
Preston Blakely: My grandmothers couldn’t vote freely. I’m now the Mayor.
Mayor Preston Blakely of Fletcher, N.C., reflects on his legacy and the struggle for Civil Rights that he inherited from his family.
Mayor Preston Blakely of Fletcher, N.C., reflects on his legacy and the struggle for Civil Rights that he inherited from his family.
In a column based on a speech given as the outgoing N.C. Teacher of the Year, educator Kimberly Jones reflects on the importance of public schools.
The writer raises concerns about a proposed pipeline planned for central North Carolina, particularly high costs passed onto ratepayers.
Who could have imagined public service could be so dangerous? I became the mayor of a small town in Western North Carolina to serve my entire community. To sit in churches, barbershops, and kitchen tables, and have intimate and honest conversations. To represent and lead the people I meet, even when we cannot agree on everything.
Regardless of party, most people hate politics, they distrust the system, and they feel left behind, unheard, and sidelined. I understood how they felt. So how could I reconcile this with being an elected official? I decided on an “ambitious” idea — aiming to talk to people.
These town halls have very little format, lots of me answering questions, sharing frustrations, and inviting people to help me solve the problems. It’s risky, no doubt, for an elected official to deviate from the script, but to meet this moment it’s also necessary. Opening yourself to a dialogue, answering any question asked can be a challenge, but importantly it also humanizes our decision-makers.
The losing candidate — Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin — couldn’t steal the election, but he did immeasurable damage to the public’s faith in our democracy. He challenged 65,000 ballots from voters who complied with all the rules, and four justices on our state Supreme Court agreed to throw out some of them.
Griffin never presented any evidence that voters did anything wrong in casting their ballots, but it suddenly looked like their votes might not count.