Wrong sides

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Left tries to regain religion

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CORRECTION

An article Saturday on Page 1B incorrectly identified the occupation of U.S. Rep. David Price's father. He was a school principal.

So selfish

I have attended a health-care town hall meeting. I have read news stories and commentary from all sides. Nowhere have I heard these so-called protesters expressing concerns about the sick, the poor, the uninsured or the staggering costs of medical insurance premiums.

The issue repeated over and over is about "me." "My" rights, "my" taxes. "My" individuality. Whether I will be required to enroll in a national insurance plan. Why is anyone bothering "me"?

Have 30 years of largely Republican rule turned us into a cult of selfishness? This is straight, unneutralized narcissism; an obsessive preoccupation with the self and self-interests. If you want to identify things that have turned wrong for America, start with this one.

He stood against history's tide

Jesse Helms was perhaps the most influential North Carolina politician of the 20th century.

North Carolina was a one-party state when Helms was growing up, and he helped transform it by making it acceptable for conservative Democrats to vote Republican -- hence the nickname of Jessecrats for Helms backers.

More than that, Helms changed American history.

Wright's sermons fit black church tradition

As shocking as they may be, the provocative sermons of Barack Obama's pastor come out of a tradition of using the black church to challenge its members and confront what preachers view as a racist society.

More than three decades ago, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. took over a small, demoralized congregation on Chicago's impoverished South Side and built it into the largest church in the liberal, mostly white United Church of Christ.

At the 8,000-member Trinity United Church of Christ, the slogan "unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian" has meant preaching about divestment during South Africa's apartheid era. It has also meant fighting poverty, homelessness and AIDS at home.

Carrboro aldermen OK 96-home project

The Board of Aldermen granted a permit Tuesday night to a subdivision that would bring 96 residential units.

The Ballentine subdivision will go up at 8110 Old N.C. 86, behind Harmony Farm. Sixty-two units will be single-family detached homes, and 34 will be townhouses. All of the subdivision's streets except one will have 5-foot-wide sidewalks on both sides, according to plans.

The tract is about 51 acres, with Buckhorn Branch Creek and other tributaries currently running through it.