Opinion Page
THI BRUNSWICK feBtACON
Edward M. Sweatt and Carolyn H. Sweatt Publishers
Edward M. Sweatt Editor
Lynn S. Carlson Managing Editor
Susan Usher News Editor
Doug Rutter Sports Editor
Eric Carlson Staff Writer
Mary Potts and Peggy Earwood Office Managers
Carolyn H. Sweatt Advertising Director
Tlmbcrley Adams. Cecelia Gore
and Linda Cheers Advertising Representatives
Dorothy Brennan and Brenda Clemmons Moore ..Graphic Artists
William Manning Pressman
Lonnle Sprinkle Assistant Pressman
David White Photo Technician
PAGE 4 -A, THURSDAY. DECEMBER 16, 1993
Safety Project Deserves All
The Help We Can Give It
It's a shame that public schools are in a position to need to
teach children how to get along with others in a nonviolent fash
ion, but it's an unfortunate reality of our current world.
For that reason, we wish the Brunswick County schools great
success with a $100,000 grant from the State Board of Education
for five school safety-related projects involving about half the
schools in our district.
Some may argue that Brunswick County schools, with acade
mic statistics that are nothing to brag about, should concentrate
ail their efforts on traditional classroom subjects. To do so would
be to overlook the fact that poor communication skills, fear and
anger create an environment where learning ? much less nurtur
ing a love for learning ? becomes impossible.
The projects will emphasize ways to teach students how to
resolve conflicts verbally rather than by resorting to violence; ex
panding a peer mediation program into all middle schools and
high schools; holding workshops on coping and conflict resolu
tion for parents; starting a bus safety program; and taking steps to
promote understanding of cultural differences. If you doubt any
one of those issues to be a problem in Brunswick County, you
haven't been reading the crime reports and court dispositions re
ported every week in this newspaper.
Conflicts that begin in school erupt into the community at
large, and the number of school-age Brunswick Countians in
grown-up-size trouble continues to rise. For that reason, it is
heartening that the proposal received endorsement from, and
calls for participation by, numerous community agencies such as
the sheriff's department and Drug Abuse Resistance Education
(DARE). The program's only chance is if it supported not just by
educators but by parents and other authority figures in the com
munity.
Also encouraging is the fact that there's more to the plan than
just "touchy-feely" talk sessions. Part of the money will go to
ward a camera and camera boxes for school bus monitoring of
passenger behavior to help get the goods on habitual trouble
makers and make them take responsibility for their actions.
As long as parents continue to abdicate their responsibility,
educators have no choice but to do the best they can as surro
gates, if for no other reason than to protect responsible students
so they may get the education they need and deserve. The pro
gram deserves all the support and help the community can give.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Quarry No Public Works
Project For Area Citizens
To the editor:
Pat Newton's plaintive letter to
the editor would have us believe that
the proposed Martin Marietta quarry
is a public works project to alleviate
the suffering of the gravel-starved
citizens of Brunswick County. All
we have to do is sacrifice a few
lizards and a woodpecker or two.
In reality, the ill-conceived quarry
plans are an assault upon our quality
of life. The sacrifices will be 3.6 bil
lion gallons of groundwater per
year, 1,300 acres of downstream es
tuary, and the freshwater wetlands in
and around the site. In addition, lo
cal residents and tourists will have
to pick their way through a gauntlet
of gravel trucks every day.
Martin Marietta obviously doesn't
have a clue about possible effects on
the nearby munitions depot and two
nuclear reactors. CP&L apparently
has a clue since it has now requested
the Department of Environment,
Health and Natural Resources to de
ny the permit and recognize the
company as an "affected person" in
Martin Marietta's application.
Some people may choose to be
lieve the condescending propaganda
that Martin Marietta publishes in ex
pensive two-page ads in the newspa
per, but some of us retain a very
healthy skepticism.
Carey D. (Dick) Aldridge
Southport
Brierwood Helps
To the editor:
Again, for the eighth straight year,
members of Brierwood Golf Club
and residents of Brierwood Estates
participated in their annual "Help
for the Needy" drive on Saturday,
Dec. 11.
Brierwood volunteers Morris
Hall, Straud Maerker, Jack Causer.
Neal McCall, Gene Loflin, Bob
Tompkins, Hugh McCullough. Bur
ley Athan and yours truly collected
and delivered five packed truckloads
of clothes, food, toys and cash
($225) to the Volunteer and Infor
mation Center at the Brunswick
County Complex in Bolivia for dis
tribution to the needy families at
Christmas time.
As always, the happy ending to an
undertaking such as this is that it
will be a more wonderful holiday
season for both ? not only for those
that received, but for those that gave
as well.
Jimmy Simpson
Brierwood
(More Letters, Following Page)
Write Us
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editor. Letters must include your
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must be typed or written legibly.
Address letters to:
The Brunswick Beacon
P.O. Box 2558
Shallotte NC 28459
Anonymous letters will not be
published.
Worth Repeating...
? Violence does not and cannot exist by itself; is is invariably in
tertwined with the lie.
? Alexander Solzhenitsyn
' Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
? Dylan Thomas
New Laws Won't Control The Lawless
Wayne LaRierre, CEO
The National Rifle Association
1600 Rhode Island Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
Dear Mr. Lapierre:
Enclosed you will find a $25
check for a one-year membership in
the National Rifle Association. I re
alize I could have signed up by call
ing your "instant member hotline"
(I-800-231-4NRA). but I wanted to
contact you personally and let you
know why I made this decision.
I've been a gun owner since age
12, when I purchased a single-shot
.22 rifle with money I earned deliv
ering newspapers. My dad was an
avid hunter, a gun collector and an
NRA member who taught me how
to shoot and how to handle guns
safely. He also bought me a junior
membership in the NRA.
As a teenager I advanced through
the NRA rifle program ? from
marksman to expert ? under the su
pervision of our local Police Ben
evolent Association. I also competed
on their rifle team and earned my
NRA "Safe Hunter" certification.
My NRA membership went unre
newed when I went away to college.
Since I graduated and embarked on
a journalism career, I haven't paid
much attention to the battle over
Second Amendment rights. Until
now.
Yesterday afternoon, a sociopath
bent on mass murder killed five peo
ple and injured 20 others on a
crowded Long Island, N.Y., com
muter train. The early news accounts
were unable to identify the killer or
to explain his motive. So instead,
they placed the blame on his
weapon.
The TV news anchor, using prop
er broadcasting style, "punched out"
all the right buzzwords for the audi
ence to remember: "The killer used
a 9mm SEMI-AUTOMATIC hand
gun with a HIGH-CAPACITY CLIP
loaded with HOLLOW-POINT
BULLETS."
Then, almost in the same breath,
the announcer comforted viewers by
noting that legislation has been intro
duced in Congress to LICENSE
handgun owners, to RAN high-ca
pacity magazines and to RESTRICT
the sale of hollow-point ammunition.
I was not comforted. I was
alarmed: By the ignorance (I hope),
the laziness (I assume) and the intent
(I suspect) of fellow journalists who
consistently distort the issue of vio
lence in America as it relates to gun
ownership.
The murderer in this case had no
criminal record. He could have pur
chased a weapon anywhere. There is
every indication he would have qua
lified for a handgun license. As it is,
he bought a gun in California after
complying with the state's 15-day
waiting period.
This man was determined to kill
and would have carried as many
clips as necessary ? regardless of ca
pacity ? to complete his insane mis
sion. Or he could have blown up the
train and killed everyone aboard.
(Did anyone suggest tighter controls
on explosives after the World Trade
Center bombing?)
The killer used hollow-point bul
lets designed to provide maximum
stopping power by expanding lo re
main inside the body. If he had fired
30 to 50 rounds of fully-jacketed
ammunition into that crowd, some
of those bullets would have passed
through his intended victims and
maimed or killed even more people.
Opponents of gun ownership
choose not to be confused by such
facts. Like all law-abiding firearms
owners, they are justifiably shocked
and frightened by the level of vio
lence in America. And they are like
wise frustrated with government's
inability to stop the carnage.
Both sides have the same goal ?
to prevent the violent use of fire
arms. Anti-crime advocates want to
give police and prosecutors the
means to strictly enforce laws ag
ainst those who use guns to commit
crimes. They want to imprison the
criminal while allowing the rest of
us to remain free.
Gun opponents want to control
the lawless by passing more laws.
But if we can't enforce existing
laws, new legislation will only re
strict the law-abiding while allowing
criminals to operate freely.
This point was driven home with
sparkling clarity when I accompa
nied Brunswick County narcotics
officers on a round-up of indicted
drug dealers. During one of the ar
rests, detectives found a loaded
SKS-56 semi-automatic rifle in a car
that reeked of marijuana smoke.
1 asked the officer if he planned to
run a records check on the gun own
er, assuming that they could hold
him for prosecution if he turned out
to be a convicted felon. After all,
there's a federal law against that.
The detective just chuckled and
said it wasn't worth the trouble, be
cause the Bureau of Alcohol, To
bacco and Firearms doesn't have
time to bother with such "minor" of
fenses.
So. under the proposed new gun
laws, an agency that won't enforce
existing laws against a felon armed
with a so-called "assault rifle" in an
open-air drug market will be in
charge of testing and licensing all
handgun owners while trying to con
trol the illegal bullets and ammuni
tion clips.
(All this from the bureau that
proved so effective against the
Branch Davidian cult in \\hco,
Texas.)
How many violent criminals are
likely to apply for a gun license?
Are they going to hand over their
high-capacity clips and hollow-point
bullets? Or will these new black
market products be smuggled and
sold and fought over just like crack
cocaine?
There are many places in America
where police cannot guarantee the
public safety. Are we really going to
pass laws to prohibit the public from
protecting themselves with the
weapons that criminals already
have?
Gun opponents want legislators to
believe passage of the much-bally
hooed Brady Bill indicates a majori
ty of Americans are prepared to give
up their Constitutional right "to keep
and bear arms."
I don't believe it. And for that
reason, after 20 years, I am renew
ing my membership in the NRA. I
hope a flood of similar requests will
send a message resounding through
the halls of Congress.
Sincerely,
Eric Carlson
P.S. How about sending me some
information about the voting record
of our local Congressman Charlie
Rose (D-7th District) on crime and
gun control issues. I'd like to pass it
on to our readers.
@im
CftPoup/A
CfWTOrfi
? I" ^ ?
Letters From Kitty Hawk ? The Wright Stuff
KITTY HA WK DEC 1 7 1 903
SUCCESS FOUR FLIGHTS
THURSDAY MORNING ALL
AGAINST TWENTY-ONE-MILE
WIND STARTED FROM LEVEL
WITH ENGINE POWER ALONE
AVERAGE SPEED THROUGH
AIR THIRTY-ONE MILES
LONGEST FIFTY-SEVEN SEC
ONDS INFORM PRESS HOME
CHRISTMAS
Ninety years ago this Friday,
Orville Wright telegraphed those
words to his father from the Kitty
Hawk Weather Station, more than
three years after he and Wilbur be
gan their glider experiments on the
then-desolate dunes of the Outer
Banks of North Carolina.
It was around 10:35 a.m. when
Orville first lifted the brothers' fly
ing machine off the track under its
own power, a scene captured in the
famous photograph by John T. Dan
iels of Manteo.
Orville flew 100 feet in 12 sec
onds. Wilbur went next, then Orv
ille, then Wilbur again, covering 862
feet in 57 seconds on the last try.
As soon as the brothers and their
helpers had called it a day, a gust of
wind flipped the flying machine and
slammed it into the sand, causing
considerable damage to the history
making craft.
It didn't matter; the Wrights, nei
ther of whom held a high school
diploma, had proved what Wilbur
boasted three days earlier. "There is
now no question of final success."
This year's commemoration at the
Wright Brothers National Memorial
will surely be a gala, it being the
kickoff of the 10-year countdown to
the centennial. But 1 can't honestly
say I'll miss being there.
I covered commemorations num
ber 75, 77, 78, 79 and 80 for two
Dare County newspapers. The cere
monies could have been truly mov
ing except for one thing. Dec. 17 is
inevitably the coldest day of the year
out there on the windswept grounds
of (he Wright Memorial.
If the heavens are clear and you
Lynn
Carlson
know just where to squint, you can
see the ghosts of Orville and Wilbur
howling with laughter as thousands
of commemorators' legs turn blue
and noses burn crimson in the slic
ing 20-knot north wind.
You see, the brothers got their
own taste of just how bitter it could
be out there. They first heard from
Capt. Bill Tate, Kitty Hawk post
master and county commissioner, on
Aug. 18, 1900:
I would say that you would find
here nearly any type of ground you
could wish; you could, for instance,
get a stretch of sandy land one mile
by five with a bare hill in the center
80 feet high, not a tree or bush any
where to break the evenness of the
wind current. This in my opinion
would be a fine place; our winds
are always steady, generally from
10 to 20 miles velocity per hour.
And later in the letter, a warning:
Don't wait until November. The
autumn generally gets a little rough
by November.
Just days later, Wilbur arrived on
the Tate doorstep. Orville followed
with their gear and the parts of a
glider. They set up a tent camp on a
high ridge between the sound and
ocean just south of Kitty Hawk
Village, an area I believe is now a
golf course. Wilbur wrote his father:
The ground here is a very fine
sand with no admixture of loam
that the eye can detect, yet they at
tempt to raise beans, corn, turnips,
etc., on it. Their success is not
great, but it is a wonder that they
can raise anything at all.
Wilbur was an aviation pioneer;
there was no reason to have expect
ed him to foresee the land's potential
to grow golf course grasses...
Orville to his sister:
You never saw such poor pitiable
looking creatures as the horses,
hogs and cows are down here. The
only things that thrive and grow fat
are the bedbugs, mosquitoes and
wood ticks.
(Later, of course, joined by real
estate developers and tourists.)
Wilbur again:
But the sand. The sand is the
greatest thing in Kilty Hawk, and
soon will be the only thing. The site
of our lent was formerly a fertile
valley, cultivated by some ancient
Kitty Hawker. The sea has washed
and the wind blown millions and
millions of loads of sand up in
heaps along the coast, completely
covering houses and forest. Mr.
Tate is now tearing down the near
est house to our camp to save it
from the sand.
Oct. 18, 1900, from Orville:
When one of these 45 -mile
nor'easters strikes us, you can de
pend on it, there is little sleep in
our camp for the night. Expect an
other tonight. We have just passed
through one which took up two or
three wagonloads of sand from the
northeast end of our tent and piled
it up eight inches deep on the flying
machine, which we had anchored
about 50 feet southwest....
When we crawl out of the tent to
fix things outside, the sand fairly
blinds us. It blows across the
ground in clouds. We certainly
can't complain of the place. We
came down here for wind and sand,
and we have got them.
That autumn, and the next three,
the Wrights would tough it out on
the Outer Banks, leaving in winter
to return to Dayton to attend to their
bicycle business.
In 1901, they built a second glid
er, larger and with many improve
ments. In 1902, there was still a big
ger and better craft than the one be
fore; with it they made more than
1,000 gliding flights in two months.
some more than 600 feel.
Aviation enthusiasts from all over
the world visited their camp, now
relocated in sheds a few miles south
at Kill Devil Hill, to take part in ex
periments and argue flight theory
late into the night.
Back in Dayton, the Wrights be
gan experimenting with gas-pow
ered motors for their glider. By the
time those trials began, the brothers,
both in their 30s, had broken all
world gliding records, compiled the
first accurate charts of wind resis
tance, built the first wind tunnel in
which types of aircraft wings had
been tested, and built the most effi
cient glider in history.
When they returned to the Outer
Banks in September 1903, every
thing went wrong. They faced snow,
screaming winds, equipment break
downs and experiment failures.
Orville had to leave in late Nov
ember to take a broken propeller
shaft back to Dayton to be fixed. He
returned just six days before he and
his brother would preside over one
of the most profound turning points
in human history.
I used to live just north of the
Wright Monument. I rocked my ba
by in the wee hours of many morn
ings while gazing out the window
over the floodlit granite obelisk atop
Kill Devil Hill.
I used to go there and climb the
hill to look eastward to the Atlantic,
west to Kitty Hawk Bay and north
over flat, sandy subdivisions where
at the turn of the century stood the
shifting dunes that threatened Capt.
Tate's house.
I'd stand inside the replica of the
windowless shed where the brothers
bunked, where Orville prepared
their meager meals and the two shiv
ered under blankets and wrote their
letters by lantern light.
In there, it seemed perfectly ap
propriate to wish for a little magic ?
for a molecule or two of Wilbur and
Orville's brilliance, tenacity and vi
sion to rub off on me in that wonder
ful spartan place.