Opinion

from Smoky Mountain News | June 10, 2020

Books

Graduates, you’ll miss this place we call home

BY LIAM MCLEOD For those of you who take advantage of these resources, G UEST COLUMNIST you know of the magic you feel once you’re surrounded by the T o the high school Class of 2020, congratulations! There is nature of Southern Appalachia. To those of you who don’t get nothing more exciting than completing high school and out there enough and are about to leave, I beg you: start preparing to leave and move on toward what comes next. enjoying it today.

It was four years ago now that I was in your shoes, a recent College is an amazing place where you can learn and grow grad with nothing on my mind but leaving my as a person outside the hometown. I can tell you this, enjoy this last summer at home and don’t wish it away. College is Liam McLeod limits of our small town, but there’s one exciting and extremely fast-paced. These four thing almost every colyears at UNCC have felt like one year at Tuscola, lege in North Carolina though I’ve grown and changed more than I ever lacks (excluding WCU could have in high school. I learned many lessons and App State) — in my first year of college, but there’s one that access to nature. sticks out the most to me: our home is unlike any Something you’ll quickother in North Carolina. ly realize about college

If you look hard enough, you’ll be able to find a replacement around you to recharge, but nothing will compare. Having a home that you’re proud of while having the time of your life in college is a strange and often contradictory experience. You can’t wait for breaks while at school and while at home you can’t wait to be back at school.

If this article finds you, let me challenge you. Go outside today. It doesn’t matter if there’s rain in the forecast, we all know summer showers in the mountains blow over just as quick as they roll in. Find somewhere new every week until you leave. Every time you find that new place in these beautiful mountains you’ll think: “this is it, my new favorite spot.” Until next week, when you find something even more breathtaking.

When you get to college, I can guarantee you is that it’s stressful. will be blown away by the amount of people you’ll That fact is not meant meet, and one of the first things you’ll realize is to scare you, but college that your home and the activities that come with is an extremely chalit are extremely unique. The amount of people you’ll meet in lenging task. If you’re anything like me, you’ll find your mind college that have never been to or seen a waterfall is mind wandering to sunsets at Waterrock Knob while writing essays boggling. You have hundreds in your backyard. So many of on political philosophy or taking an economics test. During the friends I’ve made tell stories of hometowns with nothing those anxiety-filled times at your new home, you’ll find yourto do outside of school. You’ve got an entire parkway with self looking back wishing you could just take a drive with the thousands of trails to call your own. windows down on the Parkway or some Forest Service road.

I know things are different for your class with everything going on. You didn’t get the graduation you always pictured, but remember this. Be proud of your home. I know these words may fall on deaf ears, because I was just like you, so excited to leave that I couldn’t even begin to appreciate the place I was leaving. But I promise you, as soon as you leave, it will hit you: your home is heaven on earth, with a million and one things to do. So before you leave, grab your friends, pack a lunch and head to the hills. And don’t forget towels. There’s always somewhere to swim. (Liam McLeod is a senior at UNC-Charlotte. liammcleod4582@gmail.com)

Bill of Rights born in June To the Editor:

On June 8, 1789, James Madison (who is considered by many historians to be the Father of the US Constitution), proposed the addition of 10 amendments to the US Constitution which had become effective in June, 1788. After two-and-one-half years of debate and discussion, the 10 amendments, now known as the Bill of Rights, were approved. Still debated and discussed more than 230 years after Madison’s initial proposal, they guarantee certain rights and responsibilities that form the bedrock of citizenship in the United States.

The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, press and peaceful assembly.

The Second Amendment recognizes the need for a “well-regulated militia” for the security of the state and guarantees the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

Amendment Three prevents soldiers from being sent to live in any home without the consent of the owner in time of peace and requires the law to define when that is allowed in time of war.

The Fourth Amendment prevents “unreasonable” searches and seizures and prevents warrants from being served without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, describing the place to be searched and the person or things to be seized.

Amendment Five says no person can be held accountable for a capital crime (punishable by death) without an indictment by a

LETTERS

Grand Jury; prevents a person from being placed in jeopardy more than once for the same offense; prevents a person from being a witness against him- or herself; prevents a person from being deprived of his or her property without due process of law; and prevents private property from being taken from any person for public use without just compensation.

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to a speedy and public trial in all criminal prosecutions, before an impartial jury of the state and district where the crime was committed; provides that the defendants be informed of accusation(s) against them; be allowed to confront witnesses; be able to obtain their own witnesses and have the assistance of counsel for their defense.

Amendment Seven guarantees the right to trial by jury in civil cases where the controversy involves more than $20 and assures that no fact tried by the jury can be re-examined by any other court when the trial is over.

The Eighth Amendment says that excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

The Ninth Amendment assures that rights not granted to the federal government are retained by the people.

The Tenth Amendment makes clear that the powers not delegated to the federal government or denied to the individual states are reserved to the states respectively or to the people.

The Bill of Rights became effective on December 15, 1791 and has been guarding our liberties ever since. Luke Hyde Bryson City

Local authority paramount To the Editor:

Gentlemen, I understand that you voted to allow bars to open with restrictions which apparently surpasses the Governor’s executive order (If I understand it correctly).

I also heard on state wide news accounts

your actions today will also strip local power from those such as myself, who are dealing with this emergency under local ordinances of the Town of Franklin.

What happens if I need to issue an order to protect the public? Who do I go to? Why, when I understood that you both are local government people, did you vote on this? (Assuming you did)

I would greatly appreciate an explanation why the NCGA felt it necessary to usurp local authority in a fast moving emergency situation. Bob Scott Mayor, Town of Franklin

Language has changed but racism remains T hough we are as divided as we have had to wonder whether my skin color ever been as a country, the one thing played a factor because the cashier may we seemed to be able to agree on is have uttered a slur under his breath. In fact, that recent deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and there is no slur that anyone can utter at me George Floyd were heinous, both reminders that will wound me except in the most trivthat the evil of racism still exists in ial or superficial way. America. We shared I’ve never been told the apartment I this “common hoped to rent was no longer available, and ground” for about then noticed it still vacant two weeks later. five minutes before I have never been followed around in a the waves of protests store because someone assumed I might and rioting began, steal something. and then the sudden abrupt shift in focus by one group from the murders to the reaction to the murChris Cox Columnist

The division is rooted in how very differindividual and the group. ently we see things. One group insists that They’re a little more careful with this conthe race issue is largely behind us, and that struct than they used to be. When I was it is exacerbated and perpetuated by the younger, I often heard, “Well, he’s a good one. other group. They call this “playing the race You never see him acting his color.” When card.” The first group is more likely to see references to the group were made, I heard the murders of these two black men as tragthe N-word a lot. Spooks. Spades. Jungle bunic exceptions and may even be prone to nies. Welfare queens. Lazy ass coons living off believe that race was not really the issue. I the government. Black people they actually noticed that several people I know in the knew usually got a pass. With the faceless first group who originally denounced the masses, it often got ugly fast. deaths in strong terms have since posted If anyone objected, you might hear links questioning the character of Arbery something like, “Hey, there’s white niggers, and Floyd, as if any infractions from their too,” though I never once heard any white past had some bearing on their killings. person called that. The very idea was ludi

This, I think, is the way racism works on crous, even then. But people said it anyway. a deeper, more insidious level. A cop puts Some of them may have even believed it. his knee on the neck of a man for nearly Nowadays, the language has changed. nine minutes, a man who is already The term “thugs” has replaced just about all restrained, begging for his life, and crying of the previous slurs. People who use it will out for his mother while other cops and insist it can apply to any race but pay attenbystanders watch him die. Because the murtion to how and when it is used, and a picder is captured on video, people who view it ture forms. experience the human response of revulsion We’ve seen two public lynchings in 2020 — we just witnessed one man killing anoth— both captured on video — of young er defenseless one in a slow, excruciating black men murdered in broad daylight by manner. We agree that this is terrible. We white men claiming to apply the law. The should be outraged, and we are. And our awful question that must be addressed is consensus ends right there. this one: without the video, would there be

We argue about white privilege a lot. any justice? What would the story be in the One side is prone to believe it doesn’t exist. imagination of that group that believes we This belief feels good, because it presupposare “past racism,” if the video did not exist? es a world that is equally just or equally difWould there be any story at all? And finally, ficult for everyone. It presupposes that for every Ahmaud Arbery and George wrong acts will be uniformly acknowledged Floyd, how many victims are there for and punished, regardless of the victim’s ethwhom there will be no chance for justice, nicity. It does not deny the existence of because there was no video? racism exactly, but it insists that it is isolatThis question must finally be addressed. ed and just as prevalent, if not more so, in Systemic racism must be identified, underother races against white people. stood, ferreted out, and extinguished once

The belief that white privilege is “fake and for all. Old stereotypes that influence the news” is grounded in one group’s life experiway people think — even on a subconscious ence, while the belief that it does exist is level — have to be discussed. And people grounded in one that is profoundly differwho insist that “all lives matter” must come ent. As a white male, I’ve been pulled over to understand the irony of using the phrase by law enforcement at least a dozen times as a rebuttal to “black lives matter.” in my years of driving, and I’ve never once That would be a start. feared for my life. I’ve never been treated (Chris Cox is a writer and teacher who lives in rudely in a grocery store by a cashier and Haywood County. jchriscox@live.com)

I’ve never had any of these experiences, but I know people who have. I’ve also had people say incredibly racist things to me because they assumed I agreed with them since I am white. In many cases, people do ders revealed that we not think they’re racist if they have a black had not, after all, reached some new level of friend or coworker that they may be fond mutual understanding. of. They make a distinction between the

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