To the Editor:

When I woke up Sunday, March 13, and opened the Washington Daily News, it certainly gave me a great laugh. Your headline article on G.K. Butterfield calls for fair redistricting is perhaps one of the most amusing articles I have read in quite some time.

If there is one person in the state of North Carolina who has benefited from unfair districting it is Butterfield. To have him stand up and have the nerve to state, “we’ve got to make sure the lines are drawn fairly,” shows the arrogance of this man. He also went on to state that due to the voting rights act of 1965, the First Congressional District must remain a minority majority district. This is untrue. It is true North Carolina must have two majority minority districts but nowhere does it say which ones are mandated as such. This legislation is out-dated and violates the rights of all citizens. The first district winds as far south as Wayne and Craven counties and to the Virginia border to Vance and Granville counties. Convicted felon Frank Ballance drew it just so he could be elected and Butterfield has benefited. It has no logic other than that. Butterfield, I am sure, is hoping this district remains gerrymandered to his benefit because he lost quite a few counties last election.

It is time that we have fair districts in accordance to the wishes of our founding fathers. If that was the case, Butterfield would now be a retired judge in Wilson and we would have one of our own from right here in Beaufort County in Washington, D.C., a man of true morals and character. We were lucky to have his campaign bring to light many issues about this man that would have never been known about here in eastern N.C.

One, we know that Butterfield has admitted to pocketing unspent taxpayer monies following congressional junkets. Perhaps instead of the Daily News having Butterfield spewing about fair districts you should look into what happened to this money. We know he was one of six congressmen under investigation for pocketing per-diem money.

Following the election and quietly shoved aside before the new Congress was sworn in, the ethics office said in a 20-page report that Butterfield received excess per diem in four trips between June 2008 and August 2009 even as he received 40 “hosted” meals. It found he had not returned a total of $1,509 from four trips that included visits to Lithuania, Belgium, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, the United Kingdom, Italy, Liberia, Ghana, South Africa and Morocco. The office also found that he used per diem for expenses not related to his travel. Has this money been returned to the U.S. Treasury? Also what was he doing in these exotic places? The first congressional district is the fourth poorest in the nation and our congressman is going to these countries. Why? We need to find out.

Again, thank you for the humor on Sunday morning. But having Butterfield preach about fair districts is not newsworthy.

BILL SHAVENDER

Washington