Not all Southerners are ignorant

The fact that not all southerners are ignorant and not all of them are racist is a fact that many of us who have lived in the south know very well, but it is nice to see someone get noticed for this exact fact. According to this article, the director of North Carolina's Standards Laboratory retired rather than honoring Jesse Helms. When the Governor asked all state employees to lower the flags to half mast for all state agencies, L.F. Eason III emailed his employees and told them to disregard this request from the governor. "I don't see how anybody could celebrate his career," the 51-year-old said in an interview, noting Helms' opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the filibuster to stall the effort to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday. "Everything he did was such a disservice to this state." When his supervisor overruled him, he requested the ability to retire rather than have to honor Jesse Helms. Eason deserves congratulations for recognizing that just because you have worked as a Congressperson does not make you worthy of being honored with flags being lowered to half mast. If you are an asshole in life, you don't deserve to be honored in death. Eason also deserves congratulations for standing by his principles and taking retirement, since he had the option, over compromising his own beliefs.