Fracking in Pennsylvania, years ago, led to massive water table destruction (based on Halli's special sauce) and about $40,000 per home was required to keep the tap water from becoming a flame thrower. Hats off to Anson County.....New York researchers requested five years of research, before they would even issue preliminary comments on the subject, must less approve it!!! What else will this current General Assembly, Koch Brothers, Pope and the like destroy and mutilate in NC to reap their profits off the citizens of this "once progressive" State?
I've sat in on political discussions with James and can attest to his seriousness about our situation at the local, national, and world levels. He's no baby kissing glad hander who is in it for the money and power. I'm also a life long registered Independent because when I first registered in 1972 I realized that both parties were too much about business as usual. Its only gotten worse. The business of America is BIG business. James is not that kind of lackey.
In that case I would edit article to this:
"Such "whatevers" include the strange, wonderful, deconstructive show called The Wooster Group's "Diary of Anne Frank," a Little Green Pig production that is not your typical Anne Frank play..."
Hi, all, you may remember me as MTBinDurham from BlueNC and other spots.
Here's why James has a long way to go before he gets my support -- I'm not interested in symbolic runs; I want someone who's going to actually get into office. Winning office at the state level is a long and messy process. "Speaking truth to power," or any other number of vacuous slogans and phrases, isn't going to get anywhere.
The progressive I'm going to support is going to be one who shows he can go to North Carolina's small towns where the economy is the worst, jobs are scarce, and the Democratic party is scarcer. Show my you can get those towns not just excited, but organized and motivated to do the tedious work of turning out people to vote and getting everyone moving in the same direction, and I'm on board. Writing internet missives from a comfy chair in Chapel Hill isn't what makes a governor.
I bought a older home a few years ago and had to have a new well dug but now theres something wrong with my water i had it tested and it tested high for methane gas and oil i cant use the water at all and i have stayed sick since i bought the property is there anything i can do or anyone i can speak to about the situation i also have a old store near my home that still has the gas drums in the ground could that be the source of the gas in my water?
Great review.
Our community has had several residents complain to Aqua's so-called President, only to get the same form letter back from them saying the exact same thing.
Thanks for this article--a big ray of hope in the face of all the collateral damage already wreaked by McCrory and friends in the short time he has been in office. I am glad to hear about James Protzman. I am glad he is willing to call liars liars. He sounds like a man capable of critical thinking and a heart that can feel. I will learn more and plan to support him and his voice early and often.
What ever happened to Raleigh downtown live shows??
While I've also never met the man in person, I've followed his activities at BlueNC for a couple of years and I can promise you, he is EXACTLY the type of candidate we need to see in every race and every level of office in this state.
Sometimes arrogance has more to to with the perceptions of those on the receiving end than the character of the person accused of being so. As for uncompromising; I've seen a lifetime's worth of compromise in candidates who call themselves progressives (or sell themselves as such), and I'm sick to death of it.
Give me a candidate who tells it like it is, pulls no punches, and occasionally calls an asshole or a liar what what they really are, in public, any day of the year over the sniveling, compromising, afraid-to-offend professional politicians we've had to put up with for as long as most of us can remember.
Protzman is a breath of fresh air in a room full of stale air and rusted tools.
Go. James, go!
This article and interview is great, looking forward to this event! But.... I took the photo featured here, which seems to have an incorrect attribution. I'm sure it's an honest mistake - how should I straighten this out? http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocore/726327…
Thanks for the catch, Jeremy. The text has been corrected.
Article states in the body that the shows are on friday and sunday but that is a typo. Friday and saturday may 17 and 18
I think the key difference that strikes me is the choice; wrapped up in that choice is the ability to escape it at any point it becomes tiresome.
Michael, if James really didn't care about our state and the average people who inhabit it, which seems to be the prevalent opinion amongst the vast majority of candidates/elected officials, he would not get as angry about some of the things that have happened.
We need somebody with a little emotion, who can feel a sense of outrage when it should be felt. But behind that emotion is one of the smartest people I have ever met, who also happens to be one of the most objective, as well. He isn't above reevaluating his beliefs, to see if he's missed something along the way. He's hungry for new information, as opposed to running away from inconvenient truths, and that is the only way to continually make progress.
Is he a rock star? No. Have we had enough rock star politicians already? Oh, hell yes.
I've known this good man for more than 35 years. He'd be a great governor! He's smart enough to know when arrogant and uncompromising is appropriate. In this political climate we need someone who is willing to tell the truth.
@Michael
As the article suggests, I'd be thrilled to see a great progressive candidate join the fray and lead our party forward.
Pat McCrory spent ten years running for governor. We need someone to step forward now to challenge him at every turn. Got any suggestions?
The problem is that Protzman can come across as a complete jerk. I share almost all of his political views, but it would require some serious nose-holding to vote for him in the primaries. (The stench from the GOP would be such that in the general that wouldn't be much of an issue.) Interacting him through BlueNC and other online fora, my initial reaction is that while he's done some good work statewide, I'd be worried if he were the flag for NC progressives, because he'll make us all look uncompromising and arrogant.
I should qualify this by saying I've never met him in person, and Lord knows it's easy for one to get the wrong impression online, but while I'm not as active in the NC progressive online chatterboxes as I used to be, I was never really left with a good impression of the man.
Thank you for this essay, Lisa. You do an excellent job of showing both sides of the "luxury" of such choices, and the economic structures that must sustain them. There are many who might choose the new domesticity who simply cannot afford it; and others who can barely afford it, but sacrifice to do so. I will definitely find the book and read it!
Re: “Sustenance and survival: the story of Yamazushi”
For much of its history, Japanese cuisine was heavily influenced by Buddhist and Shinto teachings that forbid killing and the consumption of meat. The general public did not eat meat until after the Meiji Restoration - latter part of the 19th century. Yamazushi is recreating a very traditional, very elegant form of Japanese cuisine rarely seen in the US, much less in North Carolina, and it's very exciting.