Might As Well Be Here Now

Last month I wrote a letter-to-the-editor of the Chapel Hill News. The letter expressed my opinion that Chapel Hill has become a much less interesting place over the last twenty years or so. You can read the letter ( A Radical but Interesting Idea) in the January archive of the blog. I saw a play this week at the Paul Green Theatre that both challenges and confirms the point of my letter. The play is called, "Because We’re Still Here (and Moving)." It is a collection of stories based on interviews with over 100 African Americans whose families have lived in Chapel Hill for 150 years or so. The play weaves together many fragments of oral history in a very moving and creative way. I learned a lot about the proud (but disappearing) history of the black community in Chapel Hill. The play also tells first person stories of slavery and racism that are a part of our community’s shared history. The play reminded me how easy it is to forget that Chapel Hill is part of the South. I wa...

I got a phone call a year or so ago from a woman who hosts a website for people who use wheel chairs. She asked me if I could write a humorous article for their website. I thought that sounded like an interesting challenge so I submitted the following satire about life in 2190. The satirical piece is still available on their website, www.PeopleonWheels.org. Welcome to www.AmbulosUnited.org. This is the website of the National Association of Ambulary-Centered People. The purpose of the National Association of Ambulary-Centered People is to promote walking, running, jogging,...or just standing around. The Association strives to: • Combat the stigma associated with individual ambulation. • Advocate for the needs of people who walk, trot, jog, or just stand around. • Promote appropriate public access for ambulos. • Influence legislation and government policies that discourage ambulation. • Promote the tradition and values associated with walking and other forms of individual ambulation. Ab...

Duke basketball fans are not a mentally healthy group. I know this because I come into contact with a lot of these people. Some of them I even like. Most of them function pretty well in other life domains. But within the universe of Duke Basketball they suffer. Their condition always seems to deteriorate in the days leading up to the Carolina/Duke games. This year is no exception. Some of them are delusional and are claiming that Carolina has a recruiting advantage that inevitably produces superior athletes. Others are paranoid. They think UNC’s larger fan base has biased the media against Duke. Some are bi-polar. These poor souls barely have time to enjoy the euphoria of a victory before anticipating Duke’s next big failure. They then crash into a preemptive depression. I am curious about the epidemiology of Duke Disease. Is it a genetic disorder? The condition does seem to run in families. Or could it be environmental - the result of some toxin within the water supply in New Jersey? ...

I have heard that Jesse Helms once described Chapel Hill as the “North Carolina Zoo.” I am pretty sure he was not trying to be flattering. However, for many people who lived here at that time it was a compliment. It was evidence that Chapel Hill was an interesting and unique place. Too bad Chapel Hill is no longer so interesting. Perhaps it is time to consider a radical New Year’s resolution. In 2009 let’s raise Chapel Hill’s interest quotient (IQ). The first step in this process may be the hardest. We will have to break through our collective denial and admit that we have become the least interesting point of the three major communities that form the Triangle. A relatively short time ago it would have been unthinkable to suggest that either Raleigh or Durham was a more interesting place than Chapel Hill. However, over the past fifteen or twenty years both cities have aggressively built on their strengths and added to their IQ. Durham has reinvented old areas and neighborhoods to creat...

Entrance to the Apatachee Correctional Institution Some of you may know Brad. If not, you may know someone like him. He used to be an attorney in Pittsboro and an active soccer dad in our community. He is now serving a fifteen year prison sentence in Florida at the Apatachee Correctional Institution. He has been there for about a year. He was arrested in Pittsboro as part of a “sting operation” conducted by the Florida State Police. Brad pleaded guilty to a series of internet-related sex offenses. My family knew Brad for several years prior to his arrest and we were shocked when we learned about what he had done. Brad and I have exchanged letters quite a few times since his incarceration. I got a touching letter from Brad this week. He wrote it on the morning of Inauguration Day. He described his hope that he and his fellow inmates would be allowed to watch the inauguration on television. He was optimistic because they had been allowed to watch television on election night. He wrote, ...

Listening to conservative talk radio is painful. The radio hosts on these programs don't just express their ignorance. They celebrate it. Radio stations that broadcast these programs should require the hosts to read Surgeon General warning labels each hour because their programs are hazardous to our mental health. Unfortunately for me, I have a perverse curiousity about these programs, their hosts, and their audiences. I often wonder how the hosts will creatively distort reality to match their audience expectations. This week I listened to Rush Limbaugh and his clone-in-the-Triangle, Bill Lemay of WPTF radio. I can listen for only a few minutes at a time (see Surgeon General warning). Therefore, the following is just a sampling of comments about Obama and his inauguration from the right wing radio perspective: True conservatives should hope that Obama fails. Obama's goal is to implement a "socialist agenda." Bill Ayers is going to be running the Dept. of Education fro...

and then guess who really sent it.* TO: Ewe@yahoo.com FROM: SupremeBeing@earthlink.net For reasons that are mysterious to me, I feel compelled to violate an important rule of our relationship. I am offering advice that you have not asked for. You and I both know that you have not sought my opinion about anything important in a very long time. In fact, we have really lost touch with each other over the years. We just sort of “check in” around holidays, weddings, or funerals. But these “check ins” have become so ritualized that they no longer have much meaning for me. I suspect they have lost meaning for you, too. I feel like I have been trying for ages to send you subtle, indirect messages. These signals were intended to let you know that we need to start paying more attention to each other. A few times the signals have been very dramatic and temporarily gotten your attention. Yet, I continue to believe that I am not having a significant impact. Therefore, I am taking a mor...