“Let it make no difference to you whether you are cold or warm, if you are doing your duty; and whether you are drowsy or satisfied with sleep; and whether ill-spoken of or praised.”
These words were penned by the Stoic philosopher-statesman Marcus Aurelius Antoninus some 1800 years ago, in his Meditations. Yet Aurelius’ words could never be more relevant. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. We can’t know whether doing the right thing will be easy. We only know that we must do it.
This sentiment should resonate with us Duke students, in our unique political microcosm. According to Admissions statistics for the Classes of 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, 850 of our undergraduates are North Carolinians. But North Carolinian or not, a great many of us care about the larger community: The Chronicle published a guide this past November detailing how to vote in Durham. We take a real interest in--and often have real impact upon--state elections.
Although we were very active and very interested in the election of local officials whose terms expire, we have been silent about the nomination of Thomas Farr for a seat on North Carolina’s Eastern District. Farr defended HB 589, the voter ID law which the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to be racially discriminatory. How can we care about local issues, but be so silent about this?
Of course, it is not surprising that one may not have heard of Farr. Thomas Farr’s nomination isn’t something you’d know much about, if you didn’t read The News & Observer or Indy Week. The New York Times runs a comparatively detail-light opinion piece detailing Trump’s dubious nominees, Farr among them. The Washington Post’s Editorial Board has a similar (scanty) lineup, telling us, “They’re bad,” and not much else. Searching “Thomas Farr” on Fox News’ website yields no relevant results (as of Jan. 21).
Here, then, are the details. Farr’s nomination stands in the shadow of concerns about his conduct. According to The News and Observer, Farr was questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee about his knowledge of a 1990 voter intimidation scheme in which the reelection campaign of Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) sent postcards to some 100,000 voters, most of them African American. The postcards fallaciously stated that “[voters] had to have lived in their precincts for at least 30 days to vote and could face jail time if they provided inaccurate information at the polls.” Farr claims ignorance of the scheme until after the fact, but admits his presence at a meeting where card mailings were discussed. This claim has been disputed, leading Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to request another hearing.
After his work on the Helms campaign, Farr would defend a voter ID law ruled to be “targeting ‘African Americans with almost surgical precision,’” according to Mother Jones. The bill, HB 589, passed in 2013, was a bill born in sin. According to The Chicago Tribune, GOP lawmakers requested “statistics on voter behavior broken down by race:” who voted early, who used what forms of identification, etc. HB 589 then excluded forms of identification disproportionately used by African Americans. The bill has since been struck down.
These past actions are under new scrutiny because Farr is Donald Trump’s nominee to fill the vacant seat in the Eastern District of North Carolina. According to WUNC, the district is home to “seven counties with the state’s highest concentration of African Americans.”
Welcome to Trump’s America, Year One: where the inconceivable is commonplace and the unconscionable is government business.
The confirmation of a federal judge is final. There is no reelection, no do-over. There is the argument from principle, that someone who defends legislation replete with racial bias should not sit on the federal bench. There is the simple realization that there are people living in the Eastern District and elsewhere now, who will be living there once we’ve gone, upon whom the rulings of the Eastern District, as a federal court, are sure to have an effect. It is easy in this political climate to become lost in the great tug-of-war between Red and Blue, to focus on Pennsylvania Avenue to the exclusion of Main Street. But never forget that there are real people who may have to live with the real consequences of this possibility. They cannot pick and choose when they become involved. If you choose to be involved in local politics, please remember that.
Our principles aren’t worth much if we do not consistently act upon them. We need to act more in the manner of the Good Samaritan. Perhaps this parable is familiar to you: A man is set upon by thieves, and helped only by third person to pass him. Who helps him but a Samaritan: someone not from that place, who was just passing through. The Samaritan does not ask, “Who is this person?” or, “Is helping him convenient to me?” The Samaritan helps for no other reason than that help is needed and within his power to give.
Perhaps we are passing through North Carolina, or perhaps we will stay. But when we are confronted by a wrong which may be within our power to put right, we have no excuse not to act. There is a choice before us: do we care about Thomas Farr’s nomination? As long as right is right and wrong is wrong, that choice is easy to make.
Tim Kowalczyk is a Trinity junior.
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Tim Kowalczyk is a Trinity sophomore. His column, "the academy matters," runs on alternate Thursdays.