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2A THE NEWS-JOURNAL Raeford, N.C. May 5, 2010 Viewpoints You just have to make it through April There is only one comment I will make about peaches; you have read enough from me about peaches. As everyone knows the month of April is the sweat ing month. The greatest loss in peaches comes in April. If a grower gets by April he or she is usually in good shape to have a good peach harvest. Now for the comment, which I took entirely too long to state. After a grower breathes his April sigh of relief that he will have a good year, he goes in the orchard with help, and pulls at least 85 percent of the peaches off the tree. It is simple logic: a peach grower can harvest hickory nuts or softballs. I have discovered in 25 years that the public want softballs and aren’t too interested in hickory nuts. A peach grower is like the man who was gasping for breath, and covered with sweat, came into a racetrack snack bar and ordered a soft drink. The waitress asked, “What happened to you?” “I was in the paddock area,“ the man panted, “when I saw a A View from the Country Raz Autry $100 on the ground. I bent over to pick it up. While I was bent over someone threw a saddle on me, and a jockey jumped into the saddle. The next thing I knew I was on the track and the jockey was whipping my flanks.” “No kidding,“ said the sur prised woman, “what did you do?” “I finished third.” Sometimes a peach grower will finish lower than third. I said this article wasn’t going to be about peaches. It just shows you how a peach grower will lie. Several seniors help Skip and me and we have a lot of fun. Some of the stories told are the truth and others are, well, stories. One of our helpers is a long-time friend. My next-door neighbor, who is a first class neighbor, has a lot of pecan trees and apparently he will have We Get Letters Let’s help family To the Editor: I would like to say that my heart goes out to the Brown Family. I’m sure everyone who has a heart and read the story feels the same way. I pray that she gets all the money and more to help her out with the surgery needed. If I had all she needed, I would give it to her and not look for anything in return. We need to do all we can to support this family. If the shoe was on the other foot, we would want all the help we can get. Hoke County and whomever else, let’s raise this money! We can only imagine what they are going through, and let us pray that we will never And out. We do good raising money for other states and countries when something goes wrong. So now we can help out right at home. Let’s give her children something to remember. I’m not part of this family, but would like to say thank you for your support toward this opera tion. I know it will take a lot off of this family knowing the operation will go forth. Let’s keep them in our prayers! The family has asked for help so now let them receive. Tara Bowden Cut Perdue some slack To the Editor: I saw your 4/28/10 editorial cartoon of Governor Bev Purdue - you know the snaggle-toothed, dumpy-looking blonde, holding the sign announcing $38 Million in state budget cuts! All I can say is Praise the Lord for her economic efforts! Snaggle Tooth, by the way, has aPh.D., was a classroom teacher in her pre-political life, and had the tenacity to become North Carolina’s first female governor, even when the good oT boys tried to discourage her from running. She helped guide the state budgetprocess while still a N.C. senator - understanding a budget that few elected officials understand right now - and I mean men! In economic crisis and depression, she has managed to scrape together every loose penny in this state in order to avoid the fate of California’s governor and other bankrupt states in the US. She’s the best friend state em ployees ever had! On the whole, most of them got a few days off and kept their jobs, unlike many in the private sector who lost theirs, and some government employees in others states who lost theirs. She had the good sense to realize - when private sector jobs were being lost - and little children were losing their homes and their warm beds at night - that tax revenues would also be falling drastically. Whenever possible, she has squeezed the blood out of the federal government’s funding turnip. She is one of the few people in this state with the guts to make hard choices. Furthermore, she must do this while listening to the whining complaints of the entitlement crowd. So far, she has avoided economic disaster after economic disaster; and in case you haven’t figured it out, “It’s the economy, stupid.” She’s doing a fantastic job on the eco nomic front. I don’t agree with Bev Pur due on several issues. I’m not a Democrat or a Republican. I’m an issue-oriented, unaffiliated voter. But that doesn’t mean I can be intellectually dishonest about her fantastic economic depres sion performance. The Budget has to be cut! Can’t you people add? Quit bellyaching! Give the woman some respect! As soon as the economy allows, those cuts will be restored-believe me! She will do it, when she can. I hope you voted this week, fellow Hoke Countians. If you didn ’ t take the time to vote, I invite you to enjoy a moment of silence instead of criticizing your state leaders - of either party. Don’t blame Leach Barbara Richie Pond Jeff Sumner THeIm&IPER. a good crop. My long time friend must have been thinking about those pecans trees when he looked at my peach trees and said, “These trees have a lot of pecans on them.” I replied, “Partner if these trees have pecans on them we are in high cotton and will get rich. He grinned and said, “Let me get this tree thinned.” I told you we have a great time. My parting thought, which I dedicate to those who are go ing to get married: George had just returned from two weeks of vacation. He went into the office and asked the boss for two more weeks so he could get married. “What?” shouted the boss, “I can’t give you any more time now; why didn’t you get married while you were off?” “Are you nuts?” replied George, “That would have ruined my entire vacation.” My advice to you ladies who are thinking about getting married - if his name is George forget it. Come to think of it, my first name is George. No further comment. "THIS IS A WEIRT REQUEST FROM JAMES LEACH. "NO...100-SQUARE FEET OF WALL SPACE FOR PLAQUES." ie^t\ Lumbee contract baffling To the Editor: I have just finished reading Raz Autry’s Op Ed on James Leach. Here is my nickel’s worth on the subject. While I agree 100 percent with what Raz had to say, I cannot in fairness, place all the blame on Leach. He has been criticized for bilking widows out of their life’s saving, destroying public property, and now election law violations. We are a nation of laws; these laws do not apply to James. He enjoys a privileged status with the law enforcement community that is second to none. He has never been called upon to answer for any of his wrongdoings. James has the same mindset of most politicians. He believes that whatever he does (that is self-serving) is okay, and that there are no consequences to his actions. He has a sense of entitlement that has remained unchallenged throughout his entire life. As long as he gets away with his shenanigans, he will continue doing as he pleases. You have to wonder what kind of hold he exerts over those who are charged with upholding the laws of our county. His in-your-face actions are a direct insult to all Hoke county citizens. In conclusion folks, please do not blame James. His actions are childish, boorish, and immature. He is like a festering sore that de mands radical treatment. James was obviously never taught good conduct as a child. I honestly do not believe that he has the abil ity to change his mannerisms. Don’t blame him for that. It is a matter of upbringing (or of the lack thereof). If you are looking for someone to blame... sorry, you have to look in the mirror. After all, we keep re-electing him. I know this has to make his constituents proud. Well, doesn’t it? Are you trying to make sense out of the latest news from the Lumbee Tribe? According to news reports, the Lumbee Tribal Council has approved a contract with a Nevada-based lobbying firm that will attempt to persuade Congress to grant the tribe full recognition without any restrictions on gam bling ventures. A bill granting recognition but restricting gambling has passed the House of Representatives and has been waiting on action by the Senate. The shocker in the new con tract with Lewin International is a provision that would require the Lumbees to pay Lewin $35 million if Congress grants rec ognition and permits gambling, unless the tribe votes to set up a gambling operation run by Lewin. The contract with Lewin has some of the 50,000 or more Lumbees who live in and around Robeson County worried and angry. Just when a compromise recognition bill was finally about to become law, they say that the tribal leadership changed direc tions, put the recognition effort in jeopardy, and risks the loss of $35 million, a substantial part of the tribe’s assets. Just when we are trying to make sense of the Lumbee actions and as people start asking ques tions about the tribe’s history, a new book comes to the rescue. The book is “Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation.” Its author, a Lumbee Indian, is UNC- One on One D. G. Martin Chapel Hill Assistant Professor of History Malinda Maynor Lowery. Although the Lumbees are the largest Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River, they have had to struggle for appropri ate recognition and acceptance. Some North Carolinians question whether or not they are “real Indians.” So have agencies of the federal and state government. But, although there may be disagreements about issues that affect them, the Lumbees have no doubt that they, their families, and the groups of their neighbors and kinsfolk who have lived for hundreds of years in and around the swampy lands that border the Lumbee River are Indian people. Professor Lowery supports their claim. Her new book lays out in detail how these peoples have worked, plotted, fought, and compromised in order to preserve and enhance their Indian heritage. To accommodate the white establishment’s notions of Indian governance, the Lumbees tried a series of tribal names - Croatan, Siouan, Cherokee, andTuscarora. To gain and retain recognition and support from the state, they accommodated themselves to the Jim Crow racial culture of the South. They submitted to studies that evaluated their “Indianess” based on dubious scientific mea surements of physical features that supposedly defined race. And in 1956, they had to accept a form of Federal recognition that denied them every benefit given to other Native Americans. Lowery believes that the identity of the Lumbee is defined primarily, not by the percentage of Indian blood, but by kinship, mutual recognition, and strong and longstanding connections to the land. With this background, she says, lack of government recognition “did not prevent the Indians in Robeson County from becoming a nation.” She quotes Lumbee Attorney Arlinda Locklear, the first Native American lawyer to appear before theU.S. SupremeCourt, “We have always been independent and self-determining communities... [Sovereignty is] not bestowed by government...” Nevertheless, the goal of full Federal recognition is one of those things that holds Lumbees together. But, decisions about the strategy and tactics of securing recognition can divide them. According to Lowery, Arlinda Locklear has been working on behalf of the Lumbee Tribe since 1983 in the effort to secure Con gressional action to recognize the tribe. Reportedly, she worked mostly for free. Ironically, the Tribal Council’s new contract replaces Locklear with Lewin International. It is a result that not even Lowery’s wonderful book can make me understand. Port might not be best use of money By Scott Mooneyham Capitol Press Association North Carolina officials are weighing whether to commit as much as $5 million over the next few years to study whether to move forward with plans to build a new cargo port near Southport. In these tough budget times, that figure itself seems a pretty huge commitment, one that ought to cause more preliminary review and even some soul searching. The ball sits in the court of the Perdue administration after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently completed its own “re connaissance” study. The corps recommended moving forward with the new port after determin ing that economic benefits could outweigh the costs. The decision didn’t sit too well with an opposition group called No Port/Southport. It filed an administrative challenge to the corps’ findings, saying the federal agency failed to follow its own rules in determining an economic benefit. But it’s unlikely that the ulti mate fate of this proposal will be decided by the feds. State port officials have been pushing the idea of a mega-port for a while, saying it could create thousands of new jobs in the state. The logic behind the project is that shipping companies are responding to planned improve- (See MOONEYHAM, page 4A) The News-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 Home Page: www.thenews-journal.com SGBC) PRINTED WITH SOYINK Ken MacDonald (ken@ihenews-joumai.coni) Publisher Jason Beck (jason@thenews-journal.coni) Reporter Hal Nunn (hai@thenews-journal.coni) Sports Writer Hal Nunn (hai@thenews-joumai.coni) Sales Representative Wendy Tredway (wendy@thenews-journal.coni) Sales Representative Sheila Black (sheiia@thenews-journai.coni) Ojjice Manager Linda Watson (linda@thenews-journal.coni) Receptionist Robin Huffman (robin@thenews-journal.coni) Composition Design\ Legal Advertising email ads to: ads@tlienews-journal.com email classifieds to: classifieds@thenews-journal.com email legals to: robin@thenews-journal.com Periodical Class Postage at Raeford, N.C. (USPS 388-260) Postmaster: Send address changes to: P.O. Box 550 Raeford, N.C. 28376
The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
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