Newspapers / The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, … / March 11, 1993, edition 1 / Page 4
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Opinion Page THE BRUNSWICK&BEACON Edward M. Sweatt and Carolyn H. Sweatt Pidiltshers Edward M. Sweatt Editor Lynn S. Carlson Managing Editor Susan Usher News Editor Doug Rutter Sports Editor Eric Carlson Stajf Writer Peggy Earwood OJJlce Manager Carolyn H. Sweatt Advertising Director Tlmberley Adams. Cecclla Gore and Linda Cheers Advertising Representatives Dorothy Brennan and Brenda Clemmons Moore ..Graphic Artists William Manning Pressman Lonnie Sprinkle Assistant Pressman Tammie Henderson Photo Technician Phoebe Clemmons and Frances Sweatt Circulation PAGE 4-A, THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1993 Time To Swim Against The Politics Of Division Politics as usual? Yes, but with more?more division, more exclusion, more venom and more sour grapes. And with less? much less than the vision and forthrightness which generally characterized the recently departed all-Republican county board of commissioners. That was the upshot of last weekend's Brunswick County Republican Party convention, in which thankfully the voice of reason?weak though it was?prevailed against attempts by the resolutions committee to tak? cheap shots at the legislators and education leaders among whose ranks voters declined to place two of the committee's three members last November. It is to the credit of the majority of the 1(X) or so GOP faithful who attended Saturday's convention that they chose to eliminate language from the party resolutions accusing Brunswick County educators of teaching our children "1,001 ways to have sex"?a ridiculous assertion, hyperbolically phrased?and attacking Senator R.C. Soles and Representative Redwine as for their ex pressed willingness to bring the overblown Calabash "divorce" issue to a referendum. Perhaps the attack on the Democratic legislators could have been anticipated and rationalized. They are public officials and, as such, can reasonably be expected to artfully dodge the bullets of the opposing party. But it was inappropriate and unforgivable to place Brunswick County's educational deficiencies solely in the laps of teachers and administrators battling a social climate whose diseased roots spring from a farther place than the school house door. The deleted verbiage criticized educators for "training our children to be self-centered and focused on their 'feelings' and 'rights,' while the resulting resolution nonetheless demanded that teachers concentrate on "imparting of knowledge and the build ing and reinforcing of good citizenship and character," as if the foundations of gocxi citizenship and upright character can be di vorced from the feelings and rights of individuals. Teachers can only be expected to provide the building blocks of knowledge; it is parents who are failing at providing the examples. Sadly enough, there's not much indication at this point that next month's Democratic convention will be any more encourag ing or positive-spirited. The currently seated Democratically con trolled county commissioners have demonstrated little so far ex cept a facility for conducting half-hour public meetings and in spiring widespread paranoia among county employees who are waiting for the hatchets to start flying. If you believe the Brunswick rumor mill, they do so with the blessing, if not the en couragement, of the Democratic party leadership. There's an old political stump joke whose punchline is "I know what you're agin', but what're you fer?" The convening Republicans made it clear that they are "agin" the way teachers teach, the way legislators legislate and the way everyone thinks and feels who doesn't think and feel as they do. The Democrats in power?at least those with seats on the county board?are apparently concentrating on being "agin" the county employees whose names are reputed to be on their hit list. We haven't seen much yet that they're "fer." Meanwhile, too many Brunswick Countians with vision and commitment to offer are electing to remain outside the county party system rather than to swim against the heavy surf of acri mony, recrimination and cronyism. It's time they took the plunge. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Most Want Calabash To Remain One Town To the editor: Calabash's trash law does not bother the ordinary citizen, only the business people, and then 1 don't be lieve all the business people. Most of the citizens take their trash to the town dumpsters. This is a saving in taxes; otherwise our tax es would be higher to accommodate the businesses who have the most trash. If they feel they are being treated unfairly because they have to pay for private trash pick-up, then may be they can put on their menus, "a 25-cent charge will be added to your bill to help trash the food you leave on your plate." Now this is only in jest, so ycu can see how silly this problem is. As far as ordinances are con cerned, those interested should take a ride up N.C. 179 through Calabash and see the great improvement since all the monster signs were forced to be removed by a sign ordinance. It is true, Sen. R.C. Soles has been asked to intervene in the di vorce of old Calabash from Carolina Shores. The majority want the town to stay as it is. It seems the problem is coming from people who own businesses in Calabash and do not live in Calabash. Mr. Soles is only representing a few and is using his power ihe way he sees fit, not as the majority would like him to represent us. Is he being paid off by someone to tell us that he will introduce his bill to the legislature and if he does, it will pass? Now that's power. Most of the articles written by re porters on the problems of Calabash are not written to represent the ma jority, only one person's opinion. 1 believe we can all get along as soon as we let the few who keep making the problems go along with the peo ples' wants. And this is for old Cala bash and Carolina Shores. We're a great community and we can only get better in time. Helen Morrison Calabash (More Letters, Following Page) Write Us The Beacon welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must be signed and include the writer's address and telephone number. We reserve the right to edit libelous comments. For The Love Of The Silver Screen I'm a feisty young heiress, suffo cating under my family's rigid stan dards of propriety. In the midst of a tantrum, I dive from our yacht, swim safely to shore and hop a bus. On the lam, I meet a streetwise, hand somc-tc-dic-for newspaperman who saves me from a masher and, unbe knownst to me, schcmcs to take me under his wing just so he can get the scoop on my story and prove he's not washed up as a reporter. We end up having to share a tour ist cabin somewhere down South, where he strings a blanket between the twin beds and calls it "the wall of Jcrico." He loans me a pair of his jammics. He takes off his shirt and I try not to swoon. After 90 minutes of mishap and madcap, I'm wise to him. And I am furious. Nonetheless, we manage to straighten out the whole kooky mess, confess our undying love for each other and live happily ever af ter. For an hour an a half, I can be Claudettc Colbert, with her pincurls and mischievous eyes, in Ii Hap pened One Night. The 1934 film swept the Academy Awards, win ning best picture, with Colbert and Clark Gable taking the acting honors and Frank Capra, the best director award. The next time one movie took all the the big four was 1975 when One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest won best picture, Milos Forman was Lynn Carlson / named best director, and best perfor mance by a leading actor and actrcss went to Jack Nicholson and Louise Flctchcr. It didn't happen again until last year when The Silence of the Lambs ?Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, director Jonathan Demme and the picture?won it all. I love the movies. And although bundling up on the couch with a re mote control and a stack of video tapes can constitute a perfectly ade quate winter weekend activity, this doesn't make up for the fact that THERE IS NO MOVIE THEATRE IN THE SOITh BRUNSWICK IS LANDS!!!! Ordinarily I manage not to dwell on this unfortunate fact, rationaliz ing that there there arc lots of places I wouldn't be caught dead living in that have a half-dozen cineplexes and not a single ocean. But the Acadcmy Awards are coming up, so it seems an appropri ate time to implore all you prospec live investors and entrepreneurs out there to give a little consideration to a venture in cinema for this burg. Sure, there arc easier ways to make a buck than running a movie house, but if that kind of thinking pre vailed, there wouldn't be any restau rants around here, cither. If you build it, we wi!! come. In the meantime, here's a con densed chronology of some of the Oscars' golden years, just to whet your appetite for the awards, on the off chance you've seen any of this year's nominated movies. (The only one I've seen is The Crying Game, but it was apparently the one to catch if you could only catch one.) You might be surprised to be re minded how many great films were made in some years. You might be inspired to rent some of these clas sics or tape them off the late-late show. Or you might just reveal your advancing age, like I do, by squawk ing about how they just don't make 'em like they used to. I know and love every one of these. Here goes: ? 1945: Ray Miland in The Lost Weekend, Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce. ? 1947: Edmund Gwenn in Mir acle on 34ih Street, Elia Kazan for directing Gentleman's Agreement, Loreua Young in The Farmer's Daughter, Ronald Coleman in A Double Life. ? 1948: Laurence Olivicr's Ham let, Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda. John Huston for directing and his fa ther Walter Huston for starring in Treasure of the Sierra Madre; Claire Trevor as a gin-soaked gangster moll with a heart of gold in Key Largo. ? HJ4Q- Rrodrrirk Crawford ac 3 thinly-disguised Hucy Long in All the King's Men, Olivia deHaviland in The Heiress, Joseph L. Mank icwicz for directing A Letter to Three Wives. ?In 1951, Bogie in The African Queen; Vivien Leigh, Karl Maiden and Kim Hunter in A Streetcar Named Desire; director George Stevens for A Place in the Sun\ and An American in Paris as best pic ture. ? 1962: Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird, Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker, Ed Begley in Sweet Bird of Youth, Lawrence of Arabia as best picture. ? 1967: Rod Stciger in In the Heat of the Night (also best picture), Katherine Hepburn in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, George Ken nedy in Cool Hand Luke, Estelle Parsons in Bonnie and Clyde, direc tor Mike Nichols for The Graduate. ? 1976: Peter Finch and Fayc Dunaway in Network, Jason Ro bards in All The President's Men, and best picture Rocky. Now that's entertainment! (fyrrfawie. Bombs. Hostoqes./^jr^er^ majhem. Jifc'sgetQq where X hate-bo eifcn-fcurnon Spinning RIIINGG!.."Hello." "Pssssssst! Guess what I heard!" "Surprise me." "Well, I've got this friend who works at the nuclear plant. He told me there is a secret tank down there where they keep a giant flounder that got sucked through the cooling pipes and into the reactor. It grew to the size of a stealth bomber!" "Uh huh. And what's this guy's name? I'd like to talk to him." CLICK! Yoii d be amazed how many pe rnors you hear at a newspaper office. Trouble is, we usually can't sub stantiate them. And we can't print them as news stories until we're sure they arc true. But some rumors are hard to ignore. RIIINGG!..."Hello." "Psssssst! Guess what I heard!" "How many guesses?" "No. Really. Have you ever won dered why the Brunswick County government complex looks like a bomb shelter? Because it's really a secret CIA project to communicate with UFOs! "If you look at it from outer space, when all the construction is done, the buildings will spell out LAND HERE?FREE BEER." "Really? And when arc the aliens coming?" CLICK! After hearing a rumor like that, some folks would start mounting an ti-aircraft guns on their roof at the first sign of an L-shaped foundation being poured in Bolivia. Others would swear the rumor wasn't true even if they saw 20 drunken Martians having a keg party in the health department parking lot. Likewise, journalists, broadcast ers, publications and TV shows vary widely in their gullibility and their ? ? - 1 -r #? Yarns Down At The Rumor Mill Eric Carlson i willingness to represent a juicy ru mor as fact. Which is why news magazines run the gamut from "The Econo mist" to the "National Enquirer" and television news shows range from "The MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour" to "Geraldo." I've always worked for newspa pers that had enough integrity not to print rumors as news stories. So for years, I have had to listen to all those calls and keep all those juicy rumors to myself. But now 1 have my own newspa per column. A forum where 1 can spread rumors, voice ridiculous opinions and make up anything I want. A place where (to paraphrase the renowned Dr. Hunter S. Thomp son) "only a lunatic would write this stuff and claim it's all true!" Which is a long-winded way of saying: "Pssssssst! Guess what 1 heard!" Right after the November elec tion, when the Democratic Party won a majority on the Brunswick Board of Commissioners, 1 started getting these phone calls about terri ble things that would soon happen in county government Being new to the area, 1 assumed these rumors were the typical after math of a political campaign. I lis tened, jotted down some notes and figured it would all blow over. But it hasn't. 1 keep hearing the same rumors. And 1 see puzzling ev idence that some of them may be true. Not enough to call these ru mors news. But enough to pass them on, so you can watch what's hap pening and decide for yourself. The first big rumor was that the local Democratic Party REALLY wants to get rid of County Man ager/Attorney David Clegg. This has always seemed ridicu lous to me, since lie is a Democrat who obviously knows a whole lot more about county government than any of them do. But perhaps that's the problem. It seems the party big-wigs have put serious pressure on their com missioners to fire Clegg. Evidently, they are still doing so. They've been trying to get area newspapers to do stories about how much it costs the county in outside legal fees to de fend itself against lawsuits brought by former employees and contrac tors. They want the board to use this publicity as an excuse to dump the county attorney. However, they fail to mention that one of those suits was defended (and settled) by the county's insurance company. And in the other case, Clegg did not serve as counsel because he was called as a witness. Another rumor has it that certain people want Clegg out of the way so the commissioners can handle some of these lawsuits out of court, thus allowing the plaintiffs to receive big cash settlements without having to spend their own money on costly (and very possibly futile) court ac tion. Several of my rumor callers say Clegg is standing in the way of ef forts to hand out political patronage jobs and is merely the first narne on a long hit-list of county employees that the board is under pressure to replace. Others include County En gineer Robert Tucker, Parks and Recreation Director Bobby Jones and Commissioners Clerk Kelly Barefoot. Why Ihey might be targeting these people is unclear to me. Rumor has it that there arc old grudges against some of these folks. Others need to be moved out of the way so laithful Democrats (includ ing a former commissioner) can get county jobs. Because some of these positions arc protected by the county person nel policy, the only legal way the firings can take place is by eliminat ing the positions and creating new jobs for new employees. So keep an eye out at budget time. You might see the county en gineer replaced by a new "Director of Things Formerly Done by the County Engineer." The Parks and Recreation Department could be eliminated in favor of a "Depart ment of Games and Grassy Places." Instead of an Operation Services Director, we may have a "Heavy Equipment Czar." Meanwhile, other folks tell me to start wearing a flak jacket in the sheriff's department offices once the next election campaign rolls around. It sounds like everyone there is go ing to be running for sheriff except the sheriff, who will probably be running away to Florida until it's all over. I've also heard that... Wait. I've got another call com ing in. RIIINGG..."Hello." "Pssssssst! Guess what I heard..."
The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, N.C.)
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March 11, 1993, edition 1
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