Opinion Page
THE BRUNSWICKfKACON
Edward M. Sweatt and Carolyn H. Sweatt Publishers
Edward M. Sweatt Editor
Susan Usher A'om? F.rtloir
Rahn Adams & Doug Rutter Staff Writers
Johnny Crnig Sports Editor
Christine Ballou Office Manager
Carolyn H. Sweatt Advertising Director
Sue Barefoot & Timberley Adams.Advertising Representatives
Tammie Galloway & Dorothy Brennan Typesetters
William Manning Pressman
Brenda Clemmons Photo Technician
Lonnie Sprinkle Assistant Pressman
Clyde and Mattie Stout, Phoebe Clemmons Circulation
Page 4-A Thursday, August 18,1988
If You Really Do Want
To Hear From Parents . .
If you really want to hear from parents, what do you do?
Follow this example, of course:
Schedule a mid-week meeting after 9 a.m. when many
grown-ups are already at work.
Hold it in the most centrally-located place you can think
of, perhaps Boiling Spring Lakes.
Give little or no notice: announce it to the public the day
of or the day before the meeting is to take place.
That's exactly what the support service program for the
Brunswick County Board of Education did in announcing a
meeting today for parents of handicapped or academically
gifted children.
Since this was an important meeting, one must hope those
parents were also notified earlier, by mail, in time to rearrange
their schedules so they could attend.
Decide For Yourself
If extremists have their way, the decision on whether to
see "The Last Temptation of Christ" will be taken out of our
hands.
While many of those who are protesting loudest have not
seen it, they're certain Martin Scorcese's film is "evil"
because it depicts a Jesus Christ who is both human and
divine.
The movie, starring William Dafoe as Jesus, depicts Jesus
Christ as being tempted to abandon his divinity. In a
hallucination while dying on the cross, he imagines giving up
his divinity to live as an ordinary man, married and with a
family. He fantasizes about sex with Mary Magdalene. But he
resists that temptation and fulfills his divine role.
When the book on which the film is based was published ir
1951, the story line offended Greek church officials, wh(
wanted to excommunicate the author. However, those plan:
were abandoned in a storm of protest from everyday Greel
citizens, who appreciated the late Nikos Kazantzakis and hij
works, many of which were religious and/or philosophical ir
nature. They tended to reflect his own inner struggle, his beinf
torn between the active and contemplative life, between th(
sensual and the ascetic and between nihilism and commit
ment.
In the U.S. reviewers have found more fault with the pacin|
and quality of the movie production than with its content. Mos
appreciate, if not agree with, the author's effort at interpreta
tion.
Meanwhile, before most of us can even think about buyinj
tickets, our curiosity is being piqued by protesters who ar<
organizing pickets and other mass campaign in their effort t<
keep "Last Temptation" out of theaters all across the state.
While they may see themselves as acting in the best in
terests of the general public, you should be angry about theii
efforts to pre-empt of your rights. Censorship is somethinj
America outgrew a long time ago. You have a right to decidi
for yourself whether to see the film or to allow other famil;
members to see it.
An adult telling a 10-year-old what he can and cannot se?
is one thing; one adult telling another is something else. Mos
of us are capable of making up our own minds, thank you, bas
ed on its rating and on information available, such as positiv
or negative reviews.
Don't leave the decision of what you see at the theater t
someone else, conceivably those who haven't even seen th
film themselves.
If, after seeing "Last Temptation" you want to expres
your personal opinion about the film, then do it. But don't kee]
others who want to make up their own minds from being abli
to do so.
i Every Town
I've just about decided to pack a
bag and head for Bishopville, S.C.,
this weekend. Why? To look for the is?:. ^
Lizard Man, of course. wy.
In case you haven't heard about D .
him yet?which is "nighly unlikely, ixOnD i
considering all of the media coverage a drim c Jar
the story has gotten?the Lizard Man /ALJUfTlb
is supposed to be a seven-foot-tall,
red-eyed, three-fingered, blackish- ^r i // /
green horror that lives in Scape Ore
Swamp near Bishopville.
local teen-ager who was fixing a fla
If that sounds like a terrifying tire in the swamp one night in June,
creature, you should see me when my Whether the Lizard Man is a real
wife gets home from the shopping life, slimy version of the Abominabli
mall?and then a few weeks later Snowman or simply the product of so
when the credit card statement meone's overactive imagination, hi
comes. must be doing wonders for Bishop
But even the CBS Evening News ville's tourist trade,
with Dan Rather reported the Lizard Until last week, all I knew abou
Man tale last week, telling how the the tiny South Carolina town was tha
creature supposedly bushwhacked a it is located somewhere betweei
(
Schc
School's about to begin again.
This time last year, we at The
Brunswick Beacon were saying goodbye
to fellow staffer Terry Pope, who
was about to begin a career as a
public school teacher.
Terry survived that first year,
through all the ups and downs
associated with the teaching profession.
He returns this year for a second
go at it, wiser for his experience.
While wishing him well, I
don't envy him in the least.
He's in education at an exciting,
??r.f A ?1 *t__
i.uiuuouig unit:. /i uiuu wneu me
educational system is being blamed
for the country's illiteracy problem
(a blame that families should at least
share in equally) and for young people
not knowing how to locate the
United States on a world map.
It's a time when the demands upon
the schools are greater than ever, yet
when good teachers are in short supply.
Once hired, they're to teach
If M
To the editor :
Maybe things are beginning to happen
in our never-ending, on-going
puhlpuicinn oarro
Since Mayor Mason Barber's letter
about his Sunset Beach cable dilemma,
and my ensuing foilow-up, the
situation has made the Wilmington
Star-News twice. Not that this fact
makes the issue any more important
because, frankly, I prefer your paper
to theirs, but it may serve to reach an
additional reader or two.
I am told by various parties that
money, or the lack of this precious
stuff, is at the root of all the problems.
Atlantic Telephone can't
subscribe to more programming
i
)
5
I
5
1
f
5
j
* CONDITK
J
; Rainc
j
o Apparently, conditions have been
right this summer for raindrops to
^ form and fall to the earth to drench
us. All those big clouds we see drif2
ting majestically across the summer
t sky have potential as rainmakers.
I_ Sometimes they do and sometimes
e they don't!
Clouds are composed of billions
and billions of tiny droplets of water
0 and sometimes ice crystals. A cloud
e may hold several tons of moisture,
but it may produce no rain. Only if
s everything is "right" do we get any
rain.
P Water droplets are formed in the
e clouds when warm, moist air rises
and then becomes so cold that water
Needs A Liza
TTM J n-1 t_I_ n --- At ?
r iui enue aiiu uuiumuia. ttven inougn
I've seen road signs pointing to
Bishopville when travehnp thrnuph
that area before, I don't remember
ever stopping there.
But now I'm itching to go to Bishopville
and tramp through the swamp
in search of that scaly, old varmint.
While I'm there, I may even buy an
official Lizard Man T-shirt and try to
get Sheriff Liston Truesdale's
autograph?just as long as it isn't on
a traffic citation or arrest warrant.
About 15 years ago, my hometown
e in the North Carolina foothills had a
k mysterious, Sasquatch-type creature
e of its own for a few weeks. The Wooli
ly Booger, as it as aptly named, was
spotted loping across a mountain
t road by a teen-aged motorist one
t dark night.
i Sensible folks figured the Woolly
>ol Bells And
Usher
/r ?v ; fv
students everything the schools once
taught, plus a lot of what we used to
learn at home. They're to?without
interfering with the success of the
athletic program?get across not only
the three Rs and other academic
essentials, but how to drive, how to
say 'No,' how to administer CPR,
how to operate a computer, and even
how to think.
It may strike you as funny that
"thinking" skills have to be added to
the curriculum. But it seems we've
forgotten that essential somewhere
along the way. We've been teaching
lots and lots of facts and formulas,
I CTTCDC T
Ul- 8 I L!\--? ' v?
At Root Of C
because there are not enough
available customers to warrant doing
this. There are not enough
available customers bunched close
enough together to justify adding to
their present coverage.
Since the federal government
funds about everything that is fundable
already, and since all of us
know that we are growing in number
in Brunswick County every day, let's
encourage Atlantic Telephone to get
the money from whomever is dishing
it out in Washington at the present
time or who will be doing so in the
very near future and get on with the
program improvements.
Let's face it?no matter how much
-w ' ~ * *3NS
must be right for clouds to become
Irops Keep Fc
vapor condenses. Water vapor collects
around small particles of dust
and microscopic bits of other
materials known as condensation
nuclei. At first, droplets are so small
they float easily on air currents. As
they move, the droplets collide and
combine to form larger droplets.
rd Man Or V\
Booger was just a bear or maybe a
gorilla that had escaped from the circus.
Others, however, were determined
that it was Bigfoot alive and
well in Burke County, and they
scoured the area where it was
sighted, looking for footprints and
other evidence of its existence.
I figured that it was simply a hermit
I'd heard of who came down out
of the hills once every coudIc of vears
for a haircut whether he needed one
or not. Or it might have been the wino
I knew who slept wherever he could
find a dry sawdust pile. He always
looked like a woolly booger to me.
As it turned out, though, the Woolly
Booger wasn't a real booger at all. If
I remember the story correctly, it
was just a guy whose idea of fun was
to put on an ape suit and try to scare
the living daylights out of his
neighbors.
Wishful Thinl
the kind you need to have under your
belt in order to do well on certain
tests. But we have apparently
neglected the art and science of
reasoning, which once was the basis
of a classical education.
It happened, though, probably in
the same way multiple choice and
true-false questions replaced essay
exams and sight word skills replaced
rather than supplemented phonics in
the teaching of reading.
When it comes to education, as in
other areas of our hurried modern
lives, we seem to always want to go
the easy route, the route that draws
the least heat, the least flack, while
getting quick if superficial results.
For example, one of the trends in
public education today is to make
school "fun," to get students to come
to class and be part of the team.
That is a well-intentioned idea; you
have to have students present before
you can teach them. But are they being
turned on to school as an exciting
TUC CniT/^D
I ! it- LL/! I W!\
rahlevision Pr
we as a nation are taxed, we ain't
never gonna get out of debt, no matter
who is in office. Don't get me
wrong. It's still the greatest place in
the world to live!
Jimmy Simpson
Shallotte
Willing To Pay
More For More
To the editor:
Hats off to Mayor Barber of Sunset
Beach and others who feel the same
way regarding cablevision in
Shallotte and at his beach.
Before moving to Shallotte about a
year ago, I lived for many years on
PHOTO BY Bill FAVER
rainmakers!
filing
After many collisions they grow
large enough and heavy enough to
fall as rain.
The smallest droplets are called a
drizzle and fall slowly. Some raindrops
can be 1/4-inch in diameter and
fall at a rate of 25 feet per second or
more.
Raindrops keep falling on us,
sometimes giving us more water
than we need. Conditions must be
right for water to be pulled from the
ocean, lakes and streams and formed
into clouds. Coniditons must be right
for those water droplets to become
heavy enough to fall. At least, this July
and August, conditions must be
right.
'oolly Booger
Still, the hunt for the "creature"
was fun while it lasted. The hoax
generated a lot of free publicity for a
town that attracts tourists about as
easily as Bishopville ordinarily does.
And for a while there Wnnllv Rnno?r
, .. """DV.
T-shirts were in vogue.
Although I'm definitely not encouraging
anyone to pull a similar
stunt, Brunswick County sure could
put a monster or two to good use.
For instance, the new Calabash
Merchants Association is trying to increase
tourist traffic by promoting
the town as the Seafood Capital of the
World. It could be profitable for a
Calabash Shrimp Man to rear his ugly
head near the docks every now and
then.
Residents of other communities
that need some extra attention could
wish for visits from creatures like the
?
king |
place to leam, or simply a fun place
In cnoiolt7o with frionHc nnH ivattr IVin
iv cuviwubv n*m " ?vi?vw ui?u vvv'ta* Uic
latest fashions?
I may be off base, but among all
the balloons and bears I think we're
forgetting some basics.
An education increases with time
and is of immense value, but you
can't give it to someone. Neither can
they beg, borrow or steal it. It's costly,
yet something neither cash nor
time alone can buy
One must invest effort as well.
In the year ahead, nothing would
please me more than to see students
take a greater interest in their education?not
in getting a certain grade or
admission to the "right" school, but
the pleasure and reward in learning
for the sake of learning itself.
For that to happen, someone first
needs to let them know that learning
...1 li? : *.?i mt -i
ja miai. a leauy uiipunaiu. irial someone
is you or me, in the attitudes
we convey each and every day, particularly
in our own homes.
obiems...
Holden Beach. You can well imagine
that I hope Mr. Price and his fine
staff will take a concerned look at improving
the service and program
selection of the present Atlantic
Telephone Cablevision.
As it now stands, and I am sure
that they are cognizant of the fact.
it's like comparing a Volkswagen
(Beetle vintage) with a Rolls-Royce.
If it's a question of money, give us
a chance to help. I, for one, would be
willing to pay more for more, even
though I believe our fee now already
surpasses that of Vision Cable, based
on a per station breakdown.
Dillon Taylor
Shallotte
Add My Name
To the editor:
Add my name to those who firmly
agree that Atlantic Telephone sadly
needs to improve their service and
selection of programming to at least
be in the same ballpark as Vision
Cable, who so ably serves our surrounding
neighbors.
DeweyJones
Shallotte
Why, Why?
To the editor:
Why does Atlantic Telephone Co.
cable offer the least stations (20) of
oil fViQ oroo noKlo fi rmo1?
an uiv uiva cai/iv iiuiui
Why is Atlantic Telephone cable
the only cable company not to carry
Channel 9-WGN? It's the nation's
sport station and famous for family
movies, day and night baseball and
major basketball and football.
Cable management doesn't listen
to its subscribers; maybe they will
listen to the commissioners when the
next lease is to be renewed.
Odell Johnson
Shallotte
THE BRUNSWlCKfiBEACON
Established Nov. 1, 1962
T elephone 754-6890
Published Every Thursday
At 4709 Main Street
Shallotte, N. C. 28459
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
IN BRUNSWICK COUNTY
One Year $10.30
Six Months $5.50
ELSEWHERE IN NORTH CAROLINA
One Year $14.80
Six Months $7.85
ELSEWHERE IN U.S.A.
One Year $15.95
Six Months $8.35
Second class DCiStnnis nniit n(
, o" w
| the Post Office in Shallotte,
\ N. C. 28459. USPS 777-780.
Makatoka Monkey Man, the Winnabow
Wombat Woman or the Varnamtown
Varmint, not to mention
the Green Swamp Booger, which
could terrorize half of the county at
once.
Not only that, the Brunswick County
Fire and Rescue Association,
which is campaigning for volunteers
anyway, could enlist the services of
curiosity seekers across the county
by forming an elite "monsterbusters"
unit. Naturally, prospective
team members would have to join a
fire department or rescue squad first
to be eligible.
And even though it would mean a
lot more work for reporters like me,
I'd be more than happy to have a
whole passel of monsters in
Brunswick County?just so long as I
owned the T-shirt concession.
I