Resilient People in Repulsive Times Always Win the Fight for Fair & Inclusive Democracy

by Lent C. Carr, II for Hoke County Commissioner 2022 - January 6, 2022

Lent C. Carr, II, Candidate for Hoke County Commissioner 2022

Photo Credited to Emmaus Corp. Embassy Digital Media Company

Phot Credited to Emmaus Corp. Embassy Digital Media Company

Left of Photo Supporter Annie Wilkins, and Right of Photo Lent C. Carr, II, Candidate for County Commissioner

Hoke County, NC— by Lent C. Carr, II

January 6, 2022

As a Pastor/General Bishop of multiple Churches, and a Human and Civil Rights Activist and National President for The National Congressional Voting Caucus for Human Rights Organization, I often tell my Parishioners/Staff that if they strive to achieve full and meaningful lives they should expect failures and disappointments.

We learn to walk by falling down again and again. We learn to ride a bicycle by crashing into things. We learn to make good friends by being disappointed in friendship. Failure and disappointment are necessary prerequisites to growth. undoubtedly we as Hoke Countians have bore our share of disappointments and broken promises Election after Election with current and previous County Commissioners who’ve failed We The People time and time again. Let’s just be real and open here as the affected.

The real test of character comes after failures and disappointments. It is resilience — how easily you take failures, what you learn from them, how you bounce back.

This is a hard lesson to learn for high-achievers who are used to jumping over every hoop put in front of them. It’s also a hard lesson for people who haven’t had all the support and love they might have needed when growing up. In fact, it’s a hard lesson for almost everyone in a culture such as ours that worships success and is embarrassed by failure, and is inherently impatient.

Why am I telling you this now? Because we have gone through a few very difficult years right here in Hoke County and The United States— Donald Trump’s racist nationalism and his attacks on our democracy, a painful reckoning with systemic racism, police brutalities of our black; brown; Hispanic, Naitive American, and poor White Citizens, not to mention murders of our Men and Women in Blue who are not part of a rouge few, angry political divisions, a deadly pandemic accompanied by a recession, and climate hazards such as floods and wildfires. We assumed everything would be fine again once these were behind us.

But we now find ourselves in a disorienting limbo. There is no clearly-demarcated “behind us.” The pandemic still lurks. The economy is still worrisome. Hoke Countians continue to be deeply angry with each other—the old-political guard regime vs. the new millennium Progressives who are fed up with being governed by an autocratic governing body of five— maybe minus one Commissioners who’ve made transparency, accountability and the rule of law of no effect.

Let’s not forget that Trump and other insurrectionists have not yet been brought to justice. Democracy is still threatened.

And for all his hard efforts, Biden and the Democrats have been unable to achieve the scale of changes many of us wanted and expected. Once again by obstructionist Republicans and even out of touch Moderate Democrats of yesteryear.

If you’re not at least a bit disappointed, you’re not human. To some of you, it feels like Hoke County and America is failing. And I believe you’re right in that assessment. Even the way this County Board administers the People’s business causes one to feel as though they’re residents of a “state” within a “State.” But such failures can be cured once The People Demand Change by voting out those who are stalling doable growth, and replacing them with compassionate Servant/Representatives who will do the Will of the mass to wit consensus engagements that’s truly heard and adhered to regardless of party affiliation. Now that approach is democracy at work.

But bear with me. I’ve learned a few things in my decades of life involvements in and around politics, and my many years teaching young people. One is that things often look worse than they really are. Nevertheless can literally change by one Vote— not complaints of seeing what you know is wrong, but electing to turn your head to such egregious acts due to familiarity of a