The 2007 N.C. Democratic county conventions completed their second and final Saturday (April 21) during this past week. Read More »

Before leaving Charlotte on Saturday, I was fortunate enough to run into one of BlueNC's best-known bloggers, "The Southern Dem". SD and her colleague "Working for Change" recorded a video interview on the spot, giving me a much-appreciated chance to respond to the question, "Why are you running for Lieutenant Governor?" It was posted on BlueNC on Monday, and I believe it can still be found at http://bluenc.com/lt.-gov.-candidate-dan-besse-speaks-to-bluenc.

Last Saturday's travels kept rolling into the late afternoon with a stop to speak at the Piedmont Earth Day Fair in Forsyth County. I enjoyed regaling the kids in the crowd with how I learned the difference between clean and polluted waters while growing up in Hickory. I remember the small branch nearest our house, where we could turn over rocks and watch the crayfish scuttle away. Then, there was the larger stream into which it flowed, where we kids also waded. However, that creek had the bad habit of turning different fancy colors (green, red, even purple) depending on what color the hosiery mill upstream was dying its socks that week. It was enough to instill a life-long appreciation for the value of well-enforced pollution control laws.

My final event of the evening last Saturday was a community dinner at the Anoor mosque in Clemmons. The Muslim Association of the Triad had invited community leaders to join them in this civic engagement event. The members at Anoor are primarily teachers, business people, and other professionals and their families, who have come to America from a variety of other nations and are today American citizens. I and several other elected officials from Forsyth were pleased to be invited to dine with our neighbors at a celebration of the diversity of our communities, and of the importance of our participation in the civic life of our democracy.

Today, I enjoyed my annual venture into the food service arena, joining with other "celebrity" servers to dispense soup, salad, and bread at the "Empty Bowls" fundraiser for Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwestern North Carolina. I was told by sponsors that the turnout for today's event exceeded last year's big crowd by more than 300 participants. Thanks go to the many sponsors—and contributing diners—who help make Second Harvest's efforts to reduce hunger successful.

...and I heard one of the odder ones at one of my stops this week. Read More »

The 2007 N.C. Democratic county conventions kicked off in force last Saturday (April 14). I started in Chatham County in the morning, spoke to Iredell County Democrats in the afternoon, and finished the campaign day at the 11th Congressional District Liston Ramsey gala in Buncombe County. I much appreciate the opportunity to speak in all those places. (We tried to get to Alexander County as well, but most folks had gone by the time we could arrive from Iredell.) My thanks also go to campaign volunteers who represented me in other counties that I couldn't reach personally due to conflicting times and travel distances, including Watauga in the mountains and Pamlico on the coast. Finally, special thanks go to my Campaign Coordinator, Ms. Toole, for driving us safely back down the mountain through that storm Saturday evening.

I reported in March about joining with over 800 residents of Perquimans and nearby counties at the Navy's hearing on proposed Outlying Landing Field (OLF) site alternatives in northeastern North Carolina. Along with almost 100 of them, I spoke in opposition to the Navy's designated "preferred" site adjacent to the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, as well as the Perquimans site and other problem alternatives. On Tuesday in Charlotte, I had the opportunity to speak again, along with hundreds of residents mostly from central and western North Carolina, in defense of the people and natural resources of our coast. We all urged the Navy to abandon what my Dad the Marine would call the rear-echelon, bone-headed Washington politics of site selection. We encouraged them to take the invitation of Gov. Easley and other N.C. Democratic officials, and work together to identify a site that will work for our communities, our wildlife, and the safety of our Navy pilots.

Yesterday, I spoke at the "Mobilizing NC" conference in Greensboro on how we can bring together innovations in energy, transportation, and environmental protection to benefit both our environment and our economy. The conference included public and private fleet managers, owners and operators of biofuel companies and electric/hybrid vehicle distributors, and interested officials from across our state. I told them about how my city of Winston-Salem is implementing policies to buy and operate vehicles that will use less gas and generate less pollution. That's smart policy for the taxpayers and for public health.

Tonight I will be in Durham for a screening and discussion of the upcoming HBO film, "The Trials of Darryl Hunt"—a sobering story of the miscarriage of justice under which an innocent man lost 18 years of his life to prison and two wrongful convictions. Mr. Hunt and his advocates never gave up, and were ultimately vindicated. When I first moved to Winston-Salem in 1993, I did not understand the intensity which surrounded what seemed to a newcomer to be just one case among many. It was only during the past year, now as a Winston-Salem City Council Member, after reading the report of the city's own Sykes Case Investigative Committee, that I came to understand the depth of the inexcusable errors which infected this case. The justice system failed both Mr. Hunt and the memory of Ms. Sykes for far too long, and racist attitudes were inextricably tied up in helping to produce those failures. Read More »