NC Sen. Warren Daniel's Newsletter

DISTRICT 44

Burke SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Caldwell SEPTEMBER ISSUE #2

Dear Friends,

On September 17, 1787, forty-two of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention held their final meeting for the purpose of signing the US Constitution.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Senator Warren T. Daniel Legislative Office Bldg., Room 411 300 N. Salisbury St. Raleigh, NC 27603-5925 Email: warren.daniel@ncleg.net Phone: 919-715-7823 Fax: 919-754-3265 District Office of Sen. Warren Daniel 348 Harper Avenue NW Lenoir, NC 28645 Email: senwarrendaniel@bellsouth.net Phone: 828-754-9335 Fax 828-754-9335 (Please call before faxing) www.facebook.com

** http://bit.ly/SenDaniel (For pictures, more news, resources)

During a special session last week, the Senate passed a constitutional amendment 30 – 16, to let voters decide whether or not marriage should be defined as solely between one man and one woman. The House also voted in favor of the amendment 75-42 with ten Democrats joining Republicans. The state’s first attempt to amend the constitution to define marriage was proposed in 2003 by Democrats and Republicans. Subsequent amendments have received bi-partisan support for more than eight years but were held in committee by former House and Senate leaders. North Carolina is the only state in the southeast that does not have a constitutional amendment defining marriage. Other states have acted because activist judges in other states have overturned state statutes that define marriage. Last week, legislators decided to give voters the ability to define marriage at the ballot box. According to Forbes Magazine’s ranking of states with the best business climates, eight out of the top ten states have defined marriage in their state constitution. As business communities look for government to provide stable economic environments, protecting marriage from redefinition by the courts safeguards the freedom and flexibility to offer employee benefits based on business decisions. It protects business from additional government-imposed benefit packages.

The measure will now be put before voters in a statewide referendum to be held during the May primary.

As mentioned before in newsletters, our mission for this legislative session has been jobs, jobs, jobs. Unfortunately, our Governor has not demonstrated the urgency or importance of creating new jobs in our state. Members of the Senate are urging Gov. Beverly Perdue to stand up to the federal government and defend North Carolina’s right-to-work status, the state’s most important jobs law that gives North Carolina a competitive edge over other states competing for new businesses.

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PLYMOUTH ROCK: FACT OR FICTION? The Pilgrims docked in Plymouth Harbor after their initial landing, but it’s doubtful they landed on Plymouth Rock, since it’s not very big. The rock wasn’t mentioned by anyone until nearly 100 years after the landing. Thomas Fraunce, a ninety-five year-old man, claimed his father told him the Pilgrims used the rock to debark from their ship. It’s a great story, but Fraunce’s father arrived in American three years after the Pilgrims. In an attempt to preserve the rock, it was moved, and in the process, it broke in half. The bottom half, it was decided, could stay where it was. Years later, the rock was put back where it belonged, cemented back to its base, and a monument was built around it. (That’s when it was carved with 1620.) Because of its tiny size, it is considered one of America’s most “disappointing” historical landmarks.

Stupid History by Leland Gregory

Burke

DISTRICT 44

Caldwell Page 2

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

The National Labor Relations Board is blocking companies from doing business in right-to-work states in the Southeast, a dangerous precedent that could keep job creators in North Carolina from putting people back to work and recovering from one of the most grueling economic recessions in history. General Assembly leaders sent a letter to the head of the NLRB last month expressing concerns about federal officials telling businesses where they can and cannot create jobs. Last week, a former chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party spoke out against the NLRB in a Charlotte Observer op-ed, and the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill preventing similar roadblocks in the future. But Gov. Perdue has remained silent on the issue, despite double-digit unemployment rates that have thousands of citizens in Burke and Caldwell County searching for work. Our business-friendly labor laws are a key reason companies choose North Carolina. It’s very unfortunate that Gov. Perdue remains silent as protections for job creators are attacked by unions and their advocates in the Obama administration. We need a governor who fights this overreach by the NLRB and all other government obstacles to job creation.

Although the General Assembly does not plan to be in Session over the next few months, please continue to contact my office with your questions, comments, and concerns. I always appreciate the opportunity to meet with constituents and discuss issues important to you. Thank you again for allowing me to represent you in the NC Senate. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

P.S. I would like to extend a special birthday wish to Ms. Myrtle Mae Wilson Fox of Morganton upon her 101st birthday this past Saturday!!

This week is Constitution Week. I feel it is important to write about North Carolina’s contribution to our U.S. Constitution as well as a brief history of the North Carolina Constitution.

North Carolina sent three delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787: William Blount of Windsor, Richard Dobbs Spaight of New Bern, and Hugh Williamson, originally of Philadelphia, Pa. North Carolina was the twelfth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on November 21, 1789. North Carolina held a ratification convention in 1788, convening on July 21 and adjourning on August 4. At that convention, the convention drafted a "Declaration of Rights" and a list of "Amendments to the Constitution," but in the end, the convention voted "neither to ratify nor reject the Constitution proposed for the government of the United States." The United States Constitution was created to defend the moral order set forth by the Declaration of Independence and is the framework of our government.

The first constitution of North Carolina was created in 1776 after the adoption of the Declaration of Independents.

Since that ratification, North Carolina has significantly altered her constitution twice to reflect the growing changes in the state. On November 3, 1970, the proposed Constitution of 1971 was approved by a vote of 393,759 to 251,132.

Since the Constitution of 1971, there have been over twenty amendments. The majority of these amendments extend rights to citizens as well as a governor’s veto.

Recently, the General Assembly passed legislation that will put the question of marriage between one man and one woman to the people of North Carolina to adjust our Constitution. The traditional family is the cornerstone of our society and North Carolina needs such a provision within our Constitution.

WHY THE CONSTITUTION? The Constitution of the United States represents the classic solution to one of humankind’s greatest political problems – that is, how does a group of small states combine into a strong union without losing their individual powers and surrendering their control over local affairs? In the ultimate sense, the Constitution confirmed the proposition that original power resided in the people – not in the people as a whole but in them in their capacity as people of the several states. The genius of federalism was in delineating central governmental power by spreading political power among national, state and local governments to exercise power explicitly or implicitly expressed within the document.