Burke DISTRICT 44 Caldwell

Dear Friends,

During a special session last week, the Senate passed a constitutional

amendment 30 – 16, to let voters decide whether or not marriage

should be defined as solely between one man and one woman. The

House also voted in favor of the amendment 75-42 with ten

Democrats joining Republicans. The state’s first attempt to amend

the constitution to define marriage was proposed in 2003 by

Democrats and Republicans. Subsequent amendments have received

bi-partisan support for more than eight years but were held in

committee by former House and Senate leaders. North Carolina is

the only state in the southeast that does not have a constitutional

amendment defining marriage. Other states have acted because

activist judges in other states have overturned state statutes that

define marriage. Last week, legislators decided to give voters the

ability to define marriage at the ballot box. According to Forbes

Magazine’s ranking of states with the best business climates, eight

out of the top ten states have defined marriage in their state

constitution. As business communities look for government to

provide stable economic environments, protecting marriage from re-

definition by the courts safeguards the freedom and flexibility to

offer employee benefits based on business decisions. It protects

business from additional government-imposed benefit packages.

The measure will now be put before voters in a statewide

referendum to be held during the May primary.

As mentioned before in newsletters, our mission for this

legislative session has been jobs, jobs, jobs. Unfortunately, our

Governor has not demonstrated the urgency or importance of

creating new jobs in our state. Members of the Senate are urging

Gov. Beverly Perdue to stand up to the federal government and

defend North Carolina’s right-to-work status, the state’s most

important jobs law that gives North Carolina a competitive edge over

other states competing for new businesses.

Continued on page 2

CONTACT INFORMATION: Senator Warren T. Daniel Legislative Office Bldg., Room 411 300 N. Salisbury St. Raleigh, NC 27603-5925 Email: warren.daniel@ncleg.net Phone: 919-715-7823 Fax: 919-754-3265 District Office of Sen. Warren Daniel 348 Harper Avenue NW Lenoir, NC 28645 Email: senwarrendaniel@bellsouth.net Phone: 828-754-9335 Fax 828-754-9335 (Please call before faxing)

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SEPTEMBER ISSUE #2

PLYMOUTH ROCK: FACT OR FICTION?

The Pilgrims docked in Plymouth Harbor after their initial landing, but it’s doubtful they landed on Plymouth Rock, since it’s not very big. The rock wasn’t mentioned by anyone until nearly 100 years after the landing. Thomas Fraunce, a ninety-five year-old man, claimed his father told him the Pilgrims used the rock to debark from their ship. It’s a great story, but Fraunce’s father arrived in American three years after the Pilgrims. In an attempt to preserve the rock, it was moved, and in the process, it broke in half. The bottom half, it was decided, could stay where it was. Years later, the rock was put back where it belonged, cemented back to its base, and a monument was built around it. (That’s when it was carved with 1620.) Because of its tiny size, it is considered one of America’s most “disappointing” historical landmarks. Stupid History by Leland Gregory

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

On September 17, 1787, forty-two of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention

held their final meeting for the purpose of

signing the US Constitution.

Burke DISTRICT 44 Caldwell

Page 2

The National Labor Relations Board is blocking companies

from doing business in right-to-work states in the Southeast, a

dangerous precedent that could keep job creators in North Carolina

from putting people back to work and recovering from one of the

most grueling economic recessions in history. General Assembly

leaders sent a letter to the head of the NLRB last month expressing

concerns about federal officials telling businesses where they can

and cannot create jobs. Last week, a former chair of the North

Carolina Democratic Party spoke out against the NLRB in a

Charlotte Observer op-ed, and the U.S. House of Representatives

passed a bill preventing similar roadblocks in the future. But Gov.

Perdue has remained silent on the issue, despite double-digit

unemployment rates that have thousands of citizens in Burke and

Caldwell County searching for work. Our business-friendly labor

laws are a key reason companies choose North Carolina. It’s very

unfortunate that Gov. Perdue remains silent as protections for job

creators are attacked by unions and their advocates in the Obama

administration. We need a governor who fights this overreach by the

NLRB and all other government obstacles to job creation.

Although the General Assembly does not plan to be in

Session over the next few months, please continue to contact my

office with your questions, comments, and concerns. I always

appreciate the opportunity to meet with constituents and discuss

issues important to you. Thank you again for allowing me to

represent you in the NC Senate. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

P.S. I would like to extend a special birthday wish to Ms. Myrtle Mae

Wilson Fox of Morganton upon her 101st birthday this past Saturday!!

The Constitution of the United States represents the classic solution to one of humankind’s greatest political problems –

that is, how does a group of small states combine into a strong union without losing their individual powers and

surrendering their control over local affairs? In the ultimate sense, the Constitution confirmed the proposition that original

power resided in the people – not in the people as a whole but in them in their capacity as people of the several states. The

genius of federalism was in delineating central governmental power by spreading political power among national, state and

local governments to exercise power explicitly or implicitly expressed within the document.

WHY THE CONSTITUTION?

This week is Constitution Week. I feel it is

important to write about North Carolina’s

contribution to our U.S. Constitution as well as a

brief history of the North Carolina Constitution.

North Carolina sent three delegates to the

Constitutional Convention in 1787: William

Blount of Windsor, Richard Dobbs Spaight of

New Bern, and Hugh Williamson, originally of

Philadelphia, Pa. North Carolina was the twelfth

state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on

November 21, 1789. North Carolina held a

ratification convention in 1788, convening on

July 21 and adjourning on August 4. At that

convention, the convention drafted a

"Declaration of Rights" and a list of

"Amendments to the Constitution," but in the

end, the convention voted "neither to ratify nor

reject the Constitution proposed for the

government of the United States." The United

States Constitution was created to defend the

moral order set forth by the Declaration of

Independence and is the framework of our

government.

The first constitution of North Carolina

was created in 1776 after the adoption of the

Declaration of Independents. Since that

ratification, North Carolina has significantly

altered her constitution twice to reflect the

growing changes in the state. On November 3,

1970, the proposed Constitution of 1971 was

approved by a vote of 393,759 to 251,132.

Since the Constitution of 1971, there have been

over twenty amendments. The majority of these

amendments extend rights to citizens as well as

a governor’s veto. Recently, the General

Assembly passed legislation that will put the

question of marriage between one man and one

woman to the people of North Carolina to adjust

our Constitution. The traditional family is the

cornerstone of our society and North Carolina

needs such a provision within our Constitution.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011