Goodwin Reminds Alamance Dems of "Go Forward" Program

Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin Provided Keynote Address for Three Governors' Dinner

Last month the state's Insurance Commissioner stoked the fires of Alamance County Democrats, home of not only three Governors of North Carolina but also birthplace of his predecessor in office, the late Jim Long.

Also attending the annual event were Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and former State Senator Cal Cunningham, Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate; former Rep. Bertha "B" Holt, who passed away last week; State Senator Tony Forriest; NC Representative Alice Bordsen; Jessie Rae Scott, the widow of the late Governor Bob Scott; Peg O'Connell, widow of former Insurance Commissioner Jim Long, and countless judges, local officials, precinct leaders, and several hundred Democratic activists.

Goodwin wowed the crowd with his emphasis on how important it is to "tune in (to what's happening), turn up (the volume), and turn out (the vote)", a theme he has shared at multiple partisan events statewide.

Another theme of Goodwin appeared when he also explained his concerns about how certain right-wing ideologues were fomenting insurrection and eroding an already degraded level of civil political discourse.

Most interesting were the words of former North Carolina Governor Kerr Scott - father of Governor Bob Scott - that Goodwin shared with the crowd:

"Man never solves a problem by standing still - when a man stands still, the world goes on and leaves him behind. North Carolina has grown great because the leadership of North Carolina, throughout the years, has been inspired to press ever forward toward the goal of providing, within the ability of the people to pay for them, the maximum governmental services and facilities which are the heritage and right of a people who enoy the privilege of living under the banner of democracy.

Refusing to move forward and to meet our responsibilities of the present and of the future is nothing short of defeatism. I have no patience with this philosophy - call it conservatism, hold the line, or what you may say!

I do not believe that the people of North Carolina are so morally, spiritually or financially bankrupt that they want education in North Carolina to slip backward. I do not believe that the people of North Carolina want to deny adequate hospital care for the sick and the cripple, support for the aged, and adequate institutional care for the insane, the blind, and the deaf.

... I have talked with rich men and poor men, with farmers and with those who live in the cities and towns, with men, women, and children in all walks of life; and the overwhelming majority of them believe in the future and share the conviction that North Carolina should not throttle the future by a perverted hold the line interpretation.

In some cases the hold the line school of defeatism is actually seeking to establish a line behind the present line. Such would be the case if we failed to consolidate the gains already accomplished in the field of education."

"Those words - those principles of Scott's Go Forward plan - are most prescient and timeless," said Goodwin. "Education is the roadmap of going forward - the key to success - for our State."