North Carolina editorial roundup

Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:Sept. 9Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times on Congress acting on jobs plan:President Barack Obama was refreshingly bold recently. He laid out the comprehensive program to get people back to work. Now it's up to Congress. The time for action is now. ...The central point, one the president made regularly in his address to Congress, is that action is needed now. There are 14 million unemployed, not counting the 2.6 million who have quit looking for work or the 8.8 million part-time workers, many of whom need full-time work. They need help now.There are nearly 1.5 million unemployed construction workers. The $75 billion sought to build schools and transportation facilities could put the lot of them to work. If governments give priority to shovel-ready projects as they should many people could be on the job quickly.The $35 billion in aid to state and cities would put the lot of teachers back in the classroom. In North Carolina alone, nearly 850 teachers have been laid off, though that is largely due to the budget rammed through the General Assembly by Republicans.The tax provisions are the mixed bag. Eliminating the payroll tax for workers will put $175 billion in the hands of people. Due to the earnings cap on withholding, the greatest aid goes to people of relatively modest incomes who will spend this money rather than squirreling it away.The payroll tax reduction for corporations is capped at $5 million, which means it would give the most aid to those not as big businesses that account for most of the new employment. ...The late Jennings Randolph, whose congressional service started during the New Deal, liked to quote an sell in which an adviser told President Roosevelt it would take the lot of time to enact some of the recovery measures the president wanted. "We don't have the lot of time," Randolph quoted the president as replying.The Great Recession is not as bad as the Great Depression, largely since of government measures enacted since the latter, ! but it i s bad enough. Congress should heed the words of presidents past and present, and act now.Online:http://www.citizen-times.com___Sept. 12The Herald-Sun of Durham on gay marriage and the NAACP:Many people in the black community have the complaint with homosexuality.Sixty-two percent of African Americans opposed gay marriage in the Pew Forum poll in 2008 and 2009. The number had forsaken to 59 percent in 2010, but resistance to the idea of legal marriage for gay couples was still much stronger in the black community than between whites, whose opposition forsaken from 52 percent in 2008-09 to 46 percent in 2010.Perhaps that's because, as the Pew Forum on Religion and Public life reported in its most recent survey, "Of all the major racial and ethnic groups in the United States, black Americans are the most likely to report the formal religious affiliation." Three-quarters of African Americans say that religion is either "somewhat" or "very" important in their lives, an answer that describes only about one-third of the overall population.To be religious is certainly not the prescription for intolerance toward homosexuality; Durham's "welcoming and affirming" congregations stand as the testament to the fact that many faith groups welcome the gay community. ...So it is the matter of some significance that the Rev. William Barber, the president of the North Carolina National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, issued an open letter that asked North Carolinians to conflict the proposed Constitutional amendment that would define marriage as "between one man and one woman. ..."North Carolina was the swing state in the 2008 election, narrowly falling in to Barack Obama's hands and helping clinch the Democratic presidency. The black community across the nation was instrumental in Obama's victory, but Barber is concerned that pushing African Americans to support the same-sex marriage referendum is "a asocial move to trick" black voters in to helping lure white conservatives to the polls in 2012.Barber, t! he minis ter, also acknowledges that tension of asking some of his constituents to conflict the gay marriage ban when many of them believe, deeply, that homosexuality is immoral and the threat to their values. ...We agree with Barber that there are "people of good will" on both sides of this question, and that faith communities must retain their rights to decide who is and is not eligible for marriage inside of their congregations but we think, ultimately, that inherent amendments are designed to protect civil rights, not to limit them. As Barber says, the question of gay marriage should be "a matter of consciences, not constitutions."Online:http://www.heraldsun.com___Sept. 9Winston-Salem Journal on passing the political buck:As he balances being the problem-solver with being the social conservative, state Rep. Dale Folwell of Forsyth County looks the bit uncomfortable as an advocate of the proposed inherent amendment banning same-sex marriage.Speaking with reporters on several occasions, Folwell, the House speaker pro tem, has defended his position as "merely" ancillary the popular vote, empowering citizens to decide the matter for themselves.That's the "old lottery dodge." For years, legislators proposed not to pass the state lottery on their own but to put it to the statewide referendum. Out of the blue, they rationalized the need for voter participation on that one issue rather than many others. They did so since they were afraid of conservative backlash to the lottery.The same-sex marriage ban being the inherent amendment, the referendum is required as the second step of the two-step process. First, the super-majority of legislators must determine that an amendment is wise, then the majority of voters must approve it.So Folwell's dismissal of the amendment as merely allowing the voters to decide could be seen as an abrogation of his avocation to responsibly decide in the first step of the process.Nonetheless, his comment raises the long-dormant question: Whatever happened to the Republican Party's 1994 Cont! ract wit h North Carolina pledge to hospital initiative and referendum?Under this process, voters in many states can petition their legislature to order the referendum. Hence, citizens might petition for the vote on the tax cut, an independent redistricting commission or the merit selection system for judges.In 1995, when the GOP controlled the state House, the initiative and referendum proposal lasted only the couple of weeks. It surfaced once in the Republican-controlled judiciary committee and then disappeared forever. Word was that the state's tobacco companies feared anti-smoking activists would immediately seek the referendum on the significantly higher cigarette tax.In those days, there was no chance that the Democratic-controlled Senate would have passed the GOP's initiative and referendum proposal, but the state's business establishment didn't want to give this idea any more momentum than it already had. It was best to just let it fade away.Odds are good for the statewide referendum on gay marriage next year, but voters shouldn't expect such votes with any regularity. Legislators will ask us our opinions as the mere convenience to their own needs.Online:http://www2.journalnow.com