Opinion Page
THE BRUIMSWIC
Edward I\l. Swentt and Carolyn H.
Edward IM. Swentt
Susan Usher
Rahn Adams & Doug Hotter
Johnny Craig
Christine Halloa
Carolyn 11. Swentt ,.
Sue Barefoot & Timherlev Adams
Tammie Galloway & Dorothy lire
William Manning
Hrenda Clemmons
Lonnie Sprinkle
Clyde and iMatlie Stout, lMioehe CI
Page 4-A
A Good Pre
Off To Bad :
There's no question that this a
the mentally retarded, and that t
best suited location.
Therefore, it is a shame that n
opened their arms in compas:
residents of the neighborhood wh
(John Street, off White Street in
familiar saw, "But not here, not i
Unfortunately?and this may
publicized sooner?similar experi
such as Whiteville suggests reat
been the same anywhere else in t
placed in an area where no resider
exisis. Ana mat would defeat the
which in part is to place th
neighborhood.
Local residents' reaction refle
more serious problem: a lack of e<
on the part of the community as to
dation and of the group home con<
Southeastern Mental Health
Retarded Citizens (ARC) could ha
easing some of the residents' conce
have held an educational forum
presented a program at a Shallotte
isting group homes?and their neig
pie don't check with their future r
house, that's what the neighborhoc
But none of the above happen
one year ago, the sponsors began 1
an option on a lot that happened to
While some residents of the neighl
man Jody Simmons should have t
should he have? It was a privab
town-related business. There was
"favors" to be gained.
It is important also for town i
ARC and Southeastern Mental L
before the town board of alderrrH
ject: It requires no rezoning or sp
They came, as they should hi
mon courtesy) and 2) because the;
munity about the project and reas
From their perspective, if defi
this step was probably "early" si
the John Street project was just a1
be occupied until 1990. Once
independent living for six adults, ?
dicaps, not behavorial problems th
neighborhood. Adults who now mu
enjoy any sort of independent livi:
For now, though, nothing thos
bably make much difference in '
may be that only time and person:
concerns and hurt at not being in
sion.
Again, look at Whiteville. Stt
about that city's first group homt
Columbus Street. But there have 1
~ ~ ? - 1 ? 1 5 rn1 "
Liimo cue uu xuiigei iieaiu. ine sai
Shallotte Aldermen should do
in compassion, and put no pressu
SEMC to change their plans for tl
At the same time, both the re
and the organizations sponsorini
come together. SEMC and ARC t<
John Street area residents to visil
more about the people who will ev
Understanding conquers fear.
In turn, it's time for residents
ty to explore what their real feelir
the approach taken in establishing
chances are their hearts will oper
A good example to follow mig
25:40, "Inasmuch as ye have don
these my brethren, ye have done
New Role Fc
The South American route is ge
Airlines. U.S. Customs has fined 1
two-week period for two shipmer
flirtV?fo Prtl <-v?v-? V-vI ^ T
iii^uio 11 mil ouiuiiiL/ici lu iVIIctllll, I
Seems like it would be cheape
drug dog, like the Brunswick Cc
"Buddy," than to keep paying si
notoriety.
Or perhaps the sheriff's departn
himself, since his schedule may r
ment would like it to be.
t
la
K&BEACON
Sivenlt Publishers
Editor
"Sews Editor
Stuff Writers
Sports Editor
Office Manager
Advertising Director
.Ad vert is i rig II epresen tati ves
nnan Typesetters
Pressman
Photo Technician
issista nt I *ressm an
amnions Circulation
Thursday, November 10,1988
>ject Gets
Start
rea needs a group home for
he Town of Shallotte is the
jsidents of the town have not
donate welcome. Instead,
tere the home is to be built
mid-town) are echoing that
n MY neighborhood."
be why the project wasn't
ences in other communities
:tion probably would have
own?unless the home were
itial neighborhood currently
i purpose of a group home,
ese adults in a regular
cts a different and perhaps
iucation and understanding
the nature of mental retar;ept.
and the Association for
ve gone a long way toward
:rns before now. They could
for the neighborhood or
i town board meeting on exhborhoods.
While most peoleighbors
before building a
id expected in this instance,
ed. Instead, approximately
ooking at property and took
i belong to a town alderman,
jorhood probably feel Alderold
them what was up, why
e property transaction, not
> no conflict of interest, no
residents to realize that the
lealth didn't have to come
;n at all regarding the proecial
planning conditions,
ive, as a matter of 1) comy
wanted to inform the com?sure
concerned residents,
nitely not the community's,
nee the federal funding for
warded and the home won't
built it will offer semiidults
with educational han
lat could be disruptive to the
ist live outside the county to
ng.
e agencies can say will prohow
town residents feel. It
al experience will ease their
ivolved in the location deciong
objections were raised
2, Columbus House on West
aeen no problems and objecme
can be expected here,
the right thing, should react
re on Simmons, the ARC or
ae home.
sidents of the neighborhood
% the group home need to
aok the first step in inviting
: a group home and to learn
entually be their neighbors.
of the John Street communilgs
are. Once their anger at
the group home is set aside.
i to their new neighbors,
ht be that given in Matthew
e it unto one of the least of
it unto me."
>r Buddy?
tting expensive for Eastern
;he flier $1.89 million over a
its of cocaine found aboard
?la.
:r for Eastern to invest in a
mnty Sheriff Department's
ich fines and reaping such
lent could loan them Buddy
lot be as full as the depart
I
Who Says
Early last spring when presidential
candidates were a dime a dozen, I
made the off-hand remark that
Michael Dukakis didn't stand a
chance to be elected simply because
of his unusual name.
At the time, "President Dukakis"
sounded as strange to me then as the
thought of "President Quayle" has
sounded ever since J. Danforth got
the Republican vice-presidential nod
last summer.
But then, my observation came
long before the Duke's sister, Olympia,
won an Academy Award and
Dukakis himself captured the
Democratic nomination for president.
Now I'm ready to eat my
words.
Whether Mike was elected or not,
he turned "Dukakis" into a
household name?one that is no more
unusual than the names of some of
our greatest presidents. And I have
the telephone book to prove it.
Using the local Southern Bell direc%
- _ r 1
- ftPvlA R YOT^
^ ^o oNecAK
Frankie \
All of this controversy over the proposed
group home for mentally
retarded adults in Shallotte has taken
me back to my wonderful childhood
years.
Times were great when I was
growing up in the 1970s outside
Philadelphia. My only cares in the
world, it seems now, were when the
next sandlot football game would be
played and how I was going to get my
soccer ball off the roof of our ranch
home.
The days seemed to last forever
Knnt/ *1 1 J ?
uaLiv men, auu llie IieigllUUI IlOOU was
one, big, happy family. In addition to
all the "normal" kids, there was one
mentally retarded man named
Frankie.
I say man because that's exactly
what he was. Nobody ever knew how
old Frankie was, including Frankie
himself, but looking back on it, I'd
have to say he was about 30 when I
was about 10.
Anyway, he was a 30-year-old man
with the mental capacity of an eightyear-old.
Frankie wasn't too sharp when it
came to books and stuff like that, but
when it came to caring and
gentleness, he was unmatched.
Frankie would do anything for
anybody, whether he knew them or
not.
The thing is, he knew just about
everybody in the neighborhood.
Frankie loved everybody, and
everybody loved Frankie. The kids
loved him, the parents loved him and
nobody felt the least bit threatened
It Was
It was a trip I'd been dreading for
weeks. One could hardly imagine
how badly I didn't want to go to Clemson.
Memories of the monsoon-like
Labor Day weekend '87 trip kept
crowding into mind, especially after
tne weekend forecast. And there
were all the other things we could be
doing: the oyster roast for my Aunt
Dale and the Brunswick
Toastmasters family social, even
this column.
However, it was my fault we were
going. Back in mid-summer, when
Don's old gang began planning their
social calendar, a Clemson game was
a must. In an effort to be a good
sport, I went along, asking only that
it be the Clemson-Carolina game and
that we buy tickets in the Carolina
section. That was well before the i
start of UNC's '88 football season.
In any event, I was stuck; major
attitude adjustment was in order. i
Luckily, after a wet and woolly '
'President Dul
tory as my source, I found that seven
<5f our presidents' 35 different sur- ]
names are not listed in the
Brunswick County and Wilmington i
areas. I
There are no listings for Coolidge, i
Eisenhower, Fillmore, Garfield, Lin- |
coin, Truman and Van Buren, |
although a couple of close ]
substitutes?Lincon and Van
Beurden?are in the book. !
Of the 28 other presidential sur- j
names, I found 13 namesakes, of j
sorts, for our country's chief ex- i
ecutives. (
?
ill
. I - - ? " vvw
ua?Hfcir
O W ME ... _
?
J, NW DEAR?TP\?Re WN'r NO KGF
A/ouldn't Ham
with him around. He was a big tl
brother to us kids and a son to every
parent in the neighborhood. a
After one minute with Frankie, you tl
knew you had made a lifelong friend, d
He was that kind of person. t:
As a young boy, I admired Frankie. v
It wasn't his determination to make v
it despite his handicap that I looked v
up to, but rather his athletic prowess.
The thing I most remember about h
Frankie was that he was strong as an 1;
ox. He could sock a baseball a coun- p
try mile or carry the football and four p
of us little ankle-biters on his back for fi
50 yards before we eventually pulled tl
him to the ground.
You see, all of the kids who grew up c
around Frankie, myself included, S
didn't look at him any differently ti
than we looked at anyone else. Even S
though we knew he was mentally n
retarded, we never thought he was a v
bad person. We viewed him as just b
another one of the gang.
Although he lived at home with his a
parents and cousins, Frankie was n
employed at the local rest home for q
years and years. He worked in the tl
cafeteria, forever it seems, and as t!
far as I know, he never had any pro- c
A -i-l ^
AMioTner vj*re<
Usher
i\<T f s
night, Saturday dawned bright and 1
fair. Off to the game we went, 3Vfe tl
Clemson fans and 1M> Carolina fans
(Don was nice enough not to root en- C
tirely for Clemson), and a bucket of o
the Colonel's chicken. n
Our seats were in the north end a
zone?apparently as far away from
the Carolina boosters' corner as our tl
friend George could arrange with the n
ucKei man. mere were only five a
Carolina fans in the entire section p
and that was counting Don. h
I had casually mentioned missing o:
Carolina's Peach Bowl appearance a
ivhile a coed there. George quipped b
kakis' Sound
They include John Adams, James
Buchanan, James Carter, Gerald
Ford, William Harrison, Andrew
Jackson, Andrew Johnson, John Kennedy,
James Monroe, Richard Nixon,
John Tyler, George Washington and
Woodrow Wilson.
And there are some close calls. Instead
of Ronald Reagan, Franklin
Pierce, James K. Polk and Herbert
Hoover, I found Ronald Ragan, F.R.
Pierce, Jane A. Polk and Horace
Hooper. Close but no cigar.
Oddly enough, James Carter is the
most popular presidential name I
found. At least five of them live in
mis area. it an nve men voiea tor
Jieir namesake in 1980, that accounts
:or about half of Carter's support in
Morth Carolina that year.
Two John Adamses are listed,
which is appropriate since two
^residents shared that name. My
ather, whose name is John, never
lad problems with it?unless you
:ount the I-ebanese neighbor who
KKK/ iaadc I '
him ? i^*ursC-i
n A Fly
ilems coping with "normal" people
in the job.
Frankie was a big part of our
leighborhood. He was an institution,
E you will, as much as some of the
amilies on John Street are an instituion
in Shallotte.
It's a crying shame, though, that
lie people of John Street aren't willig
to at least listen and learn what
he group home concept is all about.
The people of John Street, it seems,
re so stubborn and set in their ways
hat many refuse to recognize any
ifference between mental retardaion
and mental illness. The people
rtio would live in this group home
vould have learning disabilities, they
rould not be raving lunatics.
The people of John Street say they
QUO nntVlinfT n/tninn^ U~l?:
uuuuug agauiai IlCipiIlg IllUIltaiy
retarded adults, but their blind oposition
suggests that they are cold
eople who want nothing to do with
Dlks who unfortunately are just a litie
different than they are.
The people of John Street have
hastized the representatives of
outheastern Mental Health who are
rying to bring the group home to
hallotte, when they should be cornlending
them for doing something
fhich will make Brunswick County a
etter place to live for everyone.
The people of John Street fear that
pack of psychopathic killers will be
loving into and disrupting their
uiet neighborhood, when in reality,
hat notion couldn't be further from
le truth. A house full of Frankies
ouldn't harm a fly.
at Trip To CU
ack, "Today you get to see them
1 At /-V "
lay me urange tsowi." sure enougn,
xeept for that one tiny corner of
eautiful Carolina blue, Death Valley
/as a sea of orange. To top it off
aturday was "Spirit Blitz" day,
diich meant that everybody in the
tands had free white and/or purple
hakers to boost the Tigers.
The first half was a game, with the
'igers getting across a field goal and
tie Tar Heels the first touchdown.
But the second half was almost a
Uemson blitz- In thp last 1'A mirailot
f the fourth quarter, Carolina
lanaged to get across their second
nd the game's last TD.
The Tigers won the game by the
iree-touchdown spread predicted by
ly dear husband (he was being kind
t the time, he thought), but they had
layed clumsily throughout the first
alf. In the entire game, they'd had
nly one play worth really shouting
bout, an interception and
reakaway run for a gain of about 45
s Strange?
automatically assumed Dad's middle
name was "Quincy" and called him
that for two years.
But it's amazing to me that there
aren't more presidential namesakes
in the directory. You'd think a goodsized
area like this would have more
than just a handful of patriotic
parents.
Take Wilmington, for example,
which has 156 Wilsons but no
Woodrow Wilson; 127 Taylors
without a single Zachary Taylor; 57
Pierces and 23 Pearces, none of
whom are named Franklin; and
almost I'i pages of Johnsons with
nothing remotely akin to Lyndon.
Wilmington also has Monroes,
Tylers and Harrisons, but the
namesakes I mentioned earlier are
all in Brunswick County.
The port city does have one thing
that we don't, though, and that's a
Roosevelt?not a Teddy or a Franklin
D., but an Eleanor.
And in case you're wondering, 1
couldn't find a George Bush or Lloyd
Bentsen among the Bushes and Bentsens
in the phone book, and there are
no Quayles or Dukakises at all.
So what does all that say about the
impact of the candidates' names on
this past Tuesday's election? Probably
nothing?although I still can't
figure out why two gals with great
names like Lenora B. Fulani and
Wynonia Brewington Burke couldn't
pull more votes.
LETTERS
Attend
Advisory
Board Meeting
To the editor:
The Brunswick County School
System has formed an advisory committee
for the purpose of developing
a sex education course for the county's
fourth, sixth and eighth grade
students. This is a much needed program.
However, as a member of the advisory
committee, I am concerned by
the rather sharp division of opinion
among members of the committee.
We have been unable to reach agreement
on such basic issues as curriculum
content, supportive class activities
and media materials to be used.
I am concerned that the makeup of
the board may not truly represent the
wishes of the parents in the community.
The only way parents can be
sure this important and sensitive
material is taught in the wav thev
would want it is to become informed
of the decisions being made at this
time.
Advisory committee meetings are
open to the public. The next one will
be held Nov. 15 at 6 p.m. at Bolivia
Elementary School.
Carolynn Skipper
Route 2, Leland
Area Fortunate
To Have Hospital
To the editor:
This is in praise of your fine, up-todate
and caring Brunswick Hospital.
Your doctors and hospital staff are
compassionate and understanding.
When I returned to Holden Beach
for our fall visit, I found I needed immediate
medical attention.
All of you in Shallotte and the surrounding
area are most fortunate to
have such a fine hospital and caring
medical professionals.
Hplpn O Rfpuiart
Pisgah Forest
(More Letters Following Page)
*mson
yards that positioned them for a
touchdown.
Frankly, the weather was more exciting
than the game, at least for this
Tar Heel fan. Midway through, some
overwrought Tiger in the bleachers
above began pelting my Carolina
blue jacket with ice?or at least
that's what I thought was happening.
It was really a small hailstorm,
followed shortly thereafter by winds
of northeaster strength.
As the game came to a close,
lightning was flashing to the north
and west of us and the wind was picking
up. The sky looked downright
menacing and I would have sworn
that it too had an orange cast.
uuwmuwn was closer man our van,
so we dashed for it. We made it inside
TD's (formerly Lester's) just ahead
of the first few drops and just in time
to grab a table for two for the five of
us.
It was delightful.
See you next y?r, George.
i