Opinion Page THE BRUNSWICIf&ftACON Edward M. Sweatt and Carolyn H. Sweatt Publishers Edward M. Sweatt Editor Susan Usher News Editor Rahn Adams & Doug Rutter Staff Writers Johnny Craig Sports Editor Christine Dallou Office Manager Carolyn H. Sweatt Advertising Dbector Ttmberky Adams Advertising Representative Tanunie Galloway & Dorothy Brcnnan Typesetters William Manning Pressman Brenda Cletnmons Photo Technician Lunnie Sprinkle Assistant Pressman Clyde and Mattle Stout. Phoebe Clemmons Circulation PAGE 4- A ? THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1990 More Of The Same? Please, No, Not For Another Decade Take a blast into the past or zoom into the future. This week's issue offers fuel for thought in both directions, espe cially given that it's an election year, an opportunity to make some changes. Mull it over. You're proba bly tired of getting the same question every year, but indulge us one more time, please. What is your personal vision of the kind of place Brunswick Coun ty should be at the end of the Susan Usher next decade? What do you like or not like about it now? Wl.at will your roie be in shaping the '90s? To arrive at any answer regarding the future, we first have to look back, to put things into some kind of perspective. What progress have we made as a community, as a county, over the past decade? What were the problems? How aggres sively did we choose to address them? Which ones are still here and why? What kind of leaders did w choose? How did they perform? Were we satisfied? For each of us the answers will be different, but certainly most of us would share some ideas and concerns in common. these commonalities wH*it should sh^pc th** county's future direction. But that won't happen if we don't communi cate what we want to the people who make decisions, if we don't get involved in the political process. Politics, partisan or otherwise, has a bad name in Brunswick County, unfortunately for some legitimate reasons. But it is still the vehicle for getting things done, and should not be avoided by the average, upright person. In helping write and/or edit our review of the past decade and look at the next, I've had a little time for reflection. Frankly, the experience has left me feeling queasy and not a little embarrassed. But 1 should be really angry, and I'm not. Apathetic? Perhaps. Frustrated? Absolutely. In returning to Brunswick County in 1981, it was with every intention of hanging around a year, shedding some homesickness and heading back into the "real world". Well, almost a decade has passed. It's 1990 and I'm still here. Almost every week I ask myself why; the answer is never the same: Partly because I saw a role that seemed to suit me. Partly because I found a comfortable rut, got married and set tled in. But also because I was attracted by the "boom town" excitement of a rapidly-growing county, an adrenalin pusher something akin to the California gold rush or the post Civil War carpetbagger era. But that "boom town" analogy is getting old, fast. And I've seen too many people trying to make a fast buck, hang the con sequences, off people and places I care about. It's high time Brunswick County left the zits, raging hor mones and self-centeredness of adolescence behind and started growing up and accepting some responsibility for its own future. A shared vision of the future? We don't have one here in Brunswick County. From our leaders on down, we're each going in separate directions. And while the ultimate goal ? bet ter lives for ourselves and cur families ? may be the same, we have entirely different ideas on how to get there. This absence of a common vision is frustrating enough. But what frightens me most is the related absence of strong leader ship. If you haven't defined what you're about, where you're going and how you're going to get there, it's kind of hard to lead somebody else. Ask any soldier. It's as though our so-called leaders are suspended in a state of shock, with change occurring so rapidly they simply can't accept it, much less deal with it. They can only react ? and uiucii luu Muwiy. vyiicn uicy sci-m iiiorc coitccrncd with win ning friends and getting re-electer than with providing direc tion and decisions. And so long as they keep talking about a problem, it seems, they don't really have to do anything about it. They can pre tend they're "working" on iL To worsen matters, in many cases ? in the name of taking care of their own ? these policy makers, decision makers, so called leaders, have surrounded themselves with incompetents. Workers who simply can't handle the jobs they've been given, but are almost impossible to get rid of or reassign. Worst of all, it's people like you and me who are allow ing ? permitting all this. Apparently we don't care enough to gci fcally mau, 10 gel angry enough to do something. Oh, we may grouse a iittie over our cups at a iocai coffee shop but that's about it. We deserve better and we can do more to see that we get it. We can speak up, write letters, organize people of like mind to pursue a common goal, even get involved in a campaign for local office. I've decided what I'm going to do next year, circumstances allowing. Now it's up to you. Are you satisfied with What do you want for Brunswick County, for yourselves and your fami lies? What are you doing about it? In making your New Year's resolutions, keep Brunswick County in mind. And if you don't decide to do anything else during the coming year, sit back for a while and watch what's going on. It may be enough to galvanize you into action. A White Christmas ? No Dreaming Necessary Anybody who knows anything about mc Knew I wouldn't let south eastern North Carolina's record breaking snowfall melt away with out some type of editorial comment. 1 make no bones about it I'm a Yankee who lives for the opportuni ty to observe Southerners out of their element, so to speak. If 17 inches of snow doesn't put South erners out of their element. I don't know what does. The snowfall brought Brunswick County its first "While Christmas" in more than a century. It was beau tiful for sure, but there's no denying the storm caused its share of prob lems. Let's talk first about the DOT. To say they were unequipped for the storm would be a major understate ment. TU . 1 ?1 TAAT L - J a aiv iwui UV A UUItC IUMJ UilCC snowpSows to take care of uic cnuic county. They rented some trucks and borrowed some others, but con sidering what they had to work with and the size of the storm, they did well just to get their own parking lot clear. Doug Rutfer As ii turned out, the orange-vest ed men and women did a great job op the bridges. In fact, Holden Beach Bridge ottered the best driv ing surface of all Christmas morn ing as I inched my way toward Calabash for dinner at the folks' house. Growing up in Pennsylvania, all of the kids in the neighborhood used to hate people who operated snowpiows. When the piows came ii trough, you knew you'u be going back to school the next day. I'm ashamed to admit it, but we used to ambush them with snowballs and set up huge walls of snow across the street to sec if we could keep them from getting through. Living in the South, though, I have learned to respect the people who drive snowplows. I no longer bombard them with snowballs, although I do get an annoying twitch in my right arm each time a snowplow comes into view. In general, the DOT crews did a good job clearing the roads follow ing the snowfall. But on a personal note, how about the luck of Lee Currie. He took over the top DOT post in the county about a week before the storm blew through. Like they say in show business, liming is everything. But enough about the record breaking snowfall. Let's talk about those record-brcaking cold tempera tures. It was zero degrees Christmas Day. Thai set an all-time record for low temperatures. In other wuus, that's the coldest it's ever been in our little neck of the woods since the National Weather Service start ed keeping statistics in 1871. It's hard for me 10 remember the last lime I felt air that cold. But I do rcmembci" weather even colder in Pennsylvania. I was still in high school and had gone out with some pals for a Sunday afternoon of ice skating at the local pond. Pond hockey is big in the North. Yom can't hardly drive past a pond in the winter without seeing some kids playing hockey, but we were the only ones out that afternoon. That tells you how cold it was. If I can recall ? and I don't think I'll ever forget that day ? it was well below freezing with the wind L'll C v* ..MA /uxl/4 ?,A 1 llllll IdtlUi. At nao jv wiu, nv wvuiu hardly tie our skates without our hands turning blue. Needless to say, we didn't last long. By the way, I did get to play in Brunswick Cour.Jy's record-break ing snow. I was caught without my trusty Flexible Flyer sled. But in the Sciiui, you have to V?*n an open mind and improvise. With an automobile providing the towing power, a few of us adven turesome locals scooted around a Shallottc parking lot on a boogie board. You know what they say ? necessity is the mother of invention. mvi xj ot oiu. wrtl PEOPLE WHO SET ASIDE LAND to remain in its natural state make it possible to find some of the marvels of nature. Hoorah For The Givers! BY BILL FAVER Some prognosticators tell us the new decade will be much like the last one in that we FAVER will continue to look out for our selves and try to accumulate even more. We've always tried to take care of ourselves and even with out tax advantages many of our ancestors were givers as well. We do have givers today, toe, and many of them are quite generous. At least one generous family down in South Carolina contin ues the good tradition of uie givers. These folks have deeded a sizeable piece of land to the South Carolina Nature Conservancy. They paid around S 19,000 for the land that was sought by developers for more than S10 million. When asked about the donation, this giver said, "What would I do with $10 million? A man can only drink so much liquor and he can only wear one pair of pants at a time!" He went on to say if he sold the land, he would have no place 10 walk and enjoy being in the natural environment I've talked recently with a lady who is trying to give her 100-acre dairy farm to some gioup who will pledge to maintain it as "green space." She wants it to be useful to man and nature, but she does not want it to become just another housing development. I'm sure she will find some group who will help make her wishes come- true. There are many instruments available for the givers whe waiu to "save" their land from development. There are conservation easements, land trusts, nature centers, parks and recreational uses. Wouldn't it be great if we could come up with a Brunswick County Land Trust to accept gifts of land that cannot be developed on our beaches? I'd venture that they would also receive gifts from folks who want to keep their land in its natural state. We would be assured of continuing to have green space and unspoiled nature in our county. Hoorah for the givers! LETTERS: Don't Take Volunteers For Granted To the editor: My wife and 1 bought a place near Holden Beach several years ago which we love so much and hope to retire to in a few more years. This year my brother who lives in Florida came up to Danville, Vir ginia, to spend his Christmas holi days with us. The temperature in Danville began to drop into the teens, so ear ly morning on Dec. 22 we loartrd up and headed for sunny Holden Beach. Needless to say, what started coming down that same night was what we had left Danville to get out of. It did not stop, so Sunday morn ing we started to head back to Dan ville after looking at my van which had snow up to the hood. * c* ? ? - -r i u r%* iw