Editor’s Note: Our Editorial page contains a letter from Scott Perry about why Jerry Tillet is the best choice for NC Senate District 1; Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler’s endorsement of Jay Lane, a Republican running for NC Senate District 1; NC Senate District 1 Republican candidate Dave Forsythe’s words of support for coastal communities; A letter questioning the move of the Lane House in Edenton; Christmas columns by Keith Throckmorton and Nora Gilbert.

Letter: Defend Coastal North Carolina’s Future: Choose Proven Leadership – Vote Retired Judge Jerry Tillett for State Senate

By Scott Perry

Our hardworking watermen—shrimpers, crabbers, oystermen, and fishermen—are the backbone of coastal North Carolina’s economy and heritage.

These independent small business owners embody conservative values: self-reliance, generational traditions, and fierce determination to thrive without unnecessary government interference. Yet today, their livelihoods face a serious threat from reckless proposals that could shatter the careful balance we’ve maintained for decades.

The current system—with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries under the Department of Environmental Quality and guided by the independent Marine Fisheries Commission—has long provided essential stability. This multi-layered structure insulates our fragile coastal economy from sudden political swings, ensuring decisions are based on science, law, and fairness rather than election-year whims.

But now, this proven independence is under attack. Proposals to shift fisheries oversight to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services have repeatedly failed—and for good reason. They emerged in 1997 (post the landmark Fisheries Reform Act), resurfaced in 2012 debates, and are being pushed again in 2025 by a newly formed seafood coalition. Each time, wiser heads prevailed, recognizing that public-trust resources like our fisheries must remain protected from the concentration of power in a single elected official’s hands.

Enter Jay Lane, a young candidate for Senate District 1, who has recklessly revived this failed idea by advocating for placing shrimpers and watermen under the Department of Agriculture. Lane wasn’t even born in 1997 when this proposal was first wisely rejected. He was only 13 in 2012 when it failed again. Given his limited life experience and no deep historical understanding of these complex issues, it’s clear someone is coaching him—likely by his well-connected insiders in Raleigh’s Republican establishment.

The proposal isn’t grassroots wisdom; it’s top-down maneuvering that risks devastating our coastal families, as evidenced by the Department of Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler’s endorsement of Jay Lane and his campaign.

To truly protect watermen, we need a leader with unwavering integrity, deep regional roots, and the judicial expertise to navigate these challenges thoughtfully. That’s why retired Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett is the strongest choice for Senate District 1.

Judge Tillett, a lifelong resident of the Albemarle region, served with distinction as Senior Resident Superior Court Judge for Judicial District 1 (covering Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Pasquotank, and Perquimans counties) until his retirement in May 2025. Over decades on the bench, he handled countless cases involving regulatory disputes, environmental law, property rights, and community impacts—always upholding fairness, the rule of law, and conservative principles.

Unlike impulsive, off-the-cuff statements that could upend lives (as we’ve seen with Lane’s proposals), Judge Tillett’s legal background ensures that decisions are deliberate and thoroughly considered. Only a seasoned jurist like Tillett can expertly defend the vital layers of government that shield our watermen’s independence from political overreach.

Real conservatives know: We oppose centralized control and excessive regulation that crushes small businesses. Swapping one bureaucracy for politically vulnerable oversight isn’t reform—it’s a dangerous gamble with our coastal economy.

Watermen don’t need untested experiments. They need Judge Tillett’s proven leadership to fight for stability, fairness, and true independence.

Scott Perry is a local business leader, writer and historian. Like many civil-minded residents in northeastern North Carolina, Perry is active in his political party as an unpaid volunteer. We encourage area residents to write letters to the editor endorsing their candidate of choice in the March primary election. We will review letters on an individual basis. They must be civil in nature and deal with local issues and policies. They can be submitted via email to albemarle.observer@gmail.com or mileslayton1969@gmail.com.

Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler Endorses Jay Lane for State Senate

ELIZABETH CITY – Jay Lane, a lifelong North Carolinian, Republican, farmer, and small business owner from Elizabeth City, today announced the endorsement of Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler for his candidacy in North Carolina Senate District 1.

“Northeastern North Carolina needs a farmer in the General Assembly who understands agriculture—and will fight for our values, heritage, and way of life,” said Commissioner Troxler. “Jay is that farmer—and he has my full support for State Senate.”

Commissioner Troxler’s endorsement signals growing momentum for Jay Lane in a district home to an array of agriculture sectors: poultry and livestock, tobacco, sweet potatoes, row crops, specialty crops, aquaculture, and seafood. Troxler, first elected Commissioner of Agriculture in 2004, was the top Republican vote-getter in North Carolina in each of the last three presidential election years.

“I am honored to accept Commissioner Troxler’s endorsement,” Lane responded. “Commissioner Troxler fights for North Carolina agriculture every day. His support underscores what this campaign is about: sending a strong conservative Republican to Raleigh to fight for northeastern North Carolina values—and achieve policy wins for farmers, fishermen, and working families.”

As a farmer and entrepreneur, Lane has spent his life working the land and creating jobs in northeastern North Carolina. Commissioner Troxler’s endorsement amplifies the campaign’s focus: preserving the state’s agricultural and fishing heritage while promoting economic growth and opportunity for the next generation.

Senate District 1 includes Bertie, Camden, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hertford, Northampton, Pasquotank, Perquimans, and Tyrrell counties. Jay and his wife, Hennie, have a one-year-old son, John. Jay and Hennie’s family business, Bayside Farms, is based in Pasquotank County, with additional farmland in Camden and Perquimans counties.

Letter: Coastal Values Are on the Ballot in 2026 – Who is funding candidates?

By Dave Forsythe

For generations, North Carolina’s coastal communities have been built on the backs of hardworking families who make their living on the water. Shrimpers, fishermen, dock workers, seafood processors, boat builders, marina operators, small business owners, and everyone connected to our coastal economy form a proud and essential part of our state’s identity.

Yet year after year, these families find themselves fighting for survival. They face rising costs, unpredictable weather, regulatory pressure, and competition from imported seafood. What they should not have to worry about is legislation in Raleigh that threatens their livelihoods in the name of political expediency.

The attempt by Raleigh lawmakers earlier this year to sharply restrict commercial shrimping wasn’t just bad policy, it was an attack on the very people our coastal communities depend on. Attacking an industry that supports thousands of North Carolinians, drives local business activity, and keeps coastal towns alive is an affront to the families, traditions, and economies that make this region strong.

It is important for voters to understand the stakes. We have candidates running for the open State Senate seat who are endorsed by the very officials who supported the disastrous shrimping regulations. Anyone seeking to represent this region should be transparent about their positions and the consequences of the policies they support.

Our coastal communities deserve representatives who understand that supporting the shrimping industry is not a political calculation. As policymakers, we owe it to the people who depend on these waters to stand with them, not against them.

North Carolina’s coast is one of our greatest treasures. Protecting it means protecting the people who have stewarded it for generations. If entrusted with the honor of representing you in the Senate, you can count on me to support our shrimpers and coastal businesses without reservation, and I am committed to ensuring that the voices of coastal workers are heard loud and clear in Raleigh.

A Gates County Commissioner, Dave Forsythe is a candidate in the Republican Primary for NC Senate District 1.

Letter: Lane House Deserves Respect

Dear Mayor High,

I am writing as a result of information in a recent article in the Albemarle Observer concerning a possible move of the oldest known house in North Carolina from its present site on East Queen Street to a lot next to Southern Bank, on West Queen. I hope you saw the article and my comment.

I noted that Tom Newbern, Jim Melchor and I wrote a book last year about this house called “Edenton’s 1718 House/Mr. Ogilby’s Tavern.” This book lays out in detail who built this house, how it was used as a waterfront tavern throughout the 1700s and its move around 1806 to its present location.  I have attached a photo of the book’s cover. It is for sale today at “4 North” across the street from your office. I believe anyone contemplating moving this structure should read our book. I know I spent hundreds of hours in the Chowan deed office in 2022 doing research reflected in the book.

I saw from the Albemarle Observer article that some claim the move was made in the late 1800s or around 1900, but this information is wrong. That this information is being put out reflects, in my opinion, an effort by some to discredit our research. However, we believe our research will stand the test of time. If others want to argue for different conclusions, they should put their own research in writing and have it vetted the way we did for our book.

We wrote the book and gifted it to the Elizabeth Vann Moore Foundation here in Edenton with the expectation it would be sold by the Edenton Historical Commission at the Barker House as a fund-raiser. Sam Dixon/EVM Foundation paid for the printing of the first copies of the book last December in time to sell it during the 2024 Christmas Open House, but the EHCNC has not allowed it to be sold there.

This is odd considering the great enthusiasm expressed by the executive director of the EHCNC for the manuscript prior to its printing. The copies printed by Dixon/EVM were purchased and sold by the Cupola House Association and additional printings were sold at the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City. I believe at present the only place to purchase the book is at “4 North.”

I do not believe the 1718 house should be moved from its current location. I have spoken to two others whom I greatly respect with regard to this historic property. One told me that moving the house from its present site in the oldest, eastern section of Edenton, to a lot across from the Exxon station on busy West Queen was, as he put it, “giving a finger” to those who live east of Broad Street. Another individual had this to say: “I don’t think moving the house is a good idea. It is quite fragile and sits on 220 years of archaeological context where it survived through adaptive reuse. It is where it has spent the vast majority of its existence. [It] doesn’t make sense risking the structure and erasing this part of its history to make it more of a tourist attraction.” I totally agree with both of these individuals. There are many issues a move would involve that need to be carefully considered.

I hope you and the town council and other interested parties will carefully consider all aspects involved with such a move. This is one of North Carolina’s most important surviving structures, and it needs to be treated with the respect it deserves.

Michael L. Marshall is a resident of Edenton.

Column: Christmas Recollections of a Police Officer

By Keith Throckmorton

Isaiah 11:6 (KJV): “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.”

Isaiah prophesied the coming of Jesus, and we read in Chapter 11, Verse 6, “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.” The exact comparisons continue through Verse 9.

As I reflect on Christmas, I think about the birth of the Prince of Peace and the peace of God’s creatures and humanity. We are reminded of these multiple times through the scriptures as we plan for the second coming of Christ. I believe that God reminds us of this prophecy every Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as we celebrate the birth of Christ.

I completed a 40-year law enforcement career. I spent several years on duty on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. In Fairfax County, Virginia, where I retired, all types of crimes were committed daily except two. These were Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. For the most part, crime did not occur in those days. Everything was quiet and peaceful. People got along with each other. Sadly, during the evening on Christmas Eve, homeless, alcoholics, and others with nowhere to go would cause minor disturbances, such as trespassing, being drunk in public, at Christmas Eve office parties to get arrested and enjoy a good meal in jail on Christmas Day. Suicides also occurred due to loneliness and other personal reasons.

Unhappily, many of these miscreants and victims of themselves had families and loved
ones who abandoned them.

All in all, I believed that the police could take this time off and stay at home. I then realized that the Christmas Spirit entered everyone, the good and the bad, weak and strong – enemies and that everyone was at peace. I witnessed firsthand these Holy Days, “The wolf did live with the lamb,” and I served as a witness to His return for us.

I have asked myself numerous times: what if everyone could capture the Spirit of Christmas each day of the year? What if we could live Christmas every day? We would not have crime and live in peace and harmony together.

One of my annual Christmas traditions is watching Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.” It focuses on Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly and cruel individual who became wealthy at the expense of others. To Scrooge, Christmas was a “Humbug.” He had no feelings for anyone but himself. On Christmas Eve night, he was visited by three spirits, who got his attention on his obligations to his fellow man. The story ended with the statement, “Ebenezer Scrooge became the best master the old town ever knew. He knew how to keep Christmas every day of the year.”

I enjoy watching the 1951 version with Ebenezer Scrooge, portrayed by Alistair Sim. This fantasy novel by Charles Dickens reminded me that it is never too late to turn a life around, do what is right, and serve our fellow man.

Ebenezer Scrooge was a character in a novel. Jesus Christ is the reason for the Christmas season. Live His words 24/7. Make every day a Christmas day!

We must remember our healthcare providers, law enforcement, military, first responders, firefighters, their families, and support personnel working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Consider the sacrifices that they make in their service to us 24/7. I pray for the ability to live Christmas every day in my heart and my actions. I pray for our police officers, who miss Christmas with their families, to serve their communities. I pray for those mentioned herein, with no one to love or care for them.

Consider opening your home on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to those on duty and sharing a cup of coffee in appreciation. Also, include anyone alone and in need of love and the spirit of Christmas.

We should remember those mentioned herein and follow God’s word: Galatians 6:10 (KJV): “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”

John 13:35 (KJV): “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another.”

Mark 12:31(KJV):” And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

Merry Christmas! Make the spirit of Christmas alive in you 365 days of the year.

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Keith Throckmorton, Fairfax County Police (Retired and Chaplain), Hertford, NC

Column: The dystopian Pottersville in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is starting to feel less like fiction

By Nora Gilbert, University of North Texas

Along with millions of others, I’ll soon be taking 2 hours and 10 minutes out of my busy holiday schedule to sit down and watch a movie I’ve seen countless times before: Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which tells the story of a man’s existential crisis one Christmas Eve in the fictional town of Bedford Falls.

There are lots of reasons why this eight-decade-old film still resonates, from its nostalgic pleasures to its cultural critiques.

But when I watch it this year, the sequence where Bedford Falls transforms into the dark and dystopian “Pottersville” will resonate the most.

In the film, protagonist George Bailey, who’s played by Jimmy Stewart, is on the brink of suicide. He seems to have achieved the hallmarks of the American dream: He’s taken over his father’s loan business, married the love of his life and fathered four excessively adorable children. But George feels stifled and beaten down. His Uncle Billy has misplaced $8,000 of the company’s money, and the town’s resident tyrant, Mr. Potter, is using the mishap to try to ruin George, who’s his last remaining business competitor.

An angel named Clarence is tasked with pulling George back from the brink. To stop him from attempting suicide, Clarence decides to show George what life would have been like if he’d never been born. In this alternate reality, Bedford Falls is called Pottersville, a place Mr. Potter runs as a ruthless banker and slumlord.

Having previously written about “It’s a Wonderful Life” in my book on literary and film censorship, I can’t help but see parallels between Pottersville and the U.S. today.

Think about it:

In Pottersville, one man hoards all the financial profits and political power.

In Pottersville, greed, corruption and cynicism reign supreme.

In Pottersville, hard-working immigrants like Giuseppe Martini who were able to build a life and run a business in Bedford Falls have vanished.

In Pottersville, homeless addicts like Mr. Gower and nonconformist “pixies” like Clarence are scorned and ostracized, then booted out of the local watering hole.

In Pottersville, cops arrest people like Violet Bick while they’re at work and haul them away, kicking and screaming.

But what horrifies George the most about Pottersville is how desensitized the people living in it seem to be to its harshness and cruelty – how they treat him like he’s the crazy, deranged one for wanting and expecting things to be different and better.

This is what the current political moment feels like to me. There are days when the latest headlines feel so jarringly unprecedented that I find myself thinking, “Can this be happening? Can this be real?”

If you think these comparisons are a bit of a stretch, consider when “It’s a Wonderful Life” was made, and the frame of mind Capra was in when he made it.

Frank Capra, anti-fascist

In 1946, Capra was just returning to Hollywood filmmaking after serving for four years in the U.S. Army, where the Office of War Information had tasked him with producing a series of documentary films about World War II and the lead-up to it. Even though Capra hadn’t been on the front lines, he’d been immersed in the sounds and images of war for years on end, and he had become acutely familiar with Germany, Italy and Japan’s respective rises to fascism.

When deciding on his first postwar film, Capra recalled in his autobiography that he specifically “knew one thing – it would not be about war.” Instead, he chose to adapt a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern, “The Greatest Gift,” that Stern had originally sent to friends and family as a Christmas card in 1943.

Stern’s story is certainly not about war. But it’s not exactly about Christmas, either.

As Stern writes in his opening lines:

“The little town straggling up the hill was bright with colored Christmas lights. But George Pratt did not see them. He was leaning over the railing of the iron bridge, staring down moodily at the black water.”

The protagonist contemplates suicide because he’s “sick of everything” in the small-town “mudhole” he’s stuck in – until, that is, a “strange little man” gives him the chance to see what life would be like if he’d never been born.

It was Capra and his team of screenwriters who added the sinister Henry F. Potter to Stern’s short, simple tale. The Potter subplot encapsulates the film’s most trenchant, still-resonant themes: the unfairness of socioeconomic injustices; the pervasiveness of corporate and political corruption; the threat of monopolized power; the need for affordable housing.

These themes had, of course, run through many of Capra’s prewar films as well: “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” “You Can’t Take It with You,” “Meet John Doe” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” the last of which also starred Jimmy Stewart.

But they take on a different kind of weight in “It’s a Wonderful Life” – a weight that’s especially visible on the weathered face of Stewart, who himself had just returned from a harrowing four-year tour of duty as a bomber pilot in Europe.

The idealistic vigor with which Stewart had fought crooked politicians and oligarchs as Mr. Smith is replaced by the bitterness, exhaustion, frustration and desperation with which he battles against Mr. Potter as George Bailey.

Life after Pottersville

By the time George has begged and pleaded his way out of Pottersville, the lost $8,000 is no longer top of mind. He’s mainly just relieved to find Bedford Falls as he had left it, warts and all.

And yet, the Bedford Falls that George returns to isn’t quite the same as the one he left behind.

In this Bedford Falls, the community rallies together to figure out a way to recoup George’s missing money. Their pre-digital version of a GoFundMe page saves George from what he’d feared most: bankruptcy, scandal and prison.

And even though his wife, Mary, tries to attribute this sudden wave of collectivist, activist energy to some sort of divine intervention – “George, it’s a miracle; it’s a miracle!” – Uncle Billy points out that it really came about through more earthly organizing means: “Mary did it, George; Mary did it! She told some people you were in trouble, and they scattered all over town collecting money!”

But the question of whether George actually wins his battle against Potter is a murky one.

While the typical Capra protagonist triumphs by defeating vice and exposing subterfuge, George never even realizes that Potter is the one who got hold of his money and tried to ruin his life. Potter is never held accountable for his crimes.

On the other hand, George is able to learn, from his time in Pottersville, what a crucial role he plays in his community. George’s victory over Potter, then, lies not in some grand final act of retribution, but in the incremental ways he has stood up to Potter throughout his life: not capitulating to Potter’s bullying or intimidation tactics; speaking truth to power; and running a community-centered business rather than one guided by greed and exploitation.

In recent months, there have been similar acts of protest, large and small, in the form of rallies, boycotts, immigrant aid efforts, subscription cancellations, food bank donations and more.

That doesn’t mean the U.S. has made it out of Pottersville, however.

Each day, more head-spinning headlines appear, whether they’re about masked agents terrorizing immigrant communities, the dismantling of anti-corruption oversights, the consolidation of executive power or the naked display of political grift.

Zuzu’s petals are still missing. Clarence still hasn’t gotten his wings.

But this holiday season, I’m hoping it will feel helpfully cathartic to go with George Bailey, for the umpteenth time, through the dark abyss of his dystopian nightmare – and come out with him, stronger and wiser, on the other side.

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Nora Gilbert is a professor of Literary and Film Studies, University of North Texas. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.