On Jan. 11, 2025 at 10 a.m., North Carolina will have a new governor for the first time in eight years — and what an eight years it’s been.

To the Editor:

I’m writing to thank Rep. Mike Clampitt, Rep. Karl Gillespie and Rep. Mark Pless for siding with the people of Western North Carolina in voting against Senate Bill (SB) 382.  

The number is $53.6 billion. That’s the estimate from the N.C. Office of State Budget and Management for the damage Helene inflicted on Western North Carolina. Those are just dollars; in the bigger picture, lives have been lost, transformed and forever changed. 

Lawmakers in the North Carolina General Assembly voted last week to override Governor Roy Cooper’s veto and pass a mini budget bill that includes $463 million in funding for the Opportunity Scholarship Grant Program that provides voucher money for families with students attending private schools. 

Judge Roy Wijewickrama has been appointed to fill the recently vacated senior resident superior court seat in the district made up of Haywood and Jackson counties. 

The appointment, announced by Gov. Roy Cooper in a press release, came the afternoon of Nov. 14.

To be, rather than to seem; North Carolina’s aspirational state motto evokes notions of determination and the desire for substance in a world where a thin veneer of competence is oftentimes seen as an acceptable substitute.

With North Carolina’s Republican-dominated General Assembly still dead-set on refusing to provide meaningful relief for mountain communities hit hard by Hurricane Helene on Sept. 27, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper traveled to Washington, D.C., with a delegation of western leaders, appealing to higher authority for help.

Sounding the Carolina Hurricanes’ ceremonial storm siren is a sort of sacred duty, something to be enjoyed, but also something to take seriously. 

Judge Roy Wijewickrama has been appointed to fill the recently vacated senior resident superior court seat in the district made up of Haywood and Jackson counties.

The appointment, announced by Gov. Roy Cooper in a press release, came the afternoon of Nov. 14.

While it certainly appears that a “red wave” washed over the United States on Nov. 5, that’s not exactly the case in North Carolina, where Democrats held onto critical Council of State offices and made solid gains where it really counts — in the General Assembly.