Justice Orr Speaks To Down East Republicans

The Down East Republican Club met last night in the large party room at Cliff's Seafood. Bob Orr, former Supreme Court Justice and candidate for governor was the guest speaker. The meeting date was moved from their normal date due to the Beaufort County Republican Party Reagan Day Dinner last week.

Justice Robert F. Orr retired from the N.C. Judiciary on July 31, 2004 after eighteen years of service to the citizens of North Carolina. He practiced law in Asheville prior to being appointed to the bench by Governor Jim Martin in 1986. He spent almost ten years as a member of the Supreme Court and eight years on the Court of Appeals. Justice Orr was elected four times statewide by the voters of North Carolina — twice to the Court of Appeals and twice to the Supreme Court.




Justice Orr is currently the Executive Director and Senior Counsel for The North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law, a nonprofit, public interest legal organization based in Raleigh. He serves as an adjunct professor at the UNC School of Law, where he teaches a seminar on the North Carolina State Constitution. Previously, he taught at the N.C. Central School of Law and the Campbell University School of Law.

Judge Orr spoke to the group of the issues he thinks will be important in the coming campaign for Governor and his positions on those issues.

All citizens are invited and welcome to attend Down East Republican Club meetings. The meetings usually take place in the large party room at Cliff’s Seafood on Highway 17 in Chocowinity. If you have any questions or wish to join, contact Al Klemm by phone at (252) 974-2121 or email at al@theklemms.com

Reagan Day Dinner Features Senator Fred Smith

The Annual Beaufort County Republican Party "Regan Day Dinner" was a rousing success. It featured presumed Candidate for Governor Senator Fred Smith as keynote speaker. Candidate for State Treasurer Representative Bill Daughtridge also spoke to the enthusiastic crowd of Republicans. The theme of both candidates was the reality that a return to the principals of conservatives is all it takes to go back to winning elections.

Republicans stand for individual freedom. Our foray into big government conservatism has foundred on the contradiction that big government and individual freedom are never compatible. It is the contradiction that we must get rid of. Big government is not the Republican way.



Before we get to this night's speeches lets set the stage of how the event went. There are always a number of early arrivers for these events. They are the people who know everyone and want to catch up with their friends before the serious business gets started. Above is the lobby at the Beaufort County Community College building where the event was held.



One part of the serious business is eating. At this event North Carolina based Keyzer's Catering provided a meal of steak and shrimp that was truly outstanding. A common feature of these meals is the normal complaining about the food, but tonight it was completely reversed as everyone was truly impressed and could not stop raving about the food.



Laura and Kalissa (above) were two of the Keyzer's Catering staff who worked hard to keep everyone well fed and glasses filled to the brim.



One nice part of these events is always the lovely ladies who come out. Above, Iris Falkson, Rachel Sturz, Lynda Foreman and Del Stutzman.



As the formal event starts, (from the left above) Tomp Litchfield, Fred Smith, Hope Van Dorp, Gene Geesey, Bob Edmunds and Jack Piland are the dignataries who fill the dais. Hope Van Dorp, (at the speakers stand) Beaufort County Republican Party Chairman starts the event off with a welcome.



Derek Davis offered a prayer of thanks.



Our national anthem was sung beautifully by Jenni Sickert.



Gene Geesey, Finance Chairman, served as Master of Ceremonies. As is traditional for these events, Gene told a few jokes. This evening of course all the jokes were about democrats.



Jack Piland, Beaufort County Republican Party Vice-Chariman, made the introductions of special guests to the event.




Tomp Litchfield, Jr.then proceeded with the introductions of the planned speakers.



Erin Gray, above, read a letter from Bill Graham who was a no show for this event.




The first speaker was Judge Bob Edmunds of the NC Supreme Court. Judge Edmunds spoke eloquently of the need to retain a conseravtive majority on the State Supreme Court. At this point the majority is down to a single vote.

As an example of this importance, lower courts in North Carolina ruled that the Constitutional requirement that taxes be spent for what they were collected could not be enforced. They threw out of court some NC tax payers who had sued to enforce our Constitution. Only the conservative majority on the NC Supreme Court protected us by insisting that it was ridiculous for a court to rule that our Constitution could not be enforced by the people for whom it was written and for whom the protections were intended.

He also noted that the Court elected next year will ultimately determine the next redistricting of the legislature. Since the constant Republican majority vote for House and Senate within our state has not resulted in the majority of the House and Senate being Republicans, at some point we will have to get the courts to block the ongoing gerrymandering by the democrats that give them more seats even though more people vote for Republicans.




The importance of good government being based on sound tax policy and ethical implementation of our tax laws was the theme of Candidate for State Treasurer Bill Daughtridge. Bill is the Representative from the Rocky Mount area who is the only Republican representative from Northeastern North Carolina. He is a strong conservative who understands the importance of a strong Treasurer to assure that government abides by the fiscal rules that exist for the protection of the tax payer.




Tomp Litchfield, Jr. then introduced Keynote speaker (above) Senator Fred Smith. A lot of Fred's bio is becoming well known. His parents worked in an orphanage and Fred was raised there as well, learning first hand how many people have a tough start in life and the importance of making sure they get a chance too. One anecdote that I had never heard before was that Fred, a two way football player at the positions of offensive guard and linebacker, won the most valuable player award in the Shrine Bowl the year he graduated from high school. Fred went on to win a football scholarship at Wake Forest. Fred was a successful lawyer before he became a very successful farmer and developer.

Fred pealed off his coat and came down to the floor level to give his speech. Fred was clearly extremely popular with this crowd, and got a standing ovation. His speech was about winning. One of his early points, "We have to win, we can't get anything passed when our bills are assigned to committees that never meet." This was a reference to the unethical practice of Senator Marc Basnight, the democrat President Pro Tem of the NC Senate.

Fred proclaimed, "I am tired of democrats believing the strength of this state is big government. We need to empower people . . . not empower more bureaucrats."

Fred believes that this "love" of government leads to bad ethics too. He spent a few minutes talking about the importance of replacing the number of democrats who, like former Speaker Black and former Congressman Frank Balance, " . . Parade across TV in handcuffs." This parade is not finished. There is something slimey at work when you think of our former Speaker, democrat Black, taking bribes in restaurant bathrooms. These criminals must be sent home by Republicans who take back government for the people.

What we need is more positive efforts of regular people, like the 12,000 North Carolinians who recently went to Raleigh to support the Defense of Marriage and the bill Senator Jim Forrester has advocated for so long. Fred lauded that as the kind of grass roots efforts he is proud of.

Fred repeated, to make this happen Republicans need to get back to our principals and get back to winning.




The evening ended with an emotional and moving rendition of "God Bless America", played first on the harmonica and then sung by a crowd filled with the passion of the moment.

It was a great night.

Rotary Sponsors Trip To South Korea

Williamston Rotary is a small club but always has a very good turnout of their members. Their activism is also signified by the constant high quality of their speakers at the weekly luncheons.

Don King was the speaker for today's Williamston Rotary Club luncheon. Don spoke to us about the District 7720 Group Study Exchange between South Korea and the United States. Don was part of a group of Americans who spent a month in Korea. A group of Koreans will be coming to America in exchange.




Before he started his presentation, Don passed around some literature on Korea and a book about the capital city, Seoul.




Don's presentation was a made by PowerPoint and included many of the pictures the group took on their trip.









One of the highlights of their trip was the DMZ zone, shown above, indicative that a state of war still exists all these many years later. It is easy to forget that the Korean war has really never ended.








This visit to foreigh countries is an important program that Rotary has long sponsored. One of the final slides in Don's presentation was that of the group that accompanied him on the trip.



Don is a Professor at Pitt Community College and served as the Instructor / Advisor on the trip for Rotary. He is an accomplished speaker and made the presentation quite interesting.





At the end of the service, Dr. Bill Gray of the Williamston Rotary thanked Don and presented him with some complimentary peanuts as a thank you for an excellent event.

The Imperial Center - Rocky Mount

I spent the day in Rocky Mount and had an opportunity to visit the recently expanded Imperial Center. It is an impressive experience. The Center includes the Children's Museum, Science Center, Planetarium, Art Museum and the new Library. Following are some of the pictures I took on the site visit to the Art Museum.

There are not many who are aware that Rocky Mount has this impressive facility for its citizens.

North Carolina’s Outstanding Teen Visits Martin County

Williamston Rotarians had a visit from an “outstanding” teenager on Tuesday when Ciara Newman, Miss North Carolina’s Outstanding Teen, was the club’s guest speaker. Ciara is currently on a campaign to visit and do community service in all 100 of North Carolina's counties.




Newman, an 18-year-old senior at North Henderson High School in Hendersonville, NC, and the daughter of Gary and Paula Newman, was crowned Hendersonville’s Outstanding Teen last February, and then won the state title in Raleigh in June. While many people may not yet be familiar with the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Organization, most are well aware of the program’s “big sister,” Miss America, the world’s largest provider of scholarships for women and a tradition since 1921.

Following her speech to the group, Newman was presented with a bag of local peanuts, a gift from Dr. Bill Gray, retired dentist and program chair for the club. Shown with Dr. Gray (middle) and Ciara Newman (right) is Tiffany Ervin (left) from the Hendersonville Rotary and Ciara's escort during this visit.

Ciara represented the Tarheel State in the 2006 Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Pageant in Orlando, Fla, in August. In September, she set a personal goal to visit every county in North Carolina during her year of service. Martin County became number 58, and with another 10 already on her schedule, that means only 32 more to go!