This reflection was first shared on LinkedIn by Trust President Dr. Laura Gerald, encouraging NC residents to seize this opportunity to work together toward a future where all people can thrive.
This week North Carolinians and Americans voted to change who leads us locally, statewide, and nationally. Importantly, this ignites the opportunity to change policies and practices so everyone—not just a chosen few—will have their rights protected and the opportunity to thrive.
While the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust is non-partisan, as its president, I am stirred by how this seismic shift offers a new moment to work together. Our mission is to improve the health and quality of life of people experiencing poverty in Forsyth County and around the state. Today, we have an opportunity to transform how we invest in residents and communities to ensure access, opportunity, and equity.
Today, we need to truly be, rather than to seem.
The North Carolina state motto “Esse Quam Videri” means “To be rather than to seem.” Ratified in 1893 by the North Carolina General Assembly, the motto honored North Carolinian’s qualities of civility and moral substance. However, its adoption coincided with one of our state’s most repressive eras, with a two-tiered racial caste system, deep inequities in the health and education systems, and the horrifying Wilmington Massacre.
This pattern of appearance versus reality has continued to this day, and we now have a stunning opportunity to truly change it. Working together—Black, brown, and white residents, in community, philanthropy, and government—we can envision how we want North Carolina to be and take action.
We must ensure access to quality health care for all.
Our state can now be a place where everyone has access to health care. That means treating health care as a human right, preserving Medicaid, and ensuring everyone can afford health insurance. It also means protecting programs like SNAP food assistance, and offering affordable housing, reliable transportation, and quality childcare options to everyone.
We must guarantee a quality education for all.
Our state can be a place where we invest in our public schools, the teachers, and our students, supporting the next generation and the future of our state. This means working to ensure every four-year-old has access to PreK, paying our teachers fairly, and funding our schools equitably, so that every child has the same chance for success.
We must attain economic opportunity for all.
Our state can be a place where economic opportunity is attainable for every resident. That means ensuring people can afford groceries, gas, and housing, and access jobs that pay a living wage.
The opportunity is now.
This week, the state and country moved the needle toward new policy priorities that can shift systems designed to marginalize people by race and place. Specifically, we can restore funding to Medicaid and SNAP to ensure people can access health care and food assistance. We can halt threats to immigrant families to ensure they can safely go to work, school, and the doctor. We can address the long-term well-being of our neighbors, if we work together.
I have committed my life and career to my home state of North Carolina. I know what is possible when we work together, invest in the next generation, and prioritize community well-being.
The people of North Carolina have spoken this week, and it’s incumbent upon all of us to listen. Let’s seize this moment to transform our state into a place where everyone can thrive.
Laura Gerald, MD, MPH
President
Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust