Newspapers / The Brunswick beacon. / March 4, 1993, edition 1 / Page 4
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Opinion Page THE BRUNSWICKfeBEACON Edward M. Sweatt and Carolyn H. Sweatt Publishers Edward M. Sweatt Editor Lynn S. Carlson Managing Editor Susan Usher News Editor Doug Kutter Sports Editor Eric Carlson Staff Writer Peggy Earwood Office Manager Carolyn H. Sweatt Advertising Director Tlrnberley Adams, Cecelia Gore and Linda Cheers Advertising Representatives Dorothy Brennan and Brenda Clcmmons Moore ..Craphtc Artists William Manning Pressman Lonnie Sprinkle Assistant Pressman Tammle Henderson Photo Tipcfintctnri Phoebe Clemmons and Frances Sweatt Circulation PAGE 4-A, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1993 Let The Sun Shine In On New Meetings Law There's a move afoot in the state legislature to close a few loopholes through which too many elected officials have slipped. N.C. House Bill 120 would toughen the state's open meetings law (also known as the sunshine law) requiring governing boards to conduct the public's business in the public eye unless very lim ited criteria are met for closed sessions. Even though it's mostly media people you'll hear advocating the new bill, the measure would serve everyone. Some public bodies' reliance on closed meetings and secret documents is an insult and a disservice to the people who care enough to try to be come informed about the local government process. Closed sessions currently are a relative rarity among many Brunswick County and municipal boards. For this we are pleased but ever mindful that it has not always been so. With every change of administration comes a change in attitude?and not al ways toward increased openness. The bill under consideration would reduce from 20 to 3 the number of reasons public bodies can go into closed sessions. Those would be when a closed meeting is necessary: ?to prevent the disclosure of information that is privileged or confidential because of a state or federal statute or regulation; or ?to prevent the premature disclosure of an honorary degree, scholarship, prize or similar award; or ?to permit a public body to receive advice from an attorney concerning identified pending litigation in which the public body has a direct interest by reason of its status as a party or by reason of its status as the governing representative of a party. The measure would require boards to keep minutes of closed meetings for the first time. Most importantly, it would restrict the most frequent abuse of closed sessions?consultation with attor neys. For instance, one town council elsewhere in the state last year claimed attorney-client privilege in going behind closed doors to raise water and sewer rates. (They said they might get sued because the increases were so high.) Another cited attorney client privilege only to emerge and grant a business license to a pool hall. Voters and citizens deserve better; a strengthened sunshine law would give them just that. Searchin 9 Out Common Ground "Doodlebug, doodlebug, come out and get your coffee; doodlebug, dcx> dlebug. come out and get your tea." Chanting those magical words, all the while stirring inverted cones of gray sand under the shed out back, was an everyday occurrence during my childhood in Brunswick County. With any luck, a "doodlebug" would emerge near the bottom, looking like a small clot of dirt stuck in the bot tom of a dirty, cone-shaped coffec filter. Another childhood pastime wasn't so innocent. You could call it "Southport bashing," for lack of a better word. I don't know where this attitude came from, my parents or the community at large. But the alti tude persisted among most adults and children. It was a given in our area that Southport people thought (mistaken ly, of course!) they were better than anyone else in Brunswick County, creating a cultural and intellectual Suson Usher oasis among the hiekdom of rural Brunswick. Our own resentment was based in part on having to travel all the way to Southport to conduct almost any business with the county, from pay ing taxes to serving on a jury. The waterfront, Doshcr Hospital anil die Amu/c-U Theater were the few re deeming aspects of Southport, it seemed. Mutual ill feelings continued over the years, expressed in controversies over location of a county-financed hospital and relocation of county government offices to "near Boli via." At that point Smilhvillc Town ship was threatening to secede. Suffice it to say that geopolitical differences and distance, coupled with a lack of ready telephone com munication, have helped keep Brunswick County from operating with a clarity of vision or voicc. Sometimes from even trying very' hard to do so. Rural Brunswick, Resort Bruns wick anil the third Brunswick, the industrialized Lcland area and its highly mobile population. Add to that 17 towns, with more aching to form. All wanting a better future, all with different ideas of what that means. What could they possibly have in common? Friday afternoon a roomful of people representing most of Bruns wick County's 17 municipalities, the Brunswick County Schools, Bruns wick County Government and Brunswick Community College gathered at UNC-Wilmington to talk about the barriers that make cooper ation difficult and to find issues in which they share a common interest or concern. They reached agreement immediately on one: the need for a unified telephone service. Beyond that, predictably, the big E's dominated: Education, Economy and the Environment, all of which are linked. Some ideas surfaced, but there's a lot more talking to be done before a consensus of direction is reached. Times have changed; we're all growing up. My sisters both own second homes on Oak Island now, and have friends there and in Southport. I belong to a Southport club that meets weekly. If as indi viduals we can find such common ground, perhaps we can as commu nities as well. UNC-Wilmington did us a ser vice. provided a neutral forum for discussion and resources to seek out for assistance. What happens next is up to us, the people of Brunswick County. Now u/erieerb sponsors{orthis I Udc&^uttim%klat:hn. it's (jjjfw ^?ihg ^ jn^e tafcfng SOrne_ ^forr/^C^> ,/k" # 1 AlUllff*. 1+ ?yC 'U25 ftn<j Volurrfc eers ? -WF&UR? M3 CAROLINA C/tolOONS. Don't Change A Hair For Me Eric ~ \ ^ ^ > Hats off to Billy Ray Cyrus! Or "Billy Ray Cypress," as news anchor Peter Jennings called him while promoting the singer's recent TV special. Not only has this Kentucky country hoy given us the most irritating pop song since "Yummy! Yummy! Yummy! (I've Got Love In My Tummy!)" hut he has sadly re popularized the silliest hair style worn hy grown men in the past millennium. You know the one I mean. That real short-in-front, pony mil-in-back thing. Sort of a home-grown version of Davy Croc kett's coon-skin cap. The perfect hair style for men who can't decide if they want to be yuppies or hippies. As near as 1 can figure, litis "Cyrus Cut" was originated by fancy-pants Paris fashion designers. Then those arty New Yorkers adopted it, along with all-black clothing, as the hip, urban kx>k. After a brief fling as California's fad of the month, the short long haircut came to the masses via MTV. For a moment, it seemed as if this mon Carlson ** ^ src' hirsute adornment might die a proper death and be banished to fashion purgatory along with the Nehru jacket, the leisure suit and (hopefully) the lumcd-around baseball cap. Then achy hrcaky Billy came along look ing like Mel Gibson in the front and Crystal Gayle in back. Now every day you sec some otherwise handsome Tom, Dick and Harry with a cute little shoulder duster swishing across his back. Don't get me wrong. I'm generally fond of unusual hair styles, die kookier the bet ter. Weird hair is both a traditional badge of tribal membership anil a great way to make a statement of non-conformity Hie English stili use their primped and powdered wigs to identify officers of the court. The military shears the heads of new recruits to remove all traces of civilian past and remind soldiers that their bchinds be lling to Uncle Sam. Conversely, in the 1960s, people of all ages grew Uieir hair long as a banner of re bellion against the old order (inspiring a hit Broadway musical), while Black Amer icans let their hair grow into impressive "Afros" as a symbol of racial pride. The multicolored, spiked hair of die punk rockers?like their raw, buzz-saw music? symbolized revolt against the predictable monotony of the disco era. At the same time, laid-back dropouts of the period lis tened to reggae and adopted the wild, plait ed "drcadlock" hair of the Jamaican Rasialarians. And so ii goes on loday. For a while, kids had pictures and messages carved into their hair. Young African Americans grew taller and taller versions of' the lade," that cylindrical, eraser-shaped cut icminiscent of ancient Egyptian pharaohs. White kids have their own version of this, scalping themselves around the neck and ears to leave a mushroom cap of hair on top of their heads. Prctly kooky. So what. They're kids. I once had hair long enough to tuck into my pants. (Until I rolled it up in the car window one too many times.) And 1 might grow it that long again, once it finally turns completely gray. But when I do, you can he sure it will be long all over. No chickening out with a lit tle pony tail in back and a cop-out conserv ative look in front. Only legitimately bald ing men can be excused for that. Or maybe I'll do like the biker I met in a central California sushi bar. He was a huge fellow, totally bald and covered with tat toos, earrings and black leather. He was a noted expert in two tilings: panhead Harley Davidsons and little hunks of raw seafood. More than just a regular customer, his opinion on the catch of the day was highly respected by all. At his suggestion, 1 tried ycllowtail anil ahalone and found it far su perior u> the shrimp, which he warned me wasn't up to snuff that day. Still, his popularity did not account for the fact that everyone w ho saw him that day immediately knew to wish him a happy birthday. When I asked about this, he ex plained that in the past 22 years he had had exactly 22 shaves and 22 haircuts and had not spent a dime on either. Because once a year, in springtime, on his birthday, he would hack off the past year's growth of long hair, clip his 12 month-old beard and shave his face anil head. This left him closely shorn and cool dur ing the hot summer, with a bit of stylish growtii for the traditional Labor Day bike rallies. By February, he had a thick coat of fur to protect him on those chilly night rides. Then off it all came to mark another year gone. The ultimate in low-cost, low-mainte nance style with a different fashion state ment for every month of the year. And none of that achy, breaky, fakcy look. Calabash Problems LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 'An Elephant In The To the editor. During a rccent meeting of the community of Calabash, it seemed that most were more interested in questioning the credibility of our guest and who said what, when and where, than in discussing the many Complex ?*nr1 nrp^viru* whirh nri? fonng nnr rnm. munity. One means of avoiding dealing with a problem is to deny that there is a problem, and litis becomes "the problem". To rationalize that all of this is the result of a few discontents and an overly restrictive sign ordinance is not to sec the elephant in the living room. The majority district, whose association seems at Umes to run the community, seems happy and fails to understand why others refuse to jump into their "melting pot" and become like them. Some fail to understand that there is strength in cultural diversity and that cultural su periority is destructive and divisive to our community The "we have plans for Calabash" syndrome excludes a majority of individuals in our community. It's not just my community or yours. It's ours I'm concerned as anyone else about the past lax man agement of our community, and I agree that new man agement has brought many new and sweeping changes, but when the cure is worse than the disease, one has to ask whether it has been worth it. Our community has the potential and human re sources to bccome a model and a pacc-scitcr for our county. But this will never lie realiml until all share in these dreams and hopes. It's been said thai if you aren't part of the solution, you arc part of the problem. Please support our commu nilv '"V ? Anthony Clemmons Calabash Now She's Afraid Of Police To the editor: Is il against the law to do the time-honored signal of one quick Hash of your lights at another car w hen theirs seem to be bright? I have been a resident of Ocean Isle Beach since April 1992 and have always felt safe until the night of Feb. 21. I was returning home from work at Sea Trail Plantation around 10:15 p.m. About half a mile from the light at the intersection of (highways) 904 and 179, 1 saw the lights of an oncom ing car. The car's lights appeared to be on bright so, us ing the signal most drivers use to let other drivers know their lights are on bright, I Hashed my lights. The on coming car Hashed its lights to indicate that they were on dim and that 1 had made a mistake. 1 continued through the Hashing yellow caution lights at the intersection not giving any thought to the other car until il whipped back around behind mc. As wc ap proached Ocean View Baptist Church on N.C. 179, the car turned on blue lights. It appeared to be a police car. The street was dark and deserted and 1 was not sure if 1 should pull over on the spot or continue on to my resi /Icnrc, which w:im iihoiit live minutes awav One hears st> much on the news today that a woman alone in a car should not pull over for a police officer on a dark, de serted street, so I proceeded cautiously toward my home. I was only concerned for my own safety, and I had no idea as to why I was being stopped. I put my turning sig nal on to show that I was going down my street. As I did this, the police car turned on a siren. I proceeded cau tiously to my house where I stopped. When I reached my home, we both stepped out of our cars. I, at first, was relieved to sec a woman police offi cer. I was sure she would understand my reason for not stopping. That relief was short lived as she began de manding to know why 1 did not slop. I explained that I didn't feel safe. She was very rude and belligerent. She threatened to put mc in jail because not stopping right away for a blue light is a two-year misdemeanor. She then offered me a deal: either take a ticket for not dimming my lights or go to jail. I tix)k the ticket, even though I did dim my lights after a quick flash. She also told me the only reason she was not inking Living Room' mc to jail was bccausc of my fiancc. 1 assume this was bccause my fiancc's brother used to work on the force with her. 'Hie police officer is a Sunset Beach police officer. I was embarrassed in front of my neighbors. The front of mv house looked like -a crime sccne, as two more policc cars patrolled the street during the confrontation. 1 used to feel safe on Sunset and Ocean Isle Beaches, but not anymore. 1 am not afraid of criminals, but the police. I never thought I would be threatened and treated like a criminal for putting my safety first. Thaycl Musselwhite Ocean Isle Beach (More Letters, Following Page) Write Us The beacon welcomes letters to the editor. AH letters must be signed and include the writer's address and telephone number. Mailing addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Under no circum stances will unsigned letters be printed. Letters should be legible. We reserve the right to edit libelous comments. Address letters to I he Brunswick beacon, P. O. Box 2558, Shallotte, N. C. 28459.
March 4, 1993, edition 1
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