“Oedipus Rex” opened with a dramatic flair at the Gilbert Theater on March 26 and will continue until April 11.

Based on the infamous Greek myth written by Sophocles in 429 B.C. about the cursed king Oedipus and his tragic misfortune.

The story entices the audience with compelling drama, songs and acting. Director and adapter Montgomery Sutton successfully simplifies the language for everyone to understand without taking away its charm.

The drama takes viewers on a journey through the plague-stricken city of Thebes, where the citizens beg their king Oedipus to find a solution.

After promising to end their misfortunes, Oedipus receives a prophecy that changes his life. Told to solve the murder of the last king of Thebes which went unsolved, Oedipus sets himself on a path to seek the truth for his people that leads to his own doom.

Returning actress Deannah Robinson plays Oedipus and perfectly captures his character - slightly arrogant, paranoid, honest, righteous, a loving husband, father and king. Seen before at the Gilbert in productions like “Laramie Project” and “Barefoot in the Park,” she brings to stage a new character.

Playing Oedipus brought new enlightenment in the rehearsals, and there was more sympathy for him, Robinson said.

The production showcases an almost trial in search of the truth, and Oedipus becoming more and more paranoid. Tiresias, the blind prophet, played by Ella Mock, tells Oedipus that he himself is the murderer of the last king. Oedipus then blames Tiresias for treason, then his brother-in-law Creon.

The drama unfolds to when an ambassador of Corinth comes forth and a shepherd to confirm that Oedipus was the abandoned prince of
Thebes, adopted by the royalty of Corinth and did in fact kill his birth father, Laius, and marry his own mother, Jocasta.

Mock, who plays multiple characters in the show including Tiresias and Antigone, said they were excited about how the show flows.

The show sees many of the actors playing various roles with much ease and talent. Mock’s performance of the blind prophet Tirisius was outstanding and leaves the audience at the edge of their seat. Tim Zimmerman did well in his various roles, but stood out as Creon.

The music is made better with the live instruments being played and the stunning voices of Zimmerman, Mock and Helen Steffan.

Those familiar with the original Greek myth know that the story ends with heartbreak for Oedipus and his kin, as he gouges out his own eyes, symbolizing his blindness of the obvious truth and his gruesome fate.

Audiences can expect a night of much drama, and perhaps some sympathy for Oedipus
the King.

For tickets and more information about the Gilbert visit, https://www.gilberttheater.com/index.php

A historical marker was placed March 5 on the edge of Cross Creek Linear Park designating Fayetteville as a stop on the Marquis de Lafayette’s tour of the United States nearly 200 years ago. The placement is part of the Lafayette Trail Project founded by Julien Icher and leads up to the bicentennial celebration of Lafayette’s Grand Tour of 1824-25.

Lafayette was a French nobleman who fought alongside the American people in the Revolutionary War. His loyalty to General George Washington, his resources, and his alliance with the French king all played an important role in the American people earning their independence from the English crown.

This Trail marker is one of five in North Carolina that helps map out Lafayette’s tour 196 years ago. Icher, from France, has collected extensive details and artifacts about Lafayette. His multi-year project aims to place a marker at each of Lafayette’s stops during his tour.

The placement of the historical marker is a notable designation of our city’s connection to Lafayette and the Revolutionary War, said Bud Lafferty, a member of the Lafayette Society.

When Lafayette arrived in Fayetteville in March of 1825, he visited multiple places during his stop. He arrived in a carriage with a whole entourage that was so big that, instead of staying in the hotel named after him, he actually stayed in the National Banking House (which is the old courthouse today). The carriage that Lafayette came in is still in Fayetteville and is located at the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry Museum.

Lafferty said that Lafayette was for the rights of man, as well as an abolitionist. He said that Lafayette received a warm welcome when he arrived in Fayetteville, which had been renamed in his honor in 1783.

There will eventually be markers in 25 states that Lafayette visited during his tour. Members of the Lafayette Society say the markers will help increase awareness of the story of the Marquis de Lafayette and Fayetteville’s own connection to history.

For more information on The Lafayette Society and events visit their website at https://www.lafayettesociety.org/.

For more information about the Lafayette Trail visit https://thelafayettetrail.org/#map.

Cumberland County and Fort Bragg are now vaccinating individuals ages 16 and up with the COVID-19 vaccine.

Fort Bragg began providing COVID-19 vaccinations to TRICARE beneficiaries age 16 and up on April 6 at the Fort Bragg Fairgrounds.

Beneficiaries should schedule an appointment on the vaccination appointment website at https://informatics-stage.health.mil/COVAX/. Those under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Fort Bragg is currently using the Pfizer vaccine which requires two doses separated by a minimum of 21 days. Those needing the initial dose, the vaccine will be administered Tuesday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Those eligible for the second dose, can receive their vaccination Tuesday through Saturday from 1-5 p.m.

The Cumberland County Department of Public Health begins vaccinating all individuals ages 16 and older April 7. This includes all individuals in previous Groups 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Individuals 16 and older may schedule appointments by visiting the County’s COVID-19 vaccine page at www.co.cumberland.nc.us/home to make an appointment.

The Health Department reported last week that two Cumberland County residents have died of COVID-19 since March 26, bringing the total to 292 deaths. As of April 2,there have been 25,853 cases in Cumberland County residents reported since the onset of the pandemic. Cumberland County’s COVID-19 positive test rate is at 7.1%.

The NCDHHS reports that 15.5% of Cumberland County’s population is at least partially vaccinated and 11.6% is fully vaccinated. The most recent data on the NCDHHS Dashboard is current through March 31.

There are 14 providers in Cumberland County offering vaccinations at 20 locations. Find your spot at https://myspot.nc.gov/.

Vaccine Clinic Information

Cumberland County continues to offer free drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination clinics to individuals age 16 and older at the Crown Complex. An online application form available on the county website allows individuals to choose their own appointment date and time for the first dose and second dose of the vaccine. Second doses are automatically scheduled after the first dose is received.

Cumberland County is aware of a technical glitch that has caused individuals with scheduled second dose appointments on April 7 at 11 a.m.-1 p.m. to be cancelled. Individuals previously scheduled in this time block can attend their appointment during their originally scheduled timeslot. We are working to resend email and text appointment confirmations to these individuals.

The clinic schedule for this week follows.

Tuesday, April 6: Second doses by appointment only, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Groups 1, 2, 3 and 4. There will be no standby lane.

Wednesday, April 7: First and second doses by appointment only, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for all individuals (age 16 and up). There will be no standby lane.

Friday, April 9: First doses by appointment only, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Standby lane will run from 3-5 p.m. for all individuals (age 16 and up).

Visit the website to make an appointment or call 910-678-7657 weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. if you need assistance with the form or have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine. Individuals who need transportation to and from the vaccination site can call 910-678-7619 for assistance, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Cumberland County School System invites the community to join in support of the more than 13,000 military-connected students in local schools. As part of the Month of the Military Child, CCS has identified April 16 as “Purple Up Day.” Community members are encouraged to wear “Cumberland Purple” attire, showing all military students that the community recognizes their tremendous service and the sacrifices they make every day. Why purple? Purple symbolizes all branches of the military. It is the combination of Army green, Coast Guard blue, Air Force blue, Marine red and Navy blue. “CCS serves the third-largest concentration of military-connected students in the world,” said Howard Lattimore, the district's Military Liaison. “Military students are faced with many transitions, changes and hardships. We encourage our school leaders, families, and community members to salute our smallest heroes— military children.’” Learn more at https://www.militarychild.

On April 1, the House Finance Committee gave a favorable report to bipartisan legislation (House Bill 83) that will eliminate the state income tax on military retirement pay.

“This legislation is yet another important step towards making North Carolina the most military friendly state in the nation,” said Rep. John Szoka
(R-Cumberland), who is the primary bill sponsor. “It is time for North Carolina to join the majority of other states who provide this tax relief to those who have sacrificed and served our great nation.”

Currently, military retirement pay is not taxed by the state if the retiree had five or more years of service as of August 12, 1989. House Bill 83 will extend the tax exemption to all military retirees living in North Carolina.

Rep. Szoka explained that, “By eliminating the income tax on military retirement pay, we will also make our state more competitive in attracting and recruiting these highly trained and qualified military retirees. This is an essential component to developing and growing North Carolina’s talented workforce.”

Reps. John Bell (R-Wayne), John Bradford (R-Mecklenburg) and Diane Wheatley (R Cumberland) are also primary sponsors of the legislation, which now goes to the House Rules Committee.

It is said, watch what politicians do and not what they say. Our country is sideways. We are surrounded by cowards, feel-good laws, guilt marketing and a sense of perverted righteousness. Many representatives get elected, take office, swear to uphold the Constitution. Within minutes, many of them do everything they can to circumvent and destroy the very foundation they swore to uphold.

In the last few weeks, we have had two highly reported shootings. The president did not miss an opportunity to use these tragic events to push his agendas. The president touted the Atlanta shooting at three massage parlors as "An assault on the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islanders) community in Georgia." The shooter has not been charged with a hate crime. Playing the race/hate card, the propaganda machines spread fear to Asians. They failed to mention the victims included six Asians and two whites murdered and a Hispanic man who was injured. The motive does not look like it was racial; the accused said he had a sex addiction.

Six days later, in Boulder, Colorado, a man entered a grocery store parking lot, killed 10 people, and wounded one. The president and media led people to believe that the shooter used the evil AR-15 rifle. However, he had two pistols — a Ruger AR-556 and a 9mm pistol (believed to not have been used). Both were legally purchased.
In response to the Atlanta shooting, the president quickly asked Congress to send him the "COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act" to sign, which had nothing to do with the shootings. The very fact that our government leaders think that one group, race, sex, or even one person is better than another is a tribute to their lack of moral character to enforce and uphold our laws.

In response to the Boulder shooting, the president used the moment to reiterate his campaign promise to go after "assault weapons," saying, "As president, I'm going to use all the resources at my disposal to keep people safe." He went on to say, "I got that done when I was a senator. It passed. It was a law for the longest time, and it brought down these mass killings." He did not mention that studies show the ban did not have a significant effect on firearm homicides. According to the CDC, there is one-half to three million incidents annually where people use firearms for protection.

A few weeks ago, President Biden fell three times going up the steps to board Air Force One. In America, each year, 12,000 Americans die due to stairway accidents. Each year, there are less than 400 people killed by rifles, including hunting, shotgun, and AR-15 style rifles combined! Currently, there is an estimated 10 to 30 million AR-15 style rifles in the U.S.

In 2013, during an interview with Parents magazine, then Vice President Gunner Biden said, "Get a double-barreled shotgun... Jill, if there's ever a problem, just walk out on the balcony here, walk out and put that double-barrel shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house. I promise you whoever is coming in is not going to. You don't need an AR-15. It's harder to aim, it's harder to use, and in fact, you don't need 30 rounds to protect yourself. Buy a shotgun. Buy a shotgun."

Umm, as the VP at the time, what he was saying is, if all of the Secret Service and their weaponry fail, just walk outside and shot two shotgun shells in the air. No responsible gun owner would ever tell anyone to shoot in the air.

Let me ask you if you are unlike the Bidens and do not have Secret Service protection, and you hear a noise in the middle of the night, and you grab your Gunner Joe double-barreled shotgun and walk into your living room and discover three people breaking into your house? What if you squeeze a blast off and miss? How does that math work for you?

Why don't our current laws work? There is no deterrent. Death-sentenced prisoners often spend more than one to two decades in jail before being exonerated or executed. That is decades for families to have to deal with a murderer and a criminal justice system. They become victims by a system that never gives them peace or justice.

We need representatives that are willing to uphold our Constitution before party loyalties and politics. Our law enforcement agencies have to go after real criminals. Our prosecutors have to go after righteous cases. Our judges have to be fair and give out just punishments. Our judicial system must provide sentences that are speedy and respectable.

Why is the government obsessed with assault rifles when you are 30 times more likely to be killed by a flight of stairs than an AR-15? Is it optics, lobbyists, ignorance, federal agency job security, or something else?

Why are they gunning for your guns? Probably the same reason that England wished they had gun confiscation back around 1770. The same reason Hitler confiscated guns in Germany. As recently as 1997, England banned firearms and is now known as the "most violent country in Europe." London has a higher crime index rate than New York City, and London has banned people from carrying knives. This is about control so the government can have complete control over your life and give up your freedoms.

Gun control bills on both sides of the political spectrum have failed in the past. Many times, due to the filibuster rule. If the statistics show that assault weapons are not the problem, that gun ownership saves more lives than not, then it is reasonable to ask why are they using mass shooting events as a tipping point to gun down the filibuster? Without the filibuster, a voting majority by one person could change the Constitution or ram a cockamamie cause down citizens' throats without fear of an uprising?

The Constitution is framed on checks and balances. The Second Amendment ensures we have a First Amendment, and the First Amendment ensures we have Second Amendment and so forth.

No matter what Gunner Biden’s intentions are, the first wave of change in the name of gun safety or gun control initiatives can only lead to gun registration and gun confiscation, turning millions of law-abiding citizens into criminals.

If you, your representatives, and leaders cared about your safety, they would encourage Americans to exercise their God-given right to protect themselves and the Second Amendment.

It took 58 minutes for the Boulder shooting to happen from start and finish. For some, sadly, that was a lifetime.

If you find yourself in a life-or-death situation, you will have the rest of your life to figure out if you should have the right to protect yourself with whatever weapon you choose, or if you are willing to bet your life and wait for the police to arrive?

Thanks to the fiscally responsible policies of the North Carolina General Assembly, state government has some $5 billion in unspent funds and unanticipated revenues in its General Fund.

And thanks to the fiscally irresponsible policies of Congress and the Biden administration, North Carolina will receive another $5.2 billion in “COVID-19 recovery” funds that will be borrowed from Chinese investors and other holders of federal treasuries.

Gov. Roy Cooper and his aides have looked up at that towering, tottering mountain of one-time cash and taken its measure. They think it’s too small.

So in the 2021-23 budget proposal he just released, the governor is recommending that North Carolina borrow another $4.6 billion for capital spending on schools, colleges, universities, museums, and other government facilities. Some of these projects are clearly worthwhile. Others are pork-barrel giveaways. Still others are somewhere in the middle — nice-to-haves, let’s say, though hardly must-haves.

I’ll say two positive things about Cooper’s debt scheme. First, it is true that, all other things being equal, it is better to borrow when interest rates are low than when they are high. Second, Cooper proposes that the new debt be issued as general-obligation bonds, meaning that North Carolina taxpayers will get to vote on the package in a bond referendum.

But even at low interest rates, borrowing is costlier than paying cash. And Cooper proposes to put his massive borrowing spree on the ballot in an off-year, low-turnout election. A better approach would be to be put state government’s current surpluses to effective use, including a concerted effort to pay down the state’s already burdensome debt load.

While the state currently has $4.1 billion of General Fund debt on its books, that’s not its only fiscal obligation.

The state has also promised pension and health benefits to current and former public employees. North Carolina’s pension fund is better funded than that of most states, but not yet fully funded. And the unfunded liability for retiree health benefits is staggering: about $28 billion.

This big hole in North Carolina’s financial position is hardly invisible. Governor Cooper sees it. His budget even included a $150 million deposit into the reserve for health benefits. Given the current surplus, however, this is also pitifully inadequate.

With more than $10 billion in cash to spend, we don’t need to borrow another $4.6 billion. Instead, the state legislature should convert that one-time surplus into ongoing benefits for North Carolinians.

First, I recommend that lawmakers put $1 billion into the state’s pension fund, $2 billion into the state’s retiree-health reserve, $500 million into dedicated reserves for disaster relief and the state’s turbulent Medicaid program, and $2 billion into the state’s rainy-day reserve.

In the latter case, that would take the rainy-day fund to $3.1 billion, which comes to about 12% of last year’s General Fund budget. Most economists believe 2021 and 2022 will be banner years for economic recovery. I certainly hope so. But having a healthy cushion of operating expenses in the bank is a sensible precaution, and will keep North Carolina from having to raise taxes or cut programs with a meat cleaver if bad news comes.

As for the remaining cash, I think the General Assembly should do a combination of capital investment and debt reduction. We absolutely need to upgrade key state assets, from education and health institutions to prisons and courthouses. We can do that while also paying down some of our $4.1 billion in bonded indebtedness, which consumes hundreds of millions of dollars a year that could be devoted to future operating expenses or tax relief.

Keep in mind that I’m only talking about North Carolina’s one-time cash. The state is projecting robust revenue growth next year, which can fund essential services and pay raises for public employees.

Politicians make some of their worse decisions during the “best” of times.

Fiscally speaking, that’s where North Carolina is right now.

The governor erred in proposing a new borrowing spree. Lawmakers should pursue a wiser course.

Among the many unanticipated effects of our year of COVID-19 lockdown at home has been the urge to clean out and, for some, to downsize. Folks of my generation have been pondering downsizing for some time, and many, including moi, have actually done it. The rest are still talking about it.

Award winning novelist Ann Patchett and her hubby made the clean out, downsize their possessions effort, and she wrote about it recently for The New Yorker. She began by tossing out dishtowels with images of dogs, birds, koala bears, and more, but that was just a warm up. Eventually, out went etched crystal champagne flutes, insect repellant from prior decades, brandy snifters, dolls from her childhood, bottles of dried up glue, and silver trays, vases, serving utensils, and a tea set. Ditto multiple colanders, pencils, old campaign buttons, and a bowl and collar belonging to a long-gone dog.

Boy, do I relate to Patchett’s article!

Her cathartic experience seems to have spanned quite a bit of the COVID year. Mine, however, lasted only about 2 frantic weeks, courtesy of Uncle Sam’s military moving schedule. Every day was the same. I awoke and began asking myself the same series of questions about thousands of items, not unlike Patchett’s collection of lifetime detritus.

1. Do I want to keep this, and if not, who wants it?

2. If no Precious Jewel or friend wants it, what do I do with it?

3. Is this something a charitable organization could use, and if so, which one and will it pick it up or do I have to get it there?

4. If that avenue is closed, is the item recyclable or is it fated to take up space in the landfill?

It was emotionally and physically exhausting to the point that Precious Jewel and a Tennessee friend who had come to help called in a professional organizer to get me through the last few days.

That said, I do not miss anything. Occasionally, I wonder what happened to some piece of furniture or kitchen implement I once enjoyed using, but I really do not care. I am not sure I achieved what organizing guru Marie Kondo describes as “sparking joy,” but I am considerably less burdened by my belongings and enjoy using what I have and remembering how individual belongings came into my life. The bottom line is that no one — repeat, no one, needs several dozen pairs of black pants in various sizes and styles, not counting the black leggings that have been my daily sartorial choice during COVID.

Patchett and those downsizing and clearing out during COVID face a circumstance I did not pre-COVID. Charitable organizations that traditionally accept all sorts of donations are struggling. Many are concentrating on human services — food banks, health clinics, child care, educational needs, to the point that other needs and services are on back burners. In addition, charities need cold hard cash more than they need our household goods and memories. Their in-person fundraising events have come to screeching halts, and volunteers who are only too happy to help have been unable to gather. Charities, like most other aspects of life, will ease back to “normal” over time.

The year of COVID has focused us on the core of our lives — our families, our health, the overall quality of our lives. It has established yet again that belongings, even treasured ones, do not make us happy. Our relationships do. Unburdening ourselves of possessions confirms that.

It's becoming outright depressing to witness the gross hypocrisy taking place in America and permeating our daily lives. Many of us try to avoid this disorder, but to no avail, falling victim to mass depression, overeating, alcoholism and untimely suicides. It's horrid, devastating, and it's everywhere! Hypocrisy is present at all government levels, our local communities, our educational systems, businesses and even our churches. With no end in sight, it's spreading unbridled at epidemic proportions.

The sad truth is that here in America, we have only ourselves to blame. Slowly over the decades, we allowed politicians (both Democrat and Republican) to become much too powerful and greedy, allowing subversive and self-serving corruption to prioritize serving their country and the American people with fairness, justice and even humanity. Our entire political system is corrupt and vile. Americans' welfare and safety are no longer a priority or concern of most wealthy and elite elected political operatives. This is evident in law enforcement's weakening and the disregarding our Constitutional rights and the rule of law. Justice is not being served, and it is evident in the neglect we see in addressing many serious issues such as the southern border crisis, the advocacy and defense of criminals over victims' rights, condoning the inhumane treatment of women and children in the hands of known criminals who beat, rape, abuse, and sell them into sexual slavery.

The Americans who support and encourage this despicable and inhumane behavior are not third-world despots. They are wealthy, fat and arrogant bureaucrats that we elected and are staying in power by changing, manipulating and ignoring the rule of law. These people are the richest amongst us and can ignore the laws that we have to abide by.

This situation will not have a happy ending for future generations of Americans unless we come to our senses and start calling out those basking in this hypocrisy. I'm talking about regular everyday citizens in our community. The ones that sit on non-profit organizations and advocate for women's rights, protect them from abuse, support right to life or choice agendas, advocate for children, or any of the dozens of social service programs created to serve the poor and underserved.

These same people actively support the agencies, parties, people responsible for the policies and actions that are causing these atrocious inhumane acts. Acts that are tearing America apart one Constitutional Article at a time.

Here's my message: In the end, that uneducated child, that sick and infected migrate worker or MS13 gang member or similar undocumented criminal, child molester, rapist, or murderer will suddenly and without notice change your life forever, and not in a good way.

America is in a deep state of denial. Nothing good is going to come out of our current situation. So, while we collectively romance the criminals, attempt to disarm the innocent, dismantle our laws, embrace and defend policies of inhumanity on the southern border as the Mexican cartel gangsters continue their reign of terror by throwing six-month-old babies in the river and throwing three- and five-year-old little girls over a fourteen-foot border wall then running away. You may be curious as to why they would do such a hideous act when they could have walked those youngsters into American through an unguarded opening just a few hundred yards away.

Well, here's why: first, it was an intentional act of hostile aggression by the Mexican cartels who wanted to send a pointed message to America. They intended those children to die from the fall so America would have blood on their hands, giving the anti-border wall folks more talking points.

Second: the cartels were sending us a pointed message that they were in control of the border and had the power and wherewithal to do anything they wanted, including murdering children at will.

Those of you who are reading this and still have control of your conscience but are having trouble sleeping at night may want to know of an organization that feels your pain and anxiety. This organization professes that if you think you cannot support the kind of policies and hypocrisy taking place in America, they encourage you to WALK AWAY from it. Walk away from the people, policies and politics that conflict with your American values. There is peace of mind when you surround yourself with people who value others' rights, the Constitution, and American values. Color, creed or ethnicity doesn't matter. Everyone is welcome except the hypocrites. Check it out at www.walkawaycampaign.com.

Thanks for reading Up & Coming Weekly.

Who runs the university? What university are you asking about? Well, for example, Fayetteville State University, one of the 17 institutions that are part of the University of North Carolina, now known as the UNC System.

Clearly, the recently appointed chancellor of FSU, Darrell Allison, is the leader of that institution. But others share his authority. Allison reports to FSU’s board of trustees, a group of 13 that includes the student body president and other members appointed by the legislature and the UNC System’s board of governors. But Allison reports directly and primarily to the president of the UNC System who has the power, subject to concurrence from the board of governors, to fire the
chancellor.

If Allison has a single boss, it is the university president. But if you ask any chancellor he or she will tell you multiple people and groups must be pleased or the chancellor’s job is in jeopardy. He or she must also work with the institution’s trustees.

It is complicated enough already, but other constituents must be pleased. Near the top of the list is the institution’s faculty. Unhappy students can also bring a chancellor down. So can passionate fans of the university’s athletic teams. Donors and alumni groups can feel that the chancellor is their employee and should listen to their directions.

All these interests and groups present potential problems for every new chancellor. Wise ones will understand that while you cannot always please everyone, you must always take care to minimize friction and consider different opinions that relate to the university.

What is really tragic is for the situation to be poisoned from the beginning, but that is what has happened to Chancellor Allison. From the time his appointment was announced, opposition and concerns about his lack of experience in higher education and the process of his appointment arose from the faculty senate, the school’s alumni association, and the student government association’s president.

Previously, Allison served as a trustee at his alma mater, North Carolina Central University, and as a member of the system’s Board of Governors where he chaired its committee on Historically Minority-Serving Institutions. In 2018, Allison became the national director of State Teams and Political Strategy for the American Federation for Children, an organization that promotes school choice and was once led by Betsy DeVos.

From the beginning of the UNC System in the early 1970s, chancellors’ selection followed this procedure, taken from a UNC-Chapel Hill document describing the process: The chair of the university’s Board of Trustees, will oversee the search committee to find the new chancellor. Committee members represent the University’s Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, students and alumni. Community members will be able to provide input throughout the process. The committee will make recommendations to the full Board of Trustees, which will vote on candidates to recommend to the UNC System president who will then recommend a candidate to the UNC Board of Governors, which will elect the new chancellor.

This traditional process assured that every constituency would have some voice in the selection process even though it would be the president who made the final recommendation to the system’s board. This process was changed last year essentially to provide the president with the power to ignore the campus search process unilaterally and select any person to recommend to the Board of Governors.

The university president has every reason to seek a chancellor who will be a good partner. But it is a mistake not to bring into the selection process representatives of other groups the chancellor must serve.

As almost 50 years of university history has shown, a collaborative search process can find a person who will be the president’s strong partner without inflaming the kind of opposition that now faces Chancellor Allison.

Easter is the most significant date on the calendar for Christians across the globe. A celebration of the belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Easter serves as the foundation of the Christian faith. So it’s no surprise that a day as significant as Easter is steeped in such incredible tradition.

Explaining Holy Week

Known as Holy Week, the week preceding Easter begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Holy Saturday, the day preceding Easter Sunday. Holy Week commemorates different events that unfolded over the final days of Jesus Christ’s life.
According to Catholic Online, Palm Sunday celebrates the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. On the day of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, residents laid palms before him, which is why palms are distributed to the Christian faithful each year during Palm Sunday Mass. Palms are blessed at Mass, and many Christians turn their palms into crosses upon arriving home. The palms are eventually returned to the church, where they are burned, and the ashes of the palms are then used during the following year’s Ash Wednesday services.

Holy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, when Jesus celebrated the Passover feast with his disciples. In the story of Jesus Christ, the night of the Last Supper was the same night that Jesus was betrayed by his disciple, Judas.

Good Friday commemorates the trial, punishment and crucifixion of Christ. Though the official presiding over the trial of Jesus, Pontius Pilate, found no evidence of Jesus’ guilt in relation to the charges filed against him, he ultimately agreed to Christ’s crucifixion anyway in an effort to appease the crowd and avoid a riot. As a result, Christ was stripped, flogged and crowned with thorns before being made to carry his cross through the streets to the place where he was ultimately crucified. On Good Friday, the tabernacle inside Catholic churches is left empty to symbolize that Christ is departed.

The final day of Holy Week, Holy Saturday, is a day to remember that Christ descended into hell, where he preached the gospel and opened the way to heaven.

What is the “good news”?

The term “good news” is often used by Christians in reference to their faith. Good news is at the heart of Christianity, and it has both symbolic and literal meaning in reference to the New Testament. According to the online biblical reference Bible Odyssey, “good news” is the literal translation of the Greek word “euangelion.” It also can be interchanged with gospel, which is “good spiel” or “godspel,” which means good news.

New Testament authors offer that the good news means the salvation and liberation from sin and estrangement from God.

The Apostle Paul summarized the gospel, and in turn the good news, in this way: Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.

Christians believe Christ’s death symbolizes the ultimate sacrifice and paved the way for Jesus' resurrection. The death and resurrection — proving that there would be life after death for the faithful — became the core tenet of the Christian faith. Everyone who accepts the gospel and has faith in God will receive salvation in the Kingdom of Heaven. Easter highlights the good news in its most potent form.

Easter celebrations in the era of social distancing

Holidays have been celebrated differently since the outbreak of COVID-19. Celebrations and social distancing may be challenging, but it’s possible for people to safely celebrate Easter with their loved ones. Though it might not be the same as attending church services in person together as a family, watching virtual services together can allow families to engage with their faith alongside one another.

An outdoor brunch provides another way for families to gather this Easter without compromising their health.
Host an egg hunt in the backyard. The Easter egg hunt is one tradition that need not be sacrificed during the pandemic. Easter egg hunts traditionally take place outdoors, and children can wear masks like many are already doing when going to school or participating in sports and other extracurricular activities.

Families spending the day with only those in their own households can watch a movie that commemorates their Christian faith. Various films are set around Easter, including the classic “The Greatest Story Ever Told” (1965) starring Max von Sydow and Claude Rains and the more recent “Risen” (2016), which focuses on efforts by a Roman military tribune named Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) who is tasked with investigating what happened to Jesus Christ’s body after the Crucifixion.

Families can embrace some old and new traditions as they celebrate Easter in the era of social distancing.

Several businesses and area churches have events scheduled to boost your Easter weekend. From egg hunts to pictures with the Easter bunny, you won’t want to miss these opportunities for fun.

Dirtbag Ales Brewery and Tap Room are having an Easter Egg Hunt on April 3. Pictures with the Easter Bunny start at 10 a.m., and the egg hunts start at different times based on children’s age. The egg hunt for those 5 and under starts at 9 a.m.; the egg hunt for 6 to 10-year-olds starts at 10 a.m.; for 11-year-olds and up, the egg hunt starts at 11 a.m. To find tickets go to www.dirtbagales.com or visit the events page on Facebook.

Take the family out on April 4 to Huske Hardware located downtown for a nice brunch. Their Simply Southern Easter Brunch will offer Signature Salmon and Huske Benedicts, Steak and Eggs, Biscuits and House Sausage Gravy, Country Fried Steak and Eggs, Chicken and Waffles, and other dining favorites. Huske Hardware will be hosting brunch from 9 a.m. until
2 p.m.

For a family day filled with fun, eggs and paintball, visit Black Ops Paintball of Fayetteville on April 4 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. participants can grab a rental and scour our fields for eggs with discount codes, free stuff and candy.

On April 3 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Fort Bragg Harley Davidson will host an Easter Egg Hunt every hour beginning at 11 a.m. The Bucaneros will be working the grill with free hamburgers and hot dogs. Fort Bragg Harley Davidson is located at 3950 Sycamore Dairy Road.

Also on April 3, Temple Baptist Church will hold an Easter Egg Hunt for kids in Pre-K up to 5th Grade. They promise thousands of eggs ready to be found. They will have three egg hunts separated by age. In addition to toys and candy, they will have golden eggs with tickets for prizes to be given away after the last egg hunt. The fun begins at 11 a.m. for registration; 11:15 a.m. for the Pre-K egg hunt; 11:30 a.m. for the K-2nd grade egg hunt; 11:45 a.m. for the 3rd-5th grade egg hunt; prizes and giveaways start at noon. This event is completely outdoors. Masks are not required but social distancing is encouraged. For questions contact Pastor Trent at 910-991-6807 or trent@templebaptistfay.com

King’s Grant will also be holding their Easter Egg Hunt on April 3 from 2-4 p.m. at 347 Shawcroft Road in Fayetteville.

Green Side Up will be hosting their Fairy Garden Workshop on April 3 from 10-11:30 a.m. For the $25 fee, each fairy garden comes with 3 plants, soil and a container. All participants will receive 15% off on their purchases. Register early because only 10 spots are available. Spots and tables will be socially distanced with only 2 people at each table.

Many local churches are back to in-person services for Easter. Most will require attendees to wear masks and practice social distancing. For information on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, check the church websites or call for more information.

Below is a listing of some local Easter Sunday services scheduled for April 4.

Crossview Alliance Church, 2306 Fort Bragg Road, 910-484-6070. There will be a drive-in service at 9:30 a.m. where people will remain in their cars. We will conduct this worship service from the steps of the church using outdoor speakers to broadcast into the parking lot. This service will not be live streamed. The message, entitled “He is Alive!” will examine the hope that we can have because Christ conquered death and the grave.
https://thecrossview.church/welcome

Fayetteville Christian Church, 4308 Rosehill Road, 910-822-2402. Join us Sunday at 10:30 a.m. for streaming service https://loveservereach.online.church.
First Presbyterian Church, 102 Ann St., 910-483-0121. An Outdoor Easter Worship Service will be held at 11 a.m. in person and live streaming. Bring a chair.
http://www.firstprez.com/

Haymount United Methodist Church, 1700 Fort Bragg Road, 910-484-0181. Sunrise Service in the courtyard begins at 6:30 a.m. Services at 9:45 and 11 a.m. in person and live streamed.
https://haymountumc.com/.

Hay Street United Methodist Church, 320 Hay Street, 910-483-2343. Contemporary Praise Service starts at 8:50 a.m. in the gym and the Traditional Service starts at 11:00 a.m. in the sanctuary. https://www.haystreetchurch.org/

Manna Church, join us in person at Manna Live or online at Manna Online to celebrate the events of Passion Week. On April 4, services will be held at all sites and online https://fayftbragg.manna.church/sermons/live. For speciic times and locations, check the website.

Northwood Temple Church, 4250 Ramsey St., 910-488-7474, info@northwoodtemple.org. The Easter production this year, My Mountain, is a retelling of the story of Caleb, one of the twelve spies, sent into the land of Canaan before the Israelites. Four performances are planned: Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 3:30 p.m., Easter Sunday at 6:30 p.m.
http://northwoodtemple.org/

Saint Ann Catholic Church, 357 N. Cool Spring St., 910-483-3216, www.stanncatholicchurch.org. Mass scheduled at 8:30 and 11 a.m.

St. John’s Episcopal Church, 302 Green St., 910-483-7405, www.stjohnsnc.org. Service held in the Sanctuary at 10:30 a.m.

Snyder Memorial Baptist Church, 701 Westmont Drive, 910-484-3191, www.snydermbc.com/. Worship will be at 9 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall; 11 a.m. for worship with orchestra in the Sanctuary.

True Vine Ministries, 5315 Morganton Road, 910-867-6762 or 910-867-3611, www.truevinenc.com/

Join Village Baptist Church for Easter at The Village, 906 S. McPherson Church Road, 910-678-7178. Services will be in person and online at 8:30, 9:30, 11 a.m. www.thevillagebc.church/easter

The Fayetteville Dinner Theatre is back after a pandemic hiatus and ready to kick off their season with the fun and entertaining musical Mystery Dinner Theatre production of "A Sinister Cabaret: Love Letters/ Sleight of Hand." Formally known as the Bordeaux Dinner Theater before its demise in the mid-1980s, Fayetteville Dinner Theatre has been reintroduced to the Fayetteville and Cumberland County community by local businessman, entrepreneur, and Up & Coming Weekly newspaper publisher Bill Bowman.

The FDT's first production was in 2016, with "A Southern Girl's Got To Have It" written and directed by local Fayetteville playwright Elaine Alexander. It was the overwhelming success of this production that motivated Bowman to create a totally "new and unique dinner theatre experience for Fayetteville and Cumberland County audiences."

With the FDT celebrating its fifth year with the production of "A Sinister Cabaret," Bowman follows through with his strategy of utilizing local creative writers and talented actors to create a unique and enjoyable evening of dinner theatre.

"A Sinister Cabaret: Love Letters/ Sleight of Hand" is written and directed by Fayetteville resident Dr. Gail Morfesis. No stranger to the local arts and cultural community, Dr. Morfesis has a doctorate in music, voice, and theater.

Dr. Morfesis is very active in the Fayetteville arts community as a singer, performer and ardent volunteer. She has directed many shows with the Gilbert Theater and at Fayetteville Technical Community College. Talented and with a penchant for mischievous humor, Morfesis has created her unique style and format for her original plays.

One of the more exciting aspects of "A Sinister Cabaret" is that it is never the same show twice. The music, dancing and comedy stay the same; however, the "whodunit" is a mystery. And this is how Morfesis intended it to be. She enjoys writing what she describes "as fun, interactive comedy." There are other unique aspects of this dinner theatre production. In the show, Morfesis also plays one of the leading characters, Francis Maximillian.

Fayetteville actress Tabitha Humphrey, who plays Percy Barker, actually created the character she is portraying. She described her audition with Morfesis as open and unique. She was instructed to come prepared to audition with a love song rather than reading lines from the script. Once she was cast, Humphrey was given the creative opportunity to express herself and assist in creating the character and how she impacts the murder mystery plot.

"Dr. Gail gave us creative freedom of our characters while she maintained creative control," said Humphrey. She added that she enjoyed working with the cast and the acting and improvisation became much easier once she got to know everyone and became familiar with their characters.

Leading actor Jim Smith, who plays Sylvester Sly Fox, said, "this play is a mystery with several different plots within the main characters, and is very intriguing. It's a mystery as to how they play ends and how all the ladies feel about my character." Smith did not want to give too much away about his character but is excited to be a part of the cast and production.

Interactive shows like "A Sinister Cabaret" are becoming common in the dinner theatre scene. Bowman said, "People are looking for fun and entertaining things to do in these trying times. They need some relief from the tensions caused by their jobs, or lack of, racial unrest, riots, pandemics, lockdowns, vaccines, social distancing restrictions, and Zoom meetings.”

“The timing for this comedy is perfect, and we are expecting a great response and turnout. Celebrating one year of COVID restrictions, you can bet people are ready to ditch the lockdowns and get out of their houses in search of some fun and wholesome entertainment. And that is what the Fayetteville Dinner Theatre is all about. What better to celebrate than with a show that's fun and showcases a local playwright and local actors? Besides, it's about time that people seeking good dinner theatre venues don't have to travel to Charlotte, Raleigh, Winston Salem, or Greensboro for quality entertainment."

In addition to "A Southern Girl's Got To Have It," the Fayetteville Dinner Theatre has produced "M is for Mullet," "The Fantastiks," and "HamLIT." The May 2020 FDT show that was canceled due to COVID-19 was titled "Mark Twain Himself," starring Richard Garey from Hannibal, Missouri. Garey owns his own Playhouse in Hannibal and is a Samuel Clement scholar. His performances are known for their authenticity.

Garey brings Mark Twain to life, and Bowman hopes the FDT will be able to reschedule his performance in the fall. It is a show the entire Fayetteville and Cumberland County community will appreciate and enjoy from an entertainment and historical point of view.

The Fayetteville Dinner Theatre is all about having a unique theatre and dining experience. The FDT prides itself on focusing on the “wow” factor. Every evening starts with a Preshow Welcome Reception hosted by Gates Four Country Club. It includes a wine tasting followed by the show and a three-course meal prepared especially for the FDT audiences. There are gifts, door prizes and a dessert bar set up during the intermission. After the show, the FDT hosts a Meet and Greet with the actors and actresses.

Gates Four Golf & Country Club is the home of the Fayetteville Dinner Theatre. It is a gated community located in western Cumberland County near Hope Mills. Gates Four is known for its beautiful residential neighborhoods, quaint country landscapes, and its challenging 18-hole golf course.

The FDT performance of "A Sinister Cabaret: Love Letters/Sleight of Hand" will hit the center stage on Friday, April 9, and Saturday, April 10. Tickets and reservations may be made online at www.fayettevilledinnertheatre.com.

The Preshow Welcome Reception begins at 6:00 p.m. Dinner and the performance begins at 7:00 p.m. Open seating with social distancing practices will be in place. Tickets are $75 per person with discounts available for active duty military, seniors 65+ and Gates Four members and residents. Parties of six or eight may purchase VIP tables.

For more information about tickets or how your business or organization can exclusively sponsor a FDT production, contact the Box Office at 910-391-3859 or email bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com. Partial proceeds from the FDT show will benefit Cumberland County education through the Kidsville News! Literacy and Education Foundation, a (501c3), provides reading and educational resources for local children and teachers.

Gov. Roy Cooper introduced a $55.9 billion budget proposal on March 24 that includes many of the goals he’s had since taking office. But this time he claims they’re needed due to the COVID pandemic.

These goals include expanding Medicaid, borrowing $4.7 billion for infrastructure projects, and pushing state agencies to look at issues through a “justice and equity lens.” All told, Cooper would hike spending by 11.6% over what was budgeted this year in the 2021-22 fiscal year.

“We’ll put this pandemic behind us sooner rather than later. With the right investments, we can ensure our state roars back, creating opportunity for all of our people, not just those at the top,” Cooper said during a news conference outlining his budget proposal. “This is the time to find opportunity in crisis.”

Republicans, however, criticized the governor’s budget for spending too wildly, especially with the state’s fiscal future still uncertain.

While Cooper would hike spending virtually across the board, his budget includes two major spending programs with eye-popping numbers.

Cooper’s budget again includes expanding Medicaid, a top policy priority since taking office. Medicaid expansion would offer government-paid health insurance to some 600,000 working-age adults without children. The federal government and the state would share the costs, which would reach $500 million for North Carolina.

Cooper said Medicaid expansion was more pressing this year because many North Carolinians lost their jobs during the pandemic, and thus their employer-sponsored health insurance.

“We must get health care to more working people, and the best way to do that is expand Medicaid,” Cooper said.

Another major spending program would be a $4.7 billion bond package for infrastructure projects, the bulk of which would be in K-12 public schools and the state’s colleges and universities.

“Interest rates have never been lower, and our state needs the boost,” Cooper said.

Voters would need to approve the bond proposal, and bonds would be issued over a period of years. Interest rates have already begun to rise as the federal government has pumped trillions into the economy.

Other proposals in Cooper’s budget include reinstating the Earned Income Tax Credit, a refundable tax benefit for low-income workers; a 10% pay raise for teachers, plus a $2,000 bonus; a minimum wage of $15 per hour for school system employees; $100 million in clean energy spending; creating an Office of Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Affairs in the Department of Public Instruction; and eliminating Opportunity Scholarships, a program that helps low-income families attend private schools.

“Instead of giving parents and families that opportunity to find the best educational option for their children, Governor Cooper is doubling down on cutting funding for scholarships that provide families those needed resources," said Mike Long, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina.

Sen. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson, one of the Senate’s chief budget writers, said he was concerned with the high levels of spending and borrowing in the governor’s proposal.

“We don’t want to return to an era of rollercoaster-style budgets with huge spikes in the boom years followed by huge cuts in the lean years,” he said in a statement.
House leadership distanced themselves from the proposal, as well.

“While there are a number of shared priorities funded in the governor’s budget proposal, North Carolina lawmakers will remain vigilant in our responsible financial management of the state and avoid irresponsible decisions that have harmed taxpayers in the past,” House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, said in a statement.

Jackson and Moore said they’re committed to working with the governor to find compromise and pass a budget. Cooper vetoed the last biennial budget, meaning North Carolina has spent the past two years largely operating on the 2017 spending plan.

A bill introduced by House Majority Leader John Bell, R-Wayne, is meant to help improve crisis intervention and services for veterans suffering from mental health and substance abuse issues.

House Bill 370, No Veteran Left Behind Act, creates a pilot program for several military and veteran heavy counties in North Carolina to improve and expand training for local law enforcement and first responders, a news release says. It focuses on dealing with veteran-specific crisis intervention, suicide prevention, and available resources at the Department of Veterans Affairs, including Brunswick, Craven, Cumberland, Onslow, Union and Wayne counties.

“More than 100,000 active duty service members and over 600,000 veterans call North Carolina home,” Bell said. “Our veterans and their families face unique challenges, especially those on active duty. After talking with veteran advocates, law enforcement and local leaders, we believe the No Veteran Left Behind Act will help address an important need in our state by providing local law enforcement with additional training to assist veterans in need.”

Other bill sponsors are House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, Rep. George Cleveland, R-Onslow, and Rep. Charlie Miller, R-Brunswick.
“North Carolina is the proud home to hundreds of thousands of veterans and their families who served the United States in our Armed Forces and face unique challenges in this pandemic recovery,” said Moore in a statement.

“The No Veteran Left Behind Act will benefit not just North Carolina veterans in pilot counties, but their communities and local leaders, as well. We are committed to identifying statewide needs through this initiative that will help more military families succeed in our state.”

The training will be administered through The Independence Fund Inc., a North Carolina-based nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of veterans and their families. Under the bill, the release says, The Independence Fund will partner with state and local governments to assess each county’s initial response to veterans in crises and conclude with an updated data collection process map developed.

Cleveland said the bill is important for military heavy areas such as Onslow County, which is home to Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.
“As a retired Marine and the representative of a district with tens of thousands of active duty service members and veterans, I believe this legislation will help our local law enforcement and first responders better support veterans and military families,” Cleveland said.

The No Veteran Left Behind Act also has the support of local sheriffs, who will be included in the pilot program, including Craven County Sheriff Chip Hughes, who said he believes it will help them better meet the needs of the many veterans and active duty service members in their county.

More than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic brought North Carolina to a screeching halt, Gov. Roy Cooper shows no sign of relinquishing the sweeping and open-ended emergency powers he has claimed under state law.

The General Assembly is now trying once again to clarify exactly what a governor should have the power to do on his own during a state of emergency — and how long “emergencies” should be able
to last.

A new bill that would rewrite the state’s Emergency Management Act advanced through a House Judiciary committee this week. It now sits in the House Rules Committee.

North Carolina’s current law allows the governor to declare a state of emergency at any time, and it does not end until the governor declares it over. During such a period, the governor has broad powers to regulate gatherings, close schools, shutter businesses, or mandate evacuations.

The law appears to require Council of State concurrence for some of these powers, but when Cooper was challenged last summer over several of his executive orders, a judge ruled that North Carolina’s governor can make these decisions unilaterally

Under House Bill 264, a state of emergency would end within seven days unless the Council of State authorizes it to last longer. The Council of State would then need to vote to continue the state of emergency every 30 days.

The governor would also need Council of State approval to exercise most of the powers to prohibit and restrict activity and business.

“A year ago, when the shutdown order was entered, most people in our state didn’t believe that the governor had the ability to shut our entire state down. Most people assumed there were at least some form of checks and balances on that sort of measure,” said Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, when the bill was first introduced.

“Our state is going to face other emergencies in the future. We’ve got to build public trust in an emergency situation. The way we do that, try to take the politics out of it, is through a deliberative process. This bill would give us that deliberative process.”

The Council of State is made up of the independently elected statewide officials under the state constitution, including the lieutenant governor, state auditor, state treasurer, and secretary of state. Notably, the bill does not include new legislative oversight.

Other states have taken up similar bills as the coronavirus has shone a light on the shortcomings of most state emergency laws, which historically have been used primarily during hurricanes or other natural disasters.

New York’s state legislature, for example, passed a law this month requiring more oversight of its governor’s emergency powers.

In North Carolina, Cooper would need to sign this new emergency powers bill for it to go into effect. This is unlikely. Over the past year, Cooper has vetoed any effort to rein in his control.

Instead, he has preferred to go it alone — something General Assembly leaders have noted.

“The current law that granted these emergency powers was simply not written for today’s challenges,” Rep. John Bell, R-Wayne, said when the bill was first introduced. “There needs to be more bipartisan input and checks and balances. There is no unilateral rule in a constitutional republic.”

Cumberland County Schools will transition to Plan A beginning Monday, April 12. The Cumberland County Board of Education approved the changeover during a recent special meeting. Under Plan A, all students will be eligible to attend class in person on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of each week. Wellness Wednesday will be an independent remote learning day for all students so school buildings can be cleaned.

School-based virtual learning options remain open to students. Plan A does not require schools to reduce the usual number of students in the classroom. Social distancing is not required on school buses. CCS will continue the process of temperature screening students and others who enter school buildings.

Social distancing protocols will be in effect inside schools and visitor limitations remain in effect. Students, faculty members and staff must wear masks or face coverings in school and on school buses.

All families had the opportunity of deciding if their children would transition to Plan A or switch to full-time virtual learning. Families of students who are currently participating in full-time virtual learning which did not complete preference forms prior to the deadline, will remain remote through May 2021. Students enrolled in virtual academies are not eligible to transfer to other schools in the district at this time and will remain at the virtual academies through May.

School pupils began returning to class earlier this month. They were divided into two groups. Some attended school on Monday and Tuesday. Others returned to classrooms on Thursday and Friday. Schools Superintendent Marvin Connelly Jr., acknowledged the time and effort that has been spent making students' return a “safe and healthy one.” Dedicated employees “have worked around the clock to prepare for a hybrid teaching and learning model,” he said. “And we cannot forget the work of our staff members who are making sure we’re prepared to operate safely, effectively and efficiently."

Students, for their part, likely have lost months of learning as they return to classrooms. Most kids yearn for social connection with their peers and teachers, and the pandemic has caused many of them to fall behind. Some lack internet access at home and have resorted to finding nearby school buses outfitted with high-speed Wi-Fi. Cumberland County schools have discontinued the process because buses are on the road again. Lacking access to in-person schooling can also put some children at risk of going without meals or spending increased time with abusive relatives.

Remote learning has exacerbated the institutional harms that were already being inflicted on many families.

Virtual schooling could have a silver lining though: some children may end up being more resilient on the other side of the pandemic. Navigating uncertainty, maintaining hope for the future, and relying on community resources to overcome challenges are skills some youngsters could be developing.

For many students, learning from home can also be healthier than in-person schooling. Deepening their bond with parents, for instance, sets foundations for trust and empathy.

Public registration for the Fayetteville Beautiful community cleanup event begins soon. Fayetteville residents and non-residents can participate. The event is scheduled for Saturday, April 17. This year there are some changes because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants and event organizers should wear masks and practice social distancing. On the day of the event participants are asked to drive into the marked entrance at Hay St. and Hurley Way to receive trash bags, fliers and water. Event organizers and participants should wear masks during the supply pick up and community cleanup event. Interested people can register online at www.fayettevillebeautiful.com. Scroll down to the active map, select a cleanup location, and click “Register.” Group representatives should include the number of volunteers that will
participate.

Alliance Health, Hope4NC, Noonday Kitchen and Mercy Chefs will host a food giveaway to address food insecurity in Cumberland County on April 13 from 8 a.m. until noon at the John D. Fuller Recreation Center, 6627 Old Bunce Road in Fayetteville. This event is open to all Alliance members as well as the community. Community members who are picking up one or two boxes can just show up at the event. Community partners who are seeking bulk packaging are asked to pre-register at http://bit.ly/foodboxpickup.
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service is partnering with national, regional and local food distributors who have been impacted by COVID-19. This partnership purchases fresh produce, dairy and meat products from American producers. Distributors package these products into family-sized boxes, then transport them to food banks, community and faith-based organizations, and other non-profits serving Americans in need.

Military veterans, their spouses and caregivers will be able to receive coronavirus vaccines through the Department of Veterans Affairs once doses are made available, under legislation finalized by Congress. Veterans Affairs leaders supported the move, saying they did not want to turn away any veteran from receiving the shot if they were available. But under current rules, department medical centers were permitted to administer vaccines only to veterans already eligible for VA health care services, and for certain caregivers registered in VA support programs. That totals just under 7 million individuals. Under the new bill, that number is expected to jump to more than 20 million. It will make vaccines available “to all veterans, veteran spouses, caregivers... and Department of Veterans Affairs recipients to the extent that such vaccines are available.”

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and for the past 11 years our community has honored children by planting blue pinwheels in honor of child abuse prevention. The pinwheel represents the bright future that every child deserves.

The Child Advocacy Center received a total of 876 reports of child abuse during FY 19/20, a 20% increase over FY 18/19. Currently, we are continuing to see those numbers increase as well. For the period July 1 until December 31, 2020, the CAC received a total of 521 reports of suspected abuse, up 29% from the same period in 2019.

This has been a difficult year on so many levels due to the pandemic. COVID-19 has brought about so many changes, as well as uncertainty. These challenges have brought about more time at home, more time on electronic devices and less time being able to safely socialize with friends in general. Until last week, children in our community had not been inside a classroom since March 13, 2020.
Jeanne Allert, CEO and Founder of The Samaritan Women, in Baltimore, Maryland, presented a webinar about Victimology: Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking. She shared that professionals are already discussing the impact the pandemic may have on children and families once children begin to re-engage in a more traditional school schedule. Educators account for 50% of reports of child abuse.

April is also a time to look forward – a time to be a part of ensuring that every child has a bright future. All children deserve to grow up in loving, stable and stimulating environments, in their home, church, school and in the community. Most of all, we want childhood to be a time when children no longer live in fear.

This year, we want more than ever to have a significant presence with pinwheels heavily displayed throughout our community. We want to cohesively and prominently show that our community supports children. April is an ideal time for our community to reflect and to recognize the children who have been victimized through the pain of abuse — physical, emotional and/or sexual.

At the CAC, our vision is a community where children feel safe, nurtured and loved. April is a time to remind us that no matter the challenges, to include a global pandemic, we face as individuals, caring for all our children must always be our priority.

You can join us in promoting healthy childhoods for our children. You can purchase a pinwheel garden kit (24 pinwheels and a yard sign) for $40 or a Pinwheel Vase (eight pinwheels in a vase with ribbon) for $15. Visit our website CACFayNC.org to place your order. Once you plant your garden of pinwheels or display your pinwheel vase, tag us on your social media, include the following hashtags – #passthepinwheel, #cacfayncpinwheels2021, #pinwheelsforprevention

During the month of April, the CAC will be hosting “Read-Along Story Times” on Tuesday of each week. We will be reading books that talk about body safety, boundaries and how to say no when the child feels uncomfortable. You can view these on the CAC’s Facebook & Instagram pages or on our website CACFayNC.org.

These are great opportunities to talk with your child about appropriate touching and setting boundaries. Research has shown, it is better to start teaching children about body safety when they are young and to continue throughout their childhood. It is never too late to begin.

This April and throughout the year, let’s all join together to provide help, hope and healing to children who have been victimized by abuse. Join us in creating a community (and beyond) where children feel safe to run and play, where all children feel love and accepted versus living in fear.

We hope to see blue pinwheels spinning in the sun and throughout our community this April reminding us all that EACH child deserves a happy childhood.

Community members can join CAC for a virtual Pinwheel Planting at noon on April 1 on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CACFayNC. To learn more about how you can participate, please check out the Facebook page, the website or call 910-486-9700. For more information about April and Child Abuse Prevention, including how to become involved in prevention, follow CAC on social media or visit the website www.CACFayNC.org. Happy Pinwheel Planting!

Hey you! Is the world too much with you? Reality got you down? Tired of putting up with stuff? Like Joe in “Showboat,” are you “tired of living but scared of dying”?

Congratulations, you have come to the right place. As the emcee in “Cabaret” said, “Leave your troubles outside. In here life is beautiful. The girls are beautiful. Even the orchestra is beautiful.” Today’s lesson will be how to be happy. If this sounds a bit Polly Anna-ish, or even if you don’t know who Polly Anna was, take a chance any way, read the rest of this stain on world literature. Either you will be glad you did or you will waste three minutes of your life which you might have squandered on something equally trivial. The choice is yours, read on MacDuff or turn the page.

Let us begin with our old friend Alice in Wonderland. She has the formula for happiness in the face of adversity. Jefferson Airplane suggested to “Go Ask Alice/ I think she’ll know.” Turns out the Airplane was correct. Alice reveals how to be a cockeyed optimist in her Chapter entitled “Pig & Pepper.” Learn how Alice turns limes into margaritas. Alice is lost in the woods when she comes upon a house. She sees a fish dressed as a footman go to the house to knock on the door. The door is answered by a footman who has the head of a frog. A lesser mortal might have quietly backed into the woods as mutated footmen seldom bode well for the casual observer. Alice is made of
sturdier stuff.

She marches up to the house but has a frustrating conversation with the Frog footman. Realizing the Frog is not going to help her, she opens the door herself and barges inside. Not to mix metaphors, but the house is not like that of the Three Bears. There is no porridge but it is occupied by three unpleasant beings: the Cook, the Duchess, and her Baby. The kitchen looks like a scene from the Three Stooges. Instead of throwing pies at each other, the Cook is dumping way too much pepper in the soup while throwing pots, pans and kitchen utensils at the Duchess and her Baby. The Duchess is sneezing. Her baby is alternating between sneezing and howling. It’s a pretty wild scene, lacking only hungry wolves, a mob of Oath Keepers, and a school of flying jellyfish to be double plus ungood.

Alice, being a good-hearted sort, becomes quite concerned that the Baby will be seriously injured when a flying sauce pan nearly takes off the Baby’s nose. The Duchess, having been invited to play croquet with the Queen, exits stage right tossing the Baby to Alice. Alice catches the Baby which is bucking and writhing around in her arms while making a disturbing snorting noise. Alice takes on the role of Protective Services carrying the struggling Baby outside to avoid further kitchen flying objects. “If I don’t take this child away with me,” thought Alice, “they’re sure to kill it in a day or two, wouldn’t it be murder to leave it behind?”

Once outside the Baby commenced to grunting instead of howling. This disturbed Alice. Looking at the Baby she noticed its nose had become turned up. It began to appear to be more of a snout than a nose. Its eyes had shrunk into pig like beady marbles. She told the Baby “If you’re going to turn into a pig, my dear, I’ll have nothing more to do with you.” After a bit more time, the Baby began seriously grunting. Alice looked again and sure enough, the Baby had turned into a pig. Alice put the Pig/Baby down and “felt quite relieved to see it trot away quietly into the woods.”

Now here comes the lesson of today’s column wherein Alice makes the best of a bad situation. A lot of people would be freaked out by a Baby morphing into a pig. A lot of people might have considered such an event catastrophic for the Baby. A lot of people might have considered selling the Baby to a barbecue restaurant. But not Alice. She looks on the bright side. Alice relentlessly acts like two fried eggs by keeping her sunny side up. The reverse of the Pygmalion transformation of a statue into a lady does not dismay her in the least. Alice thinks: “It would have made a dreadfully ugly child but makes a rather a handsome pig, I think.” She then “began thinking over other children she knew; who might do very well as pigs if one only knew the right way to change them.”

So, there is our lesson for the day. If circumstances go awry, find the positive buried deep within the muck. Look for the rather handsome pig in every situation. Reframe reality to see the good even if it means you are delusional. Be like the old song: “You’ve got to accentuate the positive/ Eliminate the negative/ Latch on the affirmative/ Don’t mess with Mr. In-Between.”

Another plus is there is no proof that dinosaurs became extinct because their diet consisted solely of Blooming Onions from the Outback Steakhouse. Chow down!

Last week brought complicated, and in some ways horrifying news. First there was the Boulder shooting that left 10 people dead and yet another American community in shocked mourning. The most concerning aspect of such shootings is that they have become our new and accepted normal. Unless they happen in our own community or to people we know, perhaps even love, they garner brief national attention. Most Americans then move on until the
next one.

Many people, this writer included, believed that the 2012 murders of 6 and 7-year-olds at Sandy Hook Elementary School would motivate us to look at why we allow so few restrictions on gun ownership, even allowing private ownership of military style automatic weapons.

Instead, we seemingly decided even gunning down children was something we could live with in order to keep our firearms. It also remains true that while mass shootings get our attention for at least a brief period, far more of us die from shootings under other, less spectacular circumstances.

Americans who yearn for less carnage and are willing to accept more restrictions, including this writer, are coming to understand that nothing is going to happen until there is a mass public outcry as has happened with the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements. Perhaps this graphic from The New York Times can help us see how extreme an outlier our nation is when it comes to gun violence.

Pay attention, and be very afraid.

In addition to death by firearms, our democracy continues to be under threat. In the wake of the 2020 elections, state legislatures all across the country are debating and passing laws restricting Americans’ right to vote. Georgia’s governor signed into law last week perhaps the most regressive voting provisions since the Jim Crow era, already being dubbed “Jim Crow 2.0.” The jaw-dropping measure severely limits absentee voting and actually criminalizes giving people in line to vote either water or food.

If it were only Georgia, that would be one thing, but 40-some-odd states either restrict voting or are overwhelmingly gerrymandered or both. Several highly restrictive voting measures in North Carolina have been struck down in court, but ours remains one of if not the most gerrymandered state in the nation.

The U.S. House has just passed the For the People Act making registering and voting more accessible, but the bill faces fierce Senate opposition.

The question facing all Americans of both parties is “do we want a democratic country enough to fight for the rights of all Americans, not just those traditionally in power?” Germany and Italy lost their democracies in the first part of the 20th century as did several South American nations in the latter part of the century. There is no reason whatsoever to believe “American exceptionalism” immunizes us from the grasp of an authoritarian government.

Finally, and on a more positive note, it feels like the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Vaccinations are ahead of schedule in North Carolina, and Governor Cooper continues to loosen COVID restrictions. Already, there have been some excesses. A nightclub area in Raleigh was overrun by unmasked revelers, with one quoted in the News and Observer saying, “We’re like puppies out of the pound.”

Others are reacting more slowly, as if they cannot quite remember how to be out and about with other people. Either way, we should understand how easily a resurgence could occur and that masks and distancing are still in force, vaccinations notwithstanding.

That said, it does feel good to be even a little less confined.

On Inauguration Day, I was encouraged to hear President Biden focus much of his speech on unity, going so far as saying, “We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature. For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury.”

However, more than halfway through President Biden’s first 100 days in office, I have yet to see that olive branch be extended. I came to Washington to fight for you, no matter who is president, and to work across the aisle to deliver real results. Unfortunately, President Biden’s promises of unity have so far been empty words on issues like COVID relief, infrastructure, immigration and the latest — gun control.

Amidst a global pandemic, we are experiencing a heartbreaking humanitarian crisis on our southern border and it is being ignored by the administration for political reasons. The media continues to cover for President Biden, but nearly twice as many unaccompanied minors are being apprehended daily than during the peak of 2019.

During this Biden border surge, according to a report last week, criminal organizations trafficking women, children and families have earned as much as $14 million a day.

Migrants are packed together in facilities and not being tested for COVID-19, then being released to travel to states including North Carolina. Also, in the last week, only 13% of 13,000 migrants were returned to Mexico. These facts all point to a worsening border crisis that must be addressed.

However, instead of focusing on the border, last week President Biden unveiled a new $3 trillion spending package disguised as an infrastructure bill. The only problem — this bill will be full of Green New Deal climate initiatives that will make it harder to build any new infrastructure that our country needs. This package follows up on their $2 trillion non-COVID relief bill that was passed without a single Republican vote.

Once again, it is clear the Democrats will try and go at it alone. To pay for this package, they plan to raise your taxes, wiping out the historic tax cuts from President Trump and during one of the hardest financial years our country has seen. Cutting taxes and regulations the last four years unleashed the greatest economy we have seen — record low unemployment, record low poverty among all races and record high median income.

As Washington Democrats aim to reverse these policies and push their massive Green New Deal spending, hold on to your wallets, folks.

Last week, I was also devastated to see the recent shootings in Georgia and Colorado. As I have said, as a father, I am committed to ending this scourge of gun violence. That’s why as recently as this month, I have championed legislation that increases school safety, supports mental health, expands information sharing and tackles the root causes of gun violence.

Unfortunately, many on the left have rushed to politicize the recent tragedies in order to push for gun control legislation that harms law-abiding citizens and would have done nothing to prevent previous mass shootings. Earlier this month, House Democrats passed H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446 that would turn law-abiding citizens into criminals for helping a friend or neighbor and allow a government bureaucrat to delay a firearm sale indefinitely. These bills would only threaten our Second Amendment rights and are not the solutions we need. As President Biden and Washington Democrats renew their push for these bills, I am calling on my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to work together and pass targeted measures that would fix the problem.

If President Biden meant what he said, I remain ready to work together to end the crisis on the border, invest in our infrastructure, and end the tragic scourge of gun violence. So far, it looks like the Biden administration is working to appease the radical left, but I will not be discouraged from working to solve problems and
represent you.