Last week for the web, we published a story by Greg Childress at our partner newsroom N.C. Policy Watch on U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s impassioned performance at a Johnston County school board meeting in an attempt to persuade the county’s school board members to drop its mask mandate for public school students, teachers, and staff. (On Monday, the school board voted 4-3 to keep the mask policy in place). Our readers had a lot of thoughts about all this.

“As a Johnston County resident, Cawthorn needs to go back to where he came from,” wrote Facebook commenter Mary Elise. … “There is an intersection of freedom and responsibility that each of these CAAG and JCPS Parents for Freedom seems to be missing. You may have the right to bear arms, but you don’t have the right to walk into a school and start shooting without consequences.”

Plenty of commenters echoed Mary Elise and suggested Cawthorn needs to go home.

Facebook commenter Liz Paley did a little trolling of the anti-mask parents: “To the moms and dads who want to choose what goes on their kids’ bodies, why start with masks when pants are so much more pervasive and restrictive?”

Liz has a change.org petition to ban pants and everything. Well played, Liz.

For print, Thomasi McDonald wrote a piece on the Durham mayor’s race. We noted in the headline that the Bull City will likely make history this year by electing its first Black or Latina woman mayor.

Facebook commenter MJ Hyde says it “would be nice if we focused on their qualifications.”

Commenter James Gheen offered the following response:

“Caballero has been a deeply effective community organizer for healthcare workers during the pandemic and established a language-access program for immigrants. Also she’s a member of the city council and has been for three years (granted not the longest time, but still.) O’Neal has 28 years of experience in judiciary work, including Durham County superior court, and is chair of the Racial Equity Task Force. Both are extremely qualified and would be excellent mayors for Durham.”

Don’t forget to vote, Durham!

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