By Deirdre Parker Smith
dp1@salisburypost.com
True to its theme, “Prose and Politics,” the Summer Reading Challenge wrapped up Thursday night with a panel discussion heavy on the politics.
No one predicted the outcome of the election, but a recent poll shows the economy has become a national issue.
Dr. Michael Bitzer of Catawba College pointed out, “This is not a year to be associated with the party sitting in the White House.
“When the economy is the dominant issue, everything else falls by the wayside and the White House gets the blame.”
Bitzer was there to discuss “Divided America,” by Earl and Merle Black, a book that shows voting trends and how the nation has split into distinct regions. “There is no longer a majority party,” Bitzer said. “About a third are Republicans, a third are Democrats and a third are independents.” Both presidential candidates have a solid base in their respective parties; the battle is for those independents.
To show that this is not a normal election year, Bitzer pointed out that North Carolina is a battleground, even though it’s been a solidly red, or Republican, state. “In North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, New Mexico, Ohio, Indiana, McCain is fighting an uphill battle.”
With the new regional nature of politics, governing the entire United States is difficult, he said. “If I was one of the major party political candidates, I’d be praying the other one wins,” Bitzer said, laughing.
He predicted Democrats will do well in congressional races and will include conservative Democrats as well as traditional liberal Democrats from the Northeast and Pacific coast.
Panelist Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander said realignment within the parties is likely. “The Democrats and Republicans are the two parties that have lasted the longest ó there is constant realignment.” She sees some Republicans becoming more moderate while some Democrats become more conservative.
“If you cannot adapt and recreate yourself, you’ll die on the vine, like the Whigs and the Federalists,” she said.
Newby-Alexander, a professor of history at Norfolk State University, was there to discuss “Black Men Built the Capitol” and added a historian’s perspective to the hot political buttons of this election.
“It concerns me that this nation has convenient amnesia,” she said. “Every ‘new’ thing appears new, and it isn’t. … We like to think we are living up to our ideals, and we’re not, but we’re getting closer.”
Newby-Alexander’s main subject of study is African-American history, and she sees this election as an important one to get over the issue of race.
Bitzer says race, gender and age have been issues during the entire election season, starting with Sen. Hillary Clinton’s bid for the nomination. One or two issues are not unusual, he said, but three has made predictions even tougher.
When Newby-Alexander discussed Jesse Holland’s “Black Men Built the Capitol,” she noted the title is not just a name, but a declarative sentence.
Black men literally built Washington, D.C.
The federal government rented slaves to clear land for the city and slaves did most of the construction. “There couldn’t have been a Washington, D.C., without black men,” Newby-Alexander said.
While she thinks Holland’s guide book only touches the surface of history, she said it should be enough to get some people interested in learning the whole story.
She said when the nation’s capital was in Philadelphia, a large and growing population of free blacks worried the Southern representatives who were trying to create a new country.
Washington, D.C., was created from parts of Maryland and Virginia to appease the Southern constituency.
“Black Men Built the Capitol” at least opens a part of American history that has been closed, she said.
Several people Holland mentions in his book have added to the understanding of our history. One was Elizabeth Keckley, a seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln. Keckley became her confidante and was widely quoted in an early book about the Lincoln family, giving insights into Mary Todd Lincoln’s mental illness and her husband’s struggles.
“I hope we begin to see this not as ‘African-American’ history but as ‘American’ history,” Newby-Alexander said.
Rounding out the panel was Dr. Janice Fuller of Catawba College, who discussed the two works of fiction, John Grisham’s “The Appeal” and Brad Meltzer’s “The Zero Game.”
Both present disturbing pictures of politics and the capital. In “The Appeal,” Grisham writes about a chemical company so insistent on not paying damages after a lawsuit for dumping toxic waste that its CEO pays for a campaign to elect a sympathetic candidate to the state Supreme Court.
While the book can be called a “negative” thriller because the evildoers are victorious, it raises serious questions about the process of electing or appointing judges.
The other thriller, which could be seen as positive or negative, was “The Zero Game,” which starts with congressional staffers betting on the outcome of bills or the margin of victory.
It turns out to be a complicated and deadly game, as the book’s first-person narrator is killed early on and the next hero discovers a Yemeni plan to create plutonium right under American soil.
As Bitzer pointed out, this work of fiction depicts a hot topic. “If I bring home the bacon, it’s good. If ‘he’ brings home the bacon, it’s ‘pork,’ ” he said.
It leads to many questions, Fuller said, about earmarking and how bills are pushed through Congress, thanks, in large part, to what staff members present to their congressional bosses.
Moderator Dr. M.J. Simms-Maddox of Livingstone College pulled the diverse topics of the four books together with questions that showed how all were related, and how fiction, especially in these novels, is devastatingly close to the truth.
The fourth annual Libretto Book Club’s Summer Reading Challenge drew about 100 people to its wrap-up, which included a reception by Trinity Oaks Retirement Community and music by Don and Gretchen Tracy of the Salisbury Symphony.
Libretto Book Club President Barbara Setzer was unable to attend due to a broken leg, so Anne Scott Clement of Waterworks Visual Arts Center presided. The event took place at Waterworks and the F&M Trolley Barn.
The Salisbury Post was a presenting sponsor, along with Waterworks, F&M Bank and Trinity Oaks.
Additional support came from Catawba College, Livingstone College, Friends of Rowan Public Library, Rowan Regional Medical Center, Literary Bookpost, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Heather St. Aubin Stout-Loft 130 and Miller Davis Agency, Marathon Business Center-Xerox, Salisbury Symphony, Godley’s Garden Center and Nursery, Center for Faith & the Arts.