July 27

July 27, 2013

Good afternoon, Pat,

I know you are probably taking some time off this weekend, and waving goodbye to the legislature as they leave town till next May. It does leave you in the unfortunate position of staying in Raleigh and seeing what the consequences of all that bill-passing and signing will be. I just want to warn you that I don't think it will be very pleasant for you in the coming months.

I don't get the day off, of course. I am working non-stop to prepare for all my fall classes. I believe I mentioned to you that I have to take on a lot bigger teaching load this fall due to the under-funding of the universities. It doesn't look like you did anything to improve on that, either. I guess the good news is that since you are undervaluing public education in general that not that many people will be going into teaching, so we won't need as many classes - or faculty members - at the university level. I'm sure lots of my colleagues are looking for jobs in other states, especially the ones who were recruited here from other states and don't have tenure yet, and don't yet feel as "at home" in North Carolina as I do. I plan on staying in the UNC system, because even if you don't care about the children of the state, I do! Even though we are not paying teachers enough money so that they can get off food stamps, or not take that second job, we still have some awesome and dedicated teachers - and they deserve the best information they can get about how to teach. Of course, some of the best and brightest will leave NC or leave teaching, but they will still probably be making a difference in people's lives. At the very least, I hope that I have given them some tools to live a better, more caring life no matter what they choose to do.

One thing I sincerely want to thank you for is putting me in a position to get to know more about the Reverend Dr. William Barber. I don't know if you have gotten to spend any time with him, but I hope you do at some point. He is a very kind, caring, and intelligent man, and his ability to speak succinctly and eloquently about issues is hard to match. You could take a lesson from him, I think! If you get to ever sit down with him, I think the first thing he could help you with is the idea of "truth", and what it means to "tell the truth". It seems to be something that is confusing to you and I think he'd be a great help to you.

Alas, this coming Monday may be the last chance we have to meet for a while. My semester will be starting up soon and Dr. Barber is taking his "Moral Monday" meetings to other parts of the state. (Maybe you can get the schedule and go to one or two of them.) Anyway, I will be at the march this Monday. It would be terrific to see you and we can talk about some of the issues I have raised in previous letters and we can also set a date for you to come speak to my classes. I have five of them, but I bet I could get them all to meet together for you.

Well, have a good weekend. I will try to write tomorrow, but I, too, have another job and have to get to it Sunday afternoon when I get home from church.

Take care,

Nancy

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