentation of the other side of the science is the British TV documentary "The Great Global Warming Swindle" which was broadcast nationally on the UK's Channel 4 and can be watched at this link: www.youtube.com
Commented: Saturday, January 31st, 2026 @ 2:55 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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I want to commend our own State Senator Bob Brinson who represents Beaufort County as one of the only three senate Republicans who stood alongside Senator Bobby Hanig to oppose the Shrimpgate bill. No Democrats did at all. The others were staunch conservative Senator Norm Sanderson of Pamlico County and Senator Michael Lazzara of Onslow County. I thank them for their courage in standing up to the "leadership" on this awful bill.
Commented: Monday, December 29th, 2025 @ 5:33 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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ONe of my brothers is a retired marine biologist. He has had the opportunity to observe first hand how these shrimp "farms" overseas work during his travels around the world in that profession. As a result, he says he would not even think about eating imported shrimp.
What is really curious is that about the same time as the Shrimpgate bill was being put forward in the state Senate, there was a seafood importing company that mainly buys from Red China undergoing a big expansion in the Norfolk area. One wonders if that had any connection to Berger's bill. They would have been in the right place to serve coastal NC restaurants cut off from our own local shrimp. Unfortunately, we now have "pay to play" operating heavily in our legislature, especially in the state Senate. The interface with the special interests is from the leadership, not individual members. They make the deals, get the money, and then tell other senators what to do, using their control of campaign money to enforce their edicts. That is how so much liberal legislation has been passing through a "Republican" legislature. The situation is better in the House because the present Speaker is not so wound up in pay to play like the Senate leadership is, and because the House Freedom Caucus is there to fight this stuff if they don't. How Berger's jihad against the Freedom Caucus leadership in this primary plays out will have a lot to do with how much the House resists pay to play going forward. If Berger's move against House conservatives fails, it will do a lot to stiffen the spines of House members on standing up to Berger, but if Berger succeeds, it will lead to his getting his way in the House more often, as members will be afraid to stand up against him. What happens in six House primaries around the state will make a huge difference on what sort of legislation gets passed in the General Assembly, and I would add Berger's own senate primary will have a major impact, too.
Commented: Monday, December 29th, 2025 @ 8:50 am
By: Steven P. Rader
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Glad to see Trump and Rubio standing up for free speech. This is the reverse of the Biden years when Biden's radicalized USAID was lavishly funding the pro-censorship anti-free speech organizations around the world. Renowned law professor and free speech advocate Jonathan Turley called the Biden administration the most anti-free speech administration in US history.
Commented: Thursday, December 25th, 2025 @ 4:23 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Let me give a practical example of how using the undefined term "hate symbol" can be a problem for teachers and principals.
A devout Jewish family moves to the county. Their daughter goes to school wearing, as she usually does a necklace with a Star of David pendent of her religion. A student of Muslim / Arab origin sees it and complains that in his mind it reflects "occupation" and "colonialism". With no definition to backstand them, school staff are left twisting in the breeze and will be criticized whatever they do. Those in Raleigh do not seem to always think things through on their recommendations.
Commented: Sunday, December 21st, 2025 @ 10:11 am
By: Steven P. Rader
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Van Zant, the proposal to add the term "hate symbol" to our school policies did not originate locally. It came down from Raleigh, a place more inclined to liberal ideas than eastern North Carolina. Using undefined terms "hate speech" or "hate symbols" have clear problems for freedom of speech.
My first thought on encountering this proposed addition to our school policies was the well publicized incident some time back in Colorado where a student was suspended from school for wearing an item of clothing displaying the Gadsden flag. The Gadsden flag is a historic flag carried by American soldiers in the Revolutionary War, but to a school official in Colorado, it was a "hate symbol". A similar situation for another flag of that era involved the Betsey Ross 13 star American flag, which was the first official flag of the newly independent United States. Leftwing activists called that flag a "hate symbol" and pressured Nike to remove it from sneakers they were selling. Nike caved in and removed the flag even though they kept selling sneakers displaying the Communist Chinese flag. This issue of adding the undefined term "hate symbol" to our school policies has come up recently in two meetings at two different places in the policies. If memory serves, in addition to the board members listed by Van Zant, member Donald Shreve also voted for free speech. My first proposal was that we just not add the term at all. Nothing seems to have happened in our school system to show it was even needed. Getting pushback on that, I then suggested that we simply make a list of the symbols that we thought not appropriate for display by students in our schools. I suggested that swastikas and any emblem of the KKK, for example, should not be allowed. I got strong pushback from member Carolyn Walker who wanted to leave it open ended. During the discussion, board chairman T.W. Allen mentioned a definition he had just found online that was fairly tight and he seemed to be okay with such a definition. Of course there are various different definitions that could be found online, so we would need to adopt one specifically as part of our own policy. Toward that end, I have drafted a proposed specific definition of this term to add to our policies, which I asked to be put on the agenda for our January board meeting. A tight enough specific definition should resolve freedom of speech issues. It is shocking but not surprising to look at some of the lists of "hate symbols" compiled by various organizations and published online. They included a number of Christian symbols and symbols of Christian organizations. They include the logo of the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of American Reagan-style conservatives. They include party symbols of the governing parties of Italy and Hungary, the main opposition party of Portugal, the largest party in the Swiss parliament, and the parties leading in the polls in France, Germany, Austria, and the UK, as well as other major European political parties. They even include the symbol that has been used for years by the main opposition party in the Bahamas, the Progressive Liberal Party. Obviously, those who want to designate things as "hate symbols" are just way out of control. When one gets to undefined "hate speech" it gets even worse. People who have been prosecuted criminally under that banner recently include a French feminist leader charged for posting online that biological women needed their own private spaces, a Finnish member of parliament prosecuted for posting a Bible verse online, and a German pensioner prosecuted for posting online that his country's very unsuccessful Economics Minister was "an idiot". Unfortunately there are many.many more similar cases in Europe. We do not need to go down this slippery slope. We have gotten by fine without having this term in our policies at all, and if we are going to have it, it needs to be defined so it is harder to abuse. That Colorado incident shows what can happen. The definition I have drafted should accomplish that objective.
Commented: Saturday, December 20th, 2025 @ 6:26 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on Relaxed Elected OfficialsBath parent, that is not what I said. One teacher had indicated there was a time that it was not taught like it is now. She did not say how long ago that was, and I did not ask, because my interest was in what is being done now. I have not indicated any personal knowledge of whether and to what extent cursive has been taught in the past, although it seems to me that was likely a problem in our state at some point for the legislature to pass the law mandating the teaching of it. I am aware that a family member who is a high school student says many of his classmates do not read and write cursive. As I suggested, we need to work on more ways for students to use cursive during their school years to maintain that skill. It may well be that it is being lost through lack of regular use.
One thing you will find about me is that I am future focused, not dwelling on blame games from the past. I liked what I saw and heard with what our teachers are doing now with cursive writing and I want to build on that into the future.
Commented: Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 @ 9:31 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on Relaxed Elected OfficialsCounty voter, you are correct that teaching cursive writing is required, as is teaching the multiplication tables. This was mandated by the state legislature in statute, rather than from DPI. School districts are required to make certifications to the legislature annually.
Given the polling of college freshmen who say they cannot read and write cursive, I wonder if some districts may just go through the motions on cursive, or perhaps not teach it at all. In our state, beyond that certification, there is no further process to determine if cursive is actually being taught. I was pleased with our own teachers that when I commented on the cards with cursive letters, they tended to be spontaneous in expressing the importance of teaching cursive. I believe our own teachers are genuinely committed to doing so. One aspect, though, is that when one learns something but does not use it, their skills tend to get rusty. I would like to see us develop some methodologies that would promote students using cursive to a sufficient extent throughout their school years to maintain their skills.
Commented: Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 @ 6:51 pm
By: Steven P. Rader
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Commented on Relaxed Elected OfficialsBuzz, when I was touring schools during the Open Houses this Fall, I was pleased to see a series of cards showing each letter of cursive writing posted around the walls in each of the 3rd grade classrooms. When I got a chance to have a few words with teachers in those classes, I expressed that I was pleased to see those cards posted. The teachers expressed their own sense in the importance of teaching cursive. One indicated that in some previous years, it had not been, but it is now.
I know this has been a problem in the past because a high school student in my family was telling me how many of his classmates could not read or write cursive. I think one of the things we need to look at is how we can develop programs to keep these skills active throughout the education process.
Commented: Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 @ 11:47 am
By: Steven P. Rader
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Jack Smith's Operation Arctic Frost was targeted at Republican senators and congressmen on what is known as a "fishing expedition". That was a huge abuse of power and should not be tolerated in a Constitutional republic. Even worse, the documents show that the Biden White House was aware of and condoned it.
Commented: Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025 @ 9:33 am
By: Steven P. Rader
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