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Troy's Perspective: Fayetteville voters not interested?

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Tuesday, 26 August 2025

Written by Troy Williams

Political observers anticipate that Fayetteville's upcoming municipal election will attract a record number of voters. This expectation is significant, especially when considering that the last municipal primary only saw about eight percent voter turnout, with early voting estimated at just three percent.
Voter turnout for municipal elections is consistently much lower than for presidential and midterm congressional elections. One reason may be that municipal elections in North Carolina are usually nonpartisan and occur in odd-numbered years.
A partisan crowd packed the Cumberland County Board of Elections meeting on Aug. 5, ready to protest the potential exclusion of the early voting site at Cliffdale Recreation Center.
They reportedly received an early morning alarm from the Fayetteville branch of the NAACP, Democracy North Carolina, and Common Cause North Carolina, urging them to attend the meeting. Cliffdale is a popular voting site in Fayetteville, located on the west side of the Hollywood Heights subdivision, which is predominantly African American, just off Cliffdale Road.
The level of concern depends on who is speaking. Was there an actual need for worry? Board Chairman Linda Devore stated during an appearance on a WIDU radio talk show the following Friday that Cliffdale was never at risk of losing its status as a voting site, even if the board decided to extend the voting beyond the central election office.
Many African American voters believe that Republicans are suppressing their votes, especially since there have been recent changes in how the composition of local election boards is constructed. Cumberland County has a five-member majority Republican board.
Each term, both the Democratic and Republican parties submit recommendations to the state board of elections for two representatives from each party on the local board. The most recent change is that the State Auditor now appoints the chairman.
These changes are likely fueling the distrust in the system, which some leftist groups are exploiting to motivate voter participation through fear.
Has anyone's vote been suppressed in Cumberland County lately? That shouldn't be the case, but an early morning communication announcing an urgent call to arms can effectively rally the troops.
Fayetteville's issue with voting is not due to suppression, but rather a lack of engagement and interest among voters. Fayetteville has more than 130,000 registered voters, but in the last election, the primary voter turnout was in the single digits, and only about 12 percent of voters participated in the general election.
Approximately 13,000 voters decided for a city with a population of over 200,000 citizens. Around 57,000 voters are African American, while 42,000 are white. With Black voters having an advantage, it's perplexing to hear fears that white conservatives might take over. The numbers don't add up.
Cumberland County will submit two plans to the State Board of Elections because the local board of elections did not reach a unanimous vote. Both plans include two voting locations for early voting in the primary, and both designate Cliffdale as an early voting site. Voter suppression? No, it's just people who aren't interested in voting.

Don’t give cash to street panhandlers

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Tuesday, 26 August 2025

Written by John Hood

It’s not the biggest threat to public safety, I admit, but panhandling along and often on North Carolina roadways is illegal, dangerous, counterproductive — and commonplace.
During my daily travels in the capital city, I routinely see panhandlers approach idling cars at traffic lights and stop signs to beg motorists for cash. Many have been working their “territories” for so long that I recognize them on sight, as do their regular “customers.”
The panhandlers bring shoulder bags, water bottles, and other supplies to stow on curbs or medians and hold up signs proclaiming themselves to be homeless moms, disabled veterans, or folks just temporarily down on their luck.
They’re not just ubiquitous in Raleigh. I’ve also seen such panhandlers during recent trips to Charlotte, Winston-Salem, and Asheville. Perhaps you’ve seen them where you live, too.
In my day job, I run a charitable foundation that funds shelters, food pantries, free clinics, job training, and substance abuse treatment, among other worthy causes. I believe in the power of philanthropy to alleviate suffering and change lives. But it is unwise to give cash to someone you don’t really know, whose true needs you can’t possibly know, and whose claims may well be exaggerated or fabricated.
It took me a while to learn this lesson. When I moved to Washington in 1988 for my first magazine job, I was unprepared for the lines of beggars in the streets and subway entrances. After falling for their lines a few times, I stopped giving cash and offered to buy panhandlers sandwiches or cups of coffee. Many spurned me.
Then I started offering addresses to shelters and other facilities. Most responded with disdain, contempt, or profanity. After one panhandler tried to rob me, I resolved to channel my charitable impulses more constructively.
When it comes to aggressive panhandling in and around streets, however, the potential harms are greater. It slows traffic and endangers both pedestrians and motorists. It promotes disorder.
And it’s against state law for a person to “stand or loiter in the main traveled portion, including the shoulders and median, of any State highway or street” or “stop any motor vehicle for the purpose of soliciting employment, business
or contributions.”
Municipalities are permitted to make an exception for solicitors who obtain written permission to raise funds on a particular day.
Last month, the city of Raleigh enacted its own ordinance to crack down on panhandling in its streets and medians. “I think we're trying to protect rights, but then also protect the safety of the entire community,” Mayor Janet Cowell told WTVD-TV. “Both the individuals actually panhandling, but also pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers, anyone that is out there in the traffic of a big, congested city.”
Just so.
To the extent other municipalities have yet to clarify what is and isn’t permissible panhandling on public property, their leaders should do so.
Just to be clear: federal courts may well deem as unconstitutional a sweeping ban against panhandling on all public property. The First Amendment, as applied to states and localities via the 14th Amendment, prohibits lawmakers from distinguishing between, say, begging for money and handing out political brochures. Both are protected speech. But when done on public property, both can be subject to reasonable time, space, and manner restrictions.
That renders more defensible limits on forms of solicitation that may imperil public safety or the free flow of traffic, such as North Carolina’s statute and Raleigh’s new ordinance.
Professionals or trained volunteers who minister to the poor are doing the Lord’s work. We should aid them and, if possible, join their ranks. What we should not do is hand cash to beggars in medians or streets.
Very few are temporarily down on their luck. Most are hustlers, addicts, or mentally ill. The former ought to be encouraged to find a safer and more productive line of work. And the latter needs a more effective intervention than cash passed through the windows of passing cars.

Editor’s note: John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy with American history (FolkloreCycle.com).

Brothers Grimm: Cat and mouse set up house

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Tuesday, 26 August 2025

Written by Pitt Dickey

Today’s column revisits our old friends, the Brothers Grimm. The Grimms have been gone for over 200 years, but their stories still have slices of wisdom.
Their tale of when the Cat and the Mouse set up House resonates with current events.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine remains in the news of late. It might be settled by a lasting peace guaranteed by the US, Western Europe, and the gossamer promise of Putin to keep his hands out of the Ukrainian cookie jar. If you can’t trust a promise by Putin, then who can you trust?
Ronald Reagan once said trust but verify Russian promises.
That was so 1980s. No need to verify now. Putin’s word is as good as the fake gold decorating the Oval Office.
Some soreheads with an attention span may recall when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made a deal with Adolph Hitler to divide up Czechoslovakia in return for “Peace in Our Time.” Pro tip: Appeasement of dictators does not work.
Watching President Trump’s meeting with Vlad Putin seemed like we had seen this movie before. Dividing up Ukraine to buy peace in our time may be another illusion. Mark Twain pointed out: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Fileting Ukraine does have echoes of carving Czechoslovakia.
Consider Grimm’s fairy tale about the time the Cat and the Mouse played house. Try to spot any similarities to current events. Once upon a time, a tomcat became friends with a lady mouse. (Use your willing suspension of disbelief, this is a Fairy Tale after all.)
After high-level discussions, the cat and the mouse decided they could live together in peace and love. Winter was coming. The cat was concerned about what they would eat. The cat suggested pooling their money to buy a pot of delicious fat to feed themselves in the depths of winter. The mouse agreed, and the pot of fat was purchased.
To safeguard the fat from hungry intruders, they decided to hide the pot under the altar in the church. The cat said no one was low enough to steal from a church. They would retrieve the pot when the cold winds began to blow. Soon enough, though, the cat got a powerful hankering for some of that fat.
He made up a lie that he had been asked to serve as Godfather to his cousin’s baby kitten. He said he needed to leave for the day to hold the kitten at the church.
The mouse was touched by the thought of a baby kitten being christened. She told the cat to go do his duty.
The cat sneaked into the church and ate the skin off the top of the fat. When he returned home, the mouse asked what name was given to the kitten. The cat said, “Top Off.” The mouse thought this a very odd name, but let it slide.
The next day, the cat wanted more of the fat. He told the mouse that another cousin wanted him to be Godfather to another kitten. Mouse, being a bit slow on the uptake, agreed for the cat to leave for the day.
The cat went back to the church and ate half the fat. The cat thought: “Nothing tastes as good as what you eat by yourself.”
On returning home, the mouse asked the name of this kitten. Cat told her, “Half Gone.” The mouse thought that name was weird as well. Finally, on the third day, the cat invented yet another cousin who needed him to be Godfather.
The cat went back to the church and finished off the rest of the fat. On returning home, he told the mouse that this kitten was named All Gone.
This continued to puzzle the mouse.
Finally, winter came. There was no food in the house.
The cat and mouse went to church to retrieve the pot of fat. Of course, the pot was empty when they got there. A light bulb finally went off in the mouse’s head as she realized she had been bamboozled by the cat.
The mouse accused the cat of eating the fat, reciting Top Off, Half Gone, and then All Gone. Before the mouse could finish saying All Gone, the cat leaped on her and ate her.
The Grimms concluded this story saying, “Well, what else did you expect? That’s just the sort of thing that happens in this world.” Cheery ending.
If you substitute Putin for the cat and Ukraine for the mouse, what do you expect will happen to Ukraine?
Ukraine was fooled once before when it gave up its nukes in return for a guarantee that the US would protect its borders.
In Animal House, Otter told Flounder after the boys wrecked his brother’s car: “You screwed up. You trusted us.”
Will Ukraine get fooled again? Remember when the Who sang: “Just like yesterday/ Then I’ll get on my knees and pray/ We don’t’ get fooled again.” Fool Ukraine once, shame on you. Fool Ukraine twice, shame on Ukraine. No pots of fat or Ozempic were harmed in the writing of this column.

(Illustration by Pitt Dickey)

LibSpeak: The soap opera of American politics

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Tuesday, 19 August 2025

Written by Lib Campbell

Guiding Light was a 15-minute radio soap opera in 1937. In 1952, it moved to television as a fifteen-minute show, expanding to thirty minutes in 1968, becoming a one-hour show on November 7, 1977. Guiding Light aired 57 years until its cancellation in 2009.
A lot of us grew up with Guiding Light. I remember Mother watching it regularly from the early ‘50s. We knew the families. The Spauldings and the Chamberlains were prominent.
Kim Zimmer, who played Reva Shayne, was the longest-running cast member. She was on the show from 1985 until her final retirement in 2008. Reva was beautiful, naughty and nice, at the center of many of the plots.
On Guiding Light, we got a taste of the wild side. There were illicit marital relationships, stolen identities, embezzlements, out of wedlock children. Revenge out the wazoo. People came back from the dead, only to get killed again. There were corrupt businesses, a lot of grift and deceit. People were in and out of jail. Family squabbles filled the storyline. There was much back-stabbing and running around. No one went unscathed.
Guiding Light was an hour of life in another world, one with a dark underbelly, that provided entertainment in its twists and turns of beautiful people, some of whom were on very dark paths. Thankfully, it was only an hour, and we could turn it off before it swallowed us.
The television soap opera had no real-world consequences.
We are living in a soap opera world today. There is no turning it off. There are real-world, real-life consequences that a lot of us did not sign up for.
The dirty dealing, revenge, and meanness of life 24-7 is sad and wearying. The revenge policy is shocking, and the treatment of immigrants is abhorrent. Taking portraits of Obama and Clinton off the walls of the White House is just plain silly and immature. Joe Biden’s portrait will likely never see the light of day.
The soap opera plot is acted out every day in a gilded Trump world. Many of the Cabinet and other heads of state are made-for-television actors. More than a few are, in fact, television personalities. Hot off the airwaves of FOX and Newsmax. They are talking heads with zero experience in governing, making decisions for the pleasure of Trump and in the hope of getting clicks. They play to every fifteen-minute news cycle.
David Brooks recently wrote an article about how most of the world is more optimistic than Americans are today. American hope and optimism after WWII stabilized the world and the world economy for the past 75 years. All the problems were not solved, but people felt like we were on an upward trajectory of prosperity and opportunity for all Americans.
Today, we live somewhere between Alice in Wonderland and Hunger Games. We are falling down the rabbit hole into an uncertain future.
Every news cycle brings new drama. Sending National Guard troops to patrol Washington, DC is this week’s show. There is no unrest in DC requiring additional policing. There is, however, a Black Democratic woman who serves as Mayor. Reason enough.
Guiding Light had provocative sexual innuendo. The actors in the Trump soap opera were not play acting. Jeffrey Epstein’s story is dirty business, predatory porn on a grand scale. Young women exploited and abused by powerful men, possibly including the president. If he weren’t in the files, why would he protest seeing them released? Me thinks he doth protest too much!
Every day that the Epstein files are not released, another swipe of bad governance appears to attempt to distract us from the reality that the Epstein drama is bad.
We are finding it hard to change channels on this drama.
What can we do now? We cannot turn off and tune out.
Now is a time for bold braveness. Don’t wait for the other guy to take on the drama. Be the force you want to see. Be the voice you want to hear.
Who are the ones that will be our Guiding Light? We need some heroes in our search for tomorrow.

Editor’s note: Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com