Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Perdue Bets on ObamaCare by JOHN HOOD I thought it was supposed to be a waste of time. Remember this spring when Gov. Beverly Perdue and other Democrats ridiculed a Republican bill that would have added North Carolina to the list of states challeng- ing the constitutionality of ObamaCare? At the time, Perdue said that it was "an ill-conceived piece of legislation" that would have expended tax dollars on an extraneous lawsuit. She vetoed it. Her Democratic allies went further, predicting that the federal courts would reject the constitutional challenge, that the litigation was purely partisan, and that North Carolinians would grow to like President Obama's health care program. None of these predictions came true. So far, four federal district courts have weighed in on ObamaCare. Two judges upheld its constitutionality. Two other judges declared that the mandate to buy pri- vate health insurance exceeded the federal government's power under the Commerce Clause. One judge struck down the individual mandate only, leaving the rest of the bill alone. The other judge struck the whole bill down. This summer, two federal appeals courts issued their own rulings. By a 2-1 margin, a panel from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled that the in- dividual mandate was constitutional. More recently, a split panel of the 11th Circuit in Atlanta struck down the mandate. These events guarantee that the U.S. Supreme Court will take the case. Obviously, the constitutional challenges to ObamaCare have not been frivolous or doomed from the start, as liberals argued. Nor was it the case that the constitutional challenge to ObamaCare proved to be just partisan politics. Look at the two circuit court splits. In Cincinnati, one of the two judges upholding the mandate was a Republican appointee. In Atlanta, one of the two judges striking the mandate down was a Democratic appointee. The issues in this case are critically important, and passionately debated among jurists and legal scholars. It was foolish and irresponsible for North Carolina to stay on the sidelines while the representatives of dozens of other state governments re- mained engaged. Actually, Perdue's veto did not stop the Republican leaders of the General Assembly from filing a friend of the court brief supporting the constitutional chal- lenge. That was praiseworthy. But adding North Carolina to the plaintiff list would have been better. ObamaCare is the epitome of bad public policy. It was pasted together on the fly, based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the markets for health insurance and medical services, and forced through Congress without any serious consideration of the damage it would do to the nation's economy and its constitutional traditions. Not surprisingly, the voters have not grown to love this monstrosity over the past few months. They are at least as horrified as they were before. During the summer of 2010, most establishment polls (Gallup, Associated Press, etc.) found that public op- position to ObamaCare exceeded public support by a single-digit margin, or at most a margin in the low teens. In the establishment polls taken so far this summer, the margin of public disap- proval has averaged about 13 percentage points. So what happens next? If the Supreme Court strikes down all or part of the ObamaCare legislation before the 2012 presidential election, Barack Obama won't just suffer a policy loss. He'll take a political body blow. His major domestic accom- plishment will have been declared an unconstitutional power grab. On the other hand, if the high court waits to rule on the issue until after November 2012, health care will likely consume almost as much ink and pixels as the #1 campaign issue of jobs — and if Republican candidates have any sense, they will link the two issues by arguing that uncertainty about the fiscal and regulatory effects of ObamaCare are among the burdens holding down America's economic recovery. As for Gov. Perdue, she could have demonstrated moderation and independence by allowing North Carolina's ObamaCare challenge to proceed with neither her signature nor her veto. Instead, she has attached herself to the president on health care. I doubt it will turn out well for her. JOHN HOOD, Columnist COMMENTS? editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com In the Shadow of Cold Mountain, a Real Inman by D.G. MARTIN Driving south on Lake Logan Road, in the Pigeon River Valley and the shadow of Cold Mountain, headed towards Inman's Chapel the other day, I could not help wondering whether or not the Inman in Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain was a real person. The dedication of a highway marker at Inman's Chapel that day gave me some idea that somebody named Inman was impor- tant enough to have a chapel named after him. As I neared the chapel, I passed Inman Branch Road and then Frazier Road. Good evidence that Inmans and Fraziers lived close by — and that they were real. Other Cold Mountain readers and moviegoers may also wonder about the lead character, W.P. Inman, that strong-willed, determined, and principled North Carolina Civil War soldier and his odyssey from battlefield, to a hospital, and a long walk across the state towards his mountain home. But was he a real person? Charles Frazier insists that his Inman was a fictional char- acter. But he concedes that family stories about his great-great- grandfather and his ancestor's brothers inspired the novel. At the highway marker ceremony, I met two Inman family historians, Cheryl Inman Haney and Phyllis Inman Barnett. Both have written books about the Inman family. I learned from their books that W.P. Inman was indeed a real per- son. Like the fictional Inman, he fought in the "Battle of the Crater," was wound- ed, deserted from a hospital in Raleigh, and made his way back to his mountains. According to the family historians, in December 1864, the real William Pinkney Inman went to Tennessee, where he signed an oath of allegiance to the United States. On his way back home, he was killed by the Home Guard at a place called Big Stomp. Someone complained to Charles Frazier that the title of his book should have been Big Stomp, not Cold Mountain. The family histories report that a few months before his death, W.P. Inman 16 UCW AUGUST 24-30, 2011 and Margaret Henson had a daughter, Willie Ida Inman. She grew up, married, and had five children and a host of descen- dants. Thus, the real W.P. Inman's descendants are scatted across North Carolina and the rest of the world. W.P. Inman and five of his brothers went to war. Only two survived. Although W.P. Inman is, thanks to Charles Frazier's book, by far the best known of the brothers, the attention at the dedica- tion of the historic marker at the chapel was focused on his oldest brother, James Anderson Inman. James Anderson and two other Inman brothers were cap- tured early in the war and sent to a prison at Camp Douglas in Chicago. Conditions were harsh. Although James Anderson sur- vived, the other brothers died in prison. When he returned to the Pigeon River Valley, James Anderson became a minister in the Universalist church. Universalism was a form of Christianity that emphasized a God of mercy, rejecting the idea that God would condemn any soul to an eternity of suffering in Hell. This and other liberal Universalist beliefs were foreign to the fire and brimstone image of the Bible Belt and conser- vative mountain religion. Like Cold Mountain's fictional Inman, James Anderson Inman was ready to stand up against cultural norms if he did not think they were right. Over time he built a loyal congregation, had the chapel constructed, and won the respect of the people of the valley. His successor in the pulpit, a woman named Hannah Powell, carried on and expanded programs of education and social service that people in the valley still remember. Inman's Chapel no longer hosts an active congregation, but it can still inspire and remind us that there was indeed a very real Inman. D.G. MARTIN, Columnist In fact, more than one. COMMENTS? editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM