North Carolina

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North Carolina’s Vile Political Ads


I am a new resident of North Carolina having moved here just a year and a half ago. We moved here from Massachusetts in no small part to escape New England’s harsh winters. Over the last several months, we have been bombarded with political ads from both Democrats and Republican. By and large, I have found all these ads to be very disingenuous. Democrats have run ads against a woman called Sandy Smith claiming court filings show her to be a dangerous person. They showed documents that were requests for restraining orders against her. I think if the restraining orders had been put in place, they would have shown such documents. This leads me to believe that no such order was ever given.

The Republicans have been particularly egregious in their ads with claims that are on their face false. A woman named Cheri Beasly, a judge on North Carolina’s Supreme Court, is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated. Her opponent is a Trump acolyte named Ted Budd. One of their ads claims that Beasly in her present office has allowed sex offenders to go free without any tracking. Behind this is a North Carolina law for lifetime ankle GPS monitoring of these offenders. What they fail to mention is why she refused such restrains and what she her decision actually was. I suspect that Beasly found the NC law to be in violation of the 6th which bars “cruel and unusual punishment.” I think it likely that she did order tracking on these offenders. They ads claim that Beasly is putting children in danger because of her decisions. Such fear mongering tactics rely upon the electorate to take them at face value and not question what is being said.

I have long said to people that they should not let other people do their thinking for them. The only outlet I know of which challenges political claims is the site factcheck.org. As an organization that is not aligned with any political party, the site takes on various claims made by politicians and their campaigns.

I am registered as an independent. There are things about each political party which causes me pain. But I cannot help but wonder how much of what is happening in North Carolina is happening in other states, particularly those states that are turning “purple” as the old solidly conservative North Carolina is. Someone, somewhere needs to come forward and speak the plain truth about the various lies and half-truths being foisted upon the American public and it needs to happen now.

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History of America: Chapter Two, Colonial America Settlers


England laid claim to all thirteen of the colonies. But in many colonies, it was people of other nationalities who made up a large portion of the population. People came from Holland, Germany, France and Scotland.

In 1609 the Dutch settled today’s New York. However, they named it New Netherland. They settled all along the Hudson River and to this day there are large numbers of Dutch people living there. The Dutch, along with Swedes, also settled northern New Jersey. Swedish settlers in New Jersey were found on the shores of the Delaware River. The Dutch also were the first to settle Delaware. In between New Jersey and Delaware is Pennsylvania which was an English settlement of William Penn, a state which was called “Penn’s Woods.” Following the early English were the religious group Quakers who felt they could experience religious freedom in this new colony and who settled in Philadelphia.

Maryland is an interest case as an English colony, it was settled by English Roman Catholics. George Calvert brought the colony’s charter to America and settled along the Potomac River.

Above is the Maryland state flag, unique in the United States. Where most states have the state seal emblazoned on their flag, Maryland’s flag represents the Clavert family colors. As discussed in the previous chapter, Virginia was settled by the English.

The remaining colonies, North and South Carolina and Georgia were all English settlements at their start. But after the initial settlements, other nationalities came to settle the southern colonies as-well-as Pennsylvania. In the case of Pennsylvania, Germans soon came to the colony settling at first in Philadelphia. They were followed by German religious groups, first the Mennonites, and then the Baptist Dunkers, Schwenkfelders, Moravians, Amish, and Waldensians and Lutherans. The Pennsylvanian countryside is littered with cities and towns showing religious beliefs, Bethlehem and Nazareth, to name a couple.

Scots settled America in New Jersey and North Carolina. Their influence in North Carolina was far reaching. The Scots first came to North Carolina in 1683. The Scots brought their Presbytarian religion to the region. An estimated 145,000 Scots, primarily Highlanders, came to the region. Additionally, the colony was settled by Germans.

Although Colonial America was considered largely English, the nationalities mentioned had considerable influence in the daily lives and politics of the various colonies. America was a melting pot on many nationalities from its earliest days. Other nationalities also came, Swiss, Belgian, and Irish came as well.

But in 1790, what was the largest single group in America? Black slaves who numbered at least 6 million, 2 million more than all other settlers! At least at the beginning of the United States, black people were the majority! But that first census of 1790, slaves were not counted. But these people of Africa brought with them foods, beliefs, and music which stood in stark contrast to white America.