J. Cameron Mills: HB2 just doesn’t work

My grandfather Mills was a man of his time; Southern, conservative and comfortable with segregation. But family legend has it that as attorney for the Wake County Board of Education in the 1960s and ’70s, he was the one who advised the board to “Find some buses and integrate.”

Was he a champion of civil rights? Not even close. But he was, like most North Carolinians, supremely practical and knew that to continue the battle would disrupt learning and cost a relatively poor district money it didn’t have.

Why do I bring this up? Because as socially conservative as our state can be, there comes a time when we just want things to work. And this is that time when it comes to House Bill 2.

Remember that 50,000 or so Trump voters also voted for Democrat Roy Cooper, in large part because of the economic damage to our state. Many other states are looking at our legislature to do nothing so they can continue to poach businesses and events from us.

Let’s not give them that opportunity and repeal HB2 now.

This story was originally published February 10, 2017 at 9:30 AM with the headline "J. Cameron Mills: HB2 just doesn’t work."