WNC marches for women’s rights
“Care more, judge less,” “Love trumps hate” and “Rise up” were just a few of the battle cries heard in downtown Asheville last Saturday as an estimated 10,000 people marched to protect women’s rights.
The pink hats are coming
By rain-slicked granite sidewalks they came, early that morning.
In rubber boots, sneakers and sandals they came, not knowing exactly where bound but following — only following — in the footsteps of those who’d come earlier.
Congressman Meadows optimistic about Trump
Although Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Asheville, has been Western North Carolina’s Congressman for only two terms, constituents in his heavily Republican district have watched his stock skyrocket nationally. He’s become a conservative media darling while at the same time rising to become chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a powerful and influential Tea Party-leaning group of Republican lawmakers advocating for smaller, more responsive, more fiscally responsible government.
North Carolina GOP celebrates inauguration
Inaugurations make for early mornings. Getting into or out of the tangle of security and Humvees blocking the streets of Washington, D.C., requires an early-to-bed, early-to-rise mentality that quickly acquaints one with the deep blue hues of dawn punctuated only by the phosphorescent orange glow of municipal street lighting.
Still can’t get my bearings in this alternative universe
It has been a few weeks now since the election, and I feel like someone who just came out of a coma and woke up in the hospital after suffering a traumatic injury. I am surrounded by dozens of cards and letters from friends assuring me that I am going to be OK and that “everything is going to be fine.”
A couple of friends are by my side, trying to explain what happened, but I gradually realize they are speaking another language and I have no idea what they are saying. I tell them that I do not feel fine, but they just smile and nod. My head hurts and my toes are burning like French fries in hot grease. On a little table next to my bed, there is a half-eaten container of blue Jello, and next to that, my heart, slimy and still beating, as if the doctor — perhaps a graduate of Trump University — forgot to put it back in before sewing me back up.
The GOP has the ball, so let’s see what they do
I needed nearly a full day after the election before I could formulate a response to the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States.
Just before 10 p.m. on election night, as Florida and North Carolina broke for Trump and it began to dawn on everyone that all the pollsters and pundits had had it all wrong, I must have read two dozen posts on Facebook ranging in tone from delirious celebration to abject misery to complete disbelief, but I contributed nothing because I just could not believe what was unfolding.
When the dust settles, we’ll keep moving forward
I feel strongly about politics. I hope — with all the hope I can muster — that Donald Trump loses this election. I have major differences with his positions regarding taxes, immigration, public schools, foreign policy and a host of other issues. I think he has stoked some of the most vile tendencies in human nature — racism, sexism, bigotry, and xenophobia, to name a few.
Thankfully, few Americans embrace those characteristics, but some who do have been emboldened by his success.
This must be the place: NPR’s Ari Shapiro visits WNC
It was weird hearing him speak.
As host of “All Things Considered,” the flagship program on National Public Radio (NPR), Ari Shapiro is a distinct voice — in sound and in his observations.
Relishing common ground amid the political divide
I am at the salad bar, evaluating the freshness of the broccoli and spinach, deciding whether I want croutons or sunflower seeds sprinkled on top, when I perceive a short, stocky man with dark hair sizing me up from the other side. I can already sense what is coming. Am I a confederate? Or, shudder, a liberal? Maybe apolitical, though how could I be — how could anybody be — with so much at stake in this election? He approaches, and I turn to acknowledge him just as I spear my second radish.
“That damn Hillary Clinton is out to ruin this country, you know it?” he says, leaning in a little. “If she gets in, we won’t recognize America two years from now.”
