Letter: We can do better than Edwards for Congress

I’ve heard people express relief that Madison Cawthorn is not on the ballot for reelection to the NC-11 congressional seat. At least, they say, if Chuck Edwards wins, we won’t have to be embarrassed any more.

I think we should set our sights a little higher.

When he won the Republican primary, Edwards said that his foremost goal would be “restoring the policies that we enjoyed under the Trump administration, to help get this country back on track.”

Personally, I have no nostalgia for the Trump years — a time when regulations that protect our air and water were gutted and legislation to protect our planet was set aside. When corporations — excuse me, job creators — and the rich were given huge tax cuts with the tired argument that their good fortune will somehow trickle down to the rest of us. The result? The rich got richer and the poor got poorer, and the deficit exploded. Truly a golden age — and I do mean golden. Now Republicans are saying that we might need to sunset “entitlements” like Medicare and Social Security to make ends meet.

In the state Senate, Edwards took a hard line against changes in the distribution of Buncombe County’s occupancy tax revenues to allow more to be spent on tourism-related capital expenditures and less on marketing to tourists. This would have relieved the tax burden on financially strapped citizens. Finally, last year, he agreed to support a change from a 75/25 split to a 66/33 division.

Edwards voted for North Carolina’s very own “don’t say gay” bill, or as Senate Republicans termed it, The Parents’ Bill of Rights. This bill permits any parent who objects to a book, a topic, a poster, a lesson — to file a suit against the district at taxpayer expense. The rest of us would be on the hook to pay legal costs, whether we agree with the lawsuit or not.

What these bills do is to allow a few parents to decide what other parents’ children read, study and discuss in class. Parents disagree on values. That is why I want educators, librarians, historians, scientists, mathematicians and other content experts to make decisions about topics and instructional materials. Teachers are not grooming and indoctrinating our kids. They are professionals doing their best to teach in the war zone politicians have created.

Edwards states on his website that he is “pro-life,” that he believes that life begins at conception. Perhaps it ends at birth, since for years, he blocked the federally funded expansion of Medicaid in North Carolina (only 12 states have declined). Medicaid has been proven to be a major factor in protecting the health of mothers and babies. Expansion would also help assure the financial survival of the many small, rural hospitals in this district and make health insurance available to thousands of the working poor in this state. Good news: The senator has had a sudden change of heart about Medicaid, though the state assembly has yet to pass legislation.

An unspoken corollary to Edwards’ “forced-birth” stance is that he does not believe that women should be permitted to make their own health care decisions or that families should be able to decide whether and when to have children. If Republicans gain control of national government, we can expect a nationwide ban on abortion. Perhaps right here in North Carolina, we’ll be telling 10-year-olds that having their rapist’s baby is an opportunity, sending bounty hunters after women and throwing doctors in jail for providing lifesaving medical care.

Edwards likes to tout his “mountain values” and business expertise. I don’t share those values, and, with Trump, we’ve seen that a businessman does not always make a good public servant.

Surely, we can do better. I hope you will join me in voting for Democrat Jasmine Beach-Ferrara for Congress.

— C.S. Chima
Asheville