At a recent conference, an African American speaker told an inspiring story of an interaction with law enforcement, when he had expected the worst intentions from the officer but his worry proved unfounded. Our speaker had been walking to the local gym after an early-morning run. Soon he became aware that a police car was slowly following him. Immediately he assumed he was being profiled.

“Did you know you were being followed?” the officer asked. The speaker feigned ignorance.

“You were being followed by a rabid fox back there,” the officer replies. “I was just watching out for you.”

The happy moral of the speaker’s story is not to assume bad intentions, see?
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In the spring of 2020, Travis and I took a virtual ground school from a local flying club, the Wings of Carolina (WoC). It was the second time I’d gone through ground school, the first one being in the mid 1990s. That time I never got around to taking the FAA exam and I’d hoped to complete it all this time around.

Travis has expressed his interest in becoming a pilot. He has excellent vision and would spend lots of time using my flight simulator. I’d promised him long ago if he completed ground school I would be happy to pay for it, but still he was on the fence. When dates opened up for the virtual ground school, I prodded him multiple times about signing up but he was noncommittal. Finally, I signed myself up with the goal of finally finishing what I started. This was all it took to convince Travis to sign up, too, and we were off!

Twice a week, we would gather in front of our playroom TV to “attend” class. For three hours per night we’d be on Zoom as our instructor, John, filled out formulas and sketches on a whiteboard in WoC’s classroom. About 30 other classmates joined in, too. There were some technical glitches, fewer opportunities to interrupt with a question, and more of a distant feel to it than I would’ve hoped.
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One absolutely wonderful thing that happened in 2020 was the U.S. Presidential Election. Elections bookended the pandemic for me. In March 2020, I volunteered to be an inside poll observer for the Wake County Democratic Party. This gave me insight into how elections are carried out. Being one of those rare people who have never missed an election, I was already well-familiar with how the process worked from the public point of view but learning more about the various checks put in place was quite educational.

COVID was a thing in the March primary but not taken as seriously. Spending so long in a school classroom turned polling place, packed with dozens of strangers seems like suicide to me now. The general election was far more strict, with volunteers carefully limiting the number of people indoors.

I was also disappointed to be restricted in my movement during the general election. Chief judges would corral the observers into one area rather than letting us do our jobs. After some cajoling I managed to get this largely fixed. I’m sure part of the issue was the threat of violence that was on everyone’s mind due to heightened tensions.

Without exception, though, the interactions I had with the Republican poll observers I spent time with were positive. We had good chats about the state of the community and the country. In the past I would’ve posed for pictures with them but the pandemic made that unworkable.
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Raleigh’s Confederate monument comes down

The George Floyd protests were a Godsend for one particular reason: they paved the way for Raleigh’s Confederate monument to come down. A group of protestors managed to pull down some portions of the monument and Governor Cooper stepped in to do the rest, declaring the monument a safety hazard (which is absolutely was). Travis and I set up chairs across the street from the work crew as they wrestled the granite monument to the ground.

Several attempts were made before the right technique was found to disassemble the thing and cart it to some state warehouse somewhere. It was late that evening in June when the first section was successfully removed. We were tired but it was so worth it to watch this history being made.

I have long hated the monument, considering it a giant middle finger to the idea of integration and equality. Not only was it a monument to hate, it was also an architectural eyesore, out of scale for the State House Grounds where it stood. It took up half of the sidewalk that passed in front of it. One could not simply walk by and not acknowledge it.

But now it’s gone. The State quickly dug up the rest of it, planted grass in the spot, and extended the sidewalk to its original dimensions. I’m only disappointed that with my downtown office closed, I will not get the chance to smile daily as I walk past its former place of honor.

It was one of the best parts of 2020.

Good riddance, Confederate monument. Traitors deserve no place of honor.