Editorials
A critical need
In addition to the other woes heaped on the Hoke County
Commission during the next few weeks of budget planning,
the elected officials have to decide before June 30 what to do
about ambulance service here.
The current contract with Hoke Ambulance Service does
not expire until the end of December, but the commissioners
must now wrestle with budgeting for the next fiscal year.
Since the present contractor has announced his intentions
not to renew his agreement, and since little effort has been
made to seek a replacement, it is probably safe to assume that
the commissioners expect that by January, the county will be
in the ambulance business.
If the assumption is accurate, then the taxpayers are pro
bably looking at an initial cost of around $200,000, or about
$100,000 more than is presently budgeted.
The good news is that after the pain of start up ends, costs
should level out at slightly more than the county now pays
Hoke Ambulance, and if the commission members are able to
keep a tight rein on the operation, the county units may per
form at the same level of "advanced life" service as the pre
sent contractor now provides.
Since the commissioners do not know who will be driving
the ambulances six months from now, it is easy to understand
why they are not thinking about spending an additional
$50,000 to train Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) to be
paramedics.
However, the uncertainly of the future of the ambulance
service does not remove the need for improved medical ser
vices in Hoke County.
According to the figures reported by the present ambulance
contractor, a person stricken with a heart attack in Hoke
County has a 0?7o chance of survival.
It is appalling to think that some of the 21 heart attack pa
tients who died in Hoke County ambulances last year might
have been saved if the EMT's could have administered doctor
prescribed medication or used a defibrillator during the
20-minute ride to the hospital.
At present we have the most qualified EMT's in the four
county Lumbee Council of Government region of Hoke,
Robeson, Scotland and Bladen counties, but they are allowed
by law to do little more than administer advanced first aid.
In addition Hoke is the only one of the four counties that
does not have a hospital.
Because of our unique position, we need the best trained
ambulance technicians that we can get.
In the past commission members here have not shirked their
responsibility to provide good health care, and there is no
reason to believe efforts will not be made to provide the best
service this year.
Although the county commissioners are besieged with
demands for increased budgets from almost every depart
ment, and county employees, who have gone two years
without a raise, have their hands out, it is hoped that the of
ficials will not lose sight of the future.
Now that the county may be taking over the helm of the
ambulance, the time is right for long range planning and to
schedule the eventual installation of the paramedic service.
Hoke County taxpayers may not be able to afford the
upgraded service now, but as the county grows the need for
paramedics will become critical.
We encourage the county to develop a master plan and to
let residents know when the plan will be implemented.
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NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
ASSOCIATION
PRESS
ASSOCIATION
Pabttalied Every Tbareday at Racfortl. N.C. 2*376
119 W. KJwood Avtiw
Svbacripttoa Rates la Atfvaarc
la Commty Per Year? $10.00 t Moat ha ? S5.N
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LOUIS H. FOGLEMAN. JR
PAUL DICKSON
HENRY L. BLUE
WARREN N. JOHNSTON
MM. PAUL DICKSON Soctety I
SAM C. MORRIS Coatrltortlaf I
ANN WEBB Advert Waf liywlatfre
Ratfart, N.C.
(UWS 3M-2M)
LET ME ASSURE
YOU THAT MUCH
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TO El SALVADOR
HAS ALREADY
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Letters T o The Editor
Kudos for Daniels
To the Editor:
You may be interested to learn
that the manager of the cablevision
system here has greatly impressed
me with the outstanding way he
goes about his job.
1 am speaking of Harrison
Daniels, Raeford manager for
Jones Intercable, who probably
receives little or no recognition for
his exceptional work on behalf of
the cable subscribers.
Recently, 1 had occasion to com
plain bitterly about the lack of ser
vice on Channel 7 between mid
night and 2:30 a.m. Bad as that
was, some nights it would mess up
Alfred Hitchcock at 11 p.m.
The same day my complaint
reached Mr. Daniels he very
graciously offered to investigate
the problem that night on his own
time. That meant his presence was
required in the Red Springs
transmission site at midnight.
Then, he made arrangements with
WUNJ-TV in Wilmington to run a
test pattern after their sign-off
before shutting down the carrier.
This enabled Mr. Daniels and
the Jones Intercable engineer to
study the movements of the little
gizmo that was causing all the
trouble.
(Thank God it was just a minor
adjustment and they didn't have to
send off to Timbuktu for a part
that would take 10 weeks.)
Before leaving the main office,
Mr. Daniels was thoughtful to
telephone me at my residence to
explain what had happened and let
me know it was finally fixed. He
also apologized for the inconve
nience.
You should also know that this
all took place on a Friday night
when most workers at that hour
are ready for a well-deserved rest
or other pursuits. So it seems to me
Mr. Daniels is to be commended
for his labors. He has certainly
shown me he really cares about the
customers.
Sincerely,
Marty Vega
No strawberries
To the Editor:
I want to comment on an ad that
was in your May 12 newspaper
which I purchased May 1 1 .
In the classified section, for sale
column the ad read, "Straw
berries: Pick your own S.65 qt.
bring containers. No Sunday pick
ing. Rev. Ben Ferguson."
On May 12, my son and I arrived
at Rev. Ferguson's strawberry
patch around 8:30 a.m. We were
told by Rev. Ferguson the frost had
killed most of his strawberries and
the field was closed to pickers as of
that day.
It's a shame Rev. Ferguson chose
to use our local newspaper as a
medium to sell produce he does not
have available.
If others abuse the classified ads
in this same manner, then people
would not know which ads to trust.
Therefore both our local news
paper. and it's customers would
lose by it.
Sarah Wood
Raeford
Don't cut school days
Dear Editor:
The General Assembly will soon
consider whether to repeal legisla
tion which allows local school
districts to shorten the length of
the school year on their own. That
legislation, passed in the 1982 ses
sion of the General Assembly, was
a response to the problems many
school systems have in making up
days lost due to inclement weather.
Under the law, school districts
can decide not to make up as many
as five days.
In other words, in some of our
school districts, the school year has
been reduced from 180 to 175
days. Our children are growing up
in a complex and difficult world --
far more complex and difficult
than the one we grew up in.
When there is so much more to
learn, it does not make sense to
reduce the amount of time we pro
vide for the learning of our
children.
One of the arguments put forth
in favor of allowing school
districts to waive five days is that
making up days in the heat of June
is too hard.
Working in hot weather is part
of being a human being.
Certainly, hot weather makes
learning more difficult than fine
spring weather.
When, however, did we arrive at
the notion that conditions must be
perfect for learning to happen?
I do not want my owij children
thinking that everything has to be
just right in order for them to
learn, and I doubt that most folks
in this state feel any differently.
Our children need more educa
tion, not less. Reducing the
amount of time they spend in
school is a step backward.
It is very important that the
General Assembly repeal the
legislation which has resulted in
less education for too many of our
children.
Sincerely,
C.D. Spangler, Jr., Chairman
N.C. State Board of Education
Puppy Creek
Philosopher
Dear editor:
A group of nationally prominent
college presidents, professors, high
school teachers and a school board
member, alarmed that the public
school system nowadays isn't turn
ing out kids as smart as it did when
they were in school, has come up
with a list of proposals for improv
ing the situation.
The group wants all high school
pupils to have at least one half
year of computer science. No
reporter asked the group how
many of them had computer
science in high school, but it
should be remembered that pro
bably none of the reporters had
computer science either. I doubt if
very many Congressmen did.
Anyway, I have an additional
proposal. When a student finishes
his course in computers, he should
then immediately be required to
take a course in computer repairs.
Those things can break down or
mal-function right in the middle of
figuring up tax bills, utility bills,
etc.
Has the group considered what's
going to happen when everybody
depends on computers, when all
knowledge, all names of every
citizen in the country, all tax
records, etc. are all on computers
and the electricity goes off?
Not only should computer
repairing be studied, but computer
construction should be also.
Something has happened to crafts
manship in this country, as re
called defective automobiles
testify, along with household ap
pliances of all sorts that break
down two days beyond the warran
ty period.
In fact, craftsmanship among
some manufacturers is in such a
low estate that they can't even
make an electric chair that won't
mal-function.
Yours faithfully
J. A.
Correction
In a letter to the editor in last
week's edition, it was noted that
the county maintains a fund
balance of S905.236 which was
available for future appropria
tions.
County Manager James Martin
noted Monday that because of an
accounting miscalculation he had
provided the author of the letter
with the wrong information.
The fund balance is actually just
over $1.3 million, and the county
will have approximately $1.2
million available at the end of the
fiscal year on June 30.
Free enterprise does work
by John Sledge
N.C. linn Bureau Federation
America has less than l*h of the
world's population, yet we are said
to have over SOIfc of the world's
material benefits.
The reason for this is that so
many have worked so hard under a
free enterprise system, characteriz
ed by a free market, the profit
motive, and individual initiative.
A nationwide survey not long
ago revealed that less than four
percent of Americana believe free
I enterprise has anything to do with
their personal freedom. Yet,
freedom without self-discipline
just won't work. Free people can
get spoiled, demanding more and
more for less and less.
Americans need to understand
that their real needs are met, sup
ported and financed by business
and commerce - not by govern
ment. It is absolutely incredible
that American* nationwide believe
the average profit of U.S. business
and industry is more than 33%.
Students think that it is oveT
48% while the real figure is leu
than five percent. Unfortunately,
this incredible misunderstanding is
increasing rather than decreasing.
The politics of buying votes by
attacking profits is not in the best
interests of our free enterprise
system. "Profit" is not a dirty
word. Rather it is the very basis of
our system - the most successful
ever devised to build a strong pro
sperous way of life such as we en
joy.
We Americans need to be aware
of what we have and what we may
lose if we forsake our individual
and independent spirit.
CLIFF BLUE . . .
People & Issues
HOLLINOS ? As we read in the m
newspapers, Senator Ernest F.
(Fritz) Hollings may become a top
contender for the Democratic
presidential nomination, come
convention time 1984.
I have just finished reading an
article by David S. Broder, writer
for the Washington Post group.
Broder writes: "Hollings has a
reputation around the Senate as a
smart, tough, acerbic fellow who
suffers no excess of modesty. He 4
has been voicing his dissents from
the conventional Democratic
wisdom ever since the party's mini
convention in Philadelphia last
year. They are getting sharper all
the time."
Closing his article, Broder
wrote: "Hollings' own record has
been consistent. Back in 1981,
when it was hard to do, he voted to _
slow the spending pace and to limit V
the tax cuts. He was one of only
nine Senate Democrats to oppose
passage of both the Reagan budget
and the Reagan tax plan. The
Democrats may well reject his can
didacy. But they can hardly afford
to ignore his warning."
What the country needs today,
may well be like Ernest Hollings of
South Carolina to lead us out of
the intolerable situation in which m
we are now spending about
$567,965,200 per day more than
the taxpayers are paying in!
If this situation continues long
enough we may find ourselves like
the South after Lee surrendered at
the close of the war between the
states!
TOUCHING -- A most touching
story in the daily papers last week
had to do with a Chinese farmers
Cui Xhixi, reunited with former
American Marines who adopted
him in the 1940's had become free
of the yearning that gripped him
for 25 years. Cui, was nicknamed
"Charlie Two Shoes" by the
Marines who first befriended him
in 1945 in northeastern China.
Cue Xhixi a few days ago, land
ed in America to see his war time
friends, some in North Carolina.
LINDBERGH 56 YEARS AGOl
- Charles Augustus Lindbergh
thrilled his countrymen and the
world when he made the first non
stop flight from New York to Paris
on May 20, 1927, fifty six years
ago!
It took over 33 hours and when
he landed on the 21st in Paris he
had flown over 3,600 miles.
Clavin Coolidge was president
of the United States and Angus W
Wilton McLean was governor of
North Carolina.
THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS ~
Lindbergh's monoplane, is now to
be seen in the air and space
museum in Washington.
His account of his flight, and
several books by his also
distinguished wife, Anne Lind
bergh, are widely read.
The couple's first child, Charles 0
Augustus, Jr., was kidnapped and
killed in 1932. Public reaction to
this crime led to passage of the so
called "Lindbergh Laws," which
make interstate kidnapping a crime
against Federal Laws.
From 1935 to 1939, the Lind
berghs lived in Europe. The
Linberghs also visited Germany,
touring German aviation centers.
For four months in 1939, Lind- ?
bergh served with the United States
Air Corps and the National Ad
visory Committee for Aeronautics.
After the war, Lindbergh was
named special consultant to the
Chief of Staff of the United States
Air Force. His autobiography, The
Spirit of St. Louis, won the 1954
Pulitzer prize for biography; also
the Congressional Medal of
Honor, and several others. f
WALKER WEDS -- Heisman
Trophy winner Herschel Walker,
who left college to accept the
richest contract in professional
football history, confirmed recent
ly that he married Cindy
DeAngelis, his girl friend of three
years in a quiet ceremony.
TIME TO READ - Dana
Thompson, 33, was ordered
recently to spend 60 days in the #
Sacramento County jail and two
years on probation for his guilty
plea to stealing 176 books from the
county library.
Letters Policy
Letters to the editor are
encouraged *nd welcomed.
Writers should keep letters as
short as possible. Names,
addresses and telephone
numbers should be included
and all letters must be signed.
Names will be printed,
however, other information
will be kept confidential. We
reserve the right to edit letters
for good taste and brevity,
letters should be received by
The News-Journal by noon on
the Monday of the publication
_weelu_