Earlier this week, U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., visited Sampson Alternative School on the campus of Kennedy Home to talk about government.
The First District congressman, who has served in Washington, D.C., since 2004, said he relished the opportunity to come to Kinston to talk to students.
“Men and women go to Raleigh and to Washington and they make decisions that will affect your lives,” Butterfield told the students.
Butterfield said members of Congress have a specific job description.
“Part of that description is to go to Washington each week and intelligently reflect the values, dreams and aspirations of the people we represent,” he said. “The second part is to get out, touch the people and hear from them directly.”
The congressman shared with students how important education is to them.
“The jobs of 50 years ago have left us,” Butterfield said. “We can complain about it all we want to, but the fact of the matter is we’re in a new age of technology. The demands are greater now than ever have been. The only way we’re going to prepare our students for jobs in the future is to have a 21st century education system.
“That’s why I’m such a strong supporter of education. … Without a good education system in North Carolina, we won’t be able to prepare our students for the future.
Sampson School Principal Diane Heath said she appreciated the congressman’s visit. She said her students learned a lot from Butterfield’s visit.
“Anytime a congressman can take time out of their busy schedule to come and speak to students, it’s very important,” Heath said. “There are a lot of decisions that have to be made and someone has to make them. They learned today that they need to become involved, ask questions and find out what they need to do since they’ll be taxpayers one day.”
After speaking to the students, Butterfield spoke briefly to media at the school. The main subject was sequestration.
“I’m so disappointed that we couldn’t come to a bipartisan compromise on the sequester,” Butterfield said. “Democrats nor Republicans like the sequester; we all want it to go away. But we simply cannot agree on how it can be done.”
He explained that some “discretion” was given to help restore some of the positions cut in the military by sequestration and that he hoped it would happen with small airports like Kinston’s.
However, it didn’t happen and the tower at Kinston’s airport will close sometime after April 7.
“I’m very disappointed that we’re going to lose New Bern and Kinston,” Butterfield said. “But I believe in the coming months we’ll be able to restore some of those positions.”
Bryan C. Hanks can be reached at 252-559-1074 or at Bryan.Hanks@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at BCHanks.