Esse Quam Videre, the North Carolina state motto, infused the election Tuesday ("Obama barrels past Clinton in N.C.," May 7). "To be, rather than to seem," a description of the best of our past, when those who founded the state rejected pretense and lived life honestly, close to the earth, true to the best within us.

By refusing to be swayed by Hillary Clinton's pandering and adoption of whatever self-description seemed to her best to manipulate the public, North Carolina did us all proud.

Barack Obama calls us to be our best as a country, to be better than the selfish arrogance of the past seven years. Let us hope North Carolina can help lead the country to be, rather than to seem!

Henry Walker

Durham

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