Liberal arts: the payoff
Can the experience of world-renowned musician and North Carolina native Joseph Robinson contribute to North Carolina’s on-going dialogue about the purpose and value of higher education? You be the... Read More
NC SPIN Posts by D. G. Martin
Justice Ginsburg in Durham
I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told me the other day in Durham. The 85-year-old... Read More
Siamese twins, P. T. Barnum and Trump's approval ratings
Can a new book about North Carolina’s famous Siamese twins help explain today’s persistent, even growing, support for President Donald Trump? Notwithstanding the disarray in the White House, the... Read More
Done with one-and-dones
This week in the middle of all the basketball madness, we put aside the hard fact that we are loving our favorite game to death. And, even when we acknowledge what is happening, we blame the wrong... Read More
Let's have a parade
I love a parade. So maybe I should be supportive of President Trump's suggestion for a big military parade sometime later this year. The president's idea has not gotten universal approval. Some argue... Read More
Instead of taking down monuments, maybe we need to build more of them
Maybe, instead of taking down monuments to our past, we should be building new ones. No, I am not suggesting that we fill the courthouse squares with more images of Confederate soldiers. However, I... Read More
Are we really interested in character?
Can Democrats tar President Donald Trump and other Republicans for their support of U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore? Will they pay a penalty for endorsing a man who was credibly accused of improper... Read More
Lesson from my toppled hero, Charlie Rose
Stunned. North Carolina lost another monument. It came like a flash. And I am still reeling. Charlie Rose was one of North Carolina’s nationally best-known and most admired people. He was right up... Read More
Bad ideas for the UNC system
What is the worst idea floating around about the UNC system these days? Jesse White, who headed up the Southern Growth Policies Board and also served adjunct professor of government and city and... Read More
Any home for the political middle?
The bottom has fallen out of the Republican Party.” So wrote Fort Worth’s Star-Telegram columnist Cynthia Allen last week. “Well,” she continued, “not the bottom exactly. More like the... Read More
