Family and Friends,

Thanksgiving arrives just in time for an accounting of my time to family and including 3,800 electronic friends.

Thanks to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has never disappointed or failed. A warm thank you to Dottie who is talented and gracious. Her mother “Dot Dot” is 97 years of age. She has been the ideal mother-in-law. My children, Nathan and Jana, have been a real joy. Their spouses, Kristi and Jimmy, are wonderful parents to our 9 grandchildren. The nine could have been born on 9 continents – so different in personality. Each one is fun.

I was licensed to practice law on October 14, 1975. I will begin my Jubilee Year on October 14, 2024. What is a Jubilee year?

Leviticus 25:8-13 ⁸  “The time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. ⁹  On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. ¹⁰ You shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. ¹¹ That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. ¹² For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field. ¹³ “In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property.”

In 2024 Yom Kippur is on October 11-13. This is how I am planning for that year.

By Summer 2024 I hope to transition from full time law practice to part time. In 2024/2025 school year, I plan to teach part time at the high school level at private schools. In 2024/2025 I will be in the second and last year of a three year term as a Commissioner of the NC Innocence Inquiry Commission. That takes a lot of time.

I won 8 and lost 6 elections to the NC House. At one point I was 1-6. Only Abe Lincoln, 7-7, had more losses. Over 36 years I was in, out, back in and back out of politics. There were lots of legislative wins and plenty of losses. For a full accounting see www.paulstam.info. (149 articles)

I have a new project for legislation. I need your help. When I turned 71, I realized why we have a worker shortage and high federal budget deficits. I have a partial solution that has been blessed by two economists and a several members of Congress:

Raise the age from 70 to 75 at which a taxpaying worker stops accruing additional Social Security benefits. At 73 I am still paying Social Security taxes. (In reality for everyone it is 15%.) I want to work. Millions of us retire too early, because it does not make financial sense to continue. Would you join me in this effort. It will partly solve the Worker Shortage and somewhat reduce the annual federal deficit. For North Carolina it will mean more revenue without raising tax rates at all. It addresses the real demographic problem: too few workers for the number retired.

In September I enjoyed another Labor Day weekend in the mountains – this time to Ashe County, hiking at Daughton National Park and Elk Knob State Park. I swim 2-3 times a week. It is great for my health. It is difficult to injure yourself swimming laps. I take grandchildren with me when they can. All six boys now beat me and the three girls are catching up.

I do not like receiving birthday or Christmas presents. I do like to give them. There is a situation to which I have been contributing for decades. I help support two women with special needs. One is 76. I was her guardian for 37 years. She has a permanent brain injury. When she was 30 she was a passenger in an automobile accident. Her mental level is about age 12. Her husband and two of her three children abandoned her. She works part time as a bagger. She lives on about $12,000.00 per year. She lives in a 50-year-old mobile home.

The second woman is 50. She has been disabled since birth, with rickets and other spinal conditions. She also has a bipolar condition, controlled by medication. I am one of three trustees. The trust owns an old house in Johnston County where she lives and often takes care of her grandchildren. She has very limited income. I try to supplement her needs. The trust also owns 8 cemetery lots at Montlawn south of Raleigh. Do you need some?

If you would like to help them, send a nondeductible check to Stam Law Firm Trust Account to bless these two women.

I have been blessed beyond measure.

Psalm 103 “Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and all that is within me,
    bless his holy name!
² Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits,
³ who forgives all your iniquity,
    who heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit,
    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
⁵ who satisfies you with good
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Cordially,

Paul “Skip” Stam