Butnerthey

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THE BUTNER-CREEMOOR NEWS
EDITORIAL PAGE
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THURSDAY
October 17, 2013
An appropriate
observance of October as
Domestic Violence
Awareness Month would
be for everyone who lives
in this county to think
about how serious the
tragedy is, and how it
affects them whether or
not they’re aware of it.
Practically every citizen
has to pay taxes that are
required to support the
services that the justice
system has to use to deal
with the perpetrators,
plus restorative
expenses needed for the
victims.
It’s especially sad to
see how the children who
grow up in abusive
families suffer a lifetime
of physical and/or
emotional scarring, and
they often find it
challenging to live
productive adult lives.
There is a myth that
only women and children
are the victims of
domestic violence, but
men can be physically
and emotionally battered
by women, as well.
Also, many people
think that physical
torture is the only form of
family violence that
society needs to focus on.
However, verbal abuse,
emotional abuse, and
financial abuse can be
just as devastating.
Granville County
residents are fortunate to
have Families Living
Violence Free as a
valuable resource. The
executive director,
Lauren Renee, is a
dedicated professional
who works tirelessly on
victims’ behalf.
Any donation to
FLVF, whether financial
or otherwise, would not
be wasted.
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Looking For The Anarchists
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About Letters
T he fellow who
heads the General
Assembly police caused
quite a stir the other day
when he testified in court
that his police force had
labeled some Raleigharea
people "anarchists"
and collected intelligence
on them.
According to The
News & Observer of
Raleigh, the remark
provoked "a murmur of
disbelief" among many of
the lawyers in the room.
Jeff Weaver, who is
chief of the 18-member
legislative police
department, was in court
for the first trial of a
"Moral Monday"
protester, one of the
hundreds arrested during
a series of summer
protests opposing the
policies of the
Republican-led General
Assembly.
Weaver testified that
his officers kept an eye
out for the anarchists
during those protests.
His testimony
followed revelations that
the Raleigh Police
Department sent an
undercover officer into
the protest planning
sessions, organized by the
NAACP and its state
president,
t h e
Rev.
William
Barber.
A
Raleigh
police
spokeswoman
later
said
that
t h e
department's presence
was to determine how
many people planned to
be arrested.
The murmurs in the
courtroom likely were
the result of lawyers in
the
crowd
understanding that this
kind of police
surveillance has the
potential to run afoul of
a fundamental right
spelled out in the 1st
Amendment, the right
to peaceably assemble.
After his testimony,
Weaver declined to say
exactly who his
department considered
an anarchist or what
intelligence they had
gathered.
My suspicion is that
his "anarchists" are
members of Raleigh
FIST, a far-left group of
A V IEW
F ROM
R ALEIGH
By Scott
Mooneyham
mostly
college
students
who were
active in
legislative
protests
a year
earlier.
I have no
i d e a
whether
those
folks are
actual anarchists, defined
by Merriam-Webster as
someone "who believes
that government and laws
are not necessary."
As for Barber and his
fellow "Moral Monday"
supporters, they seem
about as far from
anarchists as you can get.
Just listen to some of
his words, from this
summer:
"We don't have a
deficit of money; we have
a deficit of character."
"The goal of Moral
Monday was, first of all, to
challenge the immoral
positions of cutting
500,000 people from
Medicaid and 170,000
people's unemployment
…"
Those are hardly the
comments of someone who
wants no government or
laws, or even less
government for that
matter.
Still, Weaver may be
right. Anarchists could be
out and about.
Rumor has it that a
couple hundred people to
the north have embraced
this idea that
government is not
necessary. In fact, they
have embarked on a
campaign to stop
payment for government
-- shutting down parks,
halting health care
programs and sending
home military
contractors.
Word is that they
mostly keep their Che
Guevara t-shirts hidden
beneath their $1,000-
dollar suits.
Fortunately for
Weaver, these radical
anarchists are not too
hard to find. They
allegedly hang out in a
giant domed building in
Washington.
I'd suggest that he get
his police force up there
right away to begin
gathering intelligence.
Who knows when this
unruly mob of radicals
might descend upon
Raleigh?
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congressional Republicans
over the
government shutdown
and debt ceiling crises?
We get a clue in
Conroy’s latest book, "The
Death of Santini," which
comes out in a few days.
Conroy describes his
mother Peg’s likely
reaction to a demand
from Conroy’s sister,
Carol, for $5,000 "or she
would cut her throat."
"From mom," Conroy
writes, "Carol wouldn't
have gotten one nickel….
Peg would've laughed …
and told Carol never to
call her again with that
line."
So, if his mother Peg
thought the Republicans’
actions in refusing to end
the shutdown or in not
allowing the government
to pay its bills were
blackmail, she would tell
the president to ignore
the Republicans’ threats.
But Conroy felt he
could not dismiss his
sister’s suicide threat.
She had a history of
mental illness and
threatened suicides. One
building
in Columbia,
S.C.
H i s
friend,
Bernie,
heard
Conroy on the telephone
tell his sister "that I'd
send the check through
FedEx when I got off the
phone. Bernie was
screaming at me, ‘You
can't put up with that
kind of blackmail!
That's awful for Carol
and awful for you!’"
"But I know she
won't slit her throat for
a while," Conroy said to
his friend. "The power of
suicide is enormous and
Carol knows it. She
understands how to
manipulate all the
airways of guilt. She
uses her childhood as a
weapon against us."
"Be like Peg," Bernie
told Conroy. "You’re
setting a terrible
precedent for Carol."
President Obama
seems to want to follow
the approach
By
D.G.
Martin
The Raleigh Report
A dvice for the of their
recommended recognize why more than
President from Pat brothers
by Conroy’s a few Republicans feel it
Conroy’s mom
h a d T HE R ALEIGH R EPORT mother and is important for them to
What advice would killed
his friend. play their "shutdown"
author Pat Conroy's late himself
Giving in to and "debt ceiling" cards,
mother give President by jumping
off a
condemned
the con-
even if those actions are
Obama in dealing with
as
gressional
Republicans’
demands
w o u l d
similarly be
a terrible
precedent.
S o m e
commentators,
like Creators Syndicate
columnist Froma Harrop,
use stronger language.
"America's leaders,
Democrats and sane
Republicans, must drive a
stake in the heart of the
idea that you can close
down the government--and
threaten economic
meltdown by playing
games with the debt
ceiling--to win political
concessions. Only
unconditional defeat of
this tactic can save the
principle that you don't
shut down government to
get this or that concession.
Obama made a serious
mistake by negotiating
during past trumped-up
crises. He's been strong so
far."
Still, in sizing up the
situation, even partisan
Democrats should
blackmail.
They believe their
objectives justify the
extraordinary means
they are using in an
attempt to achieve them,
as explained by Georgia
Republican Representative
Jack Kingston, a
senior member of the
Appropriations Committee.
He told The New
York Times, "To the
degree that going
through short-term
sacrifice to change the
long-term spending
pattern of America, it
seems to be the only way
to get things done in this
environment."
But, partisan
Republicans, even those
who sincerely think
extreme means are
warranted to achieve
their objectives, must
understand why President
Obama seems to be
taking the advice of Pat
Conroy’s mom and his
friend Bernie that giving
in to such tactics would
be, as Bernie told Pat, a
"terrible precedent."