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        {mosimage}Remember the good old days when people believed the reason we invaded Iraq was to get cheap oil? How dumb was that? The White House and its happy band of neo-cons sure fooled us. I’ll admit to buying into the cheap oil theory. America was going to get Iraqi oil. We’d finally find out why our oil was buried under their sand. Gas would be too cheap to meter, like electricity from nuclear power plants was supposed to be. Noted geopolitics expert and gas station attendant Dr. Gomer Pyle says “Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!” Dr. Gomer reveals the real reason we invaded Iraq was not to get oil that was less expensive. We invaded Iraq to make oil more expensive.
        Who, you might ask, would want expensive oil? Do the names Exxon and BP strike a familiar note? The Olympic-sized level of cynicism required to figure out that invading Iraq was to create more expensive oil makes one marvel at the ability of the neo-cons to hoodoo their fellow gullible Americans. If there were a Nobel Prize for April fool jokes, the old switcheroo between invading for cheap oil morphing into invading for expensive oil would put Presidents W and Cheney in Stockholm next year to receive their prize from the King of Sweden.
        After the 9/11 attacks, America logically went after creeps in Afghanistan who planned and staged the attacks on America. It made perfect sense to try to kill the terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans. America once had the support of the world community in its fight against al Qaeda in Afghanistan. But there was a problem with confining the war to Afghanistan. Afghanistan has no oil. Running down and smoking out bin Laden wasn’t going to cause the price of oil to go up. There was no benefit for Big Oil with a war only in Afghanistan. Rummy and the neo-cons needed a war in a country with oil to drive up the price of gasoline. Voila, as the French would say: Invade Iraq and watch the price of oil soar. Afghanistan went to the back burner. Now, with the Iraq war front and center, we find the Taliban resurgent, the opium crops prospering and Pakistan crumbling. Gomer says “Oops.”
        Allow me to bore you briefly with some statistics. The day before we invaded Iraq in March 2003, the price of oil was about $37 a barrel. Now the price of oil is somewhere north of $140 a barrel. Halliburton’s stock price before the invasion was about $9 per share. Now it’s $46 a share. Oil company and Halliburton stocks were pretty groovy investments if you bought the day before the invasion. War is good for Big Oil and Halliburton.
        President W is a former oil man. President Cheney is a former Halliburton dude. Both of them have buddies in those industries. It’s only natural they would want to help out their compadres. If you can’t help your friends, who can you help? A war that quadruples the price of oil is a small price to pay if you exclude the costs in human life, injuries, materials and money. The Iraq War has been financed by the administration through sub prime loans from the Chinese. America may get foreclosed as a result. The balloon payment to Beijing won’t be due until W and Cheney are both safely out of office and making speeches for $50,000 a pop. Big Oil is making record profits as the lame ducks quacking away in the White House are making plans to give the oil industry one last door prize on their way to political oblivion.
        If you really wanted to increase the price of oil overnight to Mount Everest levels what would you do? Dr. Pyle suggests bombing Iran. The Iranians have been test-firing missiles that could reach Israel and American bases in the Middle East. They could shut down the Strait of Hormuz through which about 40 percent of the world’s oil chugs along in very slow moving target oil tankers. What a nice going away present for Big Oil to have the price of oil go to $400 a barrel overnight as a result of a new war with Iran as the Bush administration exits stage right.
        Gomer says fasten the seat belt on your bicycle. It’s going to be a bumpy flight.

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        Years ago, before I was a wife, before I was a mother of three precious jewels, before I was an active participant in a family business, before I entered elective service, I was a member of the second class of trained counselors of a group of women and a handful of men who sought to address sexual assaults in Cumberland County.
        We were a small but committed band, and like many fledgling nonprofits and volunteer organizations, records were kept under members’ beds or in trunks of cars. Money was not much of an issue since we had none.
        Our entire focus was on providing assistance to the people who turned up in one local emergency room or another reporting a sexual assault.
        {mosimage}Like counselors of all sorts, we took calls and responded when “beeped” by an ER. We held hands with sexual assault victims as they underwent invasive medical exams, and we tried to provide support as they came to terms with their experiences, and in the rare instances they had to face their perpetrators in court we were there.
        I even testified in a case in which the sexual assault victim shot and killed the assailant, her live-in sweetie, an act for which she served prison time.
        The time for me to consider moving on came when taking calls became a burden for my young and growing family. What tipped me over the edge, though, were two different and unrelated 15-year-old sexual assault victims who seemed to feel that whatever had happened to them — and in both cases it was abnormal and criminal — was their lot in life.
        They were resigned, but I was stunned by their acceptances of what had happened to them and then angry about it.       
        I hope they got that way later.
        All of which has me thinking about the disappearances and deaths of young women and mothers, who were in so many ways just like millions of other young women and mothers throughout our country.
    The body of Meghan Touma was found decomposing in a Fayetteville hotel room.
        Holly Wimunc’s apartment was found smoldering by coworkers who came looking for her when she did not turn up at her job. Investigators located Holly’s physical remains in the remote North Carolina outpost of Sneads Ferry, not far from her estranged husband’s military assignment at Camp Lejeune.
        Her estranged husband has been charged in her death, and another soldier has been charged with helping to set fire to her apartment.
        And then there is Nancy Cooper, a woman with the same name as one of my longtime Fayetteville walking buddies.
        The Cary Nancy Cooper reportedly went for a jog on a recent Saturday morning, leaving her husband and two children at home. When she did not return as expected, a friend reported to law enforcement authorities that she was missing. Volunteers searched for her along her running paths, but several days later, their worst fears were realized. Cooper’s body was discovered near a planned residential subdivision.
    It is a wicked reality that strangers do sometimes assault and even kill other people, and that is a terrifying thought to all of us. News accounts of such crimes, solved and unsolved, grab our attention and haunt our thoughts.
        My experience as a sexual assault counselor and my longtime observations of news tell me, though, that such assaults and murders occur more often between people who know each other than between people who do not. Many times, those involved have formed the kinds of intense, even intimate, relationships that can generate strong, uncontrolled emotions.
        My experience as a human being has taught me that over time nature has equipped us mortals with inner sensors, a sort of early warning system. It kicks in when we encounter other people, and it allows us to feel comfortable in their presence or to be wary around them. We have all had this experience whether in our work place, at school or perhaps in a social setting. Some people we want to spend time with and others we can hardly get away from fast enough.
        During training for sexual assault counselors, we learned to trust our instincts. We learned that if a situation feels off-kilter in any way, it probably is. We learned that if you feel someone is even vaguely menacing or threatening, he or she may well be. We learned that if a situation feels uneasy to you, the best course is to get out of it as soon as possible.
        Over the years, several of the people I counseled told me they felt off balance during the time before they were attacked but most took no action. We have no way to know what the women who are now dead thought, but we may well hear what they said to others at some point.
        My advice to my own children and to all of us, women and men, is to pay attention to and follow our instincts about other people even if we do not fully understand them.
        Life can, indeed, be crazy scary.

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        The tragedy of the deaths of Holly Wimunc and Megan Touma has left a hole in our community — and it should have. We are a community that prides itself on taking care of our soldiers, and two of them have died painful, needless deaths, and we couldn’t protect them.
        That same story is being played out across the United States. Women of all ages and walks of life are dying senseless, needless deaths, and it’s usually at the hands of someone they know — intimately. That only makes their deaths more horrific.
        Both of these women’s lives were, according to their friends, bright with promise. What they could have accomplished will remain a question mark, one left in rage.{mosimage}
        What their deaths have also brought to this community is a horde of media attention. People are putting our community under a microscope, picking it apart and trying to see where we’ve fallen down. We’ve fallen no further than any other community in our nation. One has only to pick up the newspaper or turn on the news and hear the same tragic story unfold … in communities in California, Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania. Violence against women knows no boundaries.
        In our community, unfortunately, many people are trying to tie the women’s service in the military with their deaths — that isn’t the case. As one national media outlet questioned, “Is the Army training people to be killers?” In case they missed it, the two soldiers were the ones killed. That same media outlet questioned whether Fayetteville was tired of the violence caused by the military — again, the violence was done to members of the military — as is the case in the majority of crimes in our community.
        It’s bad enough when people who are not a part of our community come here for a couple of days and pass judgments on our community that are not based on fact. It’s worse when it comes from within.
        Recent headlines in the Fayetteville Observer have painted a bleak picture of our community. They have pandered to fear and have sensationalized the deaths of these two women. That’s disappointing. The Observeris a well-respected newspaper, one that should have our community’s interest at its center. But it’s a business as well, and fear sells.
        A recent article talked about the number of military wives living in fear — locking themselves in their homes. The Observerreporter talked to a couple of women, neither of whom wished to be named, who had nothing good to say about our community. I imagine these are women who reside here — they don’t live here.
        There’s a difference.
        People who reside here do it with a degree of snobbery. They make the trek from the mall to their apartments, from their apartments to Fort Bragg, and turn their nose up at our community. They don’t contribute anything while they are here, and as one woman noted, look longingly at the road out of town. It’s their loss.
        There are others who actually live here. They join churches and clubs. They go to community events, volunteer and have an impact on our community. They are the heart and soul of our community.
        They know that our community is more than a series of sensational headlines, they recognize the truth — that violence occurs in every community — and that it cannot define a community. A community has to be defined by the people who live in it — not those who just pass through.

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        Have you ever seen a miracle? If not, strap on your boots and your helmet and head over to M & M Leather  and Custom Cycle on Saturday morning and take a ride. You’ll not only get to see a miracle, you’ll be part of making it happen.
        The annual Christmas in July Toy Run to Duke Children’s Hospital supports the Children’s Miracle Network, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to helping children by raising funds and awareness for 170 nonprofit hospitals throughout North America, serving more than 17 million children with all types of illnesses. Research funded by the Children’s Miracle Network helps give babies a chance for happier, healthier lives.
        The annual toy run has been a Fayetteville tradition for the past six years. Put together by Joe Cook and William Winford, associates at the Wal-Mart Logistics Distribution Center located in Hope Mills, the event has raised more than $6,000 in cash and toys since its start.
        For just $15 and a toy, you can be a part of the miracle. The registration money goes directly to the Children’s Miracle Network, while the toys go to the children’s hospital to meet the needs of its patients. The gifts are used to fund the hospital’s “treasure chest” for the children. Items needed include: rattles, stackable rings, lullaby tapes/CDs, stack and sort blocks, musical toys, Legos, playing cards, dinosaurs, trains, Barbie dolls, Playdoh, journals, craft kits, disposable cameras, door basketball goals, gift cards for the playroom.{mosimage}
        Pre-registration for the event will be held Friday, July 18 at Legends on Bragg Boulevard from 6-8 p.m. Once you register, stay around for the Kick-Start Party. If you can’t make it over to Legends, you can register Saturday, July 19 at M & M Leather from 7:30-9:50 a.m. While waiting for the ride to start, participants can purchase raffle tickets and take part in an auction.
        At 9:50 a.m., the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department will give riders a safety brief prior to their departure. The ride will officially kick off at 10 a.m., with riders heading out Bragg Boulevard on their way to Durham.
    Riders are expected to arrive at Duke University Children’s Hospital at noon, where they can enjoy a great lunch provided by Texas Roadhouse. At 1 p.m., the money and gifts will be presented to the hospital in a special ceremony that involves the families whose children are being treated at Duke. At 1:30 p.m., riders can head back down the road to Fayetteville.
        This year, as in past years, a cookout will be held at M&M Leather. There will be a 50/50 drawing, as well as drawings for various gifts and prizes. In addition to the great fun and prizes, there will also be some awesome entertainment, featuring Gasoline, Wicked Lizard and DD Productions.
        Corporate partners include: Double D Productions, JEB Designs, Legends, M&M Leather, Up & Coming Weekly, Texas Roadhouse, The Custom Edge, Inc. Wal-Mart Logistics TO 6840 and DC 6040 and Arctic Fox Video Production.

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    Date My Ex wallows in perversity
        Date My Ex: Jo & Slade    (Monday, 10 p.m., Bravo) has a wafer-thin premise: Jo De La Rosa from The Real Housewives of Orange County is set up on dates by her ex-fiance, Slade Smiley. As in any other dull dating series, guys go out with Jo and get eliminated one by one. But the producers seem to think that the ex-fiance angle adds limitless drama and intrigue. Everyone has been told to play up the “weirdness” of the scenario, despite the fact that it was obviously cooked up by Jo, Slade (now her manager), Bravo executives and all their lawyers in some Hollywood office.
        “I can’t believe I’m on a dating show with my ex-fiance!” Jo chirps unconvincingly. “It’s, like, definitely kind of weird!”
        “It’s a weird thing to think that other guys are thinking about my ex-fiancee that way,” says Slade, as if the idea had just dawned on him.
        You might not mind the contrivance if Jo were fun to hang out with. But she’s a giggling nitwit who affects a babyish voice and pout. Here’s a typical example of her wit and wisdom: “I was, like, whoa.”
        We are, like, ick.{mosimage}

    Family Foreman
    Wednesday, 10 p.m. (TV Land)
        I love George Foreman, the former world-champion boxer and current world-champion character. I’m reluctant to take a swing at his new reality series, but this thing deserves to be knocked cold. It’s another example of a celebrity turning the camera on himself and his family for no good reason.
        The premiere episode meanders from the kitchen table to the garage to a speedway where a Foreman-sponsored team will compete. George’s daughter has been tapped to sing “God Bless America” before the race, and he seems to think we care. But why would we care about someone so petulant, not to mention scatterbrained? “Are we in Indiana?” she asks while sitting in the middle of Chicago.
        No, dear, we’re in hell.

    High School Musical: Get the Picture
    Sunday, 8 p.m. (ABC)
        This reality series seeks stars for the upcoming High School Musical 3. Producers scour the nation for bright young talent, visiting local singing competitions and karaoke bars. A dozen finalists attend High School Musical Camp, where weekly eliminations winnow the field to the new Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens.
    But wait. The winners of High School Musical: Get in the Picture will not technically appear in  . They’ll merely appear in a music video that runs over the closing credits, when viewers have already gone to the bathroom or changed channels.
        So basically, ABC is asking us to spend several weeks on a virtually meaningless casting exercise. I suggest changing the series’ title to High School Musical: Afterthought.

    Generation Kill
    Sunday, 9 p.m. (HBO)
        This miniseries is based on Evan Wright’s book, which chronicles the first 40 days of the Iraq War. We follow a group of Marines who spearhead the invasion, all familiar types from modern war movies: raunchy, cynical, flawed. At the beginning of this week’s episode, they’re smug about the United States’ military might. “Yes, we are the conquering heroes!” one of them crows as tanks roll through the desert. Hmmm, do you think disillusionment and death might be just around the corner?
        Viewers will tune in not for the script, but for the production values. Generation Killwas filmed entirely in Africa, and it puts you right in the middle of a realistic war zone. The screen fills with explosions, gunfire, smoke, rubble, fire and very convincing corpses.

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    Hancock (Rated PG-13) 4 stars

        Director Peter Berg clearly knows a good thing when he sees it, and Will Smith attached to a big budget summer movie is a good thing. The concept of Hancock (92 minutes) is filled with potential. Unfortunately, screenwriters Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan can’t handle the material. The film’s first half is a clear winner, making excellent use of Smith’s acting, but the story defaults on its early promise by descending into an unnecessarily complicated back story about halfway through. Perhaps this would have been forgivable, but the writers are unable to maintain any internal consistency to their superhero mythos, letting the important details fall aside unexplained in the name of plot convenience.
        John Hancock (Will Smith) is a reluctant superhero, drinking heavily and dressed like a bum. He lives in Los Angeles, but the city is tired of footing the bill for his super destructive rescues. One of the people he rescues is Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), a public relations guy who promises to change Hancock’s image. Mary Embrey (Charlize Theron) is concerned about Hancock from the start, and she tries to keep him at a distance. Their son Aaron (Jae Head), on the other hand, is a big fan of the hero, thus fulfilling the cute kid quotient of the film. As part of rehabilitating his image, Ray convinces Hancock to spend some time in prison, but eventually he is released in order to help the police during a bank robbery. During his rescue of the hostages in the bank, Hancock faces off against Red (Eddie Marsan), who reappears during the climax of the movie.  {mosimage}
        Yes, there is a twist about halfway through the movie. No, it is not the greatest surprise in the world considering how the director manages to telegraph the twist within minutes of getting all his main actors together in one scene. Sadly for the movie, the twist is handled badly and borders on nonsensical, not only lacking internal consistency, but also endowed with plot holes big enough to drive the Batmobile through. While the acting was skilled, the story was poorly realized. Even more irritating, director Peter Berg apparently specializes in the extreme close up, forcing the audience to practically look up the noses of the characters. And the villain! Dennis Hopper was the reigning champion of scenery chewing (evil villain in such underappreciated gems as Waterworld and Speed), until Marsan came along with his bad impression of Rutger Hauer’s famous Blade Runner monologue.
        So, with all these complaints and caveats, how did Hancock manage to score an impressive four star rating?
    The sheer likeability of leads Smith, Theron and Bateman managed to outweigh the utter irritability of child actor Head and laughable nemesis Marsan. While it is undeniable that the dialogue is ripe and moldy, the effects are nice, and the film perfectly cast. While watching the movie, the charisma of those involved makes it easy to ignore all the flaws, which is probably why the film is being critically reviled but still generating impressive box office receipts. See this one soon before your friends spoil the twist, and stick around after the credits start to see an extra scene.


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        {mosimage}For those of you who are too hip or too cool to admit that you’ve seen a season —  or even one episode of  American Idol — let me introduce you to Bo Bice.
        Bice was a standout in season four of the show. He was such a standout that on the grand finale show, Bice was in a sing-off with country megastar Carrie Underwood. While many Americans sat in their living rooms cheering him on, he was silently praying not to win. That fact, in itself, defines who Bo Bice is.
        Bice, an unapologetic southern rocker raised in Alabama, didn’t quite fit the mold of the pop-centric Idol. While other singers came out singing Top 40, Bice broke out rock songs —  real rock. He was, in fact, the first proclaimed “rocker” on the show. Week after week he rocked the audience — and while they (the audience got it), the producers didn’t. So, it was their bad when they went to produce Bice’s first album, The Real Thing, and they tried to put Bice into a mold — a packaged, moussed-hair mold. But he broke that mold, leaving RCA, establishing his own record company and making his own record. See the Light is the fruit of that effort.
        See the Light, available via download and at Wal-Mart stores exclusively, is a solid, bluesy, southern rock album that speaks of whiskey, women and sin. It also speaks of love, salvation and fun. The album is a compilation of some of Bice’s older songs — songs he says he wrote a decade ago, and songs he wrote while recovering from several surgeries which sidelined him in the months following his Idol triumph. The album is one part Hank, two parts Skynyrd and the rest is all Bo.
        The album’s first release, “Witness,” has had considerable air play and has hit the VH1 number one video spot, but it’s not my favorite song on the album. I think my problem with “Witness” is that it is in your face, southern rock and the first time I heard it was at 4 a.m. — my brain wasn’t prepared for the overload. But I’m not saying it’s a bad song. It’s just not a 4 a.m. song. It’s more of a 11 p.m., Friday night at the bar song.
        “Take the Country Outta Me” is Bice’s tribute to the southern rockers he grew up listening to. It is also his response to folks who thought he should have taken the fast road to pop success, instead of the winding country road to his own success. In the song he pays homage to Skynyrd, Hank and the Marshall Tucker band — all folks he has recently had the chance to work with.
        “I’m Gone” is one of my favorite tracks on the album because you actually get to hear Bice’s voice without its growl. It’s a slower song — but not that slow. I wouldn’t call it a ballad, but it’s not a rocker either.
    “Sinner in a Sin” is one of Bice’s favorite songs and is somewhat biographical in nature. He noted that it gives him cause for reflection — and it does the same to his listeners. We’ve all been there, done that and wished we hadn’t — even when we’re doing it again.
        See The Lightdoes what all of the PR people and studio flunkies at RCA could never do for Bice. It defines him as a musician. What the record execs failed to see is that Bice doesn’t have the angst of Nirvana, or the bite of Metallica. What he is, is straight up country rock — and it’s great that he can finally let his light shine.

  • Details
        Bo Bice might have seemed right at home in front of the cameras during his tenure on American Idol, but that’s Bo the performer. Bo, the husband/dad/musician, is much more comfortable on his farm outside of Nashville, Tenn. On a recent Tuesday morning, Up & Coming Weekly caught up with the southern rocker as he was gearing up for a mini-tour in support of his new album See the Light.
        Bice, who was the runner-up in the fourth season of Idol, had just returned home from a late morning breakfast with his wife and son. He was thinking about looking at new merchandise for the upcoming tour, but the beauty of his farm had him putting it off for a little bit. That left him plenty of time to commune with nature and take our questions. Bice is as genuine in conversation as he seemed on stage, sharing bits and pieces of his life, and even inquiring about mine. He was affable in that good ‘ol boy way, but it was honest, and that’s something that Bice wants his fans to know about him.
        See the Lightis a true southern rock album. It’s a big change from his first album, Real Thing. Bice explained that the first album had a lot of hands in it. There were several songwriters and producers who all had a say in the sound and feel of the album. See the Light is really different — it speaks to the heart of who Bice is.
        “I always say this album was a labor of love. Real Thingwas such a fun album, but all I had to do was sing and watch,” he said, referencing all of the music industry professionals involved in the creation and production of the first album. “With this album I got to get back to what I love — producing and writing.”{mosimage}
        Bice took it a step further, building his own recording studio at his home, where he recorded the whole album. “We did about 90 percent of the album here. That was really cool. It was very laid back, and I got to work with the people I wanted to work with. I enjoyed the whole process,” he said. “It never felt like a day of work.”
        Bice, who was the first “rocker” on Idol, said the new album seems to surprise some members of the media, but he’s not sure why. “I’ve had quite a few interviewers ask me about my going country,” he said. “I’ve never not been country, it’s just more the rocking side of it — you know like Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers.”
        The love of southern rock has spawned Bice’s next project, a project led by the late George McCorkle of The Marshall Tucker Band. Brothers of the Southlandwill feature a number of southern rock legends, and Bice is honored to be included in the project. He contributed to two tracks on the CD, and you can hear him singing lead vocals on a remake of The Marshall Tucker Band’s “Can’t You See.”
        The past year has seen Bice popping up all over the place. That’s quite a change, since he all but disappeared from the music scene for about a year, following his time on Idoland the release of his new album. Bice had suffered from a gastrointestinal illness for some time, and it sidelined him for almost a year at the time he should have been his busiest. “At the time, it was a curse,” said Bice, of his illness, “but it ended up being a blessing. I was really sick — sicker than I ever knew for over a decade. There I was laid up in bed thinking everything was over … but there was a lot of good. I got married and we had a son. God got me through all of it. In fact, He gets me through everything. It’s true that  He never gives you too much to handle.”
        Bice said at the time he went through a bout of depression, but he spent some time with friends and started writing new music. “It was very therapeutic,” he said. “I also had the chance to be a dad. I was on tour for the whole pregnancy deal — so it was very important that I had this time. Being a dad has humbled me. I’ll never take that for granted. We just kind of looked at everything and decided to press on and started from ground level again.”
        Part of starting over was working without a record deal. He separated from RCA and created his own record label. “I loved working with RCA, and without RCA and Clive Davis I wouldn’t have had the success I’ve had. The Real Thing wasn’t the album I would have put out, but they did a great job — and it was a fun experience. But it was the total opposite of See the Light. This album gave me a lot of freedom. On the next CD, I’ll probably do a bit of the same, staying true to the music the fans want to hear. I assume that they would want me to be me — to be genuine.”
        If See the Lightis the kind of music that is true to Bice’s soul, we had to ask which of the songs on the album was his favorite. “Each song is different. ‘See the Light’ and ‘Witness’ are a decade old, but they are close to my heart. ‘Can’t Take the Country Out of Me’  – I wrote that song in five minutes at 5 a.m. in the morning. All of the songs together as a collection mean a lot to me,” he said. “But my favorite, favorite song is ‘Sinner in a Sin.’ That song means a whole lot to me. It’s an older song and when I perform it, I remember the place I was in my life when I wrote it. I’ve lived through a few mistakes and moved forward and I get a sense of real peace when I hear that song. You don’t want to forget the past because you might have to relive it.”
        Bice has had the opportunity to work with some really big names in recent months, so we asked him if there was anyone he dreamed of performing with. It was surprising when he said his biggest thrill came on the finale night of Idol. “I don’t want to sound arrogant in anyway, but you have to understand that when I was standing on stage with Lynyrd Skynyrd singining ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ there was nowhere to go from there. What do you do when the biggest dream you’ve ever dreamed happens first?”
        That being the case, Bice still doesn’t hesitate to get out and work with other performers. In recent months he has worked with mega-stars like Carlos Santana, Richie Sambora and Willie Nelson. “Every day is like a dream for me,” he said, adding, “Brothers of the Southland opened me up to more collaboration. I recently finished a project with Joe Diffie which was a really incredible experience.”
        He says he would love to work with Shooter Jennings. “I have a lot of respect for him and would love to work with him,” said Bice.
        He also says spending time with Kid Rock wouldn’t be too much of a hardship either. “I met Bobby (Kid Rock) at a show with Hank Jr., Lynyrd Skynyrd and Three Doors Down. We had a blast. He seemed like a really cool guy, and I would love to do something with him. I’m not closing the door to working with anyone — I’m keeping all the doors open.”
        There has been one group that Bice was adamant that he got to work with — and that is the men and women in the U.S. armed forces. Last fall he spent some time in Kuwait and Afghanistan, and plans to head back across the ocean later this year. “It’s a lot of fun to greet and see the troops,” he said. “It was especially important for me to put my hand in theirs and say thanks for putting your life on the line for us. I can’t wait to go back.”
        But in the interim, he will stay busy, as his wife is expecting to deliver baby number two in August, and after that miracle, he will hit the road again after Christmas. “We love touring,” he said. “It’s the greatest time. We enjoy making music in the studio, but the payoff is being with the fans.”

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        Dear EarthTalk: What is “cogeneration” as a means of providing heat and power?
                                         —Jerry Schleup, Andover, Mass.

        {mosimage}Cogeneration — also known as combined heat and power, distributed generation, or recycled energy — is the simultaneous production of two or more forms of energy from a single fuel source. Cogeneration power plants often operate at 50 to 70 percent higher efficiency rates than single-generation facilities.
        In practical terms, what cogeneration usually entails is the use of what would otherwise be wasted heat (such as a manufacturing plant’s exhaust) to produce additional energy benefit, such as to provide heat or electricity for the building in which it is operating. Cogeneration is great for the bottom line and also for the environment, as recycling the waste heat saves other pollutant-spewing fossil fuels from being burned.
        Most of the thousands of cogeneration plants operating across the United States and Canada are small facilities operated by non-utility companies and by institutions like universities and the military. For small cogeneration plants — those that generate anywhere from one to 20 megawatts of power — biomass or even methane from garbage dumps can be used as a front-end fuel source, but natural gas is far more common as the primary input.
        For instance, Sunnyvale, California-based Network Appliance Inc., a computer networking company, relies on a one megawatt natural gas-powered cogeneration system to power the building’s extensive air conditioning needs, and for back-up power for use during peak demand times. The company estimates it saves around $300,000 a year in energy costs thanks to the cogeneration system.
        In another example, Illinois-based Epcor USA Ventures operates three mid-sized (25 megawatts and up) cogeneration power plants in San Diego to power U.S. Marine Corps and Navy bases there. All three plants work in the same way: Natural gas turbines drive electrical generators that in turn exhaust hot gases. These are then captured to drive a steam generator hooked into the bases centralized heating and cooling systems. Since the systems generate power to spare, Epcor is talking with area companies about kicking in for a share of the steam to keep their energy bills and carbon footprints in check.
        Cogeneration is not limited to stationary power plants. Honda is exploring the use of a specialized automotive cogeneration generator designed to improve the overall efficiency of hybrid vehicles by recapturing waste exhaust heat from the internal combustion engine and converting it to electricity to recharge the battery pack. The idea is still in the research and development phase, it could make its way into new cars within a few years, further improving on the already impressive efficiency of hybrid cars.

        CONTACTS: Network Appliance Inc., www.netapp.com; Epcor USA Ventures, www.primaryenergy.com; Honda Motor Company, http://world.honda.com.

        GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

  • Details
        Even in the homestretch of a legislative session, it isn’t typical to have two back-to-back rallies at the General Assembly attracting hundreds of people to send diametrically opposed messages to lawmakers. But that’s what happened recently when some 200 members of the State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC) rallied  for bigger pay raises and then a larger crowd of more than 1,000 taxpayers and activists rallied Wednesday against burgeoning state budgets and government overreach.
        But, wait a moment. Are those two messages really at odds?
        SEANC has a beef with the General Assembly for years of poor treatment when compared to the state’s public-school teachers. The latter group has consistently gotten higher annual increases and more attention to working conditions. The former insists that the work of prison guards, mental-health professionals, and other state workers shouldn’t receive a lower value when budget time comes around.{mosimage}
        There’s a case for their position. It’s difficult to find good evidence supporting the differential treatment. Recent teacher-pay hikes don’t appear to have moved the needle much when it comes to teacher quality or student outcomes. And while education is a priority, I would certain argue that public safety is an even higher priority, the core function of government. The labor market exists for district attorneys, parole officers, and corrections officials just as much as it does for educators.
        But is arguing for better treatment of state employees inconsistent with the fiscally conservative message sounded so largely by speakers and participants at the recent Take Back Our State rally?
        Not necessarily. To some extent, the interests of current state employees and future state employees are in tension. As state and local government has continued to grow, adding new programs and agencies, tax revenues that could have been dedicated to attracting and retaining good employees to carry out preexisting state responsibilities have instead financed the addition of new state responsibilities. In future years, with a larger state workforce, the fiscal impact is higher when lawmakers approve across-the-board pay hikes. Often, that means they propose smaller ones.
    Add to that the fact that one of the biggest cost drivers in the state budget in the past decade has been Medicaid, a program that primarily directs state funds to private and nonprofit health providers, and you can start to see some common interest between aggrieved state workers and outraged state taxpayers.
        Fiscal conservatives won’t always see eye-to-eye with SEANC, certainly. Thanks to its alliance with the Service Employees International Union, SEANC is adopting a labor-union mindset in its push for collective bargaining — a cause that is both doomed and deleterious. But when it comes to setting priorities for state funds, it does make sense to stop the unjustified preference for teacher pay and the legislature’s tendency to create new subsidy programs rather than ensure that existing government programs are staffed by committed, talented, enthusiastic state workers capable of carrying out their assigned tasks.
        Workers and Taxpayers of the World, Unite!

  • Details
        What are you reading this summer? Each year about this time I give a few suggestions of new and interesting books that have North Carolina connections.
        {mosimage}I also have a personal agenda. If you don’t know what it is, I will tell you at the end of the column. Until then, here are nine books for you to consider.
        1. Frances Mayes, bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun, moved to North Carolina recently. Her latest book, A Year in the World: Travels of a Passionate Traveler, is a personal, reflective, and perceptive day-by-day report of her year-long tour of Europe and the Mediterranean. (July 11, 13)
        2. Jesse Helms’ death reminds us of the question, “How is it that the same state could elect both a rock-ribbed conservative like Helms to the Senate five times and a progressive like Jim Hunt as governor four times?” Rob Christensen’s new book, The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics deals with this question and many more from North Carolina’s 20th Century political history. (July 18, 20)
        3. Robert Morgan, author of Boone: A Biography, brings his story-telling skills and his poet’s care with words to this non-fictional saga of one of America’s legendary figures. His account of Daniel Boone is one of my all-time favorite books. (July 25, 27)
        4. Imagine, if you can, that you are a young African-American girl growing up in the sleepy, segregated Raleigh of the 1920s. Then you are sent away to live in Harlem. How do you adapt to an entirely different world? In Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance, author Eleanora Tate sets her readers right down in that little girl’s shoes. (Aug. 1, 3)
        5. Wake Forest professor Eric Wilson thinks that our worship of happiness is misguided. In Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy, he explains why times of sadness might be important seasonings for a genuinely satisfying life. If you are looking for some serious and thought provoking reading, consider Against Happiness. (Aug 8, 10)
        6. Wayne Caldwell’s first novel Cataloochee, is, like Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain, about a Confederate veteran who returns to the mountains to make a life. But, unlike Frazier’s Inman, Caldwell’s Confederate veteran goes on to live a long life — a hard mountain life of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  (Aug 15, 17)
        7. Most of us know that North Carolina Native Americans were rounded up and sent west on the Trail of Tears in the 1830s. But a lot of what we think we know is not all true. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears by Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green is a short, manageable history that describes the political background and complicated maneuverings from the sides of both the Cherokees and the American government.  (Aug 22, 24)
        8. Bernie Harberts sailed a boat alone around the world. When he got back to North Carolina, he says that he decided that equine travel actually made more sense. So he traded his boat in for a mule and pony and rode them across America. He tells about these travels in Too Proud to Ride a Cow: By Mule Across America. (Aug 29, 31)
        9. Raleigh native Jean Anderson is the bestselling and award-winning author of more than 20 cookbooks. Her latest, A Love Affair with Southern Cooking: Recipes and Recollections, is a cookbook, a memoir, a cultural history of our region, and a celebration of southern food.  (Sept 5, 7)
        What is my secret agenda for sharing these book ideas with you? All these books will be featured on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch during the coming weeks (on the dates noted at the end of each paragraph above). So while I want you to consider reading the books, I really hope you will tune in on the dates indicated and hear the authors talk about their books and how they came to write them.

  • Details
        I recently introduced The Alternative Energy Advancement Act (H.R. 6383), which seeks to use proceeds from domestic oil and gas production to increase the development of new alternative energy technologies by diverting all federal proceeds from future oil and gas leases, on and off shore, into a newly created Alternative Energy Trust Fund. Let me explain the legislation:
        {mosimage}Our working families are watching in amazement as the price of gas goes up daily. In the short run, I believe we need to use more of the oil and gas that is available here in our country. Over the long run, I believe we need to develop and implement new alternative energy sources. This legislation seeks to accomplish both of these goals by using the proceeds from oil and gas leases to fund alternative energy research.
        There is a lot of talk going on in Washington about energy, but not much seems to be getting done. There are some who argue that we just need to use more of the oil available here in our country, while others say we need to focus all our effort on developing alternative energy sources.
        I hope this legislation can bridge the divide between Republicans and Democrats on the energy issue. This legislation creates an alternative energy trust fund so when we use more of the oil and natural gas reserves that are available in our country, the proceeds from those leases will fund the research and development of new energy sources for the future.
        Achieving energy independence is probably one of the greatest goals we can achieve as a nation. To get there, we need a mix of conservation, alternative energy production, and greater use of the vast energy resources that are available in our country. My frustration is that there is a wrongheaded philosophy on energy policy in Washington that says we can’t fully utilize the oil, coal and natural gas resources in this country, but says its OK for American families to seek direct help from Hugo Chavez — the Dictator from Venezuela.{mosimage}
        In order to lower energy costs, we must decrease our nation’s dependency on foreign sources of oil and gas. This bill would help the United States become more energy independent, which is critical to our nation’s economic security and national security. I will continue working with other common sense members in the House and Senate on a bipartisan basis to strive to make these reforms a reality, ultimately providing more relief for the consumer at the pump.
        The Alternative Energy Trust Fund will be available to the Secretary of Energy for research and development of alternative energy to help decrease our reliance on foreign energy and ultimately decrease energy for consumers.

  • Details
        He led a peaceful march through the city of Salisbury during a tumultuous time in the 1960s and had crosses burned outside his dorm in college. He marched in protest of Winn-Dixie supermarket’s discriminatory hiring practices in downtown Asheville. His biography reads like one of his role models, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the presence he has had in state human relations would make even the most historic civil rights activists proud. The Rev. Ron McElrath has taken a stance for civil rights and improving human relations all his life and now his tireless efforts have been rewarded by his appointment from Gov. Mike Easley as the chair of the North Carolina State Human Relations Commission. Rest assured that McElrath, Fayetteville-Cumberland Human Relations director, will continue his pursuit of human relations harmony in this state commission leadership position. {mosimage}
        McElrath was publicized in the New York Times in the 1970s when, as the director of the Asheville-Buncombe Community Relations Council, his office handled a fair housing discrimination case that led to a jury awarding thousands of dollars to a minority family. McElrath was the executive director of the Florida Commission on Human Relations from 1991 to 2000, under the late Gov. Lawton Childs and Gov. Jeb Bush. McElrath’s work to build, maintain and strengthen human relations continues to be exemplary in the Fayetteville-Cumberland community.   
        “Ron has done a terrific job as the Fayetteville-Cumberland Human Relations director, gaining national and state recognition, so he is a perfect pick for state human relations commission chair,” Assistant City Manager Stanley Victrum said. “Through the nationally renowned Study Circles program that he has developed here in Fayetteville, and in light of his work in Asheville and Florida, Ron has proven himself to be a topnotch human relations professional, who well represents the city of Fayetteville and Cumberland County and will adeptly represent our state in human relations matters.”  
        McElrath succeeds Jan Coley, who works for the Fayetteville Police Department.
        For more information on the North Carolina State Human Relations Commission, visit www.doa.state.nc.us/hrc/. McElrath can be reached at 433-1605.

    Yard Sale Permits A Part of Summer
     
        Sunny weather brings citizens out in droves for yard sales and with that, the City Inspections Department would like to remind citizens to obtain yard sale permits, which are required in the city limits. Yard sales are plentiful during warmer months — the Inspections Department issues approximately 150 yard sale permits, at $10 apiece, each month during the summertime. Three yard sales are allowed per address per year, maintaining residential aspects of neighborhoods.
        “We limit traffic and reduce the number of retail sales in residential areas by limiting the amount of yard sales per house,” said Jim Alexander, interim inspections director.
        Yard sale permits must also be acquired for sales at commercial properties and private properties and organizations, like schools and businesses. If someone wants to use commercial property for a yard sale, they must have a written letter from a manager or owner of the property.
        If a church is having a sale at the church, the fee is waived. The permit is good for one day or two consecutive days.
        Citizens may have three signs up to four square feet each on the property of the sale and five directional signs, not exceeding two square feet, on private property with the owner’s permission. Posting signs on utility poles and traffic signs is not permitted.
        For more information about yard sale permits, you may call the Inspections Department at 433-1168.

  • Details
        Fayetteville State University’s Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Science for Graduate Studies and Choral Director Marvin Curtis was a young man, there were two things he wanted to do. 
    “My goal when I got out of high school was to return to my high school and be a choir director. That was it,” said Curtis. “I thought that was the experience of a life time until I became one and thought. … ‘This is not it, there’s got to be more to life.’”
        His other goal was to be a world class concert pianist. “Then I decided that I wasn’t going to work that hard. I’m not that kind of competitor,” said Curtis. “Although I loved it, it just wasn’t quite what I needed.”
        Like most of us, his life took some unexpected twists and turns. Curtis made history when his musical composition, The City on the Hill, was performed by the Philander Smith Collegiate Chorale and United States Marine Band at the 1993 inauguration of President Bill Clinton. He was the first African-American composer commissioned to write a choral work for a presidential inauguration.
        {mosimage}He arrived in Fayetteville in 1996 as FSU’s choral director, and was recently named the dean of the Raclin School of the Arts at Indiana University-South Bend, Ind.
        As Curtis prepares to leave Fayetteville and FSU, his fondest and proudest memories are the experiences he has shared with his students and the difference he has made in their lives.
        “I will always cherish the fact that I took these kids to Europe. This choir had never been outside of the country, so in 1998 we embarked on our first trip, a one week trip to France and I got to live my dream out — which was to conduct in the Cathedral of Notre Dame,” Curtis recalled. “That’s one of my fondest memories. I think that is one of the most enduring things we did. We took the students out of the confines of being locked to North Carolina. A lot of these students had never been out of the state, let alone out of the country, and here I had 60 college students for a week singing in Paris and Belgium.”
        There were other trips too. “You can’t take all of them to Europe, but you find opportunities,” said Curtis, recalling excursions to Vancouver, Canada, Georgia, Washington and Florida.
        And then there is the Opera Series. “I was told ‘You can’t do opera in Fayetteville.  No one is going to come.’ Well, we had 4,000 people show up and we’ve done high-class opera,” said Curtis. “If I had just listened to everybody we still would have just had a normal choir; we went outside our comfort zone, sometimes by the seat of our pants.”
    And even though it was hard work, it was worth it. “We had a good time. We brought art to the forefront. It was my chance also to be the artist I always wanted to be. We created some new adventures. We brought artists to the campus. We turned Fayetteville State into an art oasis,” said Curtis.
        Now, the challenge is going to be different. Being a dean is a lot different from being a department chair. “For the first time in 20 years I won’t be going to the classroom; I will be going to the office,” said Curtis. “I am going to have to use my creative juices with the faculty and staff. I want to take what I have learned here to Indiana, take my show on the road and see what happens.”
        Even as that yearning for something new and different pulls Curtis in a new direction, he says what he will miss most about Fayetteville is the people. “People here have been very kind to me. They’ve been very generous to me and I guess what I am going to miss that the most.”
        Fayetteville residents have one last chance to wish Curtis well by attending the performances of The Marriage of Figaro, which will be on stage at FSU’s Seabrook Auditorium July 18 and 19 at 7:30 p.m. There will be a children’s matinee on July 19 at 1 p.m., sponsored by The Youth Growth Stock Fund. The matinee is a one-hour presentation for youth and families and tickets are free. Visit the Web site to reserve seats.
        Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for children and $8 for senior citizens and military.  Interested persons and groups can go to the Web site: www.uncfsu.edu for information on tickets for this event, or call 672-1276.

  • Details
        Although the Cape Fear Regional Theatre’s season is officially over, theatre lovers have a chance to catch one more show as the theatre reprises its performance of Lunch at the Picadilly for a limited engagement, July 25-27.
        The play, based on the novel by the same name by North Carolina writer Clyde Edgerton, delighted audiences in the 2006-2007 season. Featuring, the CFRT’s Artistic Director Bo Thorp, the comedy is expected to draw a full house. The cast is preparing to take the show on the road to Parkway Playhouse in Burnsville, for a two-week engagement, and is using the brief run as a way to prepare for the event. {mosimage}
    Lunch at the Picadilly, like many of Edgerton’s other works, is set in the small town of Listre. The residents of Listre are, as a whole, a rather comical bunch. But don’t be surprised, when you meet the residents of the town, if they remind you of your favorite elderly aunt, or perhaps the cranky neighbor who lives down the road or maybe even the bossy elderly lady at your church who always has an opinion on everything and is happy to share it with anyone willing to  listen.
        In this book, you get the opportunity to meet the residents of the Rosevahen Convalescence Center. Leading the gang is Lil Olive, who is at the home recovering from a recent fall. Olive uses a walker and sits on the front porch, chitchatting with and rocking right alongside the regulars. There’s Beatrice Satterwhite; Clara Cochran, who cusses as frequently as she takes a breath; and L. Ray Flowers, the freelance preacher who reveals his dream of forming a national movement to unite churches and nursing homes (“Nurches of America”). Chaos ensues when Flowers gets the residents fired up. It’s going to be a sight you don’t want to miss.
        The music and lyrics to the show are by former Red Clay Rambler, Mike Craver.
        Shows are at 8:15 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are available at the CFT Box Office, which opens July 21. Tickets are $20 for Friday and Saturday’s performance and $15 for Sunday’s matinee. Box Office Hours:  July 21, 1-6 p.m.; Tuesday through Sunday, 2-6 p.m.
        For additional information: www.cfrt.org and for reservations call the CFRT box office at (910) 323-4233.

  • Details
        What do Cumberland County Sheriff Earl Butler and local psychologist Dr. Robin Jenkins have in common?
        {mosimage}They both agree that the county has a serious gang problem — especially youths involved in gangs — and both are working with local agencies and officials to clean up the mess before it steals the future of more children and creates more victims of gang-related crime.
        But taking up the fight hasn’t always been a priority.
        Butler said the old party line was that Cumberland County didn’t have any gang problems. He changed his mind following a summit on gangs 10 years ago that featured officials and officers from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, as well as law enforcement representatives from such gang-infested cities as New York and Chicago.
        After the summit, Butler said he felt a need to take a closer look at the problem.
        Then came the murders.
        In 1998, as part of a gang initiation for the local branch of the nationally known Crips, Francisco Tirado and Eric Queen abducted and murdered Tracy Lambert and Susan Moore. They also abducted Debra Cheeseborugh, who was shot and left for dead on Fort Bragg Reservation, though she survived and was able to identify her would-be killers.
        The bullets were painted in the Crip’s signature blue.
        “I’ve been in office going on 14 years and that was my first real experience with a gang as creating a real problem, particularly a murder,” said Butler.
        While Butler classifies most youthful gang members as “wannabes,” living the gangster lifestyle they see portrayed by the mass media, law enforcement agencies have documented the presence of 11 verified gangs in the county, including such infamous groups as the aforementioned Crips, Bloods, Folk Nation, Gangster Disciples and MS-13.
        Butler said the sheriff’s department is utilizing several methods to identify and crack down on gangs, including enlisting the aid of the community to identify potential and actual gang members through the Cumberland Gang Hotline (433-1524) — which allows the caller to remain anonymous.
        The sheriff’s department has released Gang Awareness: A Guide For Parents & Community Members, free to the community to provide warning signs of gang involvement.
        As another answer to the growth of gangs, Butler tapped two officers to make gang investigation their primary focus. Butler said he would like to hire an entire unit to confront the problem, but economic realities make that impossible. So, standing on the thin line between gangs and the county’s residents is a pair of officers specializing in gangs: Sgt. David Dowless and Detective Nicole Poverone.
        Dowless, a member of the sheriff’s department since 1996, has steadily watched as gang influence has grown in the schools, attracting members as young as 9-10-years-old.
        “In the Spring Lake area I was called to one of the elementary schools by one of the teachers who said she never thought she’d see the day she’d be calling us out to look at one (gang member),” said Dowless. “The mother had requested that a gang officer talk to her son.”
        Dowless and Poverone said that cracking down via law enforcement helps neutralize gangs and the problems they create in the schools and communities; however, Dowless said this is only a “Band-Aid” approach — that the problem is social and must be confronted at its roots.
        That’s where Dr. Jenkins comes into the picture. As executive director of CommuniCare — a nonprofit agency under the auspices of the United Way of Cumberland County — Jenkins accepts referrals from school resource officers and legal and judicial authorities when children at risk of joining gangs or already involved in gangs are identified. CommuniCare then works with the child and the child’s family to formulate a plan to alter the destructive behavior.
        However, the trick is getting the parents to come along for the ride.
        “If they’re not court-compelled to participate, we can’t force them to do that, only recommend that they do so,” said Jenkins. “Our biggest challenges are to try and educate parents that this is not a passing fad because it can grow into something serious. We are faced with a lot of parents who are doing the best they can, working a couple of jobs, maybe with two or three kids at home — they need help supervising and structuring their children’s lives because they are relying on the older children to watch their child.{mosimage}
        “Even if they come and say ‘I agree. I want my child to have all these services,’ getting them to those services is problematic,” added Jenkins, noting that working parents often don’t have the time or can’t afford to take the time off to make the appointments.
        If the parents and suspected gang member do agree to visit CommuniCare’s office, Jenkins said behavior modification is used to try and set the child straight. The child is taught life skills and how to make ethical choices and form positive relationships. He’s also given the hard truth: Gang life ends in prison.
        But Jenkins said you have to be diplomatic when you talk to suspected gang members. “It’s not useful to try and argue a kid out of a gang,” said Jenkins. “It’s the same as if in a normally developing child who wants to grow his hair long or wants to wear the same dirty shirt for three days straight. The more you hammer away at somebody, the more oppositional they become.”
        While Jenkins said the county’s school system records “hundreds” of suspected gang activities annually, CommuniCare had just 40 youth walk through the door in about a year’s time. And even though he said the group has had some success, the final outcome is not known. What he does know is that it takes a whole community to solve the youth gang issue.
        “Parents really need to be involved,” said Jenkins. “Law enforcement and CommuniCare can’t solve this. What makes a community safe from youth crime is a very positive system of parental engagement, strong social supports, church and faith-based organizations — a real community effort. We can’t do this by ourselves.”



     

  • Details
        You would think it would be a cold day in Miami before a 40-something former jock who hadn’t skated in more than 10 years would suit up and hit the ice for the Fayetteville FireAntz.
        Or maybe you believe you’d see snow in south Florida before you’d see that same “old man” come out of retirement after a 20-year layoff to play left field for the Fayetteville Swampdogs?
        OK then, wash off the Coppertone and put on the snow parka because Miami Subs’ owner Jimmy Diamantopoulos, 41, has done both, playing with the FireAntz for four years and spending two seasons suiting up for the Swampdogs.{mosimage}
        Diamantopoulos said his involvement with the local sports teams — playing against and with young men sometimes half his age — started out as a “joke.”
        “I played hockey in Canada for a lot of years and baseball in college,” said Diamantopoulos, who sports a Greek name and heritage, but was raised in Canada. “For a promotional thing the owners said they were going to bring me out of retirement and do this and do that... Come on out and skate for us for fun. It was a promotional night.”
        While Diamantopoulos goes out on the ice and diamond to put on a show for the home fans, he’s also serious about his part-time play. As a member of the FireAntz, he scored a goal in a shootout; as a member of the Swampdogs, he’s had five-at bats, recording a sacrifice, getting on base twice via a pair of errors, and smacking one ball to the warning track.
        “We all thought it was leaving the park,” said Diamantopoulos, smiling broadly as he sat in one of the booths at the Skibo Road restaurant he has owned for four years.
        And he brings in a crowd, too. Last year, the FireAntz sold 5,000 tickets after promoting Diamantopoulos’ appearance on the ice, though a last-minute glitch kept him from skating that night.
    And you better believe Kevin MacNaught, owner and general manager of the FireAntz, knows a good promotion when he sees one.
        “A lot of the local Greek community comes here to see Jimmy play,” said MacNaught. “He’s a local businessman who has shown a great interest in hockey, both playing and coming to the games.”
        MacNaught said he had to jump through a few hoops to get the OK for him to play hockey in the Southern Professional Hockey League, but he’s glad to have him and plans on having more promotional nights featuring Diamantopoulos.
        “We raised a lot of money for the local Greek church,” said MacNaught.
    And how do his teammates react to playing with a man who in the sports vernacular is considered a senior citizen?
        “The players love it,” said Diamantopoulos. “They see this older guy coming and playing with them. Obviously, they put in their jokes — they put canes in my locker and put a wheelchair one time. It’s all fun... I like it.”
        FireAntz goalie Chad Collins also likes it.
        “He does OK for an old man,” said Collins. “It’s really fun to have him out there. And he can play.”
    In addition to his age, Diamantopoulos plays with a physical handicap: He lost 15 percent of one of his leg muscles in a car accident while living in Pittsburgh about 15 years ago. And then there are the common aches and pains he suffers through in the days after a match. However, he limits the big hurt by practicing twice a week at Fort Bragg’s Cleland Multipurpose Sports Complex with current and former FireAntz players, as well as the Army club team, the Fayetteville Dragons.
        His competitiveness on the field and ice is indicative of his drive in the kitchen. When he came to Fayetteville four years ago, Miami Subs — a southern-based franchise — had the worst sales in North Carolina. Now, it leads the state in sales; he attributes some of his success to his involvement in baseball and hockey.
        “It adds to my business but it adds to their business, too,” said Diamantopoulos. “Customers bring pictures and I’ve signed thousands of them. I keep stuff here for them. A lot of people come here with the families to see me.”
        He hasn’t played with the local indoor football franchise, the Fayetteville Guard, but he also hasn’t completely slammed the door on the idea.{mosimage}
        “Everybody’s wishing for that but I’ve never played football,” joked Diamantopoulos. “I could probably do a little kick or could get the ball and kneel down before the big guys hit me.”
    So, the million-dollar question remains: Does he intend to keep playing hockey and baseball?
        “Everybody asks me if I’m going to keep doing it and I say as long as I can still do it, let me do it,” said Diamantopoulos.

  • Details
        One has only to scan the headlines of the newspaper, turn on the TV or scan the headlines of news Web sites to know that we are deep in the midst of the political season. The American political process is one of the most vibrant and intriguing in the world. People love it or hate it. Some local residents who are on the “love it” end of the spectrum hope to share their love of the process and their passion for the system with the community on Friday, July 18, at the Obama Jam at Festival Park.                                                                 The event, organized by the Cumberland County Obama Grass Roots Committee, is designed to keep folks involved in the process and to keep their interest up, particularly in the dog days of summer before the political conventions. And while politics is usually a more serious subject, the organizers of the Obama Jam want to make it fun, so they’ve brought together some of the area’s top musicians to perform a free concert for the community.
    “The grass roots focus is really aimed at keeping people involved, encouraging voter registration, reaching out to volunteers and asking people to pledge to vote in November,” said Grainger Barrett, a member of the grassroots committee.
        Barrett definitely falls on the love it end of the spectrum when it comes to the political process. He has been and will continue to watch the unfolding presidential election with a great deal of interest. He sees the race between Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain as a turning point in the political process, noting that both candidates are working toward a move civil discourse. “They want to disagree without being disagreeable,” he said. “I think that’s marvelous. It’s what citizens are asking for from our leaders.”
        He said that choice by the candidates is making a difference in citizen participation in the process. “Participation and interest (in the political process) is higher than ever before, and I think it is attributable to that attitude that both candidates offer us,” he said.
        It is in that same vein that the committee put together the Obama Jam. It is not designed to be the political rally of the past. Candidates won’t be stumping, and there won’t be a lot of speeches. What there will be is information. Voter registration booths will be set up on the grounds of Festival Park. Organizers say they will gladly register anyone — no matter what party they choose. Democratic and nonpartisan candidates for office will have the opportunity to set up booths to hand out information. There will also be booths designed to highlight volunteer opportunities in the upcoming election. And, since it is an Obama Jam, there will be information about the candidate available, as well as vendors selling Obama gear. But again, it’s not a political rally. There will be food, and there will be music.
        “The goal of the event is to get people involved, informed and excited,” said Sharon Barrett.
        Both Barretts pointed out that there is no prerequisite to come to the jam. You don’t have to be a Democrat or even an Obama supporter. “Just come out and have fun,” said Grainger. “Get involved in the process and get a little information.”
        In Cumberland County, the need for involvement in the process is crucial. During the primaries, voter participation was high; but sadly, it still didn’t reach 50 percent of the registered voters. Peaking that interest takes more than speeches, it takes an informed electorate.
        Barrett chronicled his own interest in politics from the time he was a child watching the Nixon/Kennedy debates and later the campaign of Robert Kennedy. “There was a level of investment then that a lot of folks don’t have today, but it’s getting better and that’s great,” he said. “We’re not all supposed to be all the same or have the same ideas,” he said. “But if we can get folks talking, that talking is what makes our country greater. And we want to do our part in our community.”{mosimage}

    The Particulars

        The Obama Jam will start at 6 p.m. in Festival Park, as Rahmeka Cox, Miss North Carolina Junior Teen, sings the National Anthem. Nothing gets a political function going faster than the National Anthem, and from there, the music just keeps flowing.
        One of the bands signed on to play the event has been a Fayetteville favorite for a number of years. The Parsons, who categorize their music as “uptown hillbilly swing,” will be sure to get the party rolling. Their music is, in their own words, “just as comfortable in overalls as it is dressed up for a night on the town.” It’s a mix of ragtime, blues, bluegrass, swing and folk music. The band maintains it puts a spring in the step of its audience by offering two- and three-part harmonies, complemented by guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dobro, lap steel, ukulele, spoons and the harmonica.
        {mosimage}The band is comprised of Caroline Parsons, who has been involved in a number of organizations in the city ranging from the animal protection society to the symphony; Jon Parsons, the director of Sustainable Sandhills; David Burke and Jerome Hawkes. They say they have gained their seasoning through “decades of festivals, concerts, club and radio performances, not to mention years of contented picking on the porches, tailgates and barn floors of America.”
    Their listeners couldn’t agree more. “Quality performances. True and sincere. Toe tapping and knee slapping. This is what characterizes the art of Jon and Caroline Parsons. They delightfully blend education and entertain to the joy of all audiences,” noted Leisa Brown, director, Museum of the Cape Fear.
        Dan Speller and His Bluespell will also be sure to get the audience rocking. Speller, a retired Army noncommissioned officers, plays all around the region and the local area. In June he headlined at the Pate Room at the Headquarter Library during Fourth Friday. He played to a packed house.
        Speller, a native of Flushing, N.Y., has been playing music all of his life; he maintains it all started with the “beat of his mother’s heart.” He developed an interest in music while listening to his older brothers’ records and attempting to sing and play along with them in the ‘60s and ‘70s. He moved to the mountains of North Carolina at the age of 13, where he developed his musical craft, learning to play guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and the harp.
        In 1975, he joined the Army, and spent some time seeing the world. That time was put to good use, acquiring musical inspiration from different countries and cultures. Upon retirement from the military in 1996, he committed all his time and energy to his music. His musical taste is as varied as his background — he likes blues, rock, jazz, country, beach, reggae, funk and classical. He is currently recording, composing and producing his own CD on his Bluespell record label. You’re definitely not going to want to miss his set at the jam.
        Jeff Patterson and Company, a gospel group, is also appearing at the jam. Patterson has been performing gospel music his whole life, and has traveled extensively throughout the South and on the east coast. He has performed on the Bobby Jones Gospel hour on BET and has performed in the theatre.
        Organizers believe there is a little bit of something to please everyone. So bring a blanket or a chair. Don’t worry about dinner, vendors will be on hand to feed you, and children’s games and a children’s area will be set up to keep your little ones happy.
        In case we forgot to mention it, the event is free. So bring an open mind and prepare to become informed, involved and excited!!

  • Details
        Aaaah... the days of parachute pants, big hair and spandex.{mosimage}
        I’m talking about the 1980s, when MTV still played music and such bands as Culture Club, the Cars and A Flock of Seagulls ruled the roost of FM radio.
        You’ll get a chance to revisit the music of that decade on Thursday, July 17, when ‘80s cover band Suicide Blonde plays Festival Park as part of Fayetteville After Five.
        Suicide Blonde, a Raleigh-based band, has a long and diverse set list of music from the ‘80s, ranging from AC/DC’s “Back In Black” to Rick Springfield’s “Jesse’s Girl.”
        But don’t think this is just a nostalgia act for burned out Yuppies who spend their night’s watching reruns of Magnum P.I. while sipping Bartles & Jaymes — bassist Warren Sumner said the band attracts a broad range of listeners from across the age spectrum.
        “I’ll look into the crowd and see teenagers singing along with the songs,” said Sumner. “They know all these songs. There’s been a resurgence in the popularity of music from the ‘80s.”
        Sumner said the band formed a little more than four years ago and that he joined up about three years ago when his old band, Sugar Daddy, broke up. As fate would have it, Suicide Blonde’s drummer, Lane Moss, had been a member of Sugar Daddy during Moss’s tenure; almost to the day that Sugar Daddy broke up, it lost its bass player and Moss called Sumner to fill the void.
        “I’ve played a lot of different music,” said Sumner. “All varieties, really, and this is my favorite music to play. And we don’t play just the best-known songs from back then; we do some more obscure songs such as ‘China Girl’ by David Bowie and ‘Tempted’ by Squeeze. I mean, everyone knows Bon Jovi’s ‘Living On A Prayer,’ but we also want to play the songs that have a little more edge to them.”
        When asked where the inspiration came for an ‘80s cover band, Sumner had a simple answer: The girls.
        “We get so many girls at our shows who love this music,” said Sumner with a chuckle. “We decided we could either play alternative rocks for guys in black T-shirts or we could perform in front of a bunch of cute girls.
        “Actually, it’s just the type of music we love to play,” added Sumner. “There’s so much good music from that era.”
        The band’s lead singer, Dave Adams, saw some big success of his own in the decade of big hair, earning a Top 40 hit called “On a Carousel” with the band Glassmoon. He also visited England to record an album with producer David Lord, who worked with such musical legends as Peter Gabriel and Tears for Fears.
    “Dave’s just a great singer who really belts it out,” said Sumner.
        Sumner also has praise for his other band mates, saying guitarist Dustin Askew is one of the “best” he’s ever played with.
        “There are other musicians who are individually better than each of us,” said Sumner. “But as a group I don’t think anyone’s better.”
        And Sumner said the band gives the fans their money’s worth, playing for two to three hours, taking “very small breaks.”
        Sumner says he loves all the songs Suicide Blonde performs, but he has a special place in his heart for the band’s cover of the aforementioned Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer.”
        “That song really gets the crowd moving,” said Sumner.
        You can hear a demo of “Sledgehammer,” as well as other covers by Suicide Blonde on the band’s Web page, www.suicideblonde.com.
        Though mostly hired to play corporate gigs, Sumner said the band loves playing in clubs and at frat parties.
        “You’d be surprised at the reception we get at frat houses at places such as the University of Virginia,” said Sumner. “They love this music. And nothing beats the intimacy of playing a club.”
        However, Sumner is equally inspired about the prospect of playing in the great outdoors of Festival Park and for the Fayetteville After Five crowd.
        “I played Fayetteville a number of times with previous bands,” said Sumner, “but this is the first time Suicide Blonde has played as a group in Fayetteville; we’re really excited and looking forward to it.”
    If you’re a fan of bands such as INXS — which had a big hit with the band’s moniker, “Suicide Blonde,”  though that song isn’t on the eponymous band’s set list — make sure you show up at Festival Park on July 17 to check out the band.
        Fayetteville After Five serves as a fund-raiser for the Fayetteville Museum of Art and features food vendors and purveyor’s of adult beverages, as well as other artists on site.
        The event runs from 5:30-9:30 p.m. Bring a chair or blanket to relax on the lawn as Suicide Blonde takes you back 20 years on a roller coaster ride of ageless pop and rock.

  • Details
        “It is through this communication whether visual or conversational that we grow as a person. This is what the museum seeks to do for the citizens of Fayetteville,” explained Tom Grubb, executive director of the Fayetteville Museum of Art. He was referencing the premiere parties celebrating each changing exhibit that the museum hosts free of charge to any art lover who wishes to join them.
        The Fayetteville Museum of Art’s latest exhibit, Forsaken: Edifice & Landscape brings together three different artists who communicate a singular theme in stunning ways. The exhibit features artists’ Joyce Fillip, Rachel Herrick and Rudy Rudisill as they explore themes of abandonment through rich textures from architecture and nature.
    Joyce Fillip studies waterspouts, earthquakes, tornadoes, tidal waves and waterfalls, all of which suggest the awesome majestic power and force of nature. They communicate energy, uncertainty, threat, tension and fear. As Fillip translates these forces of nature to paper and into art, the images become “read as metaphors for psychological states of mind.” The large scale of her drawing and their dramatic contrasts of dark and light reinforce the galvanic impact of nature that inspired the work.
        Rachel Herrick’s mixed-media work focuses on cultural landscapes and communication or lack contained therein. Her antiquated look at towns forgotten strikes any person who laments the convenience of the modern life, and finds that the convenience somehow has stripped society of its simplicity. Her muted tones of forlorn townscapes remind in an eerie way what modern society has forsaken and abandoned. This sense of seclusion but idealized past might be an indication of where the artist calls home — the isolated winters and picturesque summers of Maine.
        {mosimage}The only sculpturist featured in the exhibit, Rudy Rudisill also communicates forgotten townscapes, but addresses each forgotten shed, barn and house with his detailed galvanized steel and copper. He brushes each with acid for a corrosive effect that is quite effectual. Born in Gastonia, N.C., Rudisill conjures a building lost and abandoned, excavating it from memory. The work is simultaneously contemporary and traditional, industrial and pastoral as Rudisill explores the relationship of physical elements to their symbolic implications. By bringing together various textures and architectonic forms, personal, cultural and historical elements bind together in and homage to the changing landscape. In the artist’s own words, he feels his pieces are homage to the “vague overtures to the psychosexual ramifications of good bourbon and long drives in the country.” In addition, his pieces offer a unique sense of science fiction to the viewer by “freezing time, each image - specific to itself - a fragment of the continuum of production. Light scatters, gathers, darkness comes and goes. Eyesight, hindsight, blind sight, upside down banana.”
        The premiere party is on July 18, from 6-8 p.m., and will feature the live band Suncoup from Chapel Hill. The duo’s atmospheric fuse of Shoegaze and Indie Rock is a perfect addition to the subject matter at hand — the lonely and turbulent and altogether beautiful world of abandonment. Get a sneak preview of their delicate rock at www.Myspace.com/Suncoup. Should you miss the chance to expand your horizons on  the 18th, the exhibit will be showcased until September 7, free of charge. For more information call the Museum of Art at 910-485-5121 or visit the Web site at www.FayettevilleMuseumArt.org.

  • Details
        I recently had a delightful conversation with my father’s first cousin who lives in the western part of the state. A retired doctor with an interest in genealogy, George wanted to talk about a family cemetery in Sampson County, now barely accessible even though he knows the way and has a key to the gate.
        We agreed to visit later this summer once I can round up my three children to go with us.                                                A few days later George sent me a copy of an old newspaper article about an elderly fellow in Wade who had been named for my grandfather, whom I never knew. The man recounted what his parents had told him about his arrival on this Earth. My grandfather, a doctor in then small-town Fayetteville, had delivered the baby. His parents, it seems, had simply run out of resources to pay the hospital bill and asked my grandfather if he had any ideas. The family’s legend has it that he said, “Well, I can’t put him back, so name him for me.” {mosimage}
        So they did.
        All families have their stories, and I am looking forward to our time with George, one of the remaining members of the same generation as my father, who would have been 90 this month. I also relish time with my own children sharing our stories of their pasts and building new ones.
    That may be why a recent article in Newsweek caught me by surprise, flying in the face of what I have always thought of as conventional wisdom that having children is one of life’s greatest rewards.
    Writer Lorraine Ali, however, reports both data and anecdotal evidence that childless couples are “happier” than those of us who are parents.
        Well!
        Like you, I hear young parents moan about sleepless nights and no time to themselves, and I confess to having said the same things myself during the ‘80s and ‘90s. Being a parent is stressful at all stages, from wailing infancy to high stakes school testing to surly teen years to the struggles of young adults making their way in the real world. It is also expensive. Newsweek quotes these figures just for starters: $414.42 a year for school supplies and lunches in public school, $16,440 for private day school, $35,087 for private boarding school, $13,589 for public college and $32,307 for a private college.
    Those eye-popping numbers do not include ordinary living expenses like clothes and transportation during the years at home or away at school.
        So, what is the evidence regarding happiness or a lack thereof?
        Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert whose book Stumbling Toward Happiness made him a bestselling author cites several studies which indicate that marital satisfaction goes down significantly with the birth of the first child and creeps up again when the last babe leaves the nest and that parents prefer chores like going to the grocery store to being with their children. Robin Simon, a sociologist at Florida State University, is even more blunt. She has analyzed data from 13,000 Americans and has this to say: “In fact, no group of parents — married, single, step or even empty nest — reported significantly greater emotional well-being than people who have never had children. It’s such a counterintuitive finding because we have these cultural beliefs that children are the key to happiness and a healthy life and they’re not.”
        Have parents always felt this way?
        Who knows, but I suspect not. In prior generations, having children was less of a choice than it is today, and children were needed and expected to contribute to the family by working in whatever ways they could. Today, becoming a parent is often an emotional choice, and who among us is going to ‘fess up that such choice may have compromised our own lives in some way?
        Perhaps we expect too much from becoming a parent as well.
        I know of no human relationship that is without strain. Even the most beautiful and perfect bundle of joy can shriek and drive you to distraction. Even the smartest and most accomplished and promising student can mouth off to his parents, or, more painful still, do something that is deliberately disappointing. Even the seemingly happiest family life can pale compared to the perceived glamour of a successful career with a handsome paycheck. While we may romanticize and fantasize cherubic babies and smart, beautiful children, the daily reality of parenting is daunting, gritty and life-long.
        {mosimage}As the mother of three young adults, I have no idea what my life would have been like without them nor have I ever thought about it since, as my grandfather reportedly said, I cannot put them back. I do know, though, that the three of them have provided my life’s most exhilarating, most terrifying, most frustrating, most boring, most challenging, most surprising, most elated and saddest moments. I know of no emotion I have not experienced through them and for them.
        And, yes, for me, the primary emotion has been happiness.

  • Details
        Actors and comedians know it. Accomplished cooks know it. Athletes certainly know it. Timing is everything. Responsible political leaders know it, too, which is why the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners chose not to place a bond referendum for parks and recreation capital projects on the ballot this November.
        To have done so would have doomed the initiative. Local residents are weary of taxes and they know with a certainty that passage of the bond referendum would involve a property tax hike.
    Furthermore, aspects of the proposed joint bond issue concerned commissioners. It had been agreed at a joint city council/county commission meeting on April 8 that both governing bodies needed to know the staffing requirements and operational costs for each project and the plan for marketing the bond issue, as well as an agreed upon time for a bond issue.
        {mosimage}None of this information was presented to the board of commissioners. Nor was there any discussion about which jurisdiction would have responsibility for issuing bonds.
        Also, there was disparity between the projects as outlined in the Five Year Action Plan approved by the county commission in June 2006 and the projects outlined in the 2008 Parks & Recreation Advisory Commission recommendations. Cost estimates were significantly higher and the 2008 recommendations included projects that were not in the master plan.
        It is necessary now to take the time to address the important operating costs for each separate project, to resolve the disparities between the current recommendations and the master plan, to come to consensus on the marketing plan for a bond issue, and to determine the jurisdiction to have responsibility for issuing the bonds.
        Another alternative is for the City of Fayetteville to put the matter on the November ballot. That option is open until Aug. 6. All but one of the projects is within the city limits, and it would be entirely their prerogative to move forward with a bond issue, should the city council choose to do so.
        Cumberland County commissioners want an enhanced Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks and Recreation. We are aware of the disappointment felt by certain constituencies with the decision not to proceed with a bond referendum in November. However, when the due diligence has been completed, and the timing is right for success — that’s when the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners will act on this matter. To have acted precipitously on this important community initiative would have been irresponsible and would have doomed the issue to failure.

  • Details
        Editor’s Note: Bob Cogswell has been an important member of our city’s landscape for quite some time, and a great friend of UCW. With his first efforts at commentary for UCW, we inadvertently gave him the nom de plum Bill Cogswell. Our apologies Bob.

        Ticketgate (Jones v. Knight) has spurred considerable public comment and debate in recent months relating to ethics of elected, appointed and employed public officials. This event occurred last fall, and yet it still generates significant media and back-office political attention each time something occurs as it methodically proceeds through the legal system, the latest being pleadings filed in the lawsuit between the two drivers involved. Unless it is settled, the lawsuit will eventually reach a decision on who is to be believed — Ms. Knight or Mr. Jones. By the way, try to find 12 jurors in Cumberland County who can say they have not heard or read about the incident.
        Little comment has been made regarding existing city policies, and the fact that initially they were followed, in that the mayor contacted the manager, who in turn contacted the police chief. Chavonne/Iman/Bergamine have all made public statements about the night in question and it is what it is — nothing is going to change what happened, and what each one did.  {mosimage}
        The proposed new Ethics Panel and guidelines being developed will once again generate debate and certainly bring out the ghosts of Ticketgate past.  What good will that do? Let’s confine the debate to the future, and not beat the drum of “shoulda’, coulda’, woulda,” regarding the conduct of Chavonne/Iman/Bergamine past tense as applied to any new ethics code. There is already one in the city code, and if it was violated back in the fall, it was for the folks in charge then to deal with.
        Legislators can debate, draft, enact and pledge to follow an ethics code.  However, ethics is not a piece of paper, but an indwelling attitude that we acquire early on in life. Our sense of right vs. wrong is learned from our parents, teachers and life experiences, but first and foremost, it is matter of the heart.  A former council member, Curtis Worthy, said it best: “You cannot legislate ethics.” Ask yourself, when confronted with an ethical choice, do you consult the rules or go with your conscience first?
        Such events and the ongoing attention they receive are not unusual or unique to any community, but there comes a time when it is best to lay the coffin to rest. Unless the waters part and some divine message from above makes everyone all of a sudden an ethical role model, what good does it do to keep harping on the issue?
        As a whole, our community has been blessed for years with right-thinking and honest leaders that did not need a set of rules to do the right thing. Rules are important and have a place, but the place is in the heart. If we need rules, try these, which are on tablets in the old Cumberland County Courthouse:
        “Thy shalt not lie, cheat, steal, or covet what is not yours.”

  • Details

        Few people know that I have a secret desire to be on reality TV. I don’t want to be a contestant. I want to have my own reality show called What Were You Thinking? Recent headlines relating to the brouhaha between Cumberland County Schools Superintendent Bill Harrison and Fayetteville City Councilman Charles Evans have given me a slew of candidates for my show – the obvious Evans and Harrison – the less obvious the parents of the students at the school, T.C. Berrien, that started the discussion between the two.{mosimage}
        So, let’s avoid the elephant in the middle of the room for a few minutes and start with the less obvious problem. Evans maintains that the parents and faculty at the school were afraid to speak up about the roach problem at their school. Really? People are really afraid to talk about a roach problem? What has the school system been doing – executing staff at dawn and expelling children to the far reaches of Siberia? I think not. If, in fact, there was a raging cockroach problem at the school and no one said anything, and needed Mr. Evans to take a stand for them, then the entire staff needs to be fired and the parents all need to go to parenting classes.
    No one speaks louder or better for the rights of children than their parents and the teachers and administrators who are in the school every day. I cannot believe that everyone sat silent for fear of retribution and didn’t tell anyone in the principal’s office, the maintenance office or the superintendent’s office that bugs were more numerous than teacher work days. Had anyone stepped up to the plate, we wouldn’t be where we are now. Shame on them.
    Now to the elephant.
        I have to say up front, I like both these guys. Dr. Harrison is responsible for bringing the Cumberland County Schools system out of the dark ages. He has, and continues to work diligently and passionately, for the children of our community. He is a capable educator with a proven track record. Councilman Evans, during his tenure on the council, has tackled some tough issues and taken some unpopular stands — and that’s commendable. So, it makes this a particularly tough column to write; however …..
        Without a doubt, Dr. Harrison, who is usually a man of great tact, spoke out of school. When I read the article, where Dr. Harrison compared Mr. Evans to D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, I turned to my friend Jerry and asked, “What was he thinking?”
        I can’t imagine what was going through Harrison’s mind or thoughts when he made the comment. It was, and remains totally out of character for this respected educator. But, it has to be said, he was out-of-line.
    I was not surprised to read that Harrison apologized for his comments. That is in line with the gentleman I know. Harrison will suffer from his mistake — he’s doing it now — in the newspapers and in the court of public opinion. It’s my hope that he can weather this storm and continue to do what he does best — build a better school system for our children.
        Now the ball is in Mr. Evans’ court. Without a doubt, he was done wrong here, and Harrison has admitted it. But Mr. Evans now has to step up to the plate and do the right thing. Headlines aside and newsprint be darned, Evans needs to look at the bigger picture and see that in the end, taking this issue to the mat will benefit no one. Had the issue of bugs been discussed through proper channels instead of on the front page of the newspaper, this would, again, have been a non-issue. Mr. Evans has fallen into the trap of many people new to the political arena — he’s quick to play to the media before working the issue quietly. But that’s something he’ll learn over time.
        Back to the issue at hand. There are not many people who, once involved with drugs, make the kind of turnaround that Mr. Evans has made. And I, along with every other Fayetteville citizen, should commend him. But, he has to understand that the bad thing about having a past is that it will sometimes rise up and bite you. This is not the first time Charles’ past has been raised. It was, in fact, raised during a city council meeting by employees of a homeless shelter when that issue was front and center. That reference did not make headlines. It didn’t sell papers.
        Evans must face the unfortunate truth that many in public life have had to face — you can’t escape your past.
        When I read Evans’ comments in reference to Harrison’s apology, I again had to ask, “What was he thinking?”
        Instead of manning up, taking the high road and accepting Harrison’s apology, Mr. Evans took the low road, turning the issue into one of race. It was never, and has never been one of race, and there was no need to go there. Playing the race card benefits no one — not Evans, not the school system and its staff or the children they serve.
        From where I stand, there have been a plethora of mistakes made. That’s the past. Where we go and what we do from here is what counts. It is my hope that Evans will show our city that he is the type of man who can show grace; that Dr. Harrison will think before he speaks; and that the parents and the staff of our school system will use their voices when they need to be heard.

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    It's that time again... the annual Best of Fayetteville Issue. Tell us which is your favorite restaurant, sports pub, etc., and we will tally the votes and announce the winners in September. Please print out the ballots below, follow the instructions included on the ballots and mail to the attached address. And don't forget... Rock The Vote!

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