Newspapers / The Kings Mountain Herald … / Sept. 6, 1977, edition 1 / Page 3
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Tuesday, September 6, 1977—MIRROR-HERALD—Page 3 Kings I on ult Is apt. 32 eland helby. Kings » De- OlUle Rt. 4, issault Inflict Vayne 89, of faces t with nd as- ig to njury, Ir., 88, n Rd., asault inflict larged m by of B07 irsday n In- senlar Phifer Lussell ■Igned re a irglng isault, police e free Byers Kings Is :ht of 1878 idldate States ig his Kings y- native m be slness [ with tsday Dns sss at Senior t sub- Bveral llshed (Inning [com. Junior I sub- II help nds to unlor- rlng of »s In- trated. Id TV sub- teglns d ends Mem- ' class Dor to t the rs for I Mrs. I Mrs. r ement rovlde and IV and d In m are r the jnday latlon, r-7B81. But how does the public protect itself? The state creates legislation to protect the citizens who suffer from mental Instability, but no one has passed laws to protect the public from the mentally unstable. Every community has people who are mentally unbalanced. Nowadays, the federal, state and local agencies established to work with ouch people put tags such as “mentally handicapped" on them. Back a few years ago everytme called such people "village idiots." niere really was no help for them In those days. Families with a relative af flicted thusly either kept them locked away at home or In an institution. Today the afflicted themselves can sign themselves In and out. When I was a youngster there was one In my hometown. Ho was a hefty fellow who wandered the community as he pleased. Everyone knew him and most Just plain Ignored him. There were a few “good 'ol boys” who took advantage of him, kidded him unmercifully. I guess he hung around these fellows because even In his very young mind he could tell they didn’t pity him. But as this mentally handicapped man grew older he grew meaner. He could be downright vicious. That was then. Today, here In Kings Mountain there are a few citizens who can be classified mentally handicapped. No one picks at them. And their big thing has become religion. Another big thing they have Is the feeling that everyone Is out to get them. To combat this KM’s resident afflicted strike first. One of them gives the c(^o euid the local newspaper more trouble than a bairelful of bankrobbers. This person reports almost dally of the plots hatched by neighbors, messing upthe phone so weird voices are heard, rock throwing at the house, stealing mall from the box, etc. All of this to the tune ol appropriate Biblical passages. TTien there is another who bills himself as a “Saint.” His little tricks Include putting up For Sale signs on the windows of businesses downtown, hanging around public businesses speaking abusively to other customers, even to putting "curses” on pec^le he feels have wrong him. And If the business owner runs him off he merely moves operations to another locale. It’s a big problem. All of our upbringing tells us such people are to be pitied and helped, but no way have we learned how to get such people to help themselves. We can have laws passed to protect them, but what does the public do to protect Itself? TOM Mclt1TVR€ i t ■ History altered off N.C. coast On September B, 1821 Brigadier General William “Billy” Mitchell, at the U. S. Army Air Service, altered the course of world history by sinking an obsolete battleship off the North Carolina coast by bombing It from the air. l^tchell’s famous demonstration before a predominately-hostUe group of American military commanders Is regarded as the real birth of modem air power. His aircraft took off from a temporary field located on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, In Dare County. The state was also Involved In that a prominent citizen, Raleigh newspaper publisher Josephus Daniels, was then acting as Secretary of the Navy. Daniels, In fact, loyally sticking by his own “experts”, had stron^y opposed One-On-One program set The local government "One On One” program Is scheduled to begin next ’Tuesday. One On One Is an attempt by the mayor and commissioners to get closer to the citizens, to hear what the taxpayer wants for his community. The program U broken-down Into a series of district meetings, the first. District One, being planned at Kings Mountain Baptist Church Tues., Sept. 18. The time will be announced In Thursday’s Mirror-Herald. Commissioner Jim Childers and Mayor John Moss will host the meeting. The other five com missioners have also been Invited to attend. Each succeeding week, with tlie exception of Tues., Oct. 11, meetings will be held at churches In districts two, three, four, five and six. The final meeting will be held Tues., Oct. 18 becquse October 11 Is local election day. Commissioner Humes Houston, Corbet Nicholson, Norman King, William Grissom and Fred Wright Jr., along with Mayor Moss, will host the meetings In their respective districts. These district meetings have been removed from city hall on purpose, to give the citizens In each district a chance to meet with officials on neutral ground. Citizens should take this opportunity to air whatever they have on their minds concerning local government, good, bad or indifferent. It Is an opportunity to express on a one to one basis citizen thinking on the directions the city is Uklng or the way It should be going. There Is absolutely no sense In citizens suffering the same frustrations concerning local government that they do with state and federal government. Maybe we don’t know who to talk to on the state and federal levelse, but locally we know very well who Is In charge, who makes the decisions that ultimately affect our lives. The Mirror-Herald urges citizens In all districts to attend these meetings as your turn comes and make your thoughts known. Where are the candidates? with three and a half days to go before the commissioner candidate filing deadUne U up the City of Kings Mountain has only four men seeking three seats. Incumbent Commissioners Humes Houston, William Grissom and Fred Wright Jr., districts two, five and six, have all filed for re-election. Jerry MulUnax of district two Is the only challenger In the race. ’This Is the lowest number of candidates to file tor local offices In the past three elections. 'Two years ago, long before the deadline was up, citizens had a choice of 36 commissioner candidates and four mayoral candidates to choose from. What happened this year? For one thing this year citizens are asked to elect only three commissioners. Two years ago the city changed to staggered terms. The mayor and three top boa- d vote-getters were elected for four years. The three low vote-getters signed a»for two years. Those throe. Commissioners Houston, Grissom and Wright and challenger MulUnax, are seeking four year terms this yesu*. SUU that doesn’t explain the lack of candidate Interest. Could It bo that the three Incumbents have demo such a splendid Job that no one wishes to remove them? Or Is it that there are a large number of contenders and former com missioners walUng out there to declare themselves at the 11th hour? The latter sounds more like It considering the rumblings on the street. Either way the citizens of Kings Mountain must Uke more Interest In local elections and follow that through by making themselves aware of what Is happening In local government. GD 9MITH the tests, volunteering to . . . "stand bareheaded on the bridge of any vessel General Mitchell attempts to sink by bombing It.” In July of 1821, In an Initial series of tests, MltcheU’s aircraft had destroyed the “unslnkable" German battleship “Ostriesland.” Tlie Navy protested that MltcheU had not foUowed the “rules” laid down for the tests, however, and tried both to minimize the results and have Mitchell removed from his post of Assistant Chief of the Air Services. An outcry In the nation’s press and In Congress forced a second series of tests In September. Mitchell’s aircraft, Wortd-War-One vintage, open-cockpit Martin bombers, flying at 2500 feet attitude and dropping 3,000 pound bombs, sank the old U. S. S. “Alabama” In twenty minutes. Though our own military experts stUl refused to accept the lesson, other nations did, particularly Germany luid Je^an, as we learned to our dismay In Wortd War Two! General MltcheU refused to be sUenced, however, and In 1926 he was court-martlalled and dismissed from the Army. -oOo- Duelllng, that utterly fooUsh custom of settling arguments with pistols at twenty paces or less, was resi>onslble for the deaths of many prominent American citizens during the Nlnteenth Century. One survey has reported that during the years 1800-1860, for example, a total of 27 such contests took place between prominent North Carolinians, Involving poUtlcal quarrels alone. Richard Dobbs Spalght, Senior, however, was the only Governor of the state to be klUed In a duel. He and his son R. D. Spalght, Jr., also share with Kerr and Robert Scott the dlstlncUon of being the only father-son teams to oc cupy the Executive Mansion. Spalght died on Sept. 6, 1802, In New Bern, of a wound received the day before In a duel with John Stanley, his suc cessor In the U. S. Congress. Criminal charges were brought against Stanley, but he was pardoned by Governor Benjamin WlUlams. This duel brought about the passage of stronger legislation against the practice In this state, but It nonetheless continued for another hall- century. -oOo- On Sept. 6, 1876, In Chapel HUl, the University of North Carolina reopened Its doors. Before the ClvU War UNC had been one of the biggest smd most important universities In the nation. It had been forced to close, however, during the bitter political fighting of the Recon struction Period In this state. The dismissal of the university’s highly-respected President, David L. Swain, by a Republican Governor W. W. Holden, and his replacement by the relatively - unknown Solomon Pool, along with the appointment of many new faculty members and trustees, enraged the state’s prewar power structure. A state-wide campaign of speeches, neespaper articles and let ters followed, accusing the new "car petbag” administration of being In competent, and of producing Inferior education. Enrollments dwindled, assisted also by the general level of postwar poverty in the state, and the University was forced to close. In 1876, after years of ceaseless lobbying by supporters of the school (particularly Mrs. Cornelia Phillips Spencer, for whom dormatories were later named at both Chapel Hill and UNC-Greensboro) the school was reopened. R€tiiD€R DIRiLOGUe Something for depot center To the editor I have been so Interested In what has been happening to the Kings Mountain Depot Center, even though It Is not the depot I knew as a child living In Kings Yea, Dixie MiuSnniLD FUtLIlHBOBACM TUB IDA V AND TN UB ID AY •ARLANDATKINI RMfoitolier TOM MCINTVRB BAHer BLIIABBTHITBWART Weiiilii*i BBIt«r BABY ITB WART iMfteBANfor DABBBLLAUITIO OeiiforfolMiMfer CLYDBNIkt AivtrtNNit DlfMlir NORTH CABOklNA RRBIIAIIOCIATION TIM H RwMiitwd foy Omtr«l RuOMiMni Cimo«y, R. O. Drawtr 7n. KtfOi MwMiln, N. C.. IMM. RmImm and •dlNrlai Mf icte are lacatad at Ml lawtti 'Riadmant Ava. Rfiaiw TM- 94M. Sacaiid Claaa Raatata paM at Klaia MavfitaM. N. C. IMaN caRT II canti. IwkacriRtNn ratae; w.ll yaarly M-atata. 14.11 tfi manttia/ M.M yaarly aut’#!- aNta. li alii manttia; Itwdaat rata tar Mna manttia 11.14 Tb the editor. No one thing has ever brought more enthusiasm to the football team and the fans (other than the school song) than the playing of “Dixie” by the band. Everyone could sense the feeling of everyone else coming alive at the onset of the music. No disrespect was ever Intended on anyone’s part. In the Interest of the team and the fans, I and many others feel that the playing of this music should be reinstated. How about It? DAVID CLIPPARD Kings Mountain Mountain. My family moved to Charlotte In 1916, then to Richmond, Va. In 1819. I am sending some pictures I found recently In some of my father’s old pictures. TTiey may be of Interest to those responsible for the depot project. As well as I remember the train head south (Picture No. 1) was Number 37 and It came through Kings Mountain about 11 a. m. It was a fine train and only stopped there when flagged down. In the picture my father, Leslie McGinnis, Is standing on the front of the engine. That thing on the front of the train was called the Cow Catcher. The man sitting up on the engine I think was Walter DUllng. ’The man In the derby hat between the two trainmen was George Modena, the ticket agent. I don’t know who the trainmen were. The car on the rear (Picture No. 2) was the private car of the president of the Southern Railroad, a Mr. Debuttes, whose nephew Is now board chairman and executive officer of the AT4T Co. He was raised In Greensboro. These pictures were taken around 1910 or 1913. I wanted to have them redone and framed, but I wasn’t sure whether they would fit Into the decor of the new depot center. Now that Mr. Meek Ormand Is gone I don’t believe there la anyone living today who could establish the exact date these pictures were taken or could Identify any of the people posing on the observation platform of the private railroad car. I enjoy The Mirror-Herald so much and I Imagine we are among the oldest, or rather the longest continuous sub scribers you have. After my father’s death I continued our subscription. I am sure we have taken the paper since 1816, the year we moved from Kings Moun tain. GAIL McGINNIS MARTIN 408 W. Drive Clr. Richmond, Va.
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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Sept. 6, 1977, edition 1
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