D.G. Martin

A monument to a treasured past came down in Chapel Hill last week. No, the Silent Sam statute of a Confederate soldier still stands. The lost monument came from the death of 94-year old Dickson Phillips, the former UNC Law School dean and long-time judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Phillips’ distinguished career spanned an era of important changes. His role in facilitating those changes and helping us adjust to them makes his passage monumental. But his death also brought to a close an important North Carolina institution known as the Class of 1948...

Is there some way to help President Trump recover from the damage caused by his comments relating to events in Charlottesville and the future of Confederate monuments? Perhaps he could issue a statement of his position following the model of the classic “If-by-Whiskey” speech given by Noah Sweat, a Mississippi legislator, in 1952 on the controversial question of legalizing the sale of liquor. In that speech, Sweat passionately and convincingly argued two opposing sides of a serious issue. If our president followed that model, he could explain his position as follows: **** My friends, I had not intended to...

Two recent books have pushed North Carolinians to deal with unpleasant episodes in our state’s history. In “The Wilmington Ten: Violence, Injustice, and the Rise of Black Politics in the 1970s,” author Kenneth Janken asserts that “The case of the Wilmington Ten amounts to one of the most egregious instances of injustice and political repression from the post–World War II black freedom struggle. It took legions of people working over the course of the 1970s to right the wrong.” Journalist Cash Michaels writes that Janken’s book describes what is “arguably North Carolina’s most notorious case of criminal frame-up,” and he says it...

Some people fall in love with bridges, as in the late Robert James Waller’s “The Bridges of Madison County,” the best-selling romance novel from 1992. Others, like me, fall in love with eateries. So here goes with “The Eateries of Madison County, North Carolina” and some information about three restaurants that could be included in a follow up volume to my book, “North Carolina’s Roadside Eateries: A Traveler’s Guide to Local Restaurants, Diners, and Barbecue Joints.” I found these Madison County eateries while attending the Laughing Heart Literary Festival at the iconic Laughing Heart Lodge in Hot Springs. Smoky...

“Seventy-six trombones led the big parade, with a hundred and ten coronets close at hand. They were followed by rows and rows of the finest virtuosos, the dream of ev’ry famous band.” Can you guess where I am going with this? “Seventy-six trombones caught the morning sun. With a hundred and ten cornets right behind. There were more than a thousand reeds, springing up like weeds. There were horns of every shape and kind.” Remember those words from “The Music Man” and how the lead character, Harold Hill, came to town and gave people hope promising to train town...

If Jim Martin could make peace between religion and science, could he do something similar about his Republican Party’s war with science? A few weeks ago I wrote about our former governor’s new book, “Revelation Through Science: Evolution in the Harmony of Science and Religion.” In it, he explains how the discoveries of science do not conflict with his Christian faith. In fact, he asserts scientific “truths” like the Big Bang and evolution theories are evidence of the wise hand of a creator God. Before I interviewed Martin last week for an upcoming episode of UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch,...

Can you believe it has been almost a year since I last wrote a column about local country-cooking eateries, my favorite stopping places when I am on the road? My editors have been kind enough to let me write about eateries every few months or so in place of my usual topics such as books and politics. It turns out that the food-related columns are almost always the most popular of all. I confess that I have exploited my editors and readers by getting them to tell me about their favorite stopping places when they are traveling North Carolina...

Can a former North Carolina governor bridge the gap between science and religion? Jim Martin gives it a try in a new book, “Revelation Through Science: Evolution in the Harmony of Science and Religion.” Why would he want to take on the task of showing that the discoveries of science pose no threat to Christianity or any other religion? Martin is a Davidson and Princeton trained chemist. He is a champion of the scientific method and, without apology, endorses the discoveries his fellow scientists have made, including the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe and basics...