THE BRUNSWICK&fEACON
Edward M. Sweatt and Carolyn H. Sweatt Publishers
Edward M. Sweatt Ekiitor
Lynn S. Carlson Managing Editor
Susan Usher News Editor
Doug Rutter Sports Editor
Eric Carlson .'.Staff Writer
Peggy Earwood Office Manager
Carolyn H. Sweatt Advertising Director
Ttniberley Adams. Cecelia Gore
and Linda Cheers Advertising Representatives
Dorothy Brennan and Brenda Clemmons Moore ..Graphic Artists
William Manning * Pressman
Lonnle Sprinkle Assistant Pressman
Tammle Henderson Photo Technician
PAGE 4-A, THURSDAY. JULY 29, 1993
Planning Board Fine Example
Of How Volunteers Can Serve
In the coming weeks, the Sunset Beach Town Council is ex
pected to settle the complex issue of how best to zone Bird
Island, balancing the fragility of the environment and the wishes
of a vocal public against the legal rights of the property owner.
The process of getting to this point has been more than ardu
ous. The circumstances surrounding the issue have been as dy
namic as the island itself, shifting with the the regulatory tides
and the owner's ever-evolving development plans. The vast ma
jority of the work has been handled not by professional planners,
but by the town's planning board, volunteers performing ad
mirably in an often thankless and invariably painstaking job.
A year ago, a professional planner's zoning proposal for Bird
Island was abandoned on the grounds that it might infringe upon
the owner's right to use the property. Since that time, nearly all
the legwork has been accomplished by the planning board under
the able leadership of Richard Good.
Don't think for a minute that Bird Island has been the only is
sue on the planning board's to-do list in a year. Quite the opposite
is true. A dozen or more other proposals have been drafted, defi
nitions devised and consequences "what-iffed" in a clear,
thoughtful fashion on topics as diverse as miniature golf courses
and privacy fences. That's a tall order in a town where folks are
picky, and rightfully so, about what kinds of growth and change
they'll sit still for.
Sunset Beach doesn't have the only commendable planning
board in Brunswick County, but theirs is the best example that
comes to mind of the positive difference dedicated volunteers can
make to a small town's future.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Schools Should Recruit
Blacks From Colleges
To the editor:
Having read the statement of July
14 in the Wilmington Morning Star
concerning the controversy over the
lack of blacks in the Brunswick
County school system, I was not
surprised, but stunned and bewil
dered.
According to my feeble under
standing, one of our school board
members stated that there was a lack
of black candidates for posiuons in
the Brunswick County school sys
tem.
If Brunswick County school offi
cials spent as much time recruiting
black persons for administrative po
sitions as they spend on whiles,
there would be no problems recruit
ing qualified blacks.
If only they would inform A&T
College of Greensboro, Johnson C.
Smith of Charlotte, Bennett College
of Greensboro, whatever they need
will be found. Qualified blacks will
never be found for the Brunswick
County school system as long as we
wallow in the mud flats of racial
segregation.
No solution with be forthcoming
as long as Brunswick County con
tinues to attempt to turn the clock of
progress back to the ungodly days of
scalawags, carpetbaggers, wiggle
tails, sock legs, intimidators, cow
ards, cross-burners and sheet-wear
ers.
Jesse A. Bryant
Supply
EDITOR'S NOTE: Jesse Bryant is
president of the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of Colored
People, Cedar Grove Branch,
Supply.
Leaflet Was 'Trash'
To the editor:
1 received a leaflet included in my
newspaper several weeks ago. I have
delayed writing in hopes of contain
ing or restraining my emotions.
I have not and will not read that
trash. Before knowing what it was, I
saw enough to realize it's another
product of small minds. It matters
not which side of the various abor
tion issue you support, and there are
many sides of this issue.
Adoption in many eases cause as
many problems as any other social
deficiency, so it is not an all-solving
answer. Murders and mental cases
abound!
1 support abortion in certain cases,
and 1 share some of the pro-life con
cerns. But i do not support those
who muddy the issues with the trash
included in your newspaper.
If you want to write editorials, be
my guest. But try to stick to the real
issues.
I also feel what you did is illegal
and have written the postmaster. I'm
trying to determine who best to for
ward your trash.
Charles C. Rose Jr.
Sunset Beach
Thanks For Reception
To the editor:
We wish to thank the Town of
Holden Beach sr.d all our many
friends for thr nice reception given
to us.
It has 'jeen our honor to live in
such a beautiful community and
have so many special friends.
We love Holden Beach and look
forward to spending more time here
with our friends.
Mabel and Hugh Dutton
Holden Beach
(More Letters, Following Page)
The Beacon welcomes letters
to the editor. All letters must be
signed and include the writer's
address and telephone number.
Under no circumstances wiii
unsigned letters be printed.
Letters should be legible. We
reserve the right to edit libelous
comments. Address letters to The
Brunswick Beacon, P. O. Box
2558, Shallotte, N. C. 28459.
Worth Repeating...
? The lime which we have at our disposal every day is elastic ; the
passions that we feel expand it, those that we inspire contract it;
and habit fills up what remains. ? Marcel Proust
? / have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "0
Lord, make my enemies ridiculous " And God granted it.
? Voltaire
? Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
? Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
NEED AND WANT ARF TWO DIFFERENT THINGS
Defending School Budget A Healthy Process
The debate over ihc Brunswick
County Schools' 1993-94 county
budget allocation is about the ac
countability of two boards caught in
a spiral of rising expectations.
The board of education must an
swer for both how the school system
is operated and for the quality of its
product, though it lacks full control
over either.
For funding, the schools arc at the
mercy of the federal, state and coun
ty governments. The local school
board must adopt its budget before
the state adopts its own, though the
state provides right at 60 percent of
the money used to run the schools.
Substantial chunks of that money
arc designated for spending in spe
cific areas as well, limiting the
schools' flexibility to match re
sources to its own priorities or
needs. County government should
be able to relate to this, because the
slate imposes the same sort of de
mands on it.
In North Carolina, unlike some
other states, the school board is
elected by and accountable to the
voters, but must ask the county for
money.
This means the county commis
sioners are responsible for making
sure the school system has enough
money to provide local students a
decent education. It also means the
commissioners must share the re
sponsibility for the quality of educa
tion provided.
If the two boards don't agree on
school funding, state law provides
for mediation through the courts, a
rarely-used procedure, but one that
Bladen County Schools resorted to
this year. Earlier this month com
Susan
Usher
missioners there agreed lo provide
another S283,(XX) for the schools,
raising the property tax rate, after
the Superior Court brought in a pro
fessional mediator to help resolve
the deadlock.
Brunswick County sees itself in a
bit of a bind, ranking education as
just one among many needs it must
address, such as water and sewer in
frastructure and industrial develop
ment. (Sadly enough, one of the top
reasons 'raditional industry has giv
en for being slow to locate here is
the Icss-than-satisfactory quality of
the schools and the local workforce.
Perhaps beefing up our schools
might be the county's best long-term
job crcauon/dcvclopmcnt invest
ment?)
Certainly there are questions
about what constitutes a "decent" or
"adequate" education, a standard
that changes with the times. Schools
? like any other entity ? tend to de
liver exactly what's expected or de
manded of them and no more. If a
community doesn't want much,
well
Brunswick County is changing.
We have a new breed of parent ? a
relatively small, but growing num
ber ? that expects more from the
schools. We have prospective cm
ploycrs who cxpcct more of high
school graduates. Wc have state
public school, community college
and university systems expecting
more of graduates.
All these rising demands and new
standards of excellence have forced
the school system to take a fresh
look at how it docs business and be
gin making some difficult, though
necessary, changes. It has to get fac
ulty and staff and students to buy in
to those rising expectations as
well ? to expect more of themselves
and each other.
The school board is saying it's
time to end a longstanding pattern of
just getting by. And, if it is to con
tinue to bear the brunt of criticism
for the failures of the system, then it
wants the personnel, equipment and
infrastructure needed to do the job
right. Among other things it wants:
to improve the way tcachers arc
trained and retrained; to acquaint
students with the new technology
they need to understand in the work
places of tomorrow; to build the ad
ditional classroom space needed to
relieve overcrowding in a rapidly
growing school system; to improve
communication and cooperation
within a school system spread over a
large geographic area; to make mid
level administrative people more
helpful and more responsive to indi
vidual school staffs.
The current board of county com
missioners feels it has fulfilled its
campaign promise to be education
minded, funding a request for ener
gy money at mid-year and allocating
the schools 17 percent more than
they received last year ? including
SI million for new technology.
Wilh other needs pressing, the
county is demanding assurance that
the schools arc already doing the
best they can with what they have.
Thai's a reasonable demand, though
difficult to prove or disprove.
While a compromise between the
two boards would have saved legal
costs and time, the questions of ac
countability would have lingered. I,
for one, welcome the journey on
which the schools and commission
ers arc embarking. The self-exami
nation required to justify its pro
grams, staffing and spending will be
healthy for the school system, as
will finding ways to effectively
communicatc its needs and priorities
to the court (the public).
If the school board can explain
and defend its needs, then the coun
ty should gladly dig deeper and pro
vide more money, as well as begin
thinking in terms of a long-range
plan for school system improve
ment.
If the schools cannot justify their
spending and demands, well, as the
Rolling Stones remind us, "You
can't always get what you want..."
Need versus want. Thai's a lesson
we learn every day when spending
our own money, much less someone
else's.
It's just a shame the budget and
performance of every department in
county government will not be put
through the same degree of scrutiny
and justification. The same question
could be asked of each thai Don
Warren, chairman of the Brunswick
County Board of Commissioners,
asked of the schools: "Can they real
locate the resources they have and
spend them more wisely?"
i : {
Too Much Information Running Through My Brain
Go ahead. Admit it. There's noth
ing to be ashamed of. Just say it out
loud:
"I am tired of hearing about the
flood-ravaged Midwest."
There. Feel better now? Or maybe
just a little guilty?
No need to. It's understandable.
For the past two weeks, there has
been no way to avoid the tragic
scenes of people sloshing through
their living rooms in hip waders. Of
valiant townspeople tossing little
sandbags into big holes in crumbling
levees. Of bankrupt farmers gazing
across lakes that used to be com
fields.
It's depressing to think about
what those folks are going through.
Especially here on the coast, where
we might face a similar disaster. So
any effort to turn that empathy into
action ? perhaps by donaung to Hie
American Red Cross ? would be a
worthwhile thing to do.
But do we have to keep watching
it and watching it and watching it?
In the age of instant communica
tions, newspapers and television net
works face a real dilemma when de
ciding how much to report about
protractcd disasters like "The Flood
of the Century" or the 'Tragedy in
Yugoslavia" or the "Starvation and
Chaos in Somalia."
When news organizations devote
only occasional coverage to these
relentlessly heart-wrenching stories,
they are accused of ignoring, or cov
ering up, or not caring about the suf
fering.
But if each day's front page is
awash with muddy water photos and
the first 20 minutes of every news
cast is spent talking to coping and
hoping flood victims, readers will
Eric
Carlson *<3^ f
turn lo the sports section while TV
viewers reach for the remote control.
It's the other side of that double
edged sword of modern technology.
We are now capable of being trans
ported LIVE lo St. Louis or
Sarajevo or Mogadishu. So now we
have to decide whether or not we
want to go.
This is a relatively new problem.
Back in August, 1931, more than
three million people were killed
when the Huang He River flooded
in China. That story probably made
the front pages of major newspapers
for a day or two. But how many
Americans read about it then or re
member it today?
Two years ago, we were taken
LIVE into the front yards of home
owners in California as wildfires
raged through the suburbs of Oak
land, claiming 24 lives. Imagine
what television would have done
with the 1871 forest fire in Pcshtigo,
Wisconsin, where 1,182 people died.
We all remember the devastation
and the weeks of news coverage de
voted to Hurricane Andrew last year.
Most viewers were left with the im
pression that nature's fury can't gel
much worse.
Tell that to the 6,000 people who
died in September 1900 when a
storm surge inundated Galveston,
Texas. That was before they named
hurricanes or showed the aftermath
in aerial footage on TV.
The power of immediate news
coverage came into focus on a May
night in 1937, when the German
zeppelin Hindenburg came in for a
routine landing in Lakehurst, New
Jersey.
The airship burst into flames and
burned an indelible image into the
minds of everyone who saw the
newsreel footage or listened to nar
rator's tortured voice lamenting,
"Oh, the humanity!" as 36 people
met horrible deaths.
Even today's teen-agers can rec
ognize the famous picture (on the
cover of Led Zeppelin's first record
album) that all but ended the
promising future of lightcr-than-air
flight.
Three years before the Hinden
burg disaster and 30 miles to the
northeast, three times as many peo
ple met a similar fiery fate on the
waters off Asbury Park. But no cam
era recorded it. No reporter de
scribed it. And no rock groups were
named after the sunken steamship
Morro CasUe.
Yesterday's news story is tomor
row's history. But modern news cov
erage often goes beyond recording
history by making things happen.
Famine had been killing people in
Ethiopia for years before the gaunt
faces of wizened children began to
flood our TV screens, sparking a
worldwide relief effort (and another
number-one record).
Who can say how long the
Vietnam War might have dragged on
if the screams of wounded American
soldiers were never heard in our liv
ing rooms. Or how many of the 10
million killed in World War I might
have been saved if Dan Raiher had
reported from the trenches of
Verdun (where 600,000 died in a
battle that lasted six months).
On the other hand, too much cov
erage of terrible things tends to
make us numb, to shrug our shoul
ders and say, "I know it's bad, but
what can 1 do?"
Making things worse is the way
all this information is packaged in
the same way. The morning "news"
shows might have a segment about
collecting Barbie dolls, followed by
maimed children in Bosnia, fol
lowed by Wolfgang Puck's latest
recipe for soft shell crabs. So which
is more important?
When every news organization is
focusing all its attention on a single
story, like, ihc Persian Gulf War, you
begin to wonder what else is going
on in the world that would have
been a top story on a "slow news
day."
It's like that tree falling in the for
est thing. If there is a flood or a
famine or a massacre somewhere
and no news camera captures it,
docs anybody die?
Of course they do. But does any
body care?
Of course they do. But war and
disease and pestilence and famine
and natural disasters have always
been with us and always will be. We
just know more about them now.
All we can do is ask, as theolo
gian Rcinhold Nicbuhr did:
"God, give us grace to accept
with serenity the things that cannot
be changed, couragc to change the
things which should be changed,
and the wisdom to distinguish the
one from the other "