The D.G. Martin Opinion Column
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – Cherokee is in the news again this month. All about the name of an automobile, a popular Jeep product. But for North Carolinians, the Cherokee term brings up a whole special set of…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – “Life expectancy in the United States dropped a staggering one year during the first half of 2020,” according to last week’s news reports. For males the average life expectancy is now 75.1 years…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – Do you want your congressional representative to be a “workhorse” or a “show horse?” In the recently released fourth revised edition of his classic “The Congressional Experience: An Institution Transformed,” David Price writes…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – Last week the Raleigh City Council removed the historic designation of Wakestone, the former home of Josephus Daniels. That action is just one more reminder of North Carolina’s and the nation’s struggle to…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – One of North Carolina’s important public intellectuals has stepped down. What is a public intellectual and who stepped down? One definition of the word from Collins Dictionary is “an intellectual, often a noted specialist in a…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – I know Rudolph’s little brother. And now that Rudolph and the other reindeer are safely back at the North Pole, I can tell you the mostly unknown story of where the Rudolph tale…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – Is the U.S. Supreme Court going to put college athletics out of business? Last week it agreed to decide whether the NCAA’s limits on compensating college athletes violate antitrust laws. Or is it…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – Unbelievable when you think about it, how North Carolina maintained its segregated and discriminatory racial system for such a long time. The remnants of what is commonly called “Jim Crow” are still with…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – I thought it was enough, maybe more than enough. But the long list of North Carolina books I recently shared for readers to consider as holiday gifts or book club choices did not…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – If you are worried about holiday gifts or selections for your book club’s reading, here are some good North Carolina connected books to consider. Three beloved North Carolina authors have new books that…