“It Is Dearness Only That Gives Every Thing Its Value”

Legislative News by Nelda Holder –

From The Crisis by Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”

I chose the title for this commentary very purposefully. The easy pick was “These are the times that try men’s souls.” We’ve surely all heard that many times in our lives—at least if we are “of an age” to have had a bit more civics in our early education. And surely our souls are being tried as a newly elected president (Donald Trump) and his unelected billionaire tech guru detonate one governmental pillar after another in Washington, DC, and around the world.

From the established guardian agency of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the life-saving provider of food and hope around the globe, the US Agency for International Development (USAID); from the fundamental necessity of the Treasury Department to the under-siege Department of Education, and so much more . . . “the government” as we knew it has been undergoing a stealth attack at the unaccounted-for hands of Musk and his team of young tech wizards.

The secrecy of their mission and actions has frozen the public’s right of agency in this democracy. Republican majorities in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate have failed to join with questioning Democrats to investigate this highly irregular scenario, leaving the public (remember the old saying “of the people, by the people, and for the people”?) to speculate and worry, and requiring governmental leaders to admit to their own ignorance concerning just why Musk and company should be holding the technology keys to the kingdom.

Who knows what we will have learned by the time this commentary is published and you have read this far into it? But if we’re going to be honest with ourselves, read the Thomas Paine quote again. “It is dearness only that gives every thing its value.” My point is that there is great dearness in the rule of law in this country. There is great dearness in what we know as “law and order.”

Something is alarmingly wrong and out of order in having a robber band of techies slip past the order of Congressional oversight to dismantle what our duly elected government has put in place through a laborious process known as government. Their anarchy is troubling, at minimum, but potentially it may cost us not only valuable services to our citizenry and to the world at large” it may cost us, starkly put, our democracy … the one that Thomas Paine, George Washington, Abigail Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and other patriots allowed us to inherit. Do you plan to let that happen?

Meanwhile, on the Raleigh Sidewalks

The unusual activity of the Musk team in Washington brought several crowds out onto the streets of North Carolina’s capital city, with two demonstrations on February 4, 2025—one outside at Sen. Thom Tillis’s office and another at the State Capitol building. These were followed by a much larger protest with an estimated several thousand surrounding the Capitol on Wednesday, February 5.

Then the ongoing court case brought by losing candidate Judge Jefferson Griffin saw yet another street protest on Friday, February 7—as well as a ruling in favor of the NC State Board of Elections and against Griffin’s effort to throw out 65,000 ballots in his contest against Judge Allison Riggs for a seat on the NC Supreme Court. The hearing brought another crowd of demonstrators out, demanding the 65,000 early, absentee, military and overseas ballots be counted. The Wake County Superior Court agreed with the reasoning of Riggs’ lawyers.

The smallest group of protestors for the week would seem to have been an assembly of a dozen or less Proud Boys at the State Capitol on Saturday morning, February 8. We are not sure just what they were proud of.

And Inside the NC Statehouse

It should not go unnoted—and indeed please feel free to write your own notes to the leaders listed here—that the NC General Assembly has drawn some criticism (and perhaps needs a full “evil eye”) in the past week as its Republican leadership whittles away at the amount of aid money they are willing to release to those in need in western North Carolina.

Gov. Josh Stein (D) issued a request earlier this month while visiting western North Carolina, asking the General Assembly to “step up and get them the money they need right now to rebuild.” The amount he specified for immediate funding was $1.07 billion to “strengthen the economy, get people back into homes faster, repair infrastructure, support farmers, fix private roads and bridges, remove debris, and help school children stay at grade level.”

The governor’s specific budget requests for Hurricane Helene recovery can be reviewed through the website of the Office of State Budget and Management: Governor Stein’s Recommendation for Hurricane Helene Recovery Immediate Needs.

The governor’s request would double what the General Assembly has allocated thus far in relief for the stricken area, and would come at a time when additional federal aid is expected to be delayed, possibly for months (President Donald Trump’s visits to the area to the contrary). It was followed by a proposal by GOP lawmakers that would provide roughly half that amount.

The Body Politic, Grieving

There is so much more to write about “government” at this point in time. But it would seem to boil down to one overriding sensibility: principle. It seems that perhaps 90% of the conversations I am having these days are with people who are deeply worried about our government, and our governing principles. That’s precisely why I asked Thomas Paine to lead off this column.

I’m getting old. Though not as old as my beautiful aunt, who turns 100 just as I turn in this column to the paper. But I was born as the last (hopefully LAST) world war was ending. So I’ve been through a lot of waves of patriotism and self-examination and idealism and disappointment with my country. I have never, however, felt the kind of trepidation I am feeling today as I watch my government being dismantled—computer by computer; worker by worker—without the consent of the governed.

Let me encourage you to assume participatory government, my friends. Write. Call. Hit the streets if you think—as I hope you do—that representative democracy is worth it. “It is the dearness only that gives everything its value.

Nelda Holder is the author of The Thirteenth Juror – Ferguson: A Personal Look at the Grand Jury Transcripts.