Opinion Page
the mm
Edward i\l. Sweall and Carol i
Edward M. Sweat t
Susan Usher
Rnlin Adams & Dmig Rutter.
Johnny Craig
Christine lialloti
Carolyn 11. Sweatt
Sue Barefoot ?X Timberley A
Tammie Galloway ?X; Doroth;
William Manning
Brenda Clemmons.
Lonnie Sprinkle
Clyde and Maltie Stout. I'hoe
Page 4-A
No Wetland
"No Wetlands, No Seal
distributed by the North Car
Pressures on our beauti
one fourth of North Carolina
of shellfish and still more ar
Here in Brunswick Co
already closed to shellfishinf
Folly River, makes it abi
whether they live at Varnam
federation notes, "take clea
beaches and healthy industr
While on the one har
associates are protesting it
ment, on the other, if the loc;
the general public appears
fraffilo and irronlonooKln nr\r
Mbtmv Uliu ui\/pi?vv,auig *-v/c
Federal and state goven
ing little on behalf of the en
sympathetic noises in publi<
always even communicating
agencies sometimes appear
For example, the Environme
charged with monitoring wat<
water uses. However, the EN
waters closed to shellfishing
Division of Marine Fisheries.
Matters are complicated
political appointments weigh
At the national level, the i
cy (EPA) and the U.S Army <
on management of wetlanc
monitoring compliance with
person doing wetlands inspecl
Corps employees. In turn, th<
protect inland swamp or po
wrong with telling a develope
permit all he has to do is dr?
Meanwhile the coastal rr
are being drained and dredge
North Carolina and elsewher
half the nation's swamps a
peared. These wetlands se
runoff and cleansing it, and
from fresh to salt water.
Now, with a void in gov<
organizations like the North <
in Brunswick County, Save C
in and pulling people togethe
and stand a better chance of
Once considered a fly-b
proven itself on the field of
Permuda Island, its efforts I
across the state concerned a
its efforts to educate official
coastal issues.
NCCF's efforts are begir
of public opinion. The publii
government has the power t(
what is left of our wetlands
sions which benefit the few
government to begin enfon
istence.
President Bush, Congres
General Assembly must all
County, county commission?
residents do theirs, by the typ
regulations they enact and ei
Add your voice to the
left?while there's still time.
Be
I really feel bad that I didn't asl<
Jim Poole for a Kiss last Tuesday
night just for old time's sake. 01
course, Jim is such a friendly fellow
that I could have sneaked one withoul
even asking.
Before you get the wrong idea
about either of us, though, I'm talking
about the chocolate Hershey
Kisses that Poole faithfully broughl
iu uuuiuy commissioners' meetings
during his tenure on the board?nol
for himself, mind you, but for anyone
else in the chambers with a sweet
tooth.
Especially when the board went into
one of their interminable executive
sessions, Poole's candy jar was the
only source of sustenance for tired,
hungry reporters who didn't have
enough change for the snack
machines in the lobby. Lord knows,
4
M -
IflCK&BEACON
>11 II. Sweat! Publishers
Editor
Mews Editor
Stuff Writers
Sports Editor
Office M;iringer
-Idvert ising Director
dams. Advertising Itepresentntives
y lirennan Typesetters
Dress man
Photo Technician
4ssistnn t I 'ressrnart
be Clemnions ( '.ireul.ition
Thursday, December 1,1988
s, No Seafood
'ood" reads the bumper sticker
olina Coastal Federation,
ful coast are mounting; already
's waters are closed to the taking
e closed on temporary schedules,
unty most inshore waters are
;. The latest closing, in Lockwood
indantly clear that Tar Heels,
town or in Charlotte, can't, as the
n water, good fishing, unspoiled
ies for granted."
id, land developers and their
leasures to protect the environal
election is any indicator at all,
to want more done to protect
istal resources.
lment currently appear to be dovironment.
Agencies may make
but behind doors, they aren't
; with each other. In fact, these
to be working at cross purposes,
ntal Management Commission is
*r quality and protecting existing
IC does not keep routine track of
harvest by its fellow agency, the
still further at the state level by
ted toward land developers.
environmental Protection AgenCorps
of Engineers cannot agree
Is. The EPA is charged with
wetland regulations, but has one
tions once handled by a staff of 20
2 Corps says it isn't mandated to
cosin wetlands and sees nothing
ir that to avoid getting a wetlands
lin the pocosin.
larshes that produce our seafood
id, the surface waters polluted, in
e. In a 20-year period more than
nd marshes have simply disaprve
as natural filters, slowing
providing the critical transition
irnmental leadership so evident,
Carolina Coastal Federation and,
)ur Shellfish (SOS), are stepping
r so their voices will be stronger
being heard by public officials,
y-night phenomenon, NCCF has
hattle with its ficrht nn hohalf nf
-WW 0"W
to pull together organizations all
ibout the future of the coast, and
s and the general public alike on
ining to pay off, at least in terms
: wants change, and knows that
> initiate the steps needed to save
. The public expects fewer decir
over the many and it expects
cing regulations already in exis,
Gov. Jim Martin and the N.C.
do their part. And in Brunswick
rs and town boards can help local
>es of land use and waste disposal
nforce.
NCCF-SOS; help save what's
st Wishes A
; Rahn fee"- f
, Adams
I'll miss those little glops of
, chocolate.
As a matter of fact, there are a couple
of things?besides candy?that
I'll miss if Poole and fellow Commissioner
Chris Chappell's proverbial
shoes aren't filled properly on the
board. Last Tuesday night's
meeting?both men's last?was a
case in point.
Like 99.9 percent of the commissioners'
meetings I've covered since
i
Local De
Like it or not, North Carolina has
become a two-party state, and
Brunswick County a two-party county.
The revolution was gradual, not
sudden or unexpected, the shift occurring
over the past 16 to 20 years.
As analysts hash out the why and
what difference does it make, the only
other fundamental question remaining
is just how much of a twoparty
system have we got?
The GOP's candidate for President
has carried the state in every contest
but one since 1968, as well as winning
two races for governor and four
races for U.S. Senator. Republicans
hold four of N.C.'s 11 congressional
seats, has held both Senate seats and
hold about 30 percent of the seats in
the General Assembly.
You know the local voting results.
This in a slate and a county long
dominated bv the Democratic Partv
How did it happen? Voter registration
and demographics, according to
a special report by the North
Carolina Center for Public Policy
Research and the University of North
Carolina Center for Public Television.
The same factors can readily be
seen at work in Brunswick County.
Democratic registration has been
growing, but Republican registration
has been growing much faster.
Since 1966, a Democrat to
Republican voter registration
margin of nearly 4 to 1 has been cut to
more like 2 to 1. Add to that the rapidly
growing number of unaffiliated
voters and you've got the mix on
which change is based.
In 1966, in Brunswick County,
10,696 or 83 percent of the county's
12,886 voters were registered as
Democrats and 2,101 or 16.3 percent
as Republicans. i
Twenty years later the total :
number of voters had nearly doubled, I
to 24,239 and only G9.2 percent of
them were registered as Democrats. 1
BKOWN PELIC/i
Pelicans
BY BILL FAVER
On a Thanksgiving Day walk
toward the
sunset we came
. in upon Acie Robinfe',
son's gill net be1
ing pulled to
7 shore filled with
fish. There is
nothing unusual
about that this
time of year.
Faver What was
unusual were the many birds very interested
in the catch! 1
Gulls and pelicans were crowding \
the water and the shore for the j
menhaden delicacies Acie would <
throw them. The gulls were picking
at several fish right at the water's s
edge. Pelicans would get braver each <
moment and move in to take a whole <
fish in the large bill. Once in the i
nmirh wp rnulH spp thp fich cilhnuot.
I ? ? " ? """ """ """ U'??uuvv
ted against the setting sun. Then i
back would go the head with the bill <
pointed upward and the fish doubled <
the size of the Pelican's neck as it
eased down the throat. 1
Some pelicans were trying to take i
nd Thanks F
August 1987, Poole opened the session i
with prayer, asking the Almighty to \
help the five board members "carry i
out our duties for all the people of
Brunswick County." As usual, he put i
special emphasis on the word "all." (
Poole's invocation also ended with <
the same request: "Enter into our ;
hearts and minds so that the deci- (
sions we are about to make will be |
K/lth ilicf anH /lftmnonelnnofA ''
uveii juuii uiiu wiupaoaiuuaic. 11IC ]
prayer always was a nice touch, even <
if some folks argue that God didn't
answer it in every decision made by
the old board. -c
Now I can't help but wonder who t
will be responsible for t'ne opening <
prayer after newly-elected Commis- \
sioners Gene Pinkerton and Kelly I
Holden join the board. If the commis- f
sioners can't find a willing soul t
among them to handle the task on
any given night, they should table the r
mocrats Are
Suson
J^r,
By fall of 1988, with 28,300 voters, the
ratio was 1.95 Democrats for every
Republican. Add the unaffiliated
voters to the Republicans and the
local ratio of Democrat registrants to
non-Democrat is closer to 1.75 to 1.
It's clear that more Tar Heels and
more and more Brunswick Countians
see themselves as Republicans.
Records show they also vote
Republican, especially in years when
a strong national ticket is running.
This year some GOP and Democrat
noptv ramitapo ~
put VJ ivguimo LIUI1UCU LUJd LI ILMC
down" phenomenon had a strong effect
while others claimed GOP success
simply reflected voter disenchantment
with the incumbency and
a willingness to vote for individuals,
not party. It was probably some of
both.
It's for sure that performance of
GOP candidates once in office will
not only affect their individual
chances of re-election, but also the
ability of the party as a whole to get
its candidates elected.
Democrats Elect GOP
The voter registration tables and
voting results also explain another
trend: Republicans managing to gain
election in counties with a
Democratic majority of voters.
Brunswick County Democrats, like
many of their counterparts
statewide, are learning to split a
licket.
Widespread ticket-splitting was
'irst evident, the experts say, in 1968,
gnHMLF ^
A
tNS are good at trying to steal fish fron
Adept At St
fish out of the net and several were
successful. One became entangled in
the net and needed some help from
several of us to get the small mesh
out of its feathers. Once it was freed,
the big bird seemed to forget about
fish for a while and sailed off toward
Who Nee<
I know you're all waiting with
waited breath to hear about mv five
rear high school class reunion, so I'll
lust dive right in and cut out the stanlard
introductory malarkey.
To begin with, I guess you could
;ay it felt kinda weird seeing the old
classmates again. It felt almost like a
ireamworld. (Notice I didn't say
rightmare.)
The faces were almost exactly as I
emembered them. But strangely
enough, everyone looked five years
elder, and dare I say, more mature.
I can't speak for everyone there,
cut I know I had a lot of trouble
emembering names. And since we
:or The Mer
nvocation until the next meeting or
intil they hold an executive session,
whichever comes first.
Also, a policy could be adopted to
require that the commissioner who
calls for a secret meeting must also
say the prayer. Since we, the public,
iren't always allowed to know what
joes on behind those closed doors,
he policy also should stipulate that
;he prayer be for us instead of the
commissioners.
And then there's Chappell, who
ilso acted no differently last Tuesday
han he did at any other commissioners'
meeting I've covered. He
valked into the chambers with a
jroad smile and personal greeting
or those of us waiting for the session
o begin.
"Rich . .. Rahn .. . Alison ... M .
Medlin?how are you doing
Voting Indep
when some North Carolina
Democrats voted for third-party
presidential candidate George
Wallace and others voted for
Republican Richard Nixon. That was
the year Brunswick County joined
the ranks of the counties who voted
"mixed results."
It was even more obvious in 1972
when Democrats elected Republican
Sen. Jesse Helms (a former
Democrat, by the way) to his first
term.
But the records show something
else. Republicans candidates can
talk about voting for the individual
candidates, not the party, but the talk
is aimed at Democrats, not within the
GOP itself.
Pollster Walter DeVries of
Wrightsville Beach reported after
the 1972 election that 51.4 percent of
the registered Democrats voted for
some Republican candidates (excluding
the Presidential race). But of
the Republicans, only 14.8 percent
split their ticket.
Again, the question remains, not
whether a two-party system exists,
but to what extent?
Ken Eudy, a fellow UNC School of
Journalism graduate and now executive
director of the N.C.
Democratic Party, believes the
record is still developing on the twoparty
system. He told the Center for
Public Policy Research, "1 don't
think we have enough history and
precedent yet to say there's a realignment.
"In fact North Carolina may be going
to a de-alignment, where people
don't have a particular allegiance to
one party or another."
He believes manv rwrfnrmanno.
oriented young voters have been
drawn by the top of the ticket. Eudy
adds, "It will be interesting to see
how that shakes out over the next 12
years."
V ' ' -4l: '
l a net or grab a fish being brought in by
idling Fish Fr<
the sunset.
Oftentimes, I wonder where the
long strings of pelicans moving
across the late afternoon sky are
coming from or where they are going.
Usually they are probably on
their way from their feeding grounds
Js Nametags
didn't have nametags, it made for an
interesting evening.
Unfortunately, looking through the
yearbook before going off to the gala
affair really didn't help matters. It
just put a lot of jumbled names in my
nories, Guy
tonight?" he asked in his deep, booming
voice, before taking his chair
next to County Attorney David Clegg
at the end of the table.
Then turning to Holden, who was
sitting in the audience with Pinkerton,
Chappell smiled again and said
good-naturedly, "Enjoy it while you
can, Kelly. This is when it's fun," or
something to that effect. His intima
tion was that the fun would stop when
Holden began sitting on the commissioners'
side of the table.
To be completely honest, what I liked
most about Chappell?as a commissioner?was
also what I
sometimes disliked most: He was a
good politician, which to some people
is a contradiction in terms anyway. :
Whenever he was faced with a i
crowd of riled constituents?whether
they had complaints about roads or I
water or taxes?Chappell had the I
endently I
Where the two-party system is go
ing, we may not be able to predict.
But we can safely say the
Democratic stranglehold is disap- H
pearing, and perhaps is long gone.
Change Predicted
The rise of a two-party system was I
boldly predicted by a visitor to
Brunswick County in 1962, the shock
softened with an encouraging word 1
for the Democratic Party.
Here's how the pronouncement
was described in The Shallotte Press 1
in one of its early editions before being
named The Brunswick Beacon.
Under the headline "Demos Break- I
ing?" the paper reported as follows:
"Will wonders never cease? At the
North Carolina Young Democratic 1
Club meeting held in the Ebb Tide
Restaurant in Holden Beach last
week, the president-elect of the state I
group, David Reid, a Greenville
(N.C.) attorney, predicted that the
...111 t 4 - J-'*-"
auuu win uucist a uenniie two-party
political system 'within the not loo
distant future.'
"In Brunswick County, if not in
Pitt, this amounts almost to heresy.
Our reporter said that, whereas no
one fainted, there was a great shuffling
of feet and a mass clearing of
throats from a stricken audience.
"Reid, blanching a little, hastened
to soften the blow with the following
observations: 'Although the hand- |
writing is beginning to be faintly visible
on the wall of public opinion, the
Democratic Party will remain the
strongest and continue to provide excellent
leadership.'
"But the damage was done. Reid
never really recovered the enthusiasm,
or the attention, of those to
whom the word 'Republican' is gall
and wormwood on the tongue."
And that, readers, was the way it
was in Brunswick County in
December 1962. The times they are
a'changing.
Lk ><
fit. .*%. - -^gs
PHOTO BY BILL FAVER
an angler.
Dm Net
to their nesting sites near the mouth
of the Cape Fear River. This group of
30 or more that stopped to help Acie
bring in his net afforded us a great
chance to see them up close, to laugh
at their awkward acrobatics, and to
watch them stealing fish.
Anyway?
head, and I ended up getting them
backward when I went to say hello.
I saw this one girl, for instance,
Ulllfl Hi/1 hnnn I** ?? ?' -J? "
Kiiv nau utcn in my uidbs since tne
first grade. When we saw each other
at the reunion, neither of us recognized
the other.
After about five seconds of staring
and squinting and straining our eyes,
it became very apparent that we
knew each other. We still couldn't
figure out the names, however, until
we both gave in and asked for a little
help.
It took me a few hours Friday
night, but I think I've learned how not
(Continued On Following Page)
'S
ability to defnsp thpir anoor
_tf Miigvi TTan nit
simple assurance that he would get to
the bottom of their problem. And
often he did get results.
Like with Poole's prayer, I'm
curious to see who assumes
Chappell's former role as the
amiable, smooth-talking politician on
the board. After all, every group
needs a good public relations man.
The trick is being able to back up
words with actions.
Hopefully all five commissioners?old
and new?will strive to
deal openly and honestly with each
other and the public, and make decisions
that are "both just and compassionate"
for the good of Brunswick
County.
I hope that isn't too much to expect,
because they already have a mighty
big candy jar to fill.
<