Winston-Salem Journal LTE SU 11/18/12

Help the victims

The recent increase in the number of victims verified by the NC Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation is a bitter reminder of the legislature’s failure to answer my call to fund compensation for those who were involuntarily sterilized by our state.

We now count 186 citizens in 61 counties whose requests have been matched with NC Eugenics Board records; all but 20 of these individuals still live with the shame and heartache of what the state did to them. My budget called for $50,000 to be provided to living victims, as well as continued funding of the Sterilization Victims Foundation and a permanent exhibit in the NC Museum of History.

Those and other recommendations were made by a task force that I created with the specific mission of determining appropriate compensation for victims, who were disproportionately poor and without advocates. The Sterilization Victims Foundation, which I established, continues to provide outreach and verification assistance despite that fact that lawmakers declined fund it.

Like so many, I remain horrified by the physical and emotional toll thrust upon our 7,600 victims of forced sterilization. But I took heart in knowing that compensation was endorsed by prominent conservative voices who spoke out in support. It also was the subject of tenacious coverage by the Winston-Salem Journal, which kept this important issue on its front and editorial pages.

Speaker Thom Tillis led the N.C. House and passed a compensation bill with bipartisan support, including extraordinary leadership from Reps. Larry Womble and Earline Parmon. The Senate did not consider the bill, but Senate Pro Tempore Phil Berger has said he supports compensation and I urge him to make it a priority during the 2013 session of the General Assembly.

It is long past time to do the right thing for aging sterilization victims, whose ranks have dwindled to less than 1,800. I ask all legislators – those who will return, and those who will join – to make this your top priority in the 2013 legislative session.

GOVERNOR BEVERLEY EAVES PERDUE

Raleigh

Green Party vote

On Nov. 2, I voted early and cast my vote for president of the United States. I gladly waited in a long line to engage in one of the freedoms that our forefathers fought and died for and that men and women in our armed forces today are willing to sacrifice their lives for, the right to vote.

I chose Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, for president. Unfortunately, the state of North Carolina will not count my vote even though Jill Stein meets all the requirements to be president of the United States.

North Carolina is among a few states that has denied Jill Stein ballot access.

Why won’t they count my vote? Every vote for a person who meets all the requirements to be president of the United States should be counted. If not, then we just lost a bit of our freedom on Election Day.

PAUL HELFST

Winston-Salem

Brings back memories

Reading the news about the proposed demolition of old Griffith High School (“Call to arms,” Oct. 26) brings back memories. I never attended Griffith, but I did teach for three years in the building to be demolished. Bob Wynn, Margisteen McKnight and I, along with teacher assistants Ruby Fishel and Ann Smith, were the Title One lab group.

The cornerstone of the building was just outside my room, and I used it as a teaching tool. We would go outside and read the names etched in the stone. One of the names was that of John Franklin Griffith, for whom the school was named.

It is understandable that the structure needs to go — but please save the cornerstone. Possibly, it could be displayed in the lobby of the newer Griffith Elementary School.

ROBERT O. DOCKERY

Winston-Salem

Correspondence of the Week

Determined Voters

During a storm late one evening when my daughter Linda was about four years old, lightning hit a tree near her bedroom window, giving her quite a scare. After she found out what had happened, she told her dad and me, “It’s spooky when you don’t know what’s out there.”

It’s spooky when you do. I would spend a lifetime shaking in my boots if I didn’t acknowledge that life is full of risks and this time of post-election is no different. I have never been more proud of my nation as I have been this week. I am not talking about political parties, or who won, who lost. I am talking about the electorate who took the time and energy to vote in all kinds of conditions, good, bad, and ugly, determined to make their collective voice heard.

Now it’s up to Congress and President Obama to come to workable terms with what they have to do. Years ago I read a disturbing report about irresponsible government. It was a reprint of a letter to an editor, dated 1785. The good news is that we’re still here, despite all our problems. We the people still have a voice. The framers of the Constitution told us so. In this our most recent election, the determination of citizens to vote, some in the face of almost insurmountable obstacles, proved our forebears were right in where to put their trust.

ANNE ADKINS

Winston-Salem