Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:
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April 29
The Winston-Salem Journal commends Salem Academy and College for apologizing for its history with slavery:
Salem Academy and College took a courageous stand last week by apologizing for its role in slavery, as the Journal’s Jenny Drabble reported Friday. The announcement will be seen as unnecessary or even controversial by some. But most will realize that the acknowledgement and apology was essential, especially after a research report brought this dim portion of Salem’s history to light.
“Salem apologizes with profound remorse for the use of enslaved labor at the school,” Salem president Lorraine Sterritt said in a press release. “Understanding our history is critical to understanding our present and guiding us as we look to the future and seek healing.”
The apology followed a report submitted by Grant McAllister, an associate professor with Wake Forest University’s Department of German and Russian, who was commissioned by the school to study past documents to see if a link existed. He reviewed literature produced from 1772 to the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 and found that between 1810 and 1840, the school owned and leased enslaved people, the Journal reported.
He also discovered a 10-year-old slave who was allowed to attend the school after her owner requested that she be allowed to do so, and another 16-year-old slave who was in the school’s choir.
The early Moravians who settled Salem had a complicated relationship with slavery, as McAllister notes: “The fact the Moravians embraced slavery, as evidenced through their owning and renting of slaves, must be as much a part of the narrative of their early history in North Carolina as is their history of welcoming slaves into their congregation and treating them as equals before God. I sincerely hope my report helps provide a piece of historical context that encourages further examination, transparency, truth, and above all humility.”
There are still a few dead-enders who try to downplay or excuse the role of slavery in the history of our nation. It’s true that sensibilities were different when slavery was commonplace. But it’s also true that even before we became a nation, there were abolitionists who tried to enlighten society to slavery’s evils. The reluctance to give up slavery led to one of the darkest chapters in our history, the Civil War.
Last year, Salem joined a consortium of universities studying their relation to slavery. Many participants, including Brown University, Emory University and UNC Chapel Hill have found that slave labor contributed to their schools during the antebellum period.
Salem College and Academy is the first local college to apologize for its role in slavery, the Journal reported. It stands now with its close neighbor, Old Salem Museums and Gardens, which acknowledges and teaches that history.
As some continue to argue over the proper context of Confederate monuments, Salem has taken a stand for integrity and an accurate historical record. Admitting the school’s past acceptance of this practice could help close old wounds and illuminate a brighter future.
Salem plans to continue its research and will also form a new commission to help create programming for the greater campus community, the Journal reported. Salem will also hold a series of meetings to discuss its history with slavery. We’d encourage public attendance.
Online: http://www.journalnow.com/
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May 2
The Fayetteville Observer on how Hurricane Matthew is still affecting the state:
It’s been 19 months since Hurricane Matthew slammed into North Carolina and dropped record-setting rainfall that caused record-setting flooding. Cumberland and Robeson counties were among the worst hit in the state. People are still recovering and rebuilding.
The storm hit nearly 19 months ago, so why are we still looking at such extensive reconstruction and repair? As we move rapidly toward Matthew’s two-year anniversary, shouldn’t we be close to wrapping up the recovery effort? At the very least, shouldn’t repairs to public roads and dams be completed by now? What’s the holdup?
Those were some of the questions members of a legislative panel that monitors Matthew relief had for the state’s Emergency Management Director Mike Sprayberry last week. The House committee’s members weren’t happy with stories they were hearing about the slow delivery of aid to homeowners, businesses and municipalities. They’re hearing worrisome stories from their constituents who are still struggling to complete repairs, people who are forced to pay a mortgage bill and rent while their houses remain unlivable.
“I’m mad, I’m upset and we can do better,” said Rep. John Bell, the Wayne County Republican who chairs the committee. “We’ve got to fix this. It’s not about who’s wrong or right, it’s not about pointing fingers. It’s not about a blame game. … These are real people, with real lives. I’m just tired of excuses.”
More than $630 million in federal and state funds have already been spent on recovery efforts, but that’s a pittance compared with the $4.8 billion in damage that Matthew caused - especially since so few of the structures damaged were covered by flood insurance, because until Matthew, many of them weren’t considered to be in flood zones.
The state’s disaster-recovery leaders expect eventually to get a total of more than $1.7 billion in federal and state recovery funds. Some of the federal money was held up when, less than a year after Matthew, even more devastating hurricanes raked across Southern states from Florida to Texas, as well as the American Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Money that had been earmarked for Matthew recovery was diverted to relief from the 2017 storms.
Still, even with the money that we did get, the disaster-relief process has been anything but smooth. We’ve seen only a small portion of the $236.5 million in block grants allocated last year by the federal government. What’s gumming up the works? Mostly red tape, it turns out. The money, Sprayberry told the lawmakers, arrived when a newly reorganized state Commerce Department lacked the tools to manage it - the state has never received such a large grant for disaster recovery. So the Division of Emergency Management had to develop an action plan for the money.
Flood victims are still filing applications for the funding, but an eight-step process for low- and middle-income homeowners is imposed by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, Sprayberry said. The first reimbursement check from the grant program was awarded only last month to a Robeson County homeowner. “People are getting relief each and every day sir,” Sprayberry told the committee chair. “We’re working hard to make good things happen.” We’re sure that’s true, but the bottom line isn’t improved by good intentions. Recovery efforts haven’t gone well or promptly.
We hope all these problems become part of a larger plan for moving forward. Given the predictions by many atmospheric scientists of more turbulent tropical weather in years to come, our emergency management leaders need to think big. They need to be ready for a disaster even more extensive than Matthew. And so do federal emergency responders. Last year’s assaults by Harvey, Irma and Maria should have made that point conclusively.
Online: http://www.fayobserver.com/
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April 28
The News & Record of Greensboro on the work of a ministry:
In the last two years of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, during the height of the Vietnam War, when a rapidly changing society and civil disobedience sent people to the streets in sometimes violent protest, a truly wonderful thing happened in Greensboro.
Members of the congregation of the Grace United Methodist Church saw a community in great need of support, and they came up with seed money to start a ministry that would help feed, protect and advise people whose lots in life left them with many questions, including where to eat and sleep.
In 1968, with a budget of $28,000 a year, the Inter-City Mission was launched to provide emergency assistance with food, shelter and clothing for inner-city families who were having difficulty. Two generations later, Greensboro Urban Ministry, as that fledgling mission is today known, is celebrating its 50th birthday.
As the News & Record’s Nancy McLaughlin reported this week, GUM today is supported by more than 200 congregations that represent a variety of faiths. Largely run by volunteers - Myron Wilkins is its executive director - this is a place where men and women can find shelter at night, where a hot shower and a hot meal are offered, where health care and advice are served and paths to independence can be blazed.
People on fixed incomes can get financial advice in stretching resources, and high school dropouts can be coached through achieving their GEDs and finding employment. There’s an on-site clinic operated by juniors and seniors from the N.C. A&T nursing school.
GUM’s Pathways Center has a revolving door of 54 families that are finding footing for a new start. Beyond GUM is a rapid-rehousing program that helps homeless individuals find and deal with housing issues, even paying some rent.
Perhaps most notably, in a region known for a disproportionate number of residents facing food deficiency, GUM has surged to meet that need, opening Potter’s House, which, by the 1980s was feeding more than 250 and last year provided meals to more than 200,000.
Sadly, not everyone has embraced GUM. The agency started in many smaller facilities before moving to a former grocery store on Martin Luther King Boulevard. But when that site was outgrown and revitalization projects were being launched along MLK, GUM was pushed and even paid - the city gave $252,000 - to relocate. It landed at its current address, near the corner of Gate City Boulevard and Eugene Street, where some neighbors didn’t want it.
There also was controversy a few years ago, when some members of the homeless community complained that people were being turned away on sub-freezing nights, a charge officials denied.
Mike Aiken, who led GUM through much of its transformation, retired in 2015, and Wilkins, a Baptist preacher with a master’s degree in social work, took over.
Wilkins has fostered the beauty of GUM’s success story: a community of volunteers and donors, working together to address a devastating need on the broadest level. New people in new roles looking for new solutions. Yes, that has been GUM’s ministry for half a century.
Online: http://www.greensboro.com/
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