An opportunity to reduce inmate numbers

Opinion

Compromise on new jail project urged

BOB CLARK GUEST COLUMNIST

The request to the Haywood County commissioners from the Sheriff’s Department for $15 million to expand the county jail helped create a great opportunity for the commissioners. That opportunity arose when a significant, broadbased and factual public response was made questioning whether some of that money wouldn’t be better spent to help people stay out of jail as well as out of our clogged court system.

The focal points of that response can be summarized thusly: 1. Many of the people who present to the county jail have immediate needs for mental health assistance, often based on long-standing issues as well as recent, acute ones. 2. Many have ongoing substance abuse disorders that need to be addressed and treated. 3. Many have poor skills and/or real barriers to seeking and holding employment; difficulties in navigating the web of local charities and governmental assistance programs; many have no meaningful residence.

Sheriff Greg Christopher has poured his heart and mind into ways to keep the jail population low and to slow the rate of people returning to the jail. He has nurtured volunteerism in the jail and has been a dynamic voice in both the creation and expansion of the Pathways organization. He is a trusted voice in our community.

I don’t need to talk to any of our county commissioners to know that they would prefer not to spend $15 million taxpayer dollars on a jail. I doubt many citizens want their money spent that way as well.

Boom! We have a situation that cries out for thoughtful discussion and creative thinking that leads to a compromise and it’s right here in front of us, as local as can be. I urge the commissioners and the “mental health first” advocates to recognize that a compromise must be struck and it will take dialogue to do it.

It is also necessary for each side to accept that there will need to be meaningful concessions and that likely, each side will walk away with less than hoped for. That’s how real and lasting deals are made and kept.

I spent 14 years, nine locally, as an assistant district attorney. I spent 10 years as an assistant public defender between stints in Gaston and Buncombe counties. Ten more years as a criminal defense attorney in Waynesville before retiring in 2015.

During those years I heard from and worked with police officers, counselors and therapists, defendants, victims, probation officers and the list goes on. I know the facts are real regarding the composition of jailed people and their mental health issues. I saw that many of my defendants had real struggles to simply find their way in life. Many of their victims had similar struggles.

I’ve seen our court’s probation officers go from literally: “I will be out in front your house at 9 a.m. and we will go find a job” (Gaston County, 1980) to: “See, my caseload is double, sometimes triple what the national standards say it’s supposed to be.” (probation officer, Waynesville, 2014). That’s the state’s abject failure, but one that impacts us greatly on this issue as well.

There are many tireless, compassionate and knowledgeable people in our county who work hard as employees and/or volunteers. The benefit to all of us from this is tremendous. We have seen many of them give their public reaction to the jail request and they are ready to go to work to help the commissioners to that necessary compromise.

I have been impressed by the reasoned and civil responses from the side of, let’s treat the human needs to keep our jail smaller. I hope the commissioners see that a way forward which gives us the opportunity to create our own compassionate vision based on compromise will do the most public good. It will take face-to-face dialogue, engagement with open, creative minds and a willingness to trust one another. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be? (Bob Clark practiced law in Haywood County and is now retired. bobclarklaw@gmail.com.)

Educational system is in real trouble

To the Editor:

I have often been critical of our educational system for being more enamored of trendy fashions than common sense. Except for specialized fields, a degree from a university may be a net negative for a student. The higher up the prestige ladder one goes, the more this applies.

I consider a graduate of a community college to contribute more to society and have a chance at a happier life than a Harvard graduate because there is less exposure to anthropological errors such as Critical Race Theory and transgenderism. This infection is reaching down from universities into even kindergartens and elementary schools in some areas. With the Biden administration in charge we can expect this trend to accelerate. We cannot afford to be unaware of what is going on.

What I want to focus on is Critical Race Theory, which is promoted in such books as How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (born Ibram Henry Rogers) and White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo. Want to know where the systemic racism is? There it is. Antiracism is just repackaged racism; don’t fall for it. Institutional racism? It comes from institutions in government, academia, corporations and media that have been corrupted by this societal poison. By their lights, Martin Luther King was a racist because he believed in a colorblind society. MLK believed in equality, integration, and racial harmony and much progress was made along those lines but is now being threatened by the neo-racists and neo-segregationists espousing Critical Race Theory.

What is so disturbing also is its origin. This anti-intellectual movement was born and developed in what is supposed to be our centers of higher learning. The task of passing on our civilizational inheritance has been abandoned in favor of denigrating our past and rejecting our ancestors’ accomplishments. What is replacing the classical liberal education is a regime in which people are judged on the basis of superficial characteristics, and a hostile work and student life environment ensues as fear, suspicion, intolerance, bullying and unforgiveness abound. It is instructive to read the resignation letter of Jodi Shaw from Smith University that goes into great detail. It is easy to find on the internet.

Math is even considered racist by some as it stresses getting the right answer. It places too much stress on objectivity and it is asking too much to ask students to show their work. This is big time bigotry of low expectations. I used to think that math, science, and engineering would be immune, but even they are being compromised.

What then, I ask, is even the point in education if this is where we are going? Parents, please don’t assume that your children will not be taught things that will destroy or greatly hinder their chances of a flourishing life. Pay attention to what goes on in your school, even down to the kindergarten level. No age level is safe from this toxic totalitarian philosophy. Dare I say religion?

LETTERS Our republic’s future depends on virtue

To the Editor:

I’m beginning to understand what Benjamin Franklin meant when encountering a woman on the street following the constitutional convention. “Mr. Franklin, what have you bequeathed us?” His reply: “A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”

Let us be united in interpreting what we’re talking about. A republic (according to the dictionary) is “a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.” Similarly, a democracy is “government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.”

We have, over time, developed and made work a republican (small “r”) form of government. Remarkably, a handful of men, in a country of less than four million people, had the skills, wisdom and insight to debate and create a system with the capacity to lead the world.

Underneath it all, what Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and others instinctively realized and what prompted Franklin’s remark was the belief that the ultimate success of their new republic rested on the willingness of its people to do the right thing.

A key element of the framer’s conviction was that virtue had to be part and parcel of republican government. More than just good moral standing, honesty and integrity, they further believed virtue involved (as expressed by former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton) “a sense of civic self-sacrifice and the ability to overcome self-interest and act for the benefit of the broader community.” The early framers unequivocally expected that extraordinary level of virtue and not just in political leaders but in citizens themselves.

These principled and unconditional doctrines allowed the framers (without doubts or misgivings) and “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence,” to “mutually pledge to each other their Lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor.”

As incongruous as it may seem, they made that solemn pledge with the clear understanding and recognition that the whole thing would undoubtedly fail if the people lacked the capacity to make it work.

Many Americans appear to have lost trust in government and in one another. If we regard the violent, deadly, shameless attack on our Capitol on Jan. 6 by our own people a measure of our ability to make our republic work, I would say we have fallen significantly short of the framer’s expectations.

Is it too far-fetched to conclude therefore, that if the framers were alive today, having witnessed recent events (including the shameful participation of a president), that they would look upon many of our choices of leaders as conspicuously not in the best interests of preserving our democracy or republic but indisputably endangering both?

It is imperative we look back and remember that everything depends on us; our children’s future, our way of life, our survival ... everything.