Editorials
Commission grounded
by no appointments
Almost four months ago, members of the Raeford City Council
and the Hoke County Commission got fired up about joining hands
on the operation of the airport.
During September, city and county officials adopted a plan for
the future of the airport which followed closely one that had been
recommended by a Blue Ribbon Study Committee.
That committee cranked up for action in late 1982 and completed
its work by last August. Their recommendations were the first to
come out of several years of false starts launched by other citizen
study groups.
Under the approved plan, the facility would be called the Hoke
Raeford Airport and operating costs would be split between the city
and county on a 50-50 basis.
Five residents were to be appointed by the city, the county and
the Chamber of Commerce to serve on an airport commission. That
group would oversee the general operation of the airport and would
be provided an annual budget.
The action taken by the two political bodies was heralded by
backers of industrial development as being a step in the right direc
tion.
Industrial developers feel that a well-run and modern airport,
which is capable of handling corporate jet traffic, is an essential
element needed to attract large employers to this county.
With the action taken in the fall by the elected officials, it ap
peared that perhaps a new day was dawning in Hoke County's ef
forts to garner new jobs, more residents and a higher tax base.
In November, when elected officials said they wanted to take
their time choosing the right members for the important airport
commission, there was still hope that strong efforts to attract in
dustries here might be forthcoming.
It was not too far-fetched, then, to believe that old business, like
the airport, would be put in order before the close of 1983, and the
county could move forward to new matters in 1984.
However, that was November, and now it is January and no one
has been appointed to the new airport commission.
In fact little has been said publicly about the airport since before
Thanksgiving.
Although it is hoped that city and county officials might get
around to appointing the airport commission this month, their past j
reluctance to move has already dragged an old matter into the new
year.
The elected officials' failure to act speedily on the airport may
also have fouled up the time table for the new commission.
Back in November, it was hoped that the airport commission
members could start the new year getting organized and could have
full control of the facility by early spring.
By spring the newly appointed group would not only have been v;
familiar with the airport operations, but they would also be in a
position to file applications for state and federal facility improve
ment grants.
If grant applications are not filed on time, improvement projects
at the aifport could be delayed for another year.
We urge both city and county officials to give the appointment of
an airport commission top billing in the remaining meetings both
groups have during this month.
To allow the appointments to drag on longer, could make the air- ,
port just another dead issue and will continue to be a waste of the ^
tax dollars now being spent to maintain it.
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Letters To The Editor
Thanks for help
To the Editor:
The Raeford Woman's Club
would like to thank the local peo
ple for supporting "Share Your
Christmas."
The donations from local chur
ches, civic organizations and in
dividuals enabled us to help many
families have a brighter Christmas.
Thanks to Raeford Woman's
Club members and other
volunteers that helped prepare the
bags that we passed out to the
families.
Also, thanks to the Hoke Coun
ty Library for the use of their
facilities and The News-Journal
for their news coverage.
Sincerely,
Clara Pope, President
Raeford Woman's Club
Kudos for collectors
of roadside garbage
To the Editor:
A couple of weeks ago, someone
or some organization picked up
roadside trash between Kings Road
and Das is' Bridge.
I counted 38 large bags in about
two miles and realize much work
went into this effort.
My congratulations to those that
accomplished this, and my en
couragement to do so on other
Hoke County roaJs.
Thanks,
Robert 1 . Fox
Christmas Seals
still need help
To the Editor:
On behalt of the American I ung
Association ol North Carolina,
Mid-State Region, which serves
Hoke County, we would like to ex
press sincere appreciation to the
many people of our county who
have contributed to the 1983
Christmas Seals Campaign.
I he response has been very good
considering the tightness of the
economy, however, we still have a
long way to go to equal our goal of
lasi year which was S 1,840.
I \en though the 1983 calendar
(See LETTERS, page 3)
F arewell given 1983 bloopers
By Richard A. Viguerie
A Happy New Year to All, in
cluding even...
Barbara Honneger, who, before
embarking on her planned in
vestigation of the Shroud of Turin,
said, "Reagan is planning coerced
body-part donation. And eventual
ly coerced whole-body
donations."
The media consultant who asked
a "focus group" what they
thought of anchorwoman
Christine Craft; "Is she a mutt?"
he suggested.
The staff member of the
Maryland Center for Public
Broadcasting, who broke into
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood to
say, "This program is a piece of
c-p."
Senate Chaplain Richard
Halverson, who, on the last day of
the 1983 session, asked God to
support "the senators who face the
reelection next November, for
their staffs and all who support
them" and to "provide the
finances necessary for them to do
their best."
Governor Mario Cuomo
(D-New York), who said, "What
I'm doing is making dozens and
dozens of decisions, and I love
it. ..I could spend the whole day
making important decisions. What
you don't have time to do is think.
You're so busy doing, that you
don't have the time to think."
Howard Cosell, who called the
Washington Redskins' Alvin Gar
rett "a little monkey" and describ
ed the death of Chicago Bears
owner George Halas as "in
evitable."
Senator "Fritz" Hollings
(D-South Carolina), who said that
whether they live under communist
rule has little effect on the people
of Grenada, who just go on "sing
ing" and "playing the banjo."
The woman in Washington,
D.C., who spotted George
McGovern campaigning and said,
"That's a senator. I've seen him
before on TV. I know who it is.
That's Birch Bayh."
Supporters of a "nuclear-free
zone" in Chico, California, who
proposed a fine and six-month jail
term for anyone convicted of
detonating an atomic bomb within
the city limits.
Dennis Sobin, a candidate for
the Washington, D.C., school
board, who offered a year's
membership in a "swingers" club
in exchange for a $100 contribu
tion. He lost.
Dan Rather, who, when a televi
sion reporter tried to interview him
on the street, said, ("Expletive
deleted) you."
The Canadian firm that accused
two American companies of put
ting cheap toilet seats on the Cana
dian market. The type of unfair
competition alleged by the Cana
dians is known as "dumping."
The Soviet producers of the
documentary "In the Middle of
America," which showed an
"abandoned" steel mill (abandon
ed because it was Sunday) and
showed homeless men in Kansas
City, Kansas, with the White
House in the background.
The vice president of the Burn
ing Tree Club, who explained that
only one of the club's 600 members
was black because minorities
"don't play golf."
^he District of Columbia Court
of Appeals, which ruled that
lethal-injection drugs used to carry
out the death penalty must be
"safe and effective."
The President of Angola, who
jailed four people and suspended
32 others from the ruling party for
putting on a sketch that was in
tended to make him laugh. He said
the jesters "used the right to
criticize incorrectly."
Employees of the Com
monwealth of Virginia, who made
2,500 calls in one month to a por
nographic telephone service in
New York.
A senator's press secretary, who
returned a call from "Mike
Wallace" only to discover that a
practical joker had left the number
of the pornographic telephone ser
vice. "1 listened long enough to
make sure it wasn't Mike
Wallace," he said, "then I hung
up."
Newsweek, which devoted 13
pages to its special report on
Hitler's diaries.
The man in England who killed
his wife and dumped her body in a
bog, then confessed to the crime
when a well-preserved head was
found there 22 years later. As it
turns out, the woman's head had
been there 1 ,600 years.
The Houston man who stabbed
himself during a robbery because
"He forgot to turn the knife
downward."
And the Dallas Morning News
sports staff, which, in picking win
ners, was beaten two weeks in a
row by Kanda the Great, a year
old gorilla.
To one and all, better luck this
year!
The News-Journal
l?M
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WARREN N.JOHNSTON Editor
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SAM t. MORRIS Contributing Editor
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New York for Christmas
was worth price
By Warren Johnston
We had though! about going to New York City for some time. It
had just been one of those planned trips that never gets taken.
"I would like to see New York sometime," my wife had said
about three years ago.
"Let's skip Christmas and go to New York," I said this past
December.
We didn't really skip Christmas. We just held down the present
giving.
Instead of the lavish gifts we normally give, we sent out
"Season's Greetings" cards with a note enclosed which explained
that we were going to the Big Apple.
The cards said something like: "Merry Christmas. There will be
no gifts this year. We're going to New York."
I thought the cards would be a comfort to all our relatives, who
could read the messages on Christmas morning as they sat around
the tree. I was sure they would know we were going to have a good
time on our trip, and that would be present enough.
Now that the mist of the holiday spirit has cleared, I'm not so
sure the cards brought the vicarious pleasure we intended. Some of
the thank you notes have been a bit snippy.
"You won't believe what we have in mind for you next year,"
one note said.
"We may regret skipping Christmas," I told my wife. "It might
have been easier to cut back on the April Fool's Day expenses and
gone to New York in May."
Of course, my wife reminded me that we did not celebrate April
Fool's Day, and we wouldn't have saved a cent by cutting it out.
The Puppy Papers
Once the decision was made, we began putting the word out
around town that we were going to New York.
"New York," somebody said. "What'd you lose up there?"
"Boy, I sure didn't lose anything up there. You wouldn't catch
me going to a big place like that. No sir, not even on a bet," he add
ed.
Others suggested that if we were serious about wanting to go to
New York, the local mental health unit might be a better place to
spend a week.
"You know, it's cold up there, and there sure are a lot of
Yankees," another friend warned, adding that he had to think hard
to come up with something good to say about the city.
"The best thing I can think of about New York is that it's up
there, and we're down here," he said.
Some warned about the hazards of crime in the city, and sug
gested that we might be hit over the head and robbed.
"Are you sure you want to go to New York?" I asked my wife.
Although I used to know my way around the city 15 years ago, I
was getting a little nervous about the trip.
Perhaps it had changed. It was heading downhill the last time I
was there.
"Hey, come on. It will be great," my wife, who had never been to
New York, said. "You're not letting all this talk get to you, are
you?"
As soon as we arrived, I found that New York had changed.
It was cleaner. People were friendlier, and there were "I love New
York" signs everywhere.
Fifteen years ago it was difficult to get New Yorkers just to
"curb" their dogs. On trips in the past I had missed seeing most of
the sites because I had to look down to make sure I didn't step in
anything.
Today, thanks to a campaign by the mayor's wife. New York dog A
owners are not only curbing their animals, but they are also "scoop- ?
ing the poop." It is not uncommon to see a fashionable Fifth
Avenue resident, dressed in mink, carrying a little shovel and a piece
of newspaper as she makes the rounds with "Fifi."
Subways are still covered with graffiti, but the scrawlings now
have some redeeming artistic quality.
Even during rush hour, most city dwellers are polite and will give
up seats on buses and trains to elderly and handicapped riders.
New Yorkers now seem to like New York.
"I still think we shouldn't have skipped Christmas," I said to my
wife as we waited for the plane to take off on the flight home. n
"I think some of our relatives are pretty angry about the cards,"
I added.
"Maybe we could send them a little something for April Fool's
Day," she suggested.
It was a good idea, and thinking about it during the flight made
me feel less guilty about exchanging their Christmas for a good time
in New York.
After all, it'll probably be the first April Fool's Day present they
have ever had, I thought.