North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 03/21/1996

The It's Thursday March 21st tonight the splendor of the Old North stay in North Carolina now. Good evening everyone I'm right. Thank you for bringing North Carolina now into your home on this Thursday evening. On tonight's program we share with you a very popular video essay that was produced here at CTV. It showcases the breathtaking beauty of our state and explores the cultural diversity

that makes North Carolina so special. Here is to be a North Carolinian produced by Gary Morton and chance a cat to be rather them to seem that is the motto of North Carolina. If it's not conform it adorns the seal of the state in a peculiar and wonderful way. It is inscribed on the hearts of all those who wanted me to be a North Carolinian to be a North Carolinian means to awaken each day in a place of infinite and endless surprise. And

North Carolina don't often holds the promise of soothing the peaceful quiet of a gentle landscape. There is comfort in this ancient land fragrances. Take a memory. The face of nature seems close at hand and familiar but there is high drama to look for it in the sudden fury of wind and water and storm clawing the fragile islands of sand got in pristine silence. Find

deep and massive mountains that inspired Thomas War of the Reich of the great shapes of the hills in brown and glory with a moat and he was aboard and towering summits wild and lonely full of dry and strangeness cultures. Gorgeous gaps and wild reveals all sheer and suddenly away with a terrifying steepness. Sometimes this land called North Carolina whispers with mystery and crackled with danger. It can be a place where the familiar gives way to the unexpected. More

than four centuries ago explorers boasted that they had found here the good letus soil under the cope of have to be a North Carolinian means to treasure that soil. This place beyond all others will be a North Carolinian means to be a vivid vital scrap of the brilliant patchwork quilt of North Carolina's people. The quilt is an ever growing jumble of color texture size shape and style pieced together with centuries of loving care threads that connect to more than six and a half million North Carolinians are temperate Pango and sometimes free but they are immensely

strong. The pattern begins with those whose ancestors were the first people who loved this land. Native Americans watched grain sales building on the eastern horizon. They saw the life they treasured changed forever as new cultures washed over them. But thousands stayed on today. Tens of thousands countless define what it means to be a North Carolinian. It is easy to find the rough takes years of study by any as all of Europe because of that you live in a new world.

Look for the broad shoulders wrapped in Celtic Park and English world and the simple broadcloth of pious Germans and other strong fabrics that travelled with a rich dense Weaver of glam and custom. North Carolina's quilt has its ragged edges careful repairs through men and women were brought from Africa as slaves forced to do others work. But today they stayed by choice because they choose to be North Carolinians of great strength and resource home. Treat the snake and so the owner every day brings subtle shit and sparkling additions. The

newish North Carolinians come to us from other states other countries and other continents. Many bring cultures virtually unknown here a generation ago. They embroider our lives with memory and tremendous rit often born of hardship. They share with all who came before that dream of opportunity. Each one of them has chosen to be a North Carolinian to be a North Carolinian means to value the world of work. Wrestling a living from the land takes strong backs long hours and generations of knowledge of the rhythm of seasons cropland roads and climates across the rich earth of the East.

Western firearm use duct amid rocks and forests the forests themselves are productive places on Big Mountain clay. Family farms share the land with sprawling suburbs and gleaming factories. A full day's work for many North Carolinians encompasses farm and factory to be a North Carolinian is to know better than most. A fascinating power of America's technology workers on North Carolina's factory floors make things that matter and they make them by the millions. Powerful minds and skilled hands work together in North Carolina

to create the future. Sometimes though the way the work is done Hans lovingly took a pass to be a North Carolinian moves to cherish the unique craft of the otters and who creates objects both beautiful and useful one by one. It can't all be serious to be a North Carolinian is the reveled in the sheer delight of many of those who

live here. No English variation was the art of every five. There's room for individual challenge to the strength and skill. If you didn't solve it you would against mountain then win or against determined competition. There's energy for the kind of fun that demands a company by the hundred thousand people tens of thousands. And there's time for an old fashioned kind of leisure that demands no bigger crowd than a friend in the next rocking chair and someone to keep the ice Deepika for you to be a North Carolinian is to understand the need to

nurture the beauty and grace of mind and spirit. You know what it means to nurture the soul. At temples of faith the mind in the homes of learning and the heart with the richness of the culture of many centuries and many places lessons of life are in the laughter of the smallest smiling face and the wrinkled squint borne of pure hard won experience. Look for learning on metal brick canvases shaded by Oaks planted centuries ago or in a computer lab opened just today. Already defining tomorrow's knowledge will be a North Carolinian is the treasure of the giant in the journey toward perfection.

To be a North Carolinian means to be on the cutting edge of change. I know how it feels to be the first to be the best to tackle the toughest problems and to delight in the greatest achievements. To be a North Carolinian means to be ready to speak out and to stand up for your own ideas and for the right of other North Carolinians to disagree to be a North Carolinian is to cherish the chance to be different and they're welcome new ways to work together to be a North Carolinian means and just want that maybe most of all it means to be what others wish they were proud people and a place that echoes with the power of promises kept and challenges overcome to be rather than to see and

to be a north county and. You can receive your very own copy of to be a North Carolinian by making a donation of forty dollars to U.N. TV. Stay tuned to festival 96 to make your contribution. Let's turn now to Michel Louis to find out what's making news around our state. Good evening Mitch. Thanks Maria. Good evening everyone. A Pentagon report released today says hate groups and other extremists have had minimal influence on U.S. Army ranks. Findings of a special task force show the service of the soldiers survey between January and February of this year. About three and a half percent of them reported being approached to join an extremist organization since entering the army. The taskforce was commissioned by Secretary of the Army Togo West after the killing of two African American

Fayetteville residents in December. The panel that did the study recommends recruits be screened for extremist views. There won't be much in the way of disaster relief but there will be something for North Carolina's eastern region farmers. Heavy rains eight months ago destroyed crops in 30 counties along the coast. Over the next few weeks disaster relief money will go out. But under a new federal disaster program payments will only cover losses beyond half of the crop and then only a percentage of the amount it cost to produce that crop. Governor Jim Hunt has announced he will appoint a special committee to recommend rule changes to make rest homes and nursing homes safer. The committee will consider a number of issues including whether current requirements are adequate whether older homes should continue to be exempt from a requirement for sprinkler systems whether penalties for violations should be increased whether the state should continue relying on counties to conduct routine inspections of homes. And the cost consideration of potential changes in the rules. Rest Home owners complain they're already burdened with intense oversight

and money shortages. A group of federal government retirees is accusing lawmakers of foot dragging on a decision to refund some of their income taxes. The taxes were collected on pensions of federal workers living in North Carolina. A US Supreme Court decision found the taxation of federal pensions while exempting state employee pensions was unconstitutional. But a state law requires a challenge to taxation be made within 30 days of payment. Since most of the retirees made their challenges at a later date they're counting on the General Assembly to take action. And looking at tomorrow's weather forecast high temperatures will only reach the upper 30s in the northern mountains. The actual area warms up to the mid 40s and all areas east will have highs in the low to mid 50s. Sunny skies are predicted for most of the state. However the western areas may have a few clouds. In business news North Carolina's export growth rate surpasses the national average. In a study conducted by North Carolina State University for a walkover corporation North Carolina showed a 22 percent rise in

exports last year. Of the entire southeast region only Georgia fared better with a growth of 23 percent but the total dollar value of North Carolina's exports topped the region at sixteen point seven billion dollars. Canada and Japan remain the region's top two export destinations. And now here's a look at what happened on Wall Street today. That will do it for tonight's program we have shortened our show this evening to accommodate our festival 96

programming. Our fund raising drive is drawing to a close it ends this Sunday. If you've already made your contribution to you and CTV we thank you. If you haven't yet. Time is running out. Please help us reach our two million dollar goal. And please join us tomorrow for a full length edition of North Carolina now. See you then. Good night.