~ how nasty they were. I have no idea how it happened *
%
Page 4A-THE KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD-Thursday, March 11, 1993
| | Opinions
JIM
HEFFNER
Columnist
Soppin' in the gravy bowl
I came across a piece about grits in a magazine the
other day. Everybody knows that grits is/are (choose
one) an identifiable Southern resource. Anybody who
doesn't eat grits must be viewed as a possible Yank
Spy. :
I used to work with a fellow from the Bronx, N.Y.
and he was constantly spouting off about grits, and
but one morning when he opened his desk he found all
his drawers filled with grits. It was one of those magic
moments I'll never forget.
Anyway, the article stated that grits can be prepared
eight different ways. What a laugh! Obviously the lady
who wrote the story isn't from the South. Grits can be
fixed (Southern for prepared) at least 500 different
ways, probably more, and all of them good.
I like grits any way they can be fixed. I'll bet they'd
even be good in a chocolate pie.
Sometimes, as I've said before, I feel sorry for those
unfortunate folks who were born up North. They just
don't know anything about good eating.
One of my sisters-in-law, caught in a weak moment,
married one of those trespassers. My wife and I went
up to visit soon after and her poorly-informed husband
complained to me that his wife had the audacity to fix
black-eyed peas for his supper one evening.
Complained mind you!
Well, I couldn't believe my ears. I didn't know what
to say to him. How can you take on the job of reedu-
cating a grown man who has lived a deprived life?
Most of those people have never even tasted fat-
£ back or sopped up a gravy bowl.
I remember when my Mother used to bake cakes. I
had two sisters, and we all would gather around and
watch her frost the cake, or, as we say in the South, put
. the icing on. I always considered my Mother an artist -
+ when it came to putting the icing on a tall layer cake.
~ She would cover every spot, using a butter knife, and
her hands would flow gracefully, just like a sculptor
molding his clay. She never missed a spot, and when
she was finished the cake was almost perfectly
smooth.
My sisters and I would argue over who was going to
lick the icing bowl clean, but we usually ended up
sharing.
I wonder if they do that up North.
My Mom didn't cook fat-back the way most people
= do. She would bake it in the oven until all the grease
~ was gone. That was when I'd grab myself a hot, fluffy
biscuit, stuff a couple of chunks between the buttered
+ layers and enjoy a feast fit for kings. I liked the kind
~ with a few lean spots that looked like iron ore deposits
in sandstone. We called it streak-ed meat, and it was
absolutely scrumptious.
I remember a time when I had been dieting for a
month or so and had lost several pounds. When my
wife, in celebration, told me she would fix anything I
wanted for supper, I said, "how about a fat-back piz-
za?" And I was serious.
I like streak-ed meat and eggs for breakfast, but I
can't indulge myself much anymore because of a blood
pressure problem. At least I can say I've enjoyed such
gourmet eating in my life. That's more than a lot of
folks can say who live in a certain part of the country.
Why they don't even have liver mush up there. Oh
they serve something similar, but they call it scrapple,
and it's much too strong.
You see what I mean about being deprived?
I'd much rather sit down to a plate of white beans,
fried potatoes, greens and cornbread than the biggest
Porterhouse steak in Boston. Throw in a large glass of
iced tea, and you can keep your fancy champagne.
Eight different ways to prepare grits? I suppose
eight is enough for a Southerner at age four, but by the
teen years 88 is more like it, and that's just the boys.
Southern girls are even more proficient.
I guess all of us can't be born to high living, but I
sure do pity those poor folks above the M-D line who
have never tasted cornbread cooked in a heavy black
skillet or eaten a plate of beans laced with a mess of
diced onions. :
That's what I call good country eating.
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© 1992, PM Editorial Services 7
DONALD
MITCHELL
Interim Pastor,
First Presbyterian Church
. Reflections on religion and life
Your Right To Say It
D.C. Statehood Never?
Dear editor:
Soon Jesse Jackson will unfurl his "D.C. Statehood
Now!" banner on the Mall and appeal to the American
people to create the state of New Columbia.
First, Americans need to envision the state New
Columbia would be. A report published by Citizens
United indicates the following:
* It would be a state 1/17th the size of Rhode Island
whose population shrinks annually and is already less
than 47 states. : v
* It would be a state dependent on federal money
for 40 percent of its budget.
* It would be a state whose primary industry would
be the government. Currently, one in eleven work for
the government or in services related to the govern-
ment.
* It would be a state whose residents annually re-
ceive $2,831 ‘in federal aid per capita -- 5 times the na-
tional average.
* It would be a state labeled "the murder capital”
where annually one violent crime occurs for every 2
people. : 3H |
i “si state ‘workers? Their basic pay plan has been in’ place
This time we cannot fall back on a Presidential veto
to impede legislation. Americans who still believe in
the Founding Fathers' vision need to unfurl a banner of
their own: "D.C. Statehood Never!"
Sincerely,
George Plonk
Blue should eancel raises
To the editor: x
Speaker Dan Blue recently put himself in a public
relations firestorm for giving $10,000 pay raises (a
25% increase) to two of his staffers. Why? The general
public found Speaker Blue's stroke-of-the-pen $10,000
raises outrageous and extravagant after they were still
struggling to pay for the General Assembly's $600 mil-
lion tax increase of 1991 which was the largest in state
history. It's no wonder why state workers found the
raises grossly unfair. Last year the General Assembly,
led by Speaker Blue, told state employees a $522 raise
was the best they could do in the current budget aus-
terity. The Speaker's raises obviously shocked and of-
fended a large majority of North Carolinians. The
Speaker released an editorial essay last week on the
subject in an attempt to douse the flames. As the
Republican leader in the House I am compelled to give
my views on the matter and explain why I think the
raises were clearly wrong. :
Speaker Blue has come under fire for this being a
"back room deal" between himself and then Senate
President Pro-Tem Henson Barnes. He said this was
not a back room deal because the Speaker of the
House and the President Pro-Tem of the Senate have
had the power to give raises this way since 1969. I
guess the logic here is that 24 years of doing some-
thing makes it right. Frankly that doesn't wash. It's
wrong to conduct business this way now and it was
‘wrong to start the practice 24 years ago.
The Speaker has also attempted to justify the raises
by saying he has a budget of $403,000 for salaries and
even after the raises he will still return $130,000 to the
state. Wait a minute. Why does a part-time Speaker
need a full-time staff costing $270,000? He can pick
up the phone and get priority service from the over
150 full-time General Assembly Staff. Therefore even
$270,000 for staff is too much to justify.
One of the Speaker's responses to this problem has
been to recommend the General Assembly hire a con-
sultant to design a pay plan for the.staff. The
Associated Press reported the Speaker said, "We have
absolutely no pay plan. Salaries are arbitrary.” The fact
that the General Assembly salaries are arbitrary is ob-
viously true, but why not save the cost of the consul-
tant and implement the pay plan used by. the rest of
since 1951 and it seems to be serving them well. That
approach would ensure fairness to all state employees.
The Speaker said in his editorial "I believe we must
do all we can to fairly compensate our workers." How
fair is it to compensate two of his staff over $50,000
when classroom teachers and other state employees re-
ceived a $522 raise? How many state employees can
ever expect to receive a raise of $10,000 in one year?
What needs to be done now and for the future to re-
‘solve this controversy? I introduced legislation two
weeks ago to end this practice which will take care of
the future. The simple and responsible thing for
Speaker Blue to do now is to admit the pay raises were
wrong, cancel the pay raises, and support my bill to
eliminate this practice. All North Carolinians would
support and applaud him for this, and it would be as
easy as the stroke-of-a-pen.
Rep. David Balmer,
House Repulican Leader
Musical outstanding
To the editor:
The performance of "The Sound of Music,” given
by the Kings Mountain choral, drama and band stu-
dents, was outstanding.
My hat is off to the students, teachers, and support
persons for all the hard work they have done to bring
us such an excellent musical.
Lynda Stewart
A short while ago I received the tape of a sermon enti-
tled "What Christ would say to Clinton." Preachers, like
surgeons, should not be timid, but that title seemed to be
presumptuous. Who among us has such insight into the
mind of Christ?
The tape, however, did start me thinking about what *
Christians might want to say to their new president.
They would first of all want some reassurance that Bill
Clinton had made his own claim to the Christian faith and
had thus provided some common ground for discourse.
For those who paid attention during the presidential cam-
paign, that ground was clearly staked out. In a speech de-
livered last September at Notre Dame University, but
carefully prepared with a national audience in mind, can-
didate Clinton, as he was then, testified to his own
Christian faith. "My faith is a source of pride to me," he
declared. And a few days later on an ecumenical
Christian cable network he added these comments: "I had
a tough childhood, a not all that easy adulthood at times.
My faith has enabled me to keep living and keep, going
and keep doing things."
The president shares a Southern Baptist background
along with his Vice President. But both men, while identi-
fying with Christian believers, are extremely careful not
to scare off unbelievers. There is no suggestion that they
would consider imposing their faith on anyone. Their
statements of religious commitment are so free from any
. taint of rigidity or of sectarian feeling, that one sociolo-
gist has called them examples of "a generic American
faith." This is a bland and inoffensive stance in which de-
nominational brand names have little significance.
It's ironic that George Bush supported a conservative
. social policy even though he was a member of the
Episcopal church which is well known for its liberal so-
cial platforms. And the present occupant of the White
House, though belonging to a denomination with a repu-
tation for conservative social policies, puts his weight on
the liberal side of most controversial causes.
But a "generic Christian” is still a Christian, so what
would the president's fellow Christians want to say to
him? Given the wide range of differences among
Christian groups that's also a presumptuous question, but
here is one man's opinion:
First of all, I would ask him to be a man of his word, as
a follower of Christ ought to be. This means he would re-
frain from making promises he knows cannot be kept. It
also means that he would speak with integrity. When that
quality prevails in the White House there is some chance
that it will also characterize the other branches of govern-
ment. We lack leaders whose word we can trust.
Secondly, I would remind the president that he recently
took a public pledge "to preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution of the United States of America." The first
amendment to that Constitution provides for the separa-
tion of church and state, but in our generation, the sense
and spirit of that amendment have been turned upside
. down. As William E. Simon recently observed: "The First
Amendment is now routinely invoked to bully and blud-
geon religious freedom in“any public setting.” T'would ask
our president to use his influence to restore the balance
intended by the framers of the Constitution, so that ex-
pressions of religion which do not infringe on the free-
dom of others, may be respected and protected instead of
being excluded from public life.
Thirdly, I would say to our president that he should
publicly acknowledge the long term damage being inflict-
ed on our society by the enormous annual toll of unre-
stricted abortions. As a nation, we need a leader who will
help us to rise about the pro-life/pro-choice stalemate in
order to address the disastrous consequences for our na-
tion of denying life to millions of unborn babies. If our
hopes for the future lie with our children, we diminish
that hope every day.
Fourthly, I would suggest to the president that he be
thankful for those who preceded him in the White House.
While it was politic to demean George Bush in the heat of
the presidential campaign, he should be grateful for much
that he inherited from his predecessor. We all stand on the
shoulders of those who precede us and a gracious ac-
knowledgement of that fact would soften much of the
strident and divisive tone of political debate.
Finally, I would remind President Clinton that
Christians, even those of the "generic" variety, are meant
to be people of prayer. He will need every day the wis-
dom that God promises to those who ask for it. The fol-
lowing words of Abraham Lincoln ought to be framed for
his desk:
"We have forgotten the gracious hand that preserved us
in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened
us; and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of
our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some
superior wisdom and virtue of our own...we have become
too proud to pray to the God who made us."
May that never be true of President Bill Clinton.
HB Donald Mitchell is interim pastor of First
Presbyterian Church.
KM Schools haven't lost tax revenue
The telephone started ringing as soon as the paper
was on the street Wednesday.
"Lib, did you leave something out of that story
about the school board or are you are a fortune teller
now?"
No, I'm not a fortune teller and yes, there was an
error. Ronnie Hawkins, chairman of the board, said
there is a chance that sales tax distribution alloca-
tions to Kings Mountain may be cut by county com-
missioners at budget time. Yes, cuts would hurt the
system but no, county commissioners have not yet
cut allocations to the schools from $500,000 to
$250,000. I was wrong and I apologize to Hawkins,
the school board and administration and the county
commissioners.
If you read Supt. Dr. Bob McRae's column, also in
last week's Herald. he stressed the need for county
commissioners to continue the current method of re-
distributing sales tax revenues based on taxing effort
rather than on per capita basis. If that method stays in
place, Kings Mountain will continue to receive ap-
proximately $500,000 per year to address our capital
needs and can make reasonable progress in keeping
our facilities and equipment in working order.
McRae says we need to lobby our county commis-
sioners to leave the current sales tax redistribution
plan in place and lobby our legislators to look for
ways the state can assist with facility and equipment
needs.
[IB
— STEWART
@®
News Editor
Small town funding became a controversial issue
in the recent county commissioner race. Some candi-
dates took flak during the campaign and the rumor
mill has been grinding out talk since that the way tax
distribution is made will be changed. IF the change is
made to half per capita and half taxation, as it was
proposed by some candidates in the recent election,
the local system stands to lose about $250,000 but it
hasn't lost it yet.
Kings Mountain Schools received from Cleveland
County $1,658,175.00 in current expense funds last
year, equaling the same per pupil amount as the year
before. In addition, Kings Mountain got $525,000
from sales tax distribution last year and $281,000 in
capital outlay monies. Kings Mountain is asking for
$300,000 in capital outlay funds in the upcoming
budget and is keeping their fingers crossed that the
sales tax distribution monies will be the same.
The county schools don't get tax distribution mon-
ey because they don't tax themselves. Kings
Mountain has a school supplement tax. Because
commissioners have redistributed proceeds based on
the taxing effort rather than the per capita population
we get over a half million dollars for capital outlay
from that fund. It's a fact that if commissioners re-
vert to partial or total funding based on per capita
the system will indeed lose big bucks.
Budget time is just around the corner and one
county commissioner is yet to be seated. A three-
month dispute between two of the candidates over
how to count the paper ballots from the November
county commissioner election is still on.
State Supt. Bob Etheridge says local superinten-
dents and boards of education need $5.6 billion to
bring North Carolina school buildings up to par and
projected instructional technology needs in the next
five years will top $601 million
The School Facilities Finance Act of 1987 re-
quired that cach school system file a facilities plan
with the State Board of Education. The local system
cstimates long-range public school facilities needs at
nearly $10 million, including $1,935,090 for addi-.
tions; $5,972,300 for remodeling and renovation and
$88,000 for equipment.
Schools arc big business. It's no wonder my phone
is ringing off the hook.
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