North Carolina shouldn’t abandon Outer Banks Highway NC 12 | Opinion
A letter writer suggested the state abandon highway NC 12 on the Outer Banks. NC 12 is a lifeline for Rodanthe, Avon, Buxton, Hatteras, and Ocracoke. It’s a National Scenic Byway that brings hundreds of thousands of visitors here – contributing billions to our state’s economy.
With the right investments, NC 12 can become a more resilient and sustainable state highway. It supports a ferry system that is part of a statewide transportation network, connecting all of us across the state. When a piece of the state highway needs maintenance, we fix it because there are people that rely on it for their safety and well-being. Suggesting we abandon NC 12 is suggesting we abandon the people who live in those communities.
NC 12 connects all of us across the state. We like to think we live in a place where we show up for our neighbors when they need help. We’re all in this together.
Bob Chestnut, Amy Howard, Garick Kalna — board members of the Ocracoke Access Alliance
Hemp products future
The hemp industry provides people with products they need, and as a small hemp business owner, I am proud to provide such products to my community. I understand the responsibility that comes with operating a hemp business and am committed to providing customers with trust and confidence in my services. However, a proposed ban on hemp threatens to take these services away entirely.
This can be avoided by creating new regulations — something the hemp industry has consistently advocated for since hemp’s legalization in the 2018 Farm Bill. Instead of banning hemp, we can implement commonsense regulations including child-proof packaging, transparent labeling, and 21-plus age requirements.
Congress should approve the Baird-Craig extension, an additional 24 months to the existing 12-month sunset period. Approving this timeline would allow policymakers to develop balanced, informed solutions without banning products on which our neighbors rely.
Matthew Beasley, Raleigh
Horror in Minnesota
This week, ICE agents in Minnesota used Liam, a 5-year-old boy on his way home from school with his dad, as bait to try and lure his mother out of the home. The child and his father were sent across state lines to a detention center in Texas that same day, despite not having active deportation orders and having an active asylum case.
As a mom, seeing the image of a little boy with a Spiderman backpack surrounded by armed agents is infuriating and devastating. As a pediatrician who takes care of children daily, it is the same.
Anna Ruderman, Durham
Trump and tariffs
Regarding Paige Masten’s Opinion piece on being grateful that Trump backed down on tariffs over Greenland, he simply backed down on Jan. 21. Who knows what he will say or do on Jan. 22 or 23, or any day. Trusting anything Trump says on any given day is like trusting that what pops up on a slot machine this time will be the same the next time you pull the lever. And we all lose.
Stacie Hagwood, Garner
MLK and education
As people across the country recently celebrated the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, we should reflect not only on Dr. King’s legacy of racial justice, but also on his commitment to education justice as part of the broader struggle for equality.
As a high school student in Raleigh, I am concerned about the state of North Carolina’s public schools. The Leandro case affirmed that every child has a constitutional right to a sound basic education, yet many schools still lack enough teachers, books, and academic support. In my own classes, there have been times when we went weeks without a teacher, making it extremely difficult to learn. This reality is especially unfair to students from low-income families who do not have access to extra resources outside of school.
Dr. King believed education was essential to equality and democracy. If we truly want to honor his legacy, we must ensure every student has the support they need to succeed.
Sanura Simire, Raleigh
Republicans and voting
Columnist Andrew Dunn claims that recent voting changes are not all Republican conspiracies. So, only some are conspiracies and we are supposed to applaud? Stopping Sunday voting and closing polling places on or near college campuses are only the most blatant efforts to reduce Democratic votes.
Other voting restrictions may well be due to “non-conspiratorial” practical matters such as funding, but the proper response to that would be more funding. The funding would have to come from the GOP-controlled legislature, and Republicans have made it very clear that they are not interested in a state government that represents the will of all legitimate voters. Between gerrymandering and voting restrictions, the GOP’s very heavy thumb has been on the scales as long as I can remember.
Peter Aitken, Chapel Hill
This story was originally published January 25, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "North Carolina shouldn’t abandon Outer Banks Highway NC 12 | Opinion."