Remembering the wise words of a public intellectual

by D. G. Martin, One-on-One and host of NC Bookwatch, October 26, 2014.

Who are North Carolina’s public intellectuals?

Over the years we have been blessed with influential and thoughtful people whose wise commentaries about the state’s concerns often moved pubic opinion.

Think about the late William Friday, who reminded us at every turn of the consequences of failing to address the basic needs of the state’s poorer citizens. Time after time he warned about the increasing influence of television money on college athletics and the special treatment accorded to some athletes enrolled in universities.

Last week, you could hear his voice from the grave.

Sometimes editorial writers at the state’s major newspapers have served as public intellectuals. As broadly educated people with economical and persuasive writing styles, their journalism backgrounds gave them a wide variety of contacts. Surrounded by armies of hard-charging, smart, irreverent reporters and the research resources of their newspapers, their opinions were informed by a broad range of relevant facts. Some of them were fearless, never afraid to engage those who disagreed, and would, in fact, welcome other opinions as helpful and important.

One such influential public intellectual is Ed Williams, who retired in 2008 as editor of The Charlotte Observer’s editorial pages after a 30-year career with the paper.

Williams’ recent book, “Liberating Dixie: An Editor’s Life, from Ole Miss to Obama,” a collection of his writing over a long career, is a reminder of the challenges and problems our state and region have confronted. It is also a demonstration of the value of informed and reasoned comment.

In a 1990 column he attacked members of the Charlotte elite who belonged to segregated social clubs. “They may argue in their own defense that they are not bigots, it’s just that someone else makes club policies…Apparently, pleading that they are tolerant of bigotry, than practitioners of it, makes them feel better. It shouldn’t.

“You may be fooling yourself about where your priorities lie. You are not fooling anyone else.”

His strong words immediately prompted resignations of important members and led to the end of segregation in most of the important Charlotte clubs.

Williams cautioned about initiating a war in Iraq and when that war began, he wrote on March 23, 2003, “The mission now is simple. Defeat Saddam. There’ll be nothing simple about creating post-war Iraq. Yet the ultimate test of the success of the allies’ mission is not what happens to Saddam, but what happens to Iraq.”

After a court ruled in 2000 that vestiges of legally mandated segregation in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools had been erased, the system abandoned its diversity emphasis. The result was a move back towards re-segregation.

In 2006, Williams wrote, “I don’t think many parents oppose diversity. They just value neighborhood schools more. That’s understandable. But a community that values diversity can’t ignore its importance in public education. Coercion is unacceptable. So is neglect.”

In 1994, when tobacco interests were still powerful in North Carolina, the executives of the large cigarette companies were treated roughly by a congressional committee when they denied that cigarette smoking was addictive or harmful. Williams rose to their defense before making his main point against them. “The behavior of the anti-smoking zealots was so contrived, so ill-mannered, so arrogant that it was easy to forget the essential fact: On the big questions, they are right.”

He took on religious leaders like Franklin Graham who called Islam “a very evil and wicked religion” and the state Baptist convention when it kicked out Williams’ church for welcoming gays.

Williams also shares his correspondence with Senator Jesse Helms, who wrote jokingly that he would recommend Williams for a job writing for Johnny Carson.

Williams has a quiet sense of humor and seems always willing to laugh at himself. But don’t read his book for amusement. What he wrote was, and still is, serious business.