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 North Carolina’s Future Story
by Tom Campbell
September 10, 2009
Don Hewett, the creator and producer of the highly rated TV show 60 Minutes, was asked the secret to the overwhelming popularity of the program. Without pause Hewett said he could explain it in four words: “Tell them a story.” People love stories. They help us remember our history, important facts and people, even explain complicated issues.
North Carolina has a proud story. Our state wasn’t settled by many “landed gentry;” we were mostly lower and middle class people searching for freedom and a better life. Independent by nature, we were among the first to declare freedom from excessive taxes and abusive power. We refused to ratify a federal Constitution until a Bill of Rights was added to guarantee our freedoms.
Slavery was not a burning issue and most didn’t want to leave the Union, but had little choice when the federal government demanded we take up arms against our neighbors. North Carolina sacrificed more men than any in that war between states. Reconstruction, frequent economic downturns and lackluster leadership earned us the reputation as “The Rip Van Winkle” state. But we transformed into “The Dixie Dynamo” under leaders like O. Max Gardner, W. Kerr Scott, Terry Sanford and Jim Hunt, all leaders who had vision and inspired us to be better than we were.
Following World War II, the story of the second half of the twentieth century is largely marked by progressive leadership, an expanding and improving economy, rapid population growth and progress. But as we moved into the twenty-first century we have witnessed our manufacturing economy changing to one based on services, frequent government corruption scandals, overheated growth, public infrastructure that hasn’t kept pace with that growth and public sector stagnation. The domination by one political party has resulted in few new bold initiatives, an inability or unwillingness to find solutions to big problems, a high degree of partisanship and a certain arrogance. Our present story is neither happy nor proud.
Abraham Lincoln, in referring to the wartime problems of this nation, summed up our present circumstance. “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew.”
North Carolina faces many problems. To overcome them successfully we must look ahead ten to twenty years and get a consensus to answers about what outcomes we want in education, health, transportation, business, government and in other sectors. This process need not require large committees devoting endless hours grinding out lengthy reports that will sit on shelves collecting dust. But just as it is foolish to hop in a car and strike out with no destination in mind, so it is also foolish for our state to wander aimlessly without purpose into the future. We need big dreams, challenges to meet, visions to make into realities.
Our future story requires leaders who can articulate the vision, telling us what we must do to reach the goals. Sometimes they might be cheerleaders, at other times exhorting us to do better. We will follow sound leadership if shown the direction. It is time for leadership to surface to help write our future story. |
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