Time for Hefner
? to repay support
Eighth District Congressman Bill Hefner was one of the few
Democrats in the state to stave off a Republican landside and win
re-election.
Hefner's victory was one of the narrowest of his political career,
' and had it not been for Hoke County voters, the outcome probably
would have been different.
The incumbent Congressman escaped defeat by 4,003 votes in the
. district wide race against Moore County Republican Harris Blake.
? In Hoke County, Hefner had more than a 2,000 vote edge.
This county made a difference for Bill Hefner, and we should not
. let him forget it during the next two years.
During the campaign, Hefner said he was looking for projects to
help this county. Now is the time to fulfill his search.
Hoke County needs assistance with the widening of US Highway
401. That help is going to have to come from a federal level and
from Hefner.
Raeford is also finding out that the municipal sewer system is
deteriorating and will need major renovations. A federal grant
would help ease the overstrapped local budget, and a Congressman
will have to grease the way for such funding.
Hoke County has come through repeatedly for candidates, has
asked for little and gotten nothing in return.
In the past we have given our support faithfully. Now, we need to
start demanding something for it.
Hoke County voters have done their jobs. The time has come for
elected officials, like Hefner, to do theirs.
Good Hoke teachers
should not be wasted
Two years ago Ethelyn Baker was riding the crest of being voted
by her peers Hoke County's Teacher of the Year.
This year she was fired.
' Although the actual causes may never be known publicly, the
school board's announced reasons for the dismissal are ambiguous,
which lends support to Baker's claim that she was let go because of
her criticism of the System and of her superiors.
The action against Baker is puzzling, however, we would not
presume to second-guess school authorities on their decision to ter
minate her contract. We are confident they felt there was just cause,
but one has to wonder about a system which allows a good teacher
to fall fftjfn grace so quickly. ; i J-*
In an age when good teachers are an endangered species, perhaps* ?
more could have been done to salvage a valuable career and to con
vince a former Teacher of the Year and others to remain team
players.
Before another good teacher is booted from her profession, it is
hoped that members of the Hoke County Board of Education will
study the Ethelyn Baker case and correct the deficiencies in a system
which allows it to happen.
Good teachers are a resource Hoke County cannot afford to
waste.
City council on right line
Members of the Raeford City Council should be commended for
J; the quixotic stand they are taking against a cable television rate hike
? being sought by Alert Cablevision.
>: Alert is apparently attempting to cut programming and raise rates
I; at the same time, and unlike other franchise holders in the service
iarea, Raeford councilmen are not buying the increase.
?: Unfortunately, the cable firm has complete control over pro
gramming, so the Raeford officials' complaints are falling on deaf
[corporate ears.
? However, basic rates are still within the council's jurisdiction, at
least under their interpretation of a new federal law governing cable
[television franchises.
; Alert representatives view the law differently, and believe they
?can raise the rates without the council's approval. They say they are
: reluctant to do so because of the ill-will that would be created by the
?move.
Raeford officials may be tilting at windmills, but each month they
? delay approval of the rate increase, Alert is denied the extra
[revenue. If the stand is long enough, sooner or later, the firm might
;consider providing better service.
[ The position being taken by the Raeford Council is noble, and we
;encourage the officials to keep it up.
The News-Journal
r?fcll?b?il I?,, , r | t\ , J,
Racford, N.C. 2437*
!? Com* !r? Yiw-SMJI (MmL-ISJI
M?( Cowty Per Vw-411# , ? Milh WJI
LOUB H. FOGLEMAN, JR PaMUer
WARREN N. JOHNSTON Editor
IfltNlY L. BLUE Prodactloa Smptrrhor
MB. PAUL DICKSON Society Edhor
SAM C. MORRIS. . .... Coatribrtag Editor
ANN N. WEBB .A*f HtktiiBiprmHtiM
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American voters aren't stupid
Since political passions run high
in an election year, I'll do my best
to keep these remarks non
partisan. But I must confess that a
partisan mailing has agitated me
no little bit.
The other day, I received this
"Official Survey" on defense
strategy. It apparently was based
on the assumption that American
voters aire sTrfipletons.
The introduction contained the
words, "So as not to prejudice
your responses, please do not read
the... positions H$ted at the end of
the survey until you have com
pleted your answers."
Then the questionnaire proceed
ed to prejudice answers in every
..way possible. .
? * 3 "Fbf 'example, the very first ques>
'f tion asked, "Do you support ap
propriations for modernizing our
defenses which became dangerous
ly obsolete as a result of cutbacks
by the (deleted) administration?"
That isn't a question. That's
political propaganda.
Now, there's nothing wrong
with political propaganda. That's
the name of the election game.
Everybody does it. But, if politi
cians want to lay a bit of pro
paganda on me, I would just as
soon they wouldn't play like they
are asking my opinion.
Another questions went like
Lucien
Coleman
Things That Matter
this: "The Soviets have amassed
the largest naval *orc#in the world
and have incieaaed the number of
submarines patrolling the U.S.
coast. Should the U.S. Navy
receive more funding to replaaS?
our aging sea force and build more
Trident nuclealr submarines.?"
Now, really, does that look like
' a question designed to elicit an un
biased answer?? The tmplieatiorv
buried in the shrewd wordsrfg "is
that a "no" answer would be a
vote for the Soviet submarines
patrolling the U.S. coast.
Consider the following
hypothetical question: "Fireball .
Chain Cleaner, recommended by.
many neighborhood hardware
dealers, has already killed 137,368
children this year. Do you agree
with these unscrupulous hardware
dealers that this deadly product
should be in every home?" How
unprejudiced would your answer
be?
In behalf of all the members of
the voting public who periodically
find themselves on the receiving
end of such political chicanery, I
have a word for the whiz-kids who
come up with such brilliant
schemes:
We might not be all that smart;
but we ain't stupid, either.
New opportunities
on tap for towns
By Joka Sledge
N.C. Farm Bureau Federation
A study out of the Center for
Social Research in Aging at the
University of Miami says the
movement of older Americans out
of cities and into the suburbs and
countryside is continuing. Accord
ing to the report, the elderly led the
way in the 1960's in reversing two
centuries of migration into the
cities.
Census figures show that
metropolitan areas grew by nearly
10 ft in the decade of the 70's, but
rural and small town areas had a
growth rate of almost 167*.
The growth is not limited to
areas immediately adjacent to
cities. Counties that grew fastest in
the 70's were those designated
rural, with no towns of 2,500 peo
ple or more. More than eight
million new homes were built in
these rural counties during the
decade.
The Miami study credits older
Americans with leading migration
to rural areas; and if that is so, the
pace may even accelerate in the
years ahead. A recent report by the
Senate's Special Committee on Ag
ing projects that in the year 2010,
one-fourth of the entire population
will be over 55 years old. In the last
20 years the number of people 85
and over increased by 141 Vo.
What the trends tell us is that
America's population is getting
older and prefers to live in the
country. The result is new
economic opportunity for small
towns now totally dependent on
the farm economy.
Collecting could cure trade deficit
The other day, while munching a nameless cookie, I discovered
the answer to the foreign trade deficit.
"American industries need to start putting names on their pro
ducts like the ones that used to be on Coke bottles," I told my wife.
"If this cookie had the name of a town on it, I might collect it
rather than eat it," I said, hoping to prick her interest.
When I was younger, about seven, and America was free from
foreign manufacturing competition, I had one of the finest Coke
bottle collections in our Atlanta neighborhood.
In those days Coca-Cola put the locations of the bottlers on the
bottom of eight-ounce bottles, and we prized those with cities and
towns that were the farthest away from Atlanta.
Because Atlanta is the home of Coca-Cola, it is a good place for
collectors. Bottles would end up there from all over the country.
They would be refilled and put out on our streets, making it
relatively easy for us to find towns like Chattanooga, Tennessee.
It wasn't any big deal to come up with a Monroe, Georgia, bottle,
but a Monroe, Louisiana, was another matter.
Finding a.bottle with a name like Nomei Alaska, oj Bismarck,
North Dakota, would probably land the neighborhood's "Bottle of :
the Year Award."
In 1954, 1 received the award for a Yakima, Washington, Coke I
found partially buried in the playground behind R.L. Hope School.
Johnny Albert had been leading that year with his Reno, Nevada, ?
and was considered a shoe-in for the honor when I spied my winner
poking through the sand. We were convinced that it had been left
there by a laborer who had worked on the construction of the
school back in 1935.
"You know they brought people in from all over the country to
build the school," Fat Ralph had said when I showed him my
discovery. "I'll bet they brought (heir Cokes with them too."
We were obsessed collectors. A* a result, we probably bought and
drank too many Cokes. I remember drinking 16 in one day alter 1
found a machine which was spitting out consistant winners.
If it had not been for the names on the bottom of the Coke bot
tles, I am confident we would haw been like kids in tteXteottiai
and would have been drinking Pepsi* f said to my wife, who Mfv.
now reading a magazine. *&? '?Si' ? > v ;v"
Coke changed their production methods, and the names have
? ?' ''/? ' ' ? - ;
Warren Johnston
The Puppy Papers
disappeared from the bottles. Many of the small town bottlers have
closed.
We moved on to baseball cards.
I liked the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was hard to find players like
Duke Snyder and Pee Wee Reese. I had to buy a lot of bubble gum,
which I threw away, in order to collect a complete team of the
Bums.
"You can't find baseball cards these days," I said, as my wife
began playing a game of jacks with the cat.
The bubble gum company is now making chewable rabbits. I find
no joy in collecting them, I shouted, when she started vacuuming
the floor. . , ? " . -
-Back when America had no fear of foreign' competitors,
manufacturers printed tig place of origin on most products. Even
liquor bottles used to have tables like: "Ole Joshua Staggers Sour
Mash. Whiskey bottled under the moon in Paris, Tennessee, where
the water and the women are pure."
"Now a bottle like that would be a collector's item today," I con
tinued, as she began clearing the lunch dishes from the table.
If shirts had the name of the city where they were made, instead
of just "Made in USA," we wouldn't be having problems in the tex
tile industry, I told her.
Instead of putting some logo on the shirt, like an alligator, ap
parel manufacturers should use labels with the name of the mill and
the signature of the person whor sewed it.
^'Shoppers would be collecting the 'Honea Path, South Carolina
Lulubeile Slocolm' shirts like Cabbage Patch dolls," I said to the
cat, after my wife left the room.
Noting that I was losing my audience when the cat followed my
wife, I decided to work on my grocery beg collection.
One of the local stores offers bags with the names of the maker
firiniid on the bottom, and I needed a Horace Bailey of St. Mary's,
OeorgU, to complete a set.