D.G. Martin
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D.G. Martin
Lefty and Roy — And Their Critics
While Martin Harmon was in North Carolina last week to promote his new book, Charles “Lefty” Driesell: A Basketball Legend, he dropped a signed copy by UNC basketball coach Roy Williams’ office. Harmon meant his gift only as an expression of his and Coach Driesell’s admiration for Williams and his accomplishments. Although Harmon did not […]
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D.G. Martin
Jim Leutze Wants His State Back
“I am mad as hell and I want my state back.” Former UNC-Wilmington Chancellor Jim Leutze wanted to use this phrase as the title for his new book about modern North Carolina history and politics. Eventually, he settled on another provocative title, Entering North Carolina: Set Clocks Back 100 Years, which the Charlotte Observer book […]
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D.G. Martin
The Battle For Political Dominance
What is the connection between U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan and acclaimed U.S. tennis player John Isner? Both come from Greensboro, but it is more than that. Isner is known for his three-day 2010 Wimbledon match against French tennis player Nicholas Mahut. Isner won in the fifth and deciding set, with no tiebreaker, 70-68. As painful […]
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D.G. Martin
Crowther on Mencken—Don’t Miss This Treat
Hillsborough writer Hal Crowther is widely admired for his provocative columns and ability to shock us by his creative use of words, phrases, comparisons, and images as powerful weapons that can persuade or provoke us. For this rare talent and his willingness to attack the sacred cows of our generation, Crowther draws comparisons to H.L. […]
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D.G. Martin
Remembering The Wise Words Of A Public Intellectual
Who are North Carolina’s public intellectuals? Over the years, we have been blessed with influential and thoughtful people whose wise commentaries about the state’s concerns often moved public opinion. Think about the late William Friday, who reminded us at every turn of the consequences of failing to address the basic needs of the state’s poorer […]
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D.G. Martin
A 60s Radical Returns, With Conservative Allies
Howard Fuller was back in North Carolina last week promoting his new book, No Struggle, No Progress: A Warrior’s Life from Black Power to Education Reform. Fuller is a professor of education and director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University. Some North Carolinians remember Fuller as a community organizer in […]
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D.G. Martin
North Carolina’s Last Liberal
What was the greatest political upset in North Carolina political history? Old timers will tell you that it was Kerr Scott’s victory in the Democratic primary for governor in 1948. Scott, a dairy farmer from Alamance County, beat the favored candidate of the conservative wing of the party. Once in office, he adopted a liberal […]
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D.G. Martin
Mountain Music: Where It Came From, Where It’s Going
As the International Bluegrass Music Association’s five-day “World of Bluegrass Festival” wound down in Raleigh a few days ago, some people were still asking: where did bluegrass music come from, anyway? North Carolinians have a quick and certain answer: It came out of the hills and hollows of our Appalachian region. And where did that […]
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D.G. Martin
A More Interesting Senate Race, In Fiction
While you are watching U.S. Senate campaign television ads, occasionally interrupted by brief segments of programming, do you ever wonder what goes on inside the candidates’ campaign organizations? For instance, what if you could take on the role as the top aide to an incumbent North Carolina U.S. senator running for reelection against a top […]
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D.G. Martin
North Carolina’s Scottish Connection
Did North Carolinians have a stake in the outcome of last week’s referendum in Scotland? Maybe not the same kind of stake the residents of Scotland had, but our ties to that land are so close, so important, and so contemporary that perhaps we should have been entitled to vote on the question of its […]
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D.G. Martin
New Lessons From Old Wars
At the end of a two-day conference about World War I at UNC-Chapel Hill, I asked a leading military historian what approach he would recommend to the United States to deal with the challenge of ISIS. I will tell you about his response in a minute. The World War I conference was one of a […]
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D.G. Martin
“Most Moderate” And “Kay”: Do Words Make A Difference?
First of all, a warning: I am a Democrat. You cannot trust a partisan commentator to give an objective report on a political contest such as a debate between candidates for the United States Senate. Now that you’ve been warned, here are two observations about last week’s first debate between current Senator Kay Hagan and […]
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D.G. Martin
A Letter From Home
It was like the pleasure of a long letter from home. At least it was for this exile from Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. I picked up the new book, 27 Views of Charlotte: The Queen City in Prose & Poetry, to see if any of my friends were among the almost 30 contributors. But when […]
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D.G. Martin
A Non-Lawyer On The Supreme Court?
President Obama plans to appoint National Public Radio’s Nina Totenberg to the United States Supreme Court. Not really, of course. Totenberg may know more than most lawyers about the Supreme Court from her experience as an award-winning legal affairs correspondent for NPR. But she is not a lawyer, and you have to be a lawyer […]
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D.G. Martin
Remembering The Negro Leagues
“He is number 42,” I said. On a baseball outing with my daughter’s family the other night, I was trying to find the name of a player on the Durham Bulls baseball team while the Bulls were playing a doubleheader against the Buffalo Bison. The player list in the game program did not show a […]
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D.G. Martin
The Most Important Thing The Legislature Did
The most important thing the legislature did this year is what it did not do. Adjourn. Instead of adjourning and closing down as is customary shortly after the state’s budget has been revised, the legislators resolved to stay in session indefinitely, coming back from time to time to respond to emergencies, to vote on various […]
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D.G. Martin
Are Things That Bad?
Things are good! Sometimes, like the other day, I want to get up and shout it out. For instance, last week at a Rotary club meeting, Frank Hill, leader of The Institute for the Public Trust, was explaining his efforts to recruit and train public-spirited people to run for Congress and other political offices. In […]
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D.G. Martin
Read Others’ Views, Then Decide For Yourself
“I don’t read the Washington Post. That is not where I get my ideas.” Many years ago, when there were still lots of conservatives voting in Democratic primaries, a congressional candidate pandered to conservatives by trashing a liberal newspaper. But he lost ground with other voters who thought he should keep up with congressional issues […]
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D.G. Martin
Where Did All The New Voters Come From?
“Voters born elsewhere make up nearly half of N.C. electorate.” So begins the latest DataNet report from the UNC Program on Public Life, directed by former journalist Ferrel Guillory. So what? What difference does it make to us that almost half of North Carolina voters were born somewhere else? To begin to show the importance […]
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D.G. Martin
Books: Our World As It Was, Is, Or Could Be
Why do we read books? For entertainment, of course, first and foremost. But the best books also challenge us emotionally and intellectually to see the world in a different way, as it really is, or as it once was, as it could be, or, perhaps, as it will become. Here are some summer reading ideas […]
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