Newspapers / The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) / Aug. 2, 1984, edition 1 / Page 2
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Viewpoints Wilderness unnecessary BrMiSMr N.C. Farm Bareau Millions of acres of federal land are being added to our inventory of wilderness areas as Congress passes and the President signs a number of bills affecting 22 states. Preserving our wild and scenic areas has a certain public appeal. But what the public fails to realize is that wilderness areas are not synonymous with vacation areas. Generally wilderness is open only to travel by foot or horseback and is closed to motorized vehicles. Livestock grazing is one of the few activities allowed in wilderness areas. Instead of enhancing the quality of the land, wilderness designation can actually harm it. It is the policy in wilderness areas NOT to fight forest fires. Problems also develop with sanitation, insects and nox ious weeds. Farmers and ranchers have usually opposed expansion of wilderness areas and instead prefer multiple use of our public lands. This benefits the most people and allows timber harvesting, mineral exploration, grazing and recrea tion. We now have about 80 million acres locked away in wilderness, but proposals exist that could raise that to a total of 230 million acres. The News-Journal * PvMUH Every TfcarWiy fey Did? Prm. lac.. Paal DMm, Prat. 119 W. FJwood Avraat. P.O. Box 550 Raefortf. N.C. 2M3T* SakKripiM Bala la Atfvaace la Cava tj fir Yor ? SM.M ? MaalM am Oal of Coaaty Per Year? S12.M t Moatb* ? tt.M LOUIS H. FOGLEMAN. JR P.bfakef WARREN N. JOHNSTON Editor HENRY L. BLL'E .... Prodortioa Sapinhai MBS. PAUL DICKSON Society Ettor SAM C.MORRIS Coa?rt>?rtat Oto ANN WEBB Advertising Represeataiivr 2a4 Cha Pottafc at Raeford. N.C. (L'SPS 3CS-2M) Building program in hands of school board Members of the Board of Education have endorsed a $4.8 million plan for improving the physical condition of the Hoke County schools, but because of the apparent lackadaisical attitude of the board members about budgetary matters, taxpayers should be wondering if the 10-year fix-up programs will be completed. Under the plan, 78 new classrooms will be constructed, an aging middle school will be closed and the grade structure of the remain ing facilities will be changed. It is a sweeping program, designed to give this county a leg up in education. The drawback to the plan is that long-range funding depends on the public approval of a S2.SS million bond issue. It is the school board's responsibility to convince the voters that the improvements are worth the cost. In late April when a 21 -member citizens committee completed its work and recommended the facilities fix-up plan, there was a wave of public enthusiasm for improving the schools. The impression was also given that the board of education would ride the crest, keep the voters "fired up" and seek immediate approval of the bond issue, perhaps even during the June elections. The ball was dropped, and the voter spirit has waned. Since then the board approved, without comment or intense in vestigation, a recommended local school budget which was 29.9% higher than the previous year. The education budget included the cost of the schools' rehabilitation, but it did not provide for revenue to pay for the improvements, other than from increased ad valorem taxes. In defense of the budget, the school board members said the spending bill was "bare bones" and could not be avoided. After about six weeks of whittling, members of the county com mission cut $60,000 from the school operating budget and funded the school improvement plan, largely from an increase in ad valorem taxes. The school board absorbed the cuts in the "bare bones" budget Editorial with little reaction, and taxpayers, who saved two cents of a rate hike from the county commission's frugality, were probably reliev ed. Now that the dust has settled on the budget, school officials are implementing the first phase of the fix-up plan. South Hoke School and Hoke High School will be getting new roofs, but the program cannot continue without the help of the $2. S3 million in bonds. Members of the county commission have taken the sting out of financing the bond issue by raising taxes this year to pay for the school improvements. The cost of the funding has almost become a moot point. Now the rehabilitation of the educational facilities in Hoke County is in the hands of the school board, who must organize a campaign and obtain the public's approval for the fix-up plan. Passage of the program will require no new tax increases, so the selling job should be easy. Once the improvements are made, Hoke County will have school facilities which are as good as any in the state. If the bond issue is going to receive public approval, the cam paign for its passage must not come from the members of the .coun ty commission or from the school administration alone. It must be actively lead by the board of education. School board members have endorsed the improvement plan, and now the elected officials should stand behind it. The time for lethargy is over. The school board should have the bond issue placed on the November ballot and should work vigorously for its passage. ? . . Hoke County Board of Education members were elected to lead. Now they have an opportunity not only to demonstrate their ability, but also to raise the level of the schools above mediocrity. We hope they are up to the task. Democratic party members are facing a dilemma San Francisco... The Democrats' dilemma is represented by two scenes. One is depicted on the front page of the San Jose Mercury News, with a picture of two men kissing during the "Gay Rights" parade here Sunday. The other is the televised image of Governor Mario Cuomo of New York on the dias Monday night, trying to call together the new deal coalition. The scenes are heavy with sym bolism and with conflicting values. Cuomo may be overrated as a politician... during the 1982 reces sion, he managed to lose the blue collar vote to his Republican oppo nent -- but he at least understands what the Democratic party used to stand for: the interest of the com mon man. In his address, Cuomo gave Mondale the highest praise he could give, that Mondale rose to his party's presidential nomination as "a Democrat born not to the blood of the Kings, but to the blood of immigrants and pioneers." Cuomo described President Reagan as distant from the pro blems of working people and un concerned about the future. Even "Republican investment bankers on Wall Street" are more concern ed about the future than Reagan, Cuomo said. Throughout his speech he used words like "family", "love", and "compas sion" to describe the Democrats' commitment to the welfare state. At an age when even the most liberal politicians attack big government, Cuomo embraced it. Democrats, he said, "insists on all the government we need." When he was through, and delegates leaped to their seats to chant his name, it was clear why Cuomo was the choice to keynote the convention and why several Mondale advisors wanted him on the ticket. Mario Cuomo is a master at invoking a cause long dead and smoothing over the dif ferences between the warring fac tions of the party. He makes the il logical seem logical. The Democrats need someone Richard A. Viguerie like him because the New Deal coalition no longer makes any sense. The same party cannot represent the frost-belt and the south, Jews and pro-Arab blacks, the dying smokestack industries and the immerging high-tech com panies. No political coalition stays together forever, because the in terest of different groups change over a period of time. To resist change rather than adapt to it is often fatal. Ask any brontosaurus. "Diversity, once the party strength, is now its weakness, its arch achilles heel," Senator James Sasser of Tennessee said during the convention. But diversity is not the problem; the problem is that the diverse groups within the party are incompatible. Consider just one example: while Mario Cuomo talks of im portance of traditional values, one of the most powerful blocks within the Democratic party is one iden tification by the manner in which its member violate traditional stan dards of moral behavior. When homosexuals marched in San Francisco the day before the convention, their parade included representatives of every group from the people with AIDS Alliance to the Quaker Lesbians, from Body Electric (Gay Men Against Nuclear War) to the high tech gays, and from the National Organization for Women to the Lesbian/Gay Labor Alliance. "Gay, straight, black, white, all unite to fight the Right," they cheered. They carried signs that proclaim that "religion is the pro blem, not the solution" and "the Bible is a myth-conception." Their costumes ranged from business suits, to hooker costumes for the hookers, to a nun's outfit for the transvestite. Sister Boom-Boom. Any group can demonstrate out side the convention hall, but the leaders of the homosexual move ment were also present inside the convention smoke-filled room. The major Democratic Presiden tial candidates actively sought "gay" support and place homosexuals in the top level of their campaigns, and party official guaranteed homosexual represen tation on each of the convention's committees. The Democratic plat form pledges support for "gay rights" laws, for homosexuals in the military, and for "gays'* who wish to immigrate to the U.S. In return for this recognition, the vast majority or "gays" who are active in politics have pledged their support to the Democratic party, mostly through some 100 homosexual Democratic clubs throughout the country. The ascendence of homosexuals withing its ranks is one reason the Democratic party is seen as an asylum run by the inmates. Letters To The Editor \ Better teachers will help schools To The Editor: One aspect of education that is I badly in need of affirmative action I but which has hardly been touched I upon is that of the quality of 1 teachers. It is quite evident that if I the teachers are poor, the educa- I tional program will be poor, no I matter if the equipment and I facilities are excellent. If the quali- I ty of education of the students is to I improve, something must earnestly ? be done to improve the quality of the teachers, and the superficial at tention of politicians interested in furthering their campaign will not be of lasting benefit. There are obvious proposals to improve the teachers in our schools, some of which are before the legislature now and some of which have been suggested or men- | tioned now and again but never put into action. First, we need to "weed out bad teachers" as it has been phrased. This simply means showing enough interest and con cern to find out which ones are in competent and fire them. Many times a teacher's attitude causes his or her lack of competence; re educating them so that they are fit for the job will not necessarily do . much good. "l Secondly, the job of teaching needs to be worthwhile to have and therefore attractive to professional | personnel. Obviously, people com petent in their fields stray away from teaching because the pay is bad and the conditions of the job are not very attractive. If the pay were to increase and the working conditions to improve, teachers -would deem it a worthwhile and 1 enjoyable career and we would have a much better percentage of good, new teachers. The best teachers I have en countered in my school life were teaching not for the job and pay , but in spite of them. Teaching is what they enjoy more than anything else, and it shows in their pupils. However, there are not many people who enjoy teaching j enough to endure the low pay and the job conditions involved when there is more money and respect in some other career. It is obvious that a careful, long term program is needed, not just one year's attention. If we cannot give our teachers reasonable pay and respect, then we will have neither good teachers nor a good education. Teachers who do not . deserve respect will not get respect. - The traffic must be steered two way. Sincerely, John Ward Letters Policy Letters to the editor are encouraged and 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 week. Roosting pigeons may be the salvation of H oke County A recent article in The Wall Street Journal gave light to a new in dustry which should be implemented immediately by local officials. If one reads through the lines in the article, the pigeon guano in dustry could be applied in Hoke County and could reap millions for local taxpayers, as it is for promoters in Texas and New Mexico, who are raking in the loot by selling the droppings from bats and sea birds. The fertilizer is alleged to be high in nitrogen and is sought by organic gardeners and marijuana growers. "Guano is sweeping the cannabis world tike a prairie fire,'* one writer is quoted as saying. The natural fertilizer is selling for as high as S3 per pound. It is marketed under catchy names like: "Reginald the Aristobat" and "Plant joy," and is sold in colorful jar* and buckets, the article say*. Guano sales are expected to exceed the $1 million mark this year and to timb higher in the future. Hokw County officials, have been stumbling around the last few weeks trying to make ends me*. Their lives could have been much ?afller, had they only looked under the feet and over their heads at tkeMttovae. No taagflr can this county afford to scoff at the pigeons and try to drive them away. Local officisls should be cultivating the birds and weloocninf them with open roosts. Hp* Warren Johnston i The Puppy Papers What's a little inconvenience for a handful of lawyers, wandering judges and disgruntled county workers, compared to the potential millions in revenue for the taxpayers. Sure, the officials will get complaints, but they have got to learn how to turn a deaf ear or just wear earplugs. "The roosts have created a hazard for persons who want to use the building," unhappy public servants are already saying, but those pleas have to be ignored. That is no doubt, some lawyers might get upset, and some might even send the county the cleaning bills for their splattered three piece suits, but what is that compared to "big bucks'* that could come from the guano business. Hoke County has got to look for every resource possible to make ends meet, and instead of spending $700 on bird repeOers that do not work, we should be purchasing "pigeon attracters" to help pile on the Income. _ There has already been a to-do over a friendly flock of pigeons that have moved into the Hoke County Courthouse. Top ranking county officials should have invited the birds, but they didn't. They came here on their own to try to head off the current economic crisis, and with their help we could get deeply involved in the revival of the guano business. <i Marijuana is the number one cash crop in North Carolina. If growers will buy Texas guano, they'll buy anything. The market is wide open for Hoke County. Our pigeons have tried to be accommodating and have decided that the best place to roost is over the entrances of the building. Who are we to argue with them. We see no basis in the argument of some courthouse workers who feel the site is not suitable for a new industry. In answer to the complaints, we suggest that county officials \ thumb their noses, and then take a dollar a week out of the pay checks of the unhappy employees to pay for the cost of an umbrella. While everyone is objecting to slipping on stairs and dodging pigeon droppings, few have noticed the economic potential being offered by the roosting birds. It is time for that attitude to end. Instead of just a costly nuisance, the courthouse pigeons could be providing this county with millions. Hoke County must stop washing its future off of the courthouse steps each morning and start bagging the income as it builds up. According to The Wall Street Journal , they are doing It in Texas, ' and we think it can be done here in Hoke County.
The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
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Aug. 2, 1984, edition 1
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