North Carolina

North Carolina is my home. I was born in North Wilkesboro. My mother dragged us to Florida when I was six and I finally moved back here in 1983. I live in rural Caswell County north of Greensboro.

North Carolina has been in the news a lot this last week. We are under attack by both  the media and an idiot posing as a President because of an election last week. We passed a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. A similar amendment is in the constitution of at least thirty other states. Why is everyone ridiculing us?

Contrary to one may see on television or read on Facebook, we are not all hillbillies and rednecks in North Carolina. I must confess that I do like that "redneck" label. We live indoors, have electricity and running water. Some of us even have computers. We are not quite the backwoods bumpkins portrayed in the national media. There are even some smart Democrats here as last week's election demonstrated. In that primary, 20% of the Democrats voted  "No Preference" instead of "Barack Obama".

Forty two years ago in Mr. Barrington’s Psychology class, we discussed homosexuality. If someone had told me then, that in forty years we would be having a debate about gays getting married, I would have laughed. We have continued to “define deviancy down” until soon there will be nothing illegal. At this rate, in twenty years, pedophiles will be operating day care centers and guys will be marrying sheep and goats. Societies without rules cannot survive. Anyone who thinks that our nation’s present course is good has never read a history book!!

I graduated from high school in 1971. If on that June day in 1971 someone would have told me that we would one day have to pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between one man and one woman, I would have told them that they were crazy. We did that on Tuesday.

Why did we have to have that vote and why are liberals angry with us? Over the last fifty years or so, we have taken a sharp turn in "defining deviancy down". What does this mean? It means that we have lowered our standards for acceptable behavior to the point that almost any standard is in danger. "You can't tell me what to do" is the battle cry of those who want to remake society. Unfortunately, in order for ANY society to survive, it must have rules that everyone follows. That's the very definition of a society. Our civilization cannot survive if there are no rules. The "no rules" situation is called anarchy. That explanation is for you media types.

Liberals are angry because we are not "enlightened enough" to see their way. They do not understand the difference between "tolerance" and "acceptance". Let's apply these terms in the case of gay people. I have worked with and for thousands of gay people over the last forty something years in the restaurant business. I "tolerate" their behavior because they are friends, acquaintances or relatives. Does my "tolerance" mean that I "accept" this behavior? NO!!

We are told by the media, pollsters and liberals that a majority of Americans are in favor of gay marriage. There are 12 states that ban gay marriage in their statutes and at least 30 states (including North Carolina) that have constitutional amendments banning gay marriage. A ban on gay marriage put to a public vote has never failed. The liberals and their media accomplices are failing to state the facts correctly. They distort the facts in an effort to shame us. If we do not vote to allow gay marriage, they label us as bigoted and backward.

 Last Tuesday, I voted for what I believed to be morally correct. If by voting for this, I have offended any liberals or gays that I know, I doubt that they are surprised.