Ralph Johnson likes to tell the story of how he challenged a 17-year-old boy to write $1.5 billion in numerical form.
“He said, ‘Yes, I could. That’s no problem.’ He sat down and he couldn’t get the commas in the right order. What am I saying? I want to be there for young people like that. They need to hear: ‘You can be somebody.’ ‘Let me be an example for you.’ We need more role models, just regular people. Because I had role models – my mother, people in my community who mentored me. I can never repay that. So it’s only fitting that I do the same for someone else.”
Johnson is challenging Alma Adams in the Democratic primary for NC House District 58, which covers east Greensboro and the eastern portion of Guilford County all the way to the Alamance line. Adams has held the seat since 1994, when she was appointed to replace a sitting representative who died in office. Johnson ran against her that year and lost.
(Disclosure: Johnson and I worked together in 2008 and 2009 in the Guilford County Unity Effort, a voter education project. I remain involved, but Johnson stepped aside when he decided to run for office.)
Johnson and I met today, on Good Friday, at the Green Bean to talk about his candidacy.
“You’ve heard the old adage that it takes a village to raise a child,” he said. “The way things are going right now the village is on fire…. What I’m talking about is rebuilding the community.
“We have one of the highest dropout rates in the state,” Johnson continued. “We’re paying right now. There’s a direct correlation between education and the prison system. We don’t want to raise kids to go through the judicial system. Do you know we spend $9,000 a child in our public school system, but we spend $30,000 per person to keep them in prison? If we took the time to invest the funds to try to assist young people for the next step in their life instead of sending them to prison with three squares and a cot…. Prison doesn’t give you a good return on the investment.”
He paused to clarify his position.
“If you are convicted of a violent crime, abuse of women, pedophile, I have no problem making sure there’s a bed for you in jail. But if you’re charged with a misdemeanor, you shouldn’t be doing two to three years.”
Johnson’s concern about children is grounded in his volunteer work. He recently resigned as chairman of Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro, whose major effort in recent years has been the opening of the McGirt-Horton Library. He’s worked on a back-to-school supply drive that’s served more than 1,000 children in northeast Greensboro. As a member of the East Side Civitan Club, he’s worked with physically challenged children. And last April, Johnson helped organize a railway trip for 80 students from Washington, Hampton, Bluford and Falkener elementary schools to visit the state capitol in Raleigh.
Johnson said teachers need more support, and need to be able to focus on teaching instead of being counselors and disciplinarians. In that spirit, the candidate proposes bringing back truant officers.
“A lot of the problem with our young people is they aren’t in school,” he said. “They may be at home sick. Most households are being operated by a single mother. The boyfriend might be abusing the mother. A child sees that and is at risk of repeating that behavior. There might be drugs being sold out of the house. By bringing in the truant officer you can find out why Little Johnny is not in school and why Little Susie is not in school. Because [otherwise] Little Johnny and Little Susie get together, and you get teenage pregnancy. That’s a whole issue unto itself.”
A Greensboro resident, Johnson has been visiting the smaller towns in District 58 – Gibsonville, Whitsett, Sedalia, McLeansville and Pleasant Garden – to get a feel for their needs. As a remodeling contractor whose business has suffered in recent years, the candidate is personally familiar with the concerns expressed by voters.
“They’re concerned about, are they going to have a job tomorrow? Are they going to be able to send their kids to college? Are they going to be able to keep a roof over their head?” he said.
As a community leader, Johnson said he feels ready to represent a diverse range of constituents.
“I pride myself in talking to people,” he said. “You can’t take people out of the process. It might not always be resolved to their liking, but at least they’ll feel that they were part of the decision.”
In addition to education, the other investment Johnson would like to see is in mass transit. He proposes adding local stops along the Raleigh-Greensboro railway corridor in Gibsonville, Whitsett, Sedalia and McLeansville and increasing the frequency of stops, along with adding rail service to Pleasant Garden.
“You’ve got to have a vision,” he said. “We know we cannot continue to drive our cars and be thinking green at the same time. We would probably get a lot more support than people would think… in terms of ridership demand. A lot of our senior citizens don’t drive.”
To pay for rail transit improvements, Johnson suggested a quarter-cent sales tax might be paired with a matching financial commitment from the private sector. He does not favor passing a bond, which he said would likely translate into an increase in property taxes.
With the state likely to face severe budget shortfalls for at least the next couple years, I asked Johnson how he would propose to raise revenue to pay for needed investments in education.
“I will go line by line [through the budget],” he said. “What I indicated about prison reform, there are different programs like One Step Further whose job it is to reintroduce people into society. That will reduce the amount of money we’re spending on building prisons and housing people in jail. We can have these people being productive citizens and paying taxes. That would be a win-win.”
Johnson is asked a lot why he thinks he should replace Adams.
“In my view, she has done some things in the community,” he said. “I’m not going to say she hasn’t done anything. In the situation we’re in now, we need someone who’s thinking outside the box. What I’ve heard from voters is that she hasn’t been as accessible in years past. I look at that as an opportunity. I have done a lot of work in the community.
“I’m running for the people’s seat,” he added. “She’s been there for 16 years. The length of time she’s been in office, do you retire in office? I’m involving young people. I’m not going to retire in office. I’m going to bring some young people to the table. They feel that the power brokers control the thinking of the people rather than represent the people.”
Triad Elections '10
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