North Carolina
Opinion: Politicians ignore truth: NC lags behind in health care, education, wages
Moe Davis quotes H.L. Mencken who said “the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and hence clamorous to be led to safety.”
“No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
This oft-repeated observation is by H.L. Mencken, a journalist, satirist and cultural commentator from Baltimore, who made it almost a century ago. Some say Mencken was racist, misogynistic and antisemitic, while others say he used provocative language to stimulate thought rather than to advance a position. Regardless, I’m struck by how prescient he seems today.
Early in my campaign for Congress in 2020, I talked about people voting against their own interests. Advisers warned me to stop saying it because it implied that people are stupid.
In hindsight, I wish I had ignored the advisers and been more like Mencken. It wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the election, but I should have had the gumption to tell people the truth, even if it hurt their feelings. So here it is now: Stupidity is no path forward for Western North Carolina.
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Mencken’s famous quote is from his book, “Notes on Democracy,” published in 1926. The passage reads:
“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
We’re witnessing the enormous power of galvanizing individual ignorance to achieve political aims. It’s how the wealth gap grew into a wealth chasm as ordinary folks swallowed the notion that “trickle-down economics” would lift their rafts along with the rich man’s yacht, and that the “right to work” was good for them and their families when it really meant “the right to live impoverished while the rich grow richer.”
It’s how pro-lifers can argue that every life is precious while cheering the execution of death row inmates and the drowning of migrants snared in razor wire strung across the Rio Grande. It is how lies can masquerade as truth, cruelty as compassion, immorality as virtue, criminality as law and order, sedition as patriotism, and an election that was lost as one that was stolen. Mencken warned that “truth would quickly cease to be stranger than fiction, once we got as used to it.”
Many haven’t just gotten used to fiction, they gleefully wallow in it and turn hostile when confronted with facts.
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The truth is WNC lags behind and it has for years. Take your pick — health care, education, broadband, wages — so many areas where we could do better if we just tried. Instead, many of us fall for charlatans who ignore facts and pander to feelings, even when those feelings are untethered from reality.
To quote Mencken again, “the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” It reminds me of the anti-crime summit Congressman Chuck Edwards held last summer where he spoke in ominous terms about “lawlessness” and the need to act before Buncombe County and WNC “turn into another crime-ridden Chicago or San Francisco.”
Sheriff Quintin Miller responded that Edwards’s statement sounded like something “from Fox News” and was not supported by crime statistics kept by the State Bureau of Investigation. As the Sheriff said, “it’s irresponsible to have a conversation about public safety that is not rooted in data.” Unfortunately, truth becomes irrelevant when politicians ignore it to manipulate the feelings of the electorate to enhance their own political fortunes.
Perhaps it’s a pipedream, but I hope voters will ask politicians what they plan to do for “us” rather than what they plan to do to “them,” the imaginary hobgoblins they whip up to manipulate the malleable masses. And make them back it up with facts, not with just a play on feelings. Mencken said, “the most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.” WNC can move forward, but only if it is willing to think.
Moe Davis is a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and the former head of the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division at the Congressional Research Service. He is currently writing a historical fiction novel set in Western North Carolina.
(WLOS) — In a tragic update, one of the baby barn owls being monitored by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has died after a great horned owl entered the barn and killed the owlet. The barn owlets had attracted worldwide attention through the wildlife commission’s ongoing observation efforts.
Officials with N.C. Wildlife said it is not yet clear which owlet was killed, but confirmed it was one of the three youngest.
The wildlife commission said it captured a photo of the great horned owl and the adult female barn owl fighting on top of the box, calling it an “extremely rare encounter to capture on camera.”
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The wildlife commission said that while this loss is tragic, it is a common encounter because great horned owls are a top predator of barn owls. Officials also said this will likely not be the last encounter.
Over the next few weeks, the commission said viewers will likely see the remaining owlets start exploring, leaving the barn and learning to hunt. The fledglings may leave the barn as early as July to start hunting on their own, according to the commission.
You’ve got to feel terrible for former North Carolina standout Henri Veesaar right now. When he announced that he was leaving Chapel Hill to take his game to the NBA, plenty of eyebrows were raised. However, he was getting first-round grades, which made the decision a bit easy for him. That call has come back to backfire on him.
The first round of the NBA Draft has wrapped up, and the star big man never heard his name called. You’ve got to be kidding. There was always a bit of a worry that Veesaar would fall to the second round, but the recent buzz calmed worries there. Now, though, this setback has surely proverbially slapped him in the face a bit:
UNC’s Henri Veesaar does not get selected in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft. He slips into the second round.
Turned down between $3-4 million to return to UNC? Maybe more?
— Ross Martin (@RossMartinNC) June 24, 2026
Henri Veesaar falling to the second round of the NBA Draft is a bit of a stunner
It’s no secret that Michael Malone and his new UNC staff were quite aggressive in their pursuits of bringing him back to Chapel Hill, as he would have easily had the Tar Heels in the Top 15-20 conversation. At first, with mock drafts popping up with him as a second-rounder, it felt like a return to the ACC was going to be in the works. The narrative changed there not long after, though.
He indeed bolted for the NBA Draft, with the assumption that he was going to be a first-rounder. Veesaar took a bit of a chance there, and things just did not go to plan for him. Let’s make one thing clear here too: we’re not happy in any way. With Veesaar leaving, Carolina fans were wishing him the best, the same way they were for Caleb Wilson.
Wilson ended up getting his life-changing news early during draft night, with the Chicago Bulls taking him off the board at No. 4 overall. Things were only made better for Wilson and North Carolina as a whole with Hubert Davis on hand for the former 5-star freshman’s big moment. It was a surprise not many of us were ready for.
On the flip side of things, Veesaar was left waiting for his special moment, but it never arrived. Is it possible that he’s having some serious regrets over things? We don’t want to speak for Veesaar or make any assumptions, but this just sucks as a whole for him. After averaging 17 points and eight rebounds per game, while taking home all-conference honors, it’s a bit of a stunner that his draft slide has taken place like this.
Had Veesaar returned to school, North Carolina’s 2026-27 outlook would have been looking much stronger. Instead, Malone went overseas to bring in Sayon Keita and Alexandros Samodurov to help carry the load near the glass. That helps, but replacing Veesaar was always going to be a difficult task, as he’s a dominant force. We can play the ‘what if’ game all we want had he stayed in Chapel Hill for one more season, but that’s pointless. Still, it’s now feeling like Veesaar got some bad advice, and that playing for Malone would have been the best thing for him next campaign.
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This spring, more than 62,000 people from North Carolina and
around the world watched as six barn owl eggs hatched live on the North Carolina Wild Life Resource Commission’s “Owl Cam.”
“We have folks who have watched from almost every
state, as well as Canada, Switzerland, Germany, the UK, France, the
Netherlands, Portugal, New Zealand, Italy, Estonia, Ireland, Argentina, Sweden,
Spain and more,” said Wildlife Conservation Engagement Coordinator Austin
Hill.
When asked what he thinks people connect with most while
watching the owls, Hill said the camera offers a rare look into the lives of
barn owls.
“We don’t see them too often at all, and it’s giving
people a glimpse into the life of a barn owl,” Hill said. “It’s very
rare that we’re able to see inside the nest of any creature that’s hidden in a
cavity.”
Hill said viewers enjoyed watching the owlets hatch, grow,
learn to fly and experience all the clumsy moments in between.
At this time all the owls have fledged, meaning they have all learned how to
fly.
“The oldest three owls fledged on the (June)
15th, they’re all females and then the male, the youngest, fledged on
the (June) 20th and you’ll start to see them popping around the
barn,” Hill said.
The webcam will continue to show the adult owls delivering
food to the nest as the owls prepare to leave the barn and learn to hunt.
The
young owls will learn by watching the behaviors of their parents. Depending on their development, the owls could
leave as early as July or as late as September or October.
NCWRC installed the owl nest box in 2011.
It was installed in an undisclosed remote location in Western North Carolina
and used for agency monitoring.
The idea of having a live webcam was a recent idea
created during and Educational Division
meeting.
“It allows us to see what happens in the nest of an
elusive raptor and behaviors we wouldn’t be able to observe from outside the
box,” Hill said. “We’re building out some K-12 curriculum to go along
with the camera so it can extend into the classroom.”
Once the young owls leave, the camera will go offline sometime this fall.
Hill
said staff will perform maintenance on the barn, relocate one of the cameras
and then put the system back in place in hopes that the same owl pair returns
this winter to begin its courtship and mating season. If that happens, the
process can start all over again.
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