I taught NC students for decades. Here’s what I told them about the First Amendment | Opinion
I taught U.S. government in Wake County public schools for decades. Part of the course was a close look at the Constitution and Bill of Rights. I always framed the First Amendment’s freedom of speech as sacred. I explained to students that its purpose is to allow all to be heard, especially those with whom we most disagree.
It’s easy to embrace the words of someone like you. The First Amendment protects the speech of those most unlike you. When government begins to censor speech because someone considers it repugnant, the door to authoritarianism opens.
You don’t squelch speech just because you find it offensive. If you do, pretty soon there’s no one speaking but you and me — and I’m about to find your next words unacceptable! Our First amendment is the most precious and distinguishing feature of this democracy. Let’s work hard to preserve it.
Eleanor Goettee, Cary
‘No-brainer’
“It was a no-brainer for me — I support the bill and President Trump,” state Senate leader Phil Berger Sr. told McClatchy News about bill with Medicaid implications for NC. Time and again Berger shows that he cares nothing for the actual people he represents. It is all about retaining power.
Stacie Hagwood, Garner
Gross understatement
I read with interest your article on DMV wait times. I needed to go to the DMV in person to renew my license. The article stated wait times at the DMV were in the two-to-three hour range. I can now tell you that this is a gross understatement of the problem.
I went to the Cary DMV at 6:30 a.m., and I learned that some had come at 2 a.m.! I was not able to renew my license (a process which took all of about 15 minutes) until six hours later. I was allowed to spend most of my time in my car, but this was nevertheless an unexpectedly longer process based upon the information in your article.
Charlie Strother, Morrisville
What’s next?
I had rarely heard of Charlie Kirk until his assassination. It was horrific. I understand the outrage to a point. What I don’t understand is MAGA followers and President Donald Trump going after Jimmy Kimmel and others for publicly expressing their nonviolent, non threatening opinions.
The onus of this and many other violent attacks lay squarely on those who run the internet platforms and their dark web sites. You know the men, they were prominently displayed at President Trump’s inauguration. This action is yet another step to dictatorship along with an attempt to discredit and defund our higher education institutions and not respecting science. I fear what is next.
Sally Bethune, Pittsboro
Troxler critique
Every week, I hear radio ads that North Carolina is second in the nation for family farms being lost. I sent a letter to Agricultural Commissioner Steve Troxler with pictures of four soybean farms that are being lost to Duke Power for a solar enterprise.
It is part of 3,000 acres of productive farm and woodland that is being lost near Grifton in southern Pitt County. Hundreds of residents signed a petition against the last 1,050 acres proposed but lost in a close vote by county commissioners.
The vote may have been different if Troxler had aided our effort. He did not have the courtesy to respond. I guess that is what you get with a commissioner from the Triad area. Eastern North Carolina gets no representation.
Johnnie Beddard, Ayden
Project Kennedy
The former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Susan Monarez, testified to senators that Robert Kennedy Jr. called the agency “the most corrupt” in the world. Whether he did may be a she-said-he-said matter, but Project 2025, the publicly available conservative master plan for transforming the government, does have something to say.
Project 2025 says, “COVID-19 exposed (the CDC) as perhaps the most incompetent and arrogant agency in the federal government.” Kennedy may not be very original, but he does remember more or less what the script says.
David Hopp, Durham
This story was originally published September 28, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "I taught NC students for decades. Here’s what I told them about the First Amendment | Opinion."