Governor McCrory, you have brought me closer to God.

Simply put, I have never conversed so much and so passionately with my creator than these past three years. And I must testify this fact – because so many things have happened to North Carolinians that only divine intervention and an election could ever relieve.

With your defiant refusal to extend Medicare coverage for many in the state, I have been asking God to keep those who now do not have health insurance healthy enough until something good happens. As we continue to pay federal taxes that actually finance Medicaid in other states, I ask God for to enable you to place principles before political ideologies.

Environmentally, we have suffered at the hands of Duke Power’s coal ash spill. The public slap on the wrist and the showboating of concern on your part seem sanctimoniously empty to me. Granted, having a private relationship with the country’s largest power company all those years would seem hard to navigate publically, but we need a governor to take a strong stand for the welfare of the state. We are very much like stakeholders in a very large company much larger than Duke Power, except our company is the state North Carolina and you are the appointed CEO. Our welfare and health is our dividend, and if those are not positive, well, we appoint someone else. I pray that God gives you the courage to act accordingly.

Speaking of the environment, the news that the fracking industry would not have to disclose the chemicals needed to “help” boost our energy reserves with natural shale gas is a bit disturbing. If election contributions must be transparently recorded, if ingredients for all food stuffs must be listed on the package, and if all facets of curriculum combed through to the tiniest fraction for our schools, then should we not at least be able to know what is being pumped into our lands for someone else’s profit? If we are in the Bible Belt, then should we not know what is being put into the gut of God’s country?

Fiscally speaking, as a teacher, I am constantly in conversation with the Almighty as to how I can make ends meet and still plan for the future of my family considering my monetary situation. I pray that God helps my wife keep the job that pays much more than mine as I still feel called to help educate the next generations.

Also, I am unsure how you can say that we have a budget surplus when budgets in homes and schools seem unbalanced. The money allocated to social services has been slashed in the name fiscal balance, but it seems more like a drive to privatize everything and claim that the market will take care of the economy. We still need the government to intervene on behalf of those who pay their fair share of taxes. I also pray that you realize that “decreasing” taxes were more than offset by eliminating tax deductions for working families and putting more sales taxes on items like auto repairs. Many families are actually paying more to the state now than before you were elected.

I have also prayed to God that the voice of every citizen can be heard, even in the government buildings where the current short session has “revisited” sanctions about people congregating and airing concerns to elected officials. Even though you and your cabinet wish to silence others through “voter ID” legislation and the reinterpretation of the freedom of speech, I know God hears every person’s voice. Do you hear the ones who come to Raleigh on Moral Mondays to exclusively tell you what they need?

And finally, I pray that the public schools get the resources and funding they so deserve. North Carolina’s constitution does state that every citizen will have access to a good education. The very foundation of that “good” education system is the student/teacher relationship. If there are no good, experienced teachers left, then how “good” will that education promised in the state’s constitution be? It is a cruel irony that one of the best public university systems in the country is quickly losing the strong public K-12 system that has been feeding it.

Oh, I forgot. That very same university system is actually under attack. The fact that Margaret Spellings, the architect of No Child Left Behind, is now the president of the UNC system shows a strong disconnect in what our public universities really needed. Instead of removing obstacles, one was placed in its way.

But spiritually, I feel great. I have never felt closer God.