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2A TIIKNEWS-JOllRNAI, Rucforcl, N.C. March 28, 2(1(17 Viewpoints Conversation takes the cake Over the years I have been engaged in some strange conversa tions. none mot« .so tlian one 1 had recently. A retired tanner came by to talk to (lie about peach trees. Most of the folks I talk to want to talk abr)ut peach trees. He had 60 and put in 40 more and felt this was all he could handle. After telling him he had to work at it. 1 realized in our conversation that he wasn't too interested in doing so. He had expressed that he had two heart attacks and was going to try and keep busy with the peach trees. However after 1 told him all the woik involved and especially how he needed to protect himself by wetiring a pesticide suit - including a mask and goggles - he said, "I have never worried about protecting myself against pe.sticides in all my years of tamiing, and 1 don't intend to wear a suit." Then his wife added, “He has even sprayed chemicals on me." 1 didn't dare ask if that was done on purpose, because she was a charming lady and 1 would guess easy to live with. He was a nice fellow and 1 en joyed talking to him. Having said the above, it was apparent he was not going to take all of my advice. Therefore I decided to change the subject. It wasn't hard to pick a subject. A View from the Country Raz Autrv because everyone has an idea on Iraq - that is except the President. He has a one-track mind, “stay the course." The gentleman asked, “Have you ever been in a war?" 1 replied, “World War Two." His next statement was, “You weren't in World War Two." 1 said, “It must have been an illusion. 1 could have sworn 1 was in that war." His answer, “All World WarTwo veterans are dead." I said, “1 am not." He continued, “1 am 77 years old and you say you are 80. You can't be 80 because you look younger than 1 do." 1 told you 1 get in some strange conversations. The Friendly Undertaker in- tbmied me with a great deal of delight that he was in Montgomery County and spoke to my fomier .secretary, w ho worked witli me when 1 was the pri ncipal at East Montgom ery High School. Her husband was an agriculture teacher at the school. Both were good friends. He was tel 1- ing her how tight 1 was. He told her 1 squeeze a nickel until it hollers. Can any of you who know the Friendly Undertaker even remotely believe that he would havethe nerve totalk to anyone about being tight? However that is not the only untme thing that has been srtid about me. When 1 had been in HokeCounty only a few weeks, a principal whom 1 had known for years ctune through Raeford, stopped at a local store and asked a man near by. “Do you know Raz Autry'?" The man said, “1 have just met him and like him." The next statement out of niy ex-friend's mouth was, "Heevidently has got his act together and stopped drinking. 1 was afraid Raz was going to get too heavy inthe b(X)ze."Aftermakingthis statement he got in his cgr and left, probably laughing his head oft’. A few days later the man called me and asked if he could come by my office. Once seated he said, “1 need to talk to you about .someth! ng a friend of your said." He repeated the conversation. 1 tiied my best to explain that it was a joke, 1 am not sure 1 was convincing, probably because 1 had a great desire to shoot my ex-friend. Later 1 got hold of him and u.sed al I the foul language 1 had acquired inthe war,that according to the farmer, 1 wasn't in. Needless to say he didn't listen because he was laughing too hard. My parting thought - Have a real happy day. Enjoy it, because you got up this morning. Today POLLEN PR(iDUCTION , Republicans need to change perception on public education Trash state property commission By Scxrrr Mooneyham, Capitol Press Association Former HouseSpeakerJim Black apparently didn't care that the buying and sellingofstate property isclearly an executive branch function. Of course, the.se days, no one should care much what Black thought. That being the case, legislators hopefully will decide to do away with a State Surplus Property Com mission that he created, rather than try' to recreate a better version of a bad idea. Four years ago. Black came up with the idea of identifying and selling oft' state property to fatten state coffers. When the idea ran into predictable reststance from the State Property Office, Black went further, creating an independent commission. From the start, the plan included a provision to give brokers a comrnission if they could identify surplus property. The commission - like a lot of Black's ideas that were passed into law using special provisions tucked into the state budget - was greeted with suspicion. Keith Williams, a former Repub lican legislator, was named director of the 16-member board. Williams had backed Black's co-speakership with Republican Richard Morgan, then lost his seat two years later. The job raised eyebrows. And some in state government circles privately questioned whether other unseen motives might be involved. A few publications dutifully re ported the facts known at the time. The News & Observerof Raleigh recently revisited the issue, finding that in three years the commis sion hadn’t sold a single piece of property. Reporter And rewCurliss detailed continuing conflicts between the state agencies that control property and the commission that wanted to sell it. His article also disclosed how Wi 11 iams was replaced as di rector by Patrick Bell. Bell’s father was a key political supporter of Black, after Williams accused then-commission member Bell of a potential conflict of interest. With Black gone from the House, members of the chamber have now decided that the property commis sion was a bad idea. Well, sort of Several House members have sponsored a bill that would abolish the commission in its current fonn and replace it with new 9-member commission. Unlike the old com mission, which legislative leaders completely controlled, the governor would appoint one-third of the members. The changes may be an im provement, but still ignore the basic problem created by the commission. Legislators make laws and ap propriate money. Their job isn’t to dispose of state property. How state property is dispo.sed of or if it is disposedof isdistinctlyanexecutive branch function. The governor oversees the State Property Office within the Department of Administration. If he (or someday, she) decides that office or its director isn’t doing the job, then it's withiti the governor’s power to act. If the legislature believes the office needs more resources to do the job, then provide them. If its members believe an administrative agency needs reorganizing, then pass a law. If that’s St il I not good enough for a particularlegislator,there’sone thing left to do: Run for governor. Why, somebody asked me last week, don't Republicans get more support from the public on education issues? Democrats, he continued, have been running public education, and they have ruined it by selling out to the education bureaucracy. I was attending a luncheon pro gram sponsored by the Civitas Insti tute, “a research and public policy organization dedicated to providing con.servative .solutions for North Carolina's pressing i.ssues.” Each month at a luncheon (open to all, but attended mostly by politi cal conservatives), Civitas President Jack Hawke, former chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, reviews results of a new poll tliat has surveyed North Carolina voters on important issues. The March poll, like Civitas’s prior polls, shows "improving public education” to be one of the top concerns of North Carolina voters. Twenty-two percent say it is the challenge that “need-s the most attention from .state government.” It is topped only by "lower health care costs,” which is the main state government concern of 25 percent of poll respondents. Respon.ses to other questions. Jack Hawk said, gave further indica tions of North Carolinians’ concern for public education. For instance,91 percent of respondents said that they .supported “expanding vocational education programs in public high One on One D. G. Martin Proposal to treat kids as adults at age 18 would help youth who make mistakes By Chris Fitzsimon, N.C. Policy Watch Calls for fiscal accountabil ity, wise investments of tax payer money and helping North Carolina’s children are almost always part of every lawmaker’s campaign brochure when they are running for office and prominent in their speeches after they are elected. That ought to mean broad support for legislation by Rep. Alice Bordsen that would address all three talking points. Bordsen w ants to change the state law that requires that 16 and 17 year olds w ho commit any crime be treated asadultsandpuni shed in the adu 11 criminal justice system instead of the juvenile system. North Carolina is one of only three states that automatically try 16 and 17 year olds as adults. Bordsen wants to raise the age to 18 and her proposal comes from the North Carolina Sentencing Commission that studied the is sue for a year after Bordsen asked them to look into it. Tlie Sentencing Commission is made up of judges, law enforce ment officials, victim advocates and criminal justice experts and has never been accused of being a soft on crime group. But the case for this change is overwhelming. The vast major ity of crimes committed by 16 and 17 year olds are non violent and in 2(X)5 only four percent of them were felonies against other people, yet the youth who commit them end up with a permanent adult criminal record that makes it much harder to get jobs or serve in the military. In tnost states, the offenses are handled in juvenile court and the offender’s record is sealed. Data from the Sentencing Commission show that youth who end up in the adult system are twice as likely to commit another crime as are the offenders who re ceive the support that the juvenile A'' system provides. And those new crimes committed by youth after leaving the adult system are often far more serious and violent. That means that investing in treatment and support of youthful offenders now saves adult prison costs in the long run, not to men tion that it prevents more crime, protects more potential crime victims, and makes it more likely that the offender can have a suc cessful and productive life. It does not mean that teenagers who commit violent crimes or are repeat offenders can never end up in adult court. A judge could still make that determination, but the presumption would be that anyone under 18 who commits a crime would enter the juvenile system unless a judge (ules otherwise after a hearing. Reportedly, some prosecutors want sole discretion over which youthful offenders go to adult court, but that’s seems much more appropriate for a judge to decide after hearing from both sides. 1 here is u likely to be a group of legislators who oppose the proposal because they oppose any thing that appears to inject a little common sense into ihe criniinal justice system. But Bordsen’s bill would save taxpayers money in the long run, wi.sely invests in support services for troubled tee(ts and their fami lies, and clearly helps thousands ol hildten by not only punishing ■ \i\ ‘ > ii'icti iiii'>iaKC>, uui aldU giving them a second chance It sure sounds like what most legislative candidates said they warned toatcomplish in Raleigh. Now they have a chance to live up to those promises. schools to make it more attractive to students thinking of dropping out of school.” Respondents also favored raising the mandatory attendance age. Sev enty-two percent registered support to the following question: “In light of the 32 percent dropout rate, do you support or oppose increasing the mandatory school attendance age from 16 to 18 years of age?” The large majority of respondents favor bonds to fund public school construction needs over proQ^ised bonds for other important state in frastructure needs. Notwithstanding this strong sup port for improving public education, Hawke reported 49 percent of the respondents answered “yes” to this question: “If money were not an is sue, would you choose to send your child to a private or parochial school instead of a public school?’ These responses were the basis for that question 1 got about the politics of public education. If the public has .so little confidence in publ ic schools that most (49 percent?) would choose private education for their own children, why don’t they give the Republicans a chance to fix the public schools? it is an important political ques tion. Here is why. As long as the public believes that Democrats are better for public education than Re publicans, Democrats stand a good chance of retaining control of state government even against the trend of growing Republican strength in the region. But, should Republicans persuade the public that their party would really be better for public education, then Democrats can pack their bags and go home. Now, back to the opening ques tion: Why does the public continue to support the Democratic Party over the Republican Party on public education concerns? Here is what I think. TTie public doesn’t really believe Republicans want to give the public schcxils more resources. They hear (and like) the Republican anti-tax messages. But when they hear Republicans call for public school “reform,” they suspect that reform means less money - much less money - for the schools. 1 answered the question bluntly, saying, “The public worries that Republicans don’t really believe in publicajbools. It may not be fair. Republicans might realty strongly want to help the schools. But their overall message of cutting govern ment to save money and lower taxes comes across as a plan to cut resources to our schools rather than to strengthen them.” Several people in the audience sprang up to challenge me. “It is not fair to say that Republicans don’t believe in public schools. We just don’t like the results of Democratic mismanagement. And we can do a better job. We support the schools even more than the Democrats. “Hold on,” I responded. “You asked me a political question and 1 told you what I thought was the public’s perception about Repub licans and public schools. TTieir perception may be unfair, but if you want to win elections you need to find out a way to change it.” Then, 1 thought to myself, “1 am in over my head and I need to change the subject quick.” So, I asked, “Who is going to win the governor’s race in 2(X)8T’ The iNewS -Journal Published every Wednesday by Dickson Press, Inc. Robert A. Dickson, President Anne Dickson Fogleman, Secretary/Treasurer 119 W. Elwood Avenue, Raeford, NC 28376 (910) 875-2121 PRINTED (WITH SOYINK Home Page: www.thenews-journal.com Ken MacDonald (kenSttifnews-journal.com) Publisher Victoriana Summers (»icki@ttienew» |ournal.com) Reporter Hal Nunn (hal@ttienews-|oiirnal.co(n) Sports Writer Hal Nunn (hai@thenews-|oiirnal.com) Sales Representative Wendy Tredway (wen(iy@theiiews-iournal.com) Sales Representative Teena Jones (ieena@ihenews-|outiial.com) Office Manager Linda Watson (ii(i(ia@thenewj-journai.coni) Receptionist Robin Huffman (robin@tii»new$ |ournai.com) Composition Design Mantise Andrews Press Foreman entail ads to• ads(®thPnp>MC joornsi cpm email classifieds to: classitieds@thenews-journal.eom email legals to: legaisi^thenews-journal.com Periodical Class Postage at Raeford, N.C.dlSPS 388-260) Postmaster: Send address changes to: P.O. Box 550 Raeford, N.(L 28376
The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
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