BY MILES LAYTON

Editorial Page — here are a few opinion columns ahead of Sunday’s Opinion page to get folks talking before Thanksgiving — one deals with the media’s treatment of Plymouth Town Council member Donsenia Teel, another by Scott Perry discusses how Raleigh has left Eastern NC behind, a third column comes from a speech denouncing communism from a California congresswoman, and a final column shares thought about Thanksgiving from a man who inspires this country journalist.

PLYMOUTH — A reader sent me some screenshots of Facebook conversations that may confirm something — there may be more to Plymouth Town Council member Donsenia Teel’s WITN interview at a turkey giveaway Friday by the Washington Regional Hospital. Her brief interview with the drive-by media can be seen here.

Yes, when Teel said on the video that she accepted a turkey, a gift card and wings from the giveaway, I sensed that maybe something is missing from the story. I’m not going to talk about Town Council’s decision to close the food pantry — see our previous story for that — but instead a media narrative that sharpened and shaped the issue, certainly folks’ perception of Teel, fair or unfair, depending on whether you support her or not.

Yes, common sense dictates that Teel, who’s a pretty smart cookie, would surely be aware that by being interviewed by the television reporter, the optics of accepting a turkey and a gift card might be considered controversial in the wake of her vote to evict Plymouth’s Food Pantry — but maybe she said something more during the interview. We don’t know because all the interview showed was Teel answering a question about what she received at the giveaway. Much like 60 Minutes’ interview with President Trump, the interview feels hurried, cut-off…

As I said earlier, there’s no further comment from Teel about the closure of the food pantry — Dec. 1 in that video clip. That’s strange because Teel, whether you agree with her positions on matters or not, has been known to be pretty outspoken on the issues that she cares about when addressing council.

I’ve reached out to Teel for clarification – she declined to comment. And who can blame her?  

And I don’t expect WITN to respond for clarification, if one is needed, so why bother. Mainstream media outlets rarely apologize or if they do, the correction is buried at the bottom of page 3.

One of our readers sent me two screenshots that raise questions as to whether there is another side to Teel’s story.  

Our readers should decide what to think about what happened.

Since these screenshots were written by people who are not public figures – the authors’ names have been redacted.  

Screenshot one says:

I want to take a moment to publicly address and correct a misunderstanding. 

First, I sincerely apologize to Councilwoman Teel for how I misinterpreted the situation regarding her receiving a meal and a turkey at a recent giveaway. 

After speaking directly with the owner of Needs 2B Cleaned — one of the funders of the event — he made it very clear that Councilwoman Teel did not ask for or accept anything for herself. She actually declined both the turkey and the meal. 

He insisted she take them only after he saw her holding an umbrella over an elderly woman, protecting her from the rain. Witnessing that act of kindness, he felt she deserved the gesture as a thank-you. He also expressed that his generosity was never meant to cause this hardworking lady any type of negative attention.  

He further confirmed that Councilwoman Teel only did the interview because he personally requested it, believing she was the right person to speak in Plymouth after being re-elected. She even explained to him that it might look bad since she had previously voted to close the pantry. Still, after his reassurance, she agreed – fully aware she might be criticized.  

To Councilwoman Teel, I salute you for your bravery, compassion and dedication to the people of Plymouth. Thank you for your consistent (and then the message is cut off in the screenshot) — but continues — service and leadership. Our town is fortunate to have you. 

Screenshot two says:

Teel responds to someone in another screenshot who asked about the incident – saying, “I was there and I spoke more about getting a free turkey, giftcard and delicious wing dinner. The reporter asked what I did receive and that’s the only part he published. Oh!!! I forgot the delicious lemonade they were serving as well. If you have a giveaway, I’ll be there as well.”

Meanwhile, folks have asked me to find out — who is behind Plymouth Voices, where the first screenshot came from, a Facebook site that minces no words when it comes to presenting its point of view about the people, places and issues of Plymouth.

I have my theories about who administers that site and thought about using my tech skills to look into the matter, but then realized that I have better things to do than chase or gaslight a troll who has too much time on his/her/they/them’s hands.

I’m a free speech guy — so the more thoughts out there, the better, because the truth always prevails in the marketplace of ideas. I applaud that social media site for asking tough questions.

That said, it’s social media, the toilet bowl of debate, so if you want to be a troll, that weakens your position, right or wrong, so be it.

Last matter and then I’ll shut up — this comes from Edenton.

Monday, Edenton Town Council approved expanding the social district (where you can drink in public) to include Sunfish Park by a 4-2 vote, though not without significant debate about child safety and public perceptions.

Councilman Elton Bond noted that families in Edenton try to teach children not to drink in public, but the town would allow drinking near the playground at Waterfront Park — I like this quote from Bond.

“Call me old-fashioned, but you still got people drinking in front of the playground where the kids are playing at,” Bond said. Despite the modified boundaries creating additional buffer space, he questioned the message it sends to young people. “We preach to our kids about drinking in public, and we can drink in front of them?”

Back in the day, folks wouldn’t even consider drinking in public, certainly not even be in a bar until after sundown, but these days … I’m not sure this is the right message for our community to send. Same goes for CBD shops.

I get it — some folks like to drink; social districts — that’s what you did before you moved to Edenton.

However, I’d rather Edenton be known for a common sense approach to alcohol consumption, erring more toward sobriety than drinking.

THE HIVE AND THE HINTERLAND: How North Carolina Abandoned Its Eastern Counties

A 150-Year Story of Power, Geography, and Political Engineering — Part I

By Scott Perry

North Carolina has spent 150 years behaving not like a state but like a hive—a rigid, hierarchical organism where all roads, all honey, all power flow inward toward the queen’s chamber while the outer combs are left to wither.

From Reconstruction to the research boom to the partisan engineering of the post-2010 era, the same instinct has governed everything: feed the center, drain the edges, and keep the worker bees quiet. Raleigh, Charlotte, and Winston-Salem—the great triumvirate west of I-95—have been fattened for generations with railroads, universities, industrial capital, corporate incentives, beltlines, and research parks, while the east, the forgotten flatlands, has been told to produce, obey, and wait its turn. But the turn never comes.

For a century and a half, the eastern counties have supplied the hive with crops, ports, manpower, military installations, energy, and loyalty, only to be rewarded with shuttered hospitals, collapsing school systems, shrinking tax bases, and “regional improvement” plans that somehow always skip past the Albemarle, the Roanoke, and the Pamlico.

When the legislature consolidated power in 2010, it didn’t invent this imbalance—it calcified it. Partisan judicial elections, gerrymandered districts, the Justice Reinvestment Act dumping state responsibilities onto rural jails, primary reforms designed to protect the hive’s preferred heirs, and a budget philosophy that pours billions into the Piedmont crescent while tossing pennies eastward—these were not random policy choices; they were the instincts of a hive that has decided its workers exist to serve, not to thrive.

And nowhere is that clearer than east of I-95, where communities that built the state’s agricultural backbone and safeguarded its military installations now find themselves treated like expendable labor—expected to vote, pay, and endure while the center feasts. A hive can survive only as long as its workers do, yet North Carolina behaves as if it can hollow out the entire coastal plain and somehow emerge stronger.

But honey soured by neglect will not nourish forever, and a hive that forgets the hands—or the counties—that built it will one day find that its glittering center cannot save it from the collapse of the comb beneath.

Scott Perry is a local business leader, writer and historian.

Speech from Rep. Young Kim about the horrors of communism firsthand; A call to defend freedom

Thank you, Chairman. It’s such an honor to stand here to strongly support the House Concurrent Resolution 9. As a Korean American who grew up in the aftermath of the Korean War, I have witnessed the horrors of socialism firsthand. I always say, if you want to see the difference between socialism and freedom, just look at the Korean Peninsula at night. South Korea shines with opportunity. North Korea is trapped in darkness.

Time and time again throughout history, socialism has led to disaster, starvation, imprisonment, and the deaths of over 100 million people worldwide. My own family lived those horrors. My mother-in-law risked her life crossing the DMZ lines multiple times to rescue loved ones from the North Korean regime.

To this day, tens of thousands of Korean families remain separated by a system that tears apart communities and crushes basic human dignity. Now more than ever, as socialist ideas gain traction here at home and as our nation’s largest city and financial capital has elected not just a socialist but a communist as mayor, we must firmly demand our capitalist, free-market system, which empowers Americans of all backgrounds to achieve freedom, opportunity, and prosperity.

I know what America represents because I remember my first glimpse of freedom as a young girl, looking up wide-eyed as U.S. soldiers tossed candy from their trucks. In the communities that I lived, today, as one of the first Korean American women to serve in Congress—

[Chairman] The lady’s time has expired.

[Speaker] —that freedom tastes just as sweet. Stories like these can only happen in America. As a member of Congress, I will always fight for the American dream and for our free market system that keeps it within reach for everyday Americans. Thank you, and I yield my time.

Rep. Young Kim is a South Korean-born American politician and businesswoman serving as the US representative for California’s 40th congressional district, a Republican.

Day For Counting Blessings

By Adam Kelly

For a good many years now, I’ve been writing Thanksgiving columns in which I share with readers my own person litany of gratitude. Reading these pieces over the past decade reveals they are repetitive to a great extent. That in itself is a big reason for my feeling of thanksgiving this day. My life has not changed dramatically from what it was in 1979. Much for which I expressed thanks 10 years ago, 5 years ago, 12 months ago is with me still.

The wonder of it all is that a great deal of my personal Thanksgiving is for things which many would place in the category of just “ordinary.” Age has a way of making us understand that it really is the ordinary in life which makes it wonderful and so full of meaning. It is for these ordinary things I express my gratitude today. It is always difficult to reduce heartfelt emotion to words, but words are all I have. These are mine, as once more I attempt to express how thankful I am to a merciful Creator for continued existence in His wonderful world.

For the daily bliss which comes from loving and being loved by one who has made our ordinary home into a haven of joy, happiness and peace of whom, after first we met, it truthfully can be said, “and he lived happily, ever afterward,”

I thank you, Lord.

For the miracle of love as expressed through the birth of our children, healthy, happy, wonderfully ordinary children, for the added miraculous blessing of five grandchildren to give meaning and majesty to life ongoing in that ever flowing stream meandering forever down into the sea of eternity,

I love you, Lord.

For the priceless privileges of freedom enjoyed in our great country, for my opportunity to write, to speak, to believe as I please without threat of government interference, for the right to worship You in any way I choose,

I thank you, Lord.

For America, for church, for friends, for faith,

I thank you, Lord.

For warm memories of family long ago, for recollection of so many happy days with those whom we loved who are no longer with us, for the newness of life with its glorious addition to our unbroken circle of love,

I thank you, Lord.

For ordinary parents, wonderful parents, who knew the difference between right and wrong and imparted that knowledge to their children, who accepted the challenge of working on and under rugged West Virginia hills to hold our family together in good times and bad, who believed in hard work and taught us its value, who had faith in God and confidence in his ability to work wonders,

I thank you, Lord.

For the wonderful blessing of such an ordinary thing as giving me meaningful work to perform in Your world and the mental and physical health that enables to do it,

I thank you, Lord.

From Your bounteous goodness has come to me more food that I can eat, more clothes than I can wear, a house with more rooms than I can occupy, for these and so many of the other material benefits of life You have afforded me,

I thank you, Lord.

For the privilege of living out my days in an ordinary little town, yet a wonderful community of beauty and peace, where I am surrounded by familiar friends,

I thank you, Lord.

For the dreams of those brave souls who observed that first Thanksgiving Day, those ordinary, yet wonderfully unique people who believed that the worship of God must furnish the cornerstone on which to lay the foundation of a new nation,

I thank you, Lord.

For the courage of many millions of ordinary men and women, who through more than 200 years have exhibited extraordinary bravery in defending our freedoms, who have been willing to give the last full measure of devotion, their lives in the defense of our great nation, who faced death without flinching so that Americans might live in peace this day,

I thank you, Lord.

You know how it is, Lord. You understand our feeling of inadequacy as we use words, phases, sentences in our desperate need to communicate what lies in our hearts. It is at the end of a day such as this, Lord, when we overhear the soft whisper of a little girl as she talks with You, that the realization comes that really she is expressing the sentiment, saying it for all of us, most especially, Lord, for me this Thanksgiving:

And thank you, God, for everything.

Adam R. Kelly, the late owner and editor of the Tyler Star News in Sistersville, West Virginia, was the longtime writer of the popular weekly column, the “Country Editor.”