2A THE NEWS-JOllRNAL Raeford, N.C.
January 22, 1997
Viewpoints
Women should be tougher
It has been interesting reading
about the troubles of the Citadel.
One of the main problems in
admitting women is they simply
aren't tough enough physically.
Young women in my day
worked along with the men. Get
ting tobacco out of the field, pick
ing cotton and pulling com were
everyday occurrences. Some of
those gals were tough.
Sadie Lou was the toughest
woman I have ever known. She
could pick 200 pounds of cotton in
a day and whip three boys if they
got cute with her.
One day, my boyhood pal
Huckleberry Jones was picking
cotton alongside Sadie Lou. Boys
in those days didn’t sleep with
single women — although they
thought about it. Huckleberry de
cided he would get bold; therefore
he propositioned her. She slapped
him so hard he fell over three rows
of cotton and carried two black
. eyes for a week.
If Sadie Lou was coming along
today and she was admitted to the
Citadel, the cases would be re
versed. It would be the young men
— notchargingsexual harassment
— but physical abuse. Years after
we were grown 1 saw her at a
funeral. She introduced me to her
husband, who weighed about 140
pounds and was 5 feet, 8 inches
tall. After shaking his hand, 1
thought, “You are tougher than
you look. Or else you are the most
. A View from
' ^ the Country
Raz Autry
henpecked man in the world.”
Sadie Lou was one tough cus
tomer. She was as tough as the of
country boy, who after summer
chores, would hang around town
until it was dark. He would walk
home the same way every night.
One particular night he hung
around town until it was so dark,
you couldn’t see your hand in front
of your face. No stars were shin
ning, neither was the moon. He
crossed a pasture. Unbeknownst
to him, the farmer who owned the
pasture got a new bull. When he
was about halfway across the pas
ture, the bull spotted him. The
animal hit him in the back and
knocked him about 20 feet. He
jumped up and found the bull and
whipped the tar out of him. The
next day, he ran into some of his
buddies and they wanted to know
why he was all scratched up. He
said, “Let me tell you what hap
pened, 1 was walking home last
night when some buy attacked me.
We went round and round. I didn’t
have much trouble whipping him;
but I had the hardest time getting
him off his bicycle.”
Since the legislature passed the
Letters
Court system
gives run-around
To The Editor;
I want toshare with the Raeford
community one of my recent ex
periences as a “victim”, and a let
ter to the editor is the only way 1
know at this time to do that.
If you want small jobs or repair
and improvement done in your
;home, BEWARE! In September
:i 9% I contracted with a small and
relatively new contractor in
Raeford to replace a wood front
porch with a cement and brick
front porch. I contracted with him
primarily because I had not been
able to get any of the better known
contractors in Raeford to even give
me a bid on such a “small” job.
Within three days after the com
pany had poured the cement porch,
it stormed during the night. Thun
der woke me up at 4 a.m. and for
some reason 1 got up and went into
.the living room and, with a shock,
• stepped on soaked carpet I The rain
had funnelled on the front porch
towards the front door and i nto the
living room. I called the next morn
ing and many more times during
the next month, leaving messages
on his answering machine.
right to carry a pistol law, 1 have
toyed with the idea of getting one,
since I work in my back orchard so
much. It is lonely back there, sur
rounded by woods. I don’t have a
Sadie Lou to keep me company.
In a conversation recently with
my spouse of 46 years, 1 remarked,
“I am going to get me a pistol to
carry with me in the back orchard.
She replied, “You don’t need a
pistol. As many people as you
have made mad over the years,
since you haven’t been shot by
one of them; nobody is going to
shoot you now.”
1 said, “Hold on just a minute, 1 am
not worried about those I made mad,
the ones 1 haven’t are my coneem.”
1 will let you know how this
disagreement comes out.
My parting thought — Grandpa
had a deep insight to the design of
the commandments. He always
thought he knew why the Lord had
taught that adults must be converted
and become as little children —
because the chi Id’s innocence causes
him to put the best constmetion on
everything, even that which seems
most unlikely.
He said that as he was walking
to town, a little girl ran out and
told him about her father. “You
ought to be proud of my papa. 1 bet
he’s the religionist man in the
church. This morning when he hit
his thumb with the hammer, he
jumped up and down and talked
about God for 15 minutes.
He never returned my calls.
Only once did he actually answer
the phone late one night and at that
time he acknowledged that there
was a problem and that he would
be there to fix it. Well, those were
only empty promises when he al
ready had more than $2,0(X) of my
money.
I advised him that if he didn’t
correct the problem that I would
take him to court. When he didn’t
show, 1 contacted two different
lawyers here in Raeford to repre
sent me in this case . . . neither
would take the case. However,
there are some good Samaritans
here in Raeford who know a little
about the system and advised me
that I should go to the court house
and take out papers for a judge
ment against the company. I did
that, but got no ‘ victim’s rights”
advice from anyone in the court
house.
A hearing was scheduled in the
magistrate’soffice in mid-Decem
ber.
When I got to the hearing 1 was
advised by the magistrate that she
had previously discussed the case
with the defendant and that she
could not “hear” the case; that she
had earlier advised him of this and
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Looking for the next speaker
told him to go to the clerk to
reschedule the case and advise
me.
The hearing was rescheduled
for the next week and that magis
trate and all parties visited my
home and found that the porch
had a definite slant the wrong way
and needed to be removed and
redone. The magistrate ruled in
my favor.
The magistrate advised me that
because of the appeal the case
would go to district court and that
I would be notified of a trial date.
After a couple of weeks of hearing
nothing, I called the clerk of court
to find out the date in District
Court. I was told that there were
two appeals from magistrate’s
court, but they couldn’t tell me if
my case was one of them... 1 was
told I would be sent a notice. Then,
a week later, again advised by a
“layman” that there were a lim
ited number of days to officially
file and pay for an appeal applica
tion, I called back to the Clerk of
Court and was advised that no
appeal had been filed.
I was told I would have to file a
“notice of rights,” that he would
be served the papers and be given
time to respond, and that this pos
sibly could still go to District
(See LETTERS, page 3A)
RALEIGH — The race for
North Carolina House speaker has
devolved into what one staff per
son has appropriately called the
“rumor of the minute.”
“I just heard that the Charlotte
banks have jumped into it, trying
to get their man, Jim Black.”
“1 heard the Republicans turned
Jim Crawford and Edd Nye.”
“I heard Don Mattingly is com
ing back to play for the Rangers.
Oops, wrong sport.”
With a Republican-to-Demo-
crat split of 61 - 59, the race for
speaker is as close as can be.
Speaker Harold Brubaker can
hold power if he can hold his 61
Republican votes. But the Demo
crats, who have chosen Rep. Jim
Black of Charlotte as their nomi
nee, say they have at least two
Republicans willing to switch,
and that those switches will get
them to 61 votes.
“I heard that the Democrats are
really working the governor to get
into it. That they want him to offer
a few of these Republicans who
are really slapped for cash a good
job somewhere in the bureau
cracy.”
All of the talk, of course, is just
rumor, but the rumors make
enough sense to excite even sea
soned political watchers. Accord
ing to sources close to Brubaker,
it’s been enough to make him a
little nervous.
It would make sense, for ex
ample, for Gov. Jim Hunt to get
involved in the search for a Re
publican vote or two. Hunt has a
big agenda for the next budget,
while Brubaker expects little to
happen. Hunt’s agenda would have
a much better chance of passage if
Brubaker were sitting in the back
row rather than presiding.
It also makes sense that some
Republicans would want to desert
Brubaker, not because of his be
havior but because of Rep. Rich
ard Morgan, R-Moore, who is
Brubaker’s enforcer. Morgan is
strongly disliked for his disciplin
ary role, a role that he can be
legitimately accused of enjoying
too much. Morgan also has ambi
tions to control the redistricting
process, a desire that conflicts with
the aspirations of several other
Republicans.
Does this make any difference
to the citizenry? Yes, although
they’re likely to follow the Caro
lina Panthers’ free agent maneu
vering more closely.
Brubaker’s strategy has been
to hold his 61 and win. He has
made individual overtures to in
dividual Democrats to strengthen
that margin. That’s his mistake,
and it promises to deny North
Carolina of a rare opportunity
this year.
Brubaker should be seeking a
broad coalition with moderate and
conservative Democrats, one that
would put some seasoned Demo
crats in second-tierchairmanships
and which would guarantee that
Democratic lawmakers are ac
corded respect during the session.
Rather than look for 61 votes, he
should be Iookingfor9(). Heshould
tell the crazy right in his party, and
the crazy left in the Democratic
Party, that he is putting together a
Watching
Paul T. O'Counor
center coalition that represents
most North Carolinians. B
elieve me, there’s little philo
sophical difference between
Bmbaker, Black, most of the House
leadership and about 30 Demo
crats. So we’ll probably have a
speaker — my guess Brubaker —
elected with 61 voles and North
Carolinians can look forward to
another session of partisan bicker
ing where the politicians take care
of their own childish and petty
differences rather than working to
help our schools and business cli
mate.
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