Opinion Page
THE BKUNSWKICfcfEACON
Edward M. Sweatt and Carolyn H. Swcatt .Publishers
Lynn Sweatt Carlson Editor
Susan Usher News Editor
Doug Rutter Sports Editor
Eric Carlson Staff Writer
Mary Potts & Peggy Earwood Office Managers
Morrcy Thomas Advertising Director
Linda Cheers and Anne Tat urn Advertising Representatives
Dorothy Brennan * Rtwjda Clssses: Moors CraptiSc Artiaia
William Manning Pressman
Lonnie Sprinkle Assistant Pressman
PAGE 4 -A, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1994
The Hope Of The Season
Can Live In All Hearts
My soul, there is a country
Far beyond the stars
Where stands a winged sentry
All skillful in the wars:
There, above noise and danger,
Sweet Peace is crown 'd with smiles,
And One born in a manger
Commands the beauteous files.
Henry Vaughn wrote that soothing verse in 1650, and nearly
three and one-half centuries later it as much as ever exemplifies
the hope of the birth of Jesus Christ to believers throughout the
world.
The modern American Christmas season has evolved into a
time seemingly fraught with more frenzy and envy than peace
and good will. It illustrates and sharpens the paradox that exists
in man's willingness to share and his capacity to covet during this
season that sends both charity and crime on the rise. Maybe it's
all part of the grand plan that we have this annual ritual to remind
us of the best and worst we can be ? that where love and hope
live, cruelty and desperation may always lurk but never flourish.
These days especially it serves us to keep close in our minds
the imagery of the manger and its promise that children born in
even the meanest of circumstances possess the potential to rise
above. If, that is, we do our best to encourage more quickly than
condemn, to contemplate as enthusiastically as we preach, to take
responsibility when it's easier to blame, to realize that anyone's
child is everyone's child.
Therein lies a balance to the evils that divert our attention
from the good deeds and good souls who exist among us, who al
ways have and always will.
May the hope of the season live in your heart.
Welfare Reform Must
Confront Welfare Reality
BY MICHAEL L. WALDEN
As welfare reform is being considered at both the national and state lev
els, most parties in the debate agree on three objectives for the welfare sys
tem:
It is generally agreed the welfare system should:
3 encourage work and eventual self-sufficiency by welfare recipients;
? encourage intact two-parent families; and
? encourage personal development and entrepreneurship by recipients.
The current welfare system doesn't meet these objectives. In fact, one
could scarcely design a system that does more to discourage work, intact
families and entrepreneurship.
Any reform to the welfare system will have to address the following dis
incentives in the current system.
Today's welfare system discourages work by recipients in three ways.
First is the reduction in welfare benefits that occurs when the welfare recipi
ent works more and earns more money.
Certainly we as taxpayers would expect welfare benefits to be lower for
recipients who earn more money. But a typical welfare recipient in North
Carolina will net only 35 to 45 cents for every extra dollar earned when the
reduction in welfare program benefits is taken into account. These numbers
are derived after taking into consideration the benefits from the earned in
come tax credit, and they imply a "implicit tax rate" for welfare recipients as
high as that for he richest taxpayer in the country.
The second way the current welfare system discourages work is by he
loss of paid child care when he recipient earns "too much."
For example, in North Carolina a single mother with two children will
lose Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)-paid day care after a
transitional period of one year when her earnings reach $8,000 annually. At
such earnings levels, this family would clearly be better off working less and
continuing to receive state-paid child care.
The third disincentive is the loss in Medicaid benefits then the welfare
recipient reaches a certain earnings level. Medicaid benefits will continue
for a one-year transitional period, but after that, they are abruptly ended.
Again, if the job doesn't provide medical benefits, clearly the welfare recipi
ent can be better off not working and continuing to receive Medicaid.
Intact two-parent families are discouraged by today's welfare system by
the "100 hear rale." This rule says that a two-parent household is ineligible
for cash welfare payments (AFDC) if one of the parents works more than
100 hours per month, regardless of how much the parent earns.
The same rule is not applied to one-parent households. Obviously, this
rule can encourage the breakup of the two-parent household in order to
make one of the parents, along with the children, eligible for cash welfare
payments.
Finally, the current welfare system does all it can to discourage frugality,
self-improvement and entrepreneurship among welfare recipients. The sys
tem does this by imposing severe limits on savings and asset accumulation
for welfare families.
For example, to be eligible for the cash welfare program (AFDC), a
household can't have more than $1,000 in savings and can't have a car
worth more than $1,500. This obviously, discourages welfare families from
saving for college or other training, from developing a home business, and
in rural North Carolina, it inhibits their access to jobs.
The reality in welfare today is that the system encourages recipient fami
lies to remain on welfare by making it unattractive to work, simply in terms
of dollars and cents. ?
When welfare families look at the loss of program benefits and possibly
he loss of child care and Medicaid when they work more, the results fre
quently clearly show that working more is not financially attractive.
Reformers of the welfare system will have to address these issues.
Reformers can move in two possible directions.
They can make work more attractive by making welfare less attractive,
that is, by significantly reducing welfare program benefits and/or limiting
them in duration.
Alternatively, reformers can make welfare less attractive by making
work more attractive, by reducing welfare benefits at a slower pace when re
cipients work more, by extending the transitional periods for child care and
Medicaid, and by expanding asset and savings limits.
The debates over these alternative directions have just begun.
Dr. Walden is a professor and N.C. Cooperative Extension Service
specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at
N.C. State University. He is also a member of the Governor 's Welfare
Reform Task Force.
Of Red Christmas Bows And Refuqe
This time of year, she made red
bows.
The machine, which looked
something like a film projector, was
positioned directly in front of "As
the World Turns," "The Secret
Storm" and "The Edge of Night" ?
the "stories" my Aunt Nora watched
faithfully, though never idly.
She was busy competently dis
pensing with hundreds of household
i<?k;> and making Christmas pack
age bows, one at a time ? not the
stick-on type but the old-fashioned
kind with a clear plastic pin you
pushed through the wrapping paper
and lid of your gift box.
It was piecework she did for a lo
cal department store.
The machine held spools of half
inch-wide red ribbon the diameter of
a record album. First you loaded the
pin and locked it in. Then you
worked either a wheel or a treadle ?
I can't remember which ? to impale
lengths of ribbon on the pin in per
feet little arches. When the bow was
big enough, you cut the ribbon with
scissors, unlocked the pin and
dropped the completed bow into a
big cardboard carton.
The empty spools were stacked
on a table. She must have been paid
by the spool.
My sister and I would beg for a
turn at the machine and were happy
to relieve Aunt Nora so she could go
about making cornbread and warm
ing up steaming bowls of vegetable
soup we'd canned from the garden
last summer. I'd feign illness to
leave school early, knowing I'd be
taken to her house and get a real
lunch, be fussed over and bragged
on for mediocre piano-playing, al
lowed to drink coffee with as much
milk and sugar as I wanted until my
parents could leave work and come
for me.
If I really were sick, I'd be
propped on the sofa to watch the
stones, with a box ot tissues and a
bottomless glass of ginger ale in
crushed ice while she waxed floors,
fried chicken, did laundry on an old
wringer washer.
She was always home, never
seemed to mind that she never
learned to drive. In fact, I don't
think I ever heard her complain
about anything.
She was a reassuring voice during
the scary times when the parents
were just stretched too thin ? when
my sister became very sick in the
second grade and there was a dread
ful brief time when the doctor
thought she might have leukemia.
When my mom had surgery. When
two grandparents died within six
months of each other.
She was there every Christmas,
beaming along as my sister and I
were given our first bicycles. Barbie
dolls, Beatles records, panty hose
and sets of car keys. On Christmas
morning, we'd call her before day
break 10 say what Sam a had brought
(as if she didn't know) and to tell
her to come over and see.
The memory of her is strong this
time of year, but I don't grieve. Here
in the '90s, when we shuttle our
young from pillar to post to accom
modate our career demands and
lifestyle whims, I'm grateful to have
had not only a loving immediate
family, but a wonderful refuge and
role model in Aunt Nora.
I'm blessed to have stood in her
sunshine and made red bows with
her.
A Pork- Sore! Christmas
WH
CARDUNACftfltt)^
Good Police Work Deserves Recognition
Ronald Hewett, Brunswick
County's new sheriff, is going to
great lengths to establish an atmos
phere of professionalism in his de
partment. Drop by there any time
(24 hours a day) and you can smell
it in the air.
There is a new coat of paint on
the walls. Smoking is no longer per
mitted in the workplace or the jail.
New phone lines are being installed.
The communications officer behind
the front desk now wears a uniform.
Hewett 's own office has been re
painted, carpeted, decorated and re
arranged, with his desk and chair
facing directly toward the hallway
door. Once past the new security en
trance, the first person a visitor will
see is the man in charge.
Another of Hewett's plans for en
couraging top-notch police work is
the creation of a special awards pro
gram to recognize officers when
their efforts go above and beyond
the call of duty.
I have a nomination for the first
Brunswick County Sheriff's
Achievement Award: Detective Tom
Hunter.
Last week, for the first time in at
least 50 years, a Brunswick County
jury imposed the death penalty in
the trial of Daniel Cummings Jr.,
whom they found guilty of first-de
gree murder in the cold-blooded
killing of Ash store owner Bums
Everett Babson.
The prosecution wrapped up its
entire case in less than nine hours.
The defense had no case to present.
Cummings convicted himself with
his own words, in a series of state
ments made voluntarily after his ar
rest in Sampson County ? state
ments made to Detective Tom
Hunter.
"Without those statements, we
wouldn't even be here," defense at
torney Michael Ramos told the jury
during his closing argument.
"There's no evidence. Without his
statements, they've got nothing."
District Attorney Rex Gore freely
admitted there wasn't much of a
case against Cummings without his
statements. No eyewitnesses who
could identify him as the murderer.
No fingerprints. No gun. Just a few
local folks who saw him driving a
white Ford van around Ash that
night.
Eric
Carlson
Without those statements, Cum
mings might have gone free to kill
again. There are strong indications
that he would have. Police believe
Cummings brutally beat an 80-year
old woman to death during a bur
glary in Red Springs two days be
fore he came to Ash and killed
again.
Authorities have a good case
against Cummings in that murder,
too because of statements he made
after his arrest ? statements made to
Detective Tom Hunter.
Because of Detective Hunter's ef
forts, the family of Burns Babson
saw justice work swiftly and effec
tively last week, the way we all want
to see it work, but rarely do.
I remember a Sunday night phone
conversation with Hunter less than
48 hours after the murder. He told
me about processing the crime scene
that Friday night, witnessing
Babson 's autopsy in Jacksonville on
Saturday and having his first con
versation with Cummings in Clinton
early Sunday morning.
"He's definitely our boy," Hunter
said.
Cummings had been arrested
Saturday afternoon on larceny and
drug charges. With almost nothing
to go on except a suspicious vehicle,
Hunter had issued a seemingly futile
radio broadcast to be on the lookout
for "a white van, driven by a white
male, direction of travel unknown."
He was returning from Jackson
ville late Saturday night when
Sampson County Sheriff's Deputy
Everett Jones remembered hearing
the bulletin and notified Brunswick
authorities about a theft suspect he
had just arrested in a white Ford
van.
Hunter immediately changed
course for Clinton. He listened to
enough of a Red Springs police offi
cer's interview with the suspect to
send him rushing back to Brunswick
County with a mugshot of Cum
mings.
Sunday morning. Hunter prepared
a photo line-up and showed it to wit
nesses in Ash. They identified Cum
mings as the man in the van. The
next day. Hunter and SBI Agent
Janet Storms drove back to Clinton.
There, Red Springs Police offi
cers were trying to persuade
Cummings to talk about the old
woman's murder. But he kept avoid
ing the subject, giving a rambling
account of hanging out with fellow
crack cocaine users, including a fic
titious friend named "Joe." When
the police pressed harder, Cum
mings began to clam up.
In Hollywood's typical "good
cop, bad cop" style. Hunter present
ed himself to Cummings as a guy he
could talk to. Instead of hounding
him further about the old woman's
killing. Hunter asked Cummings
about "Joe," offering the suspect a
chance to admit his involvement in
the crimes while shifting the blame
to someone else.
After several hours, Cummings fi
nally took the bait. He told Hunter
and Storms how he and "Joe" drove
to Ash. How "Joe" killed the old
man and took his money. How "Joe"
also fired shots at Babson's wife.
He told the officers details only
thS murderer could know.
The next day, Hunter interviewed
Cummings again, offering him a
chance to clear his conscience.
Hunter remembers saying, "Look,
r
Dank!. We know there's no Joe.
Don't you want to tell us what really
happened?"
In that statement, C'ummings ad
mitted entering Babson's store, de
manding money, "hearing" four
shots, talcing a wallet from the body
and shooting at Babson's wife. He
didn't confers to everything. But he
said enough.
"Later that night, Daniel Cum
in in gs told SBI agents who were
working with Brunswick County de
tectives on the other homicide, that
he was ready to talk about the lady
in Red Springs," says the report
filed by their officer. Detective E.B.
Smith.
Again, Cummings didn't actually
admit beating 80-year-old Lena
Hales to death. But he confessed to
breaking into her home the night she
was murdered.
There is more to effective law en
forcement than making arrests and
obtaining confessions. Next, you
must assure the judge that proper le
gal procedures were followed. Then
you have to convince the jury.
Hunter was an impeccable wit
ness, speaking directly to jurors and
carefully describing the bloody
crime scene, his interviews with wit
nesses and his conversations with
Cummings.
The results speak for themselves:
T\vo murder cases solved. A killer
facing the death penalty.
That's good police work.
Worth Repeating...
? The man who in the view of gain thinks of righteousness;
who in the view of danger is prepared to give up his life;
and who does not forget an old agreement however far back
it extends ? such a man may be reckoned a complete man.
? Confucius
m Decay is inherent in all component things! Work out your
salvation with diligence.
? The Pali Canon
m He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the
pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition
youth and age are equally a burden.
? Plato