Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
If you need comfort or inspiration, take an hour to watch the moving memorial service for Jamie Kirk Hahn. If you’re pressed for time, watch Nation Hahn’s remarkable eulogy (at 34:00) and Anthony Quillar’s powerful rendition of the Lord’s Prayer (1:04). Looking at the oversized portrait in the sanctuary, you’re overwhelmed by the impact…
Read MoreA legislator looked at a bill, winched, looked at another legislator and said, ‘Well, if I don’t vote for it I guess I’ll land in a primary.’ ‘You think,’ the second legislator said, ‘that Republicans in your district are for people carrying guns in bars?’ The bill allowed people carry guns in bars, restaurants…
Read MoreAbsolute good met absolute evil in a quiet Raleigh home Monday evening. Early Wednesday morning, Jamie Hahn lost her fight to live. Her husband Nation and her family are devastated. But, as always happens at times like this, the best in people comes out. All day Tuesday, friends streamed into WakeMed to do what…
Read MoreOnce again jubilant Americans take to the streets to celebrate the end of a terrorist. Crowds cheer police officers and military personnel. Fans at ball games chant “USA, USA!” Last time it was a diabolical international terror mastermind hiding in an expansive compound right under the noses of the Pakistani military. This time it…
Read MoreDwane Powell’s return to the N&O captured in one cartoon – a depiction of the Republican elephant gone wild – what thousands of words fail to describe. (Congratulations, incidentally, to Powell on being selected for the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame.) Even a Republican TAPster wrote: “This cartoon just about sums it up.…
Read MoreThe Republicans’ education agenda finally comes into focus: It’s about creating a market for private enterprise. They want to privatize Medicaid and privatize the Department of Commerce, so why not privatize schools? It’s the only thing that makes sense. You might be wondering: How do they propose to make public schools better when they…
Read MoreLast week Gary thoughtfully wrote a squib (below) urging people to visit young Thomas Mills’ new website PoliticsNC – so I did. And got a surprise. Young Mr. Mills was – genially – taking me to task for writing how the Democrats passing voter laws (over the years) to elect Democrats, had led to Republicans…
Read MoreFor years Jesse Helms wrote every speech he made, typing each on an old reporter’s typewriter, then one year when he was unusually harried he decided it was time to hire a speechwriter – so we hired ‘John.’ John was an unusually gifted writer but for all his virtues he had a peculiar view…
Read MoreIt’s hard to talk about politics when Americans are being blown apart at a great event in one of our great cities. A celebration of human aspiration and achievement becomes a terrorist’s target. A race that celebrates leg power and stamina becomes an abattoir of lost limbs and broken bodies. But politics inevitably intrudes.…
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