Newspapers / The Kings Mountain Herald … / Dec. 8, 1994, edition 1 / Page 4
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Page 4A-THE KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD-Thursday, December 8, 1994 Opinions eri A A A - - JIM HEFFNER Columnist Borrowed time It isnt enough to say she will be missed, thats a given. A more appropriate comment is everyone who knew Lois Smith loved her, and will cherish her memory. I didnt meet Lois until last October, but it segs as though she has been a part of my life forever. Ive had almost daily contact with her over the past 13 months, and every minute I spent with her was pleasant. We talked every day, in her hame or on the phone. She smiled and laughed a lot and was never down in the dumps when we were together. Sometimes, when the news beat was slow. Id gd by and sit in the chair beside her desk, where she was usually working at her computer. We dis- cussed everything. I sought her counsel and she was always willing to advise me. She asked about my family, including my grandchildren. Lois was devoted to her children and grandchildren. ‘When there was nothing happening in town, she would reel off several ideas for feature stories to include in the paper. She was a veritable store- house of ideas. Once she got started, she never ran out of subjects to write about. I can hear her now on the phone. If I asked her if she thought such and such would make a good story, her comment was, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Lois didnt have much trouble working up enthusi- asm. Sometimes, before I went home in the evenings, Id go by just to check on her. Those were good times, because we always sat and talked quietly on those occasions. Once in a while, she would tire of her wheelchair, and prop hérself up in the bed to chat with me, and some of our conversations were hilarious. She told me about the time she was awakened at:Z:a.m. by a loud explosion. I thought the world was finally ended, she said. After I checked to see if all my body parts were intact, I turned on the light and pulled myself up in bed. What do you think I found? One of the tires on my wheelchair had exploded. © We both cackled for a long time over that one. i Lois told me the entire story of the wreck that mangled her as a teenager. She said she had no idea why she didnt die, but suspected God had domething else in mind for her. The experience left her with a high tolerance for pain, and not the slightest hint of any fear of death. Ive been living on borrowed time for more than 50 years, she said. : She was kind, compassionate and courageous. Negativism was not a part of her existence. All her newspaper stories were positive. In fact, she was glad I came to town, because she knew there were some hard news stories that needed to be written, but she couldnt bring herself to do them. + As I was leaving her the day before she went to Pawleys Island, her last trip, she handed me a po- em. You might want to print this sometime, she said. ; [ have no idea who wrote it, but here it is: Blessed are they who understand i my faltering step and palsied hand. Blessed are they who know that my ears today i must strain to catch the things they say. Blessed are they who seem to know i that my eyes are dim and my wits are slow. Blessed are they who looked away : when coffee spilled at the table today. Blessed are they with a cheery smile “who stop to chat for a little while. Blessed are they who never say “youve told that story twice today. Blessed are they who know the ways ~ fa bring back memories of yesterdays. Blessed are they who make it known ' that Im loved, respected and not alone. Blessed are they who know Im at a loss : to find the strength to carry the cross. Blessed are those who ease the days : on my journey Home in loving ways. i It is nice to think she left this little poem to those who loved her. I have staked a claim to one spot on the Mist. ~ ° Cartoonitorial Your Right To Say It -0 o ARBOR 144 i] NAONS Our View Established 188 Published Thursday at East King Street at Canterbury Road, ; Kings Mountain, North Carolina 28086, i] USISY31-040. by Republic Newspapers, Inc.-2nd Class postage paid in Kings Mountain Bob Rop Publisher Darrell Austin .............. Associate Publisher Gary Stewart. .....oic. ei he ee .. Editor Elizabeth Stewart Shirley Austin ............cccoeenes Advertising Representative BULFUllONY........... ie. Advertising Representative Nancy Miller ..............cccueie... Advertising Representative Sarah Griffin... 5 Business Manager Fran Black.........aaafad wd al Bookkeeper Deniece Talbert . Circulation Manager Dabble Welsh ........... 00. oan al Production Kimberly Conley. .......c. aio. ced Graphic Artist StevanDoyles....... 0 Sk Graphic Artist JUIB LONG ......... c.f Ls dia dees Graphic Artist Norman Morrison ............ccc.coeeeee.. Pressroom Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In Gaston & Cleveland Counties: 1 Year$17.00; 6 ionths $10.00. Other NC Counties: 1 Year $19.00: 6 Months $11.00. Outside NC: 1 Year $22.00; 6 Months $12.50. NEWSPAPERS, INC. ca Member North Carolina Pross Association rosunaster: dend Address Changes to: f= Xings Mountain Herald: P.0. Box 769, Kings Mountain, NC 28086 Fo 37 19% 2d Ligees ’ : i Back issues, one month or older, when available, are 70¢ per copy. Crest and Burns deserve support of all'in county There has probably never been a time when two Cleveland County athletic teams won - or even played for - state championships in the same sport, in the same year. Burns and Crest high schools have a unique op- portunity to make history this weekend at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill. Both are playing for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association football championship. Burns, 12-2 and the champion of the Southwestern Conference, will battle East Randolph Friday at 7:30 p.m. for the 3-A champi- onship. Crest, 14-0 and two-time champion of the Northwestern Conference, will face a powerful Jacksonville team Saturday at 12 noon for the 4- A title. And, while they're not from Cleveland County, the nearby Lincolnton Wolves, 13-1, will try to successfully defend their 2-A state title Saturday at 7:30 p.m. against Wallace-Rose Hill. | £i 3 success in such a short period as Burns and Crest. Both teams began their football programs in 1968, and like all young teams they took their Not many teams have reached the pinnacle of: 8a lumps for awhile. Throughout their history they have been natural arch-rivals; not only because they're the biggest schools in the county but be- cause their consolidated high schools represent all the small schools that orice were members of the Cleveland County Schogl System. Crest won five straight.SWC 3-A titles in the early 1980s before moving to the 4-A ranks, and they made the state 45Aplayoffs several years while competing in the fegular-season against one _ of the state's perennial powers, West Charlotte. The Chargers have dominated the NWC 4-A since moving to that league last year. Burns, which is making its ninth straight state playoff appearance under Coach Ron Greene, won its first-ever conference football champi- onship last year, and repeated this year. Win or lose this weekend, the Bulldogs and Chargers deserve the support of all of Cleveland '| County. While they are each other's bitter. rival sringsthe regular season, there should”be ‘thou- adsiof people from Cleveland County wearing the school colors of Burns, Crest, Shelby and Kings Mountain pulling for both teams to bring home the championship trophy. Appearance committee did good job decorating city It's beginning to look alot like Christmas all over town and the city's appearance committee deserves the credit for the beautiful display in the downtown area. Several months ago Mayor Scott Neisler ap- pointed a committee to beef up the Christmas decorations. The committee headed by Sandra Murphrey, wife of Mayor pro tem Rick Murphrey, found they didn't have the funds to do the job properly. Mrs. Murphrey and a large committee of citi- zens started knocking on doors and calling on lo- cal businesses and industries and came up with donations to get the ball rolling on the purchase of 4,000 lights to trim the holly trees. They also sold green Christmas wreaths to downtown busi- Lois Smith left her mark on Bessemer City Neighboring Bessemer City lost its best friend last week in the tragic death in an automobile ac- cident of veteran Bessemer City Record Editor Lois Sexton Smith. Smith loved the weekly newspaper in a fashion that most modern-day readers would not under- stand. She devoted the greater part of her adult life to being the eyes and ears of a small town which returned her affection 100 fold. Our sister editor regarded The Record as more than an inanimate object that could be discarded at the whim of a reader. The Record was her life. A recent study by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) concludes what vic- tims' groups in the Tarheel state have been claim- ing for years - the N.C. General Assembly's Incarceration lowers steadfast refusal to build prison cells, in order to keep up with rising crime, has helped make North Carolina a high crime state. Starting in the early 1980s, North Carolina law- makers decided not to listen to the pleas for more prison space by law enforcement officers, district attorneys, judges and crime victims. Instead, state politicians listened to liberal criminologists, like Stevens Clarke of UNC-Chapel Hill, who pumped out statistical studies claiming that putting more people in prison failed to cut the crime rate. The answer Clarke and his supporters in the legislature put forward was that the state could prevent crime by spending more and more money on government programs. While the grand liberal experiment of preven- tion, rather than incarceration, was played out on our cities’ streets starting in the carly 1980s, North Carolina went from a low crime state to a crime "hell." In the last decade and a half, our his- torically low violent crime rate has gone up over 50 percent, making us the 11th worst state in the nesses and industries and in early fall sold Mountaineer shirts to add to the treasury. The group's goal is to add more decorations every year. Mrs. ‘Murphrey said citizens may purchase a light in memory or in honor of friends and loved ones. Each of the 40-plus holly trees cost from $150-$300 to decorate with white lights for the holidays. Mrs. Murphrey said the lights will remain year-round and won't damage the holly trees. She said that the bulbs will actually help the tree limbs from breaking in event of an ice storm. Hats off to all the committee for a job well done and much-needed downtown beautification. Ironically, Lois lived to tell about another ac- cident ‘in which she was said to be clinically dead. That accident left the high school student a paraplegic but Lois accepted the challenges of life in a wheelchair and went on to marry her high school sweetheart and have children and grand- children. : The accident that claimed her life happened as she returned to Bessemer City after a Thanksgiving weekend with her family at the coast. Lois Smith left her mark. We will remember Lois as a lady who taught us all how to live each day to the fullest. GUEST COLUMN THOMAS GOOLSBY Carolina Syndicated Columns union. As far as "total crime" goes. North Carolina ranks second highest in the nation. While our crime rate was growing out of hand. the Tarheel state had the dubious distinction of ranking last in the building of prisons in order to keep pace with rising crime. The results of the ALEC study are clear. Since 1960, the states that have neglected prison con- struction have seen the largest increases in crime, while the states that have built prisons have had the smallest growth in crime rates. The study just confirms common sense. If you keep crime from paying by locking up the bad guys. things get bet- ter. If crime pays, things get worse. It's not rocket science, but why haven't these common sense ideas caught on? Thanks for help To the editor: As director of the 1994 Kings Mountain Christmas parade, I would like to thank everyone who helped make this year's parade so successful. Each participant used their own special talents to entertain the crowd and spread the Christmas spirit. Thank you! I would especially like to thank the entire staff of the Parks and Recreation Department: Mrs. Langston Byers, Delores Brossard, Nettie Surratt, Jean Martin, Jimmy Stadler, Gary Ashberry, Monty Deaton, and John Forrest. Your hard work and support are what made it possible for us to present Kings Mountain with one of the biggest and best parades ever. Few people realize that months of preparation go into the planning of a parade. A special thank you to Ollie Harris for serving as the grand marshal. It was an honor having him lead the 130 unit parade through the streets of Kings Mountain. Thank you to all of our float sponsors: Dicey Fabrics, Shelby Star, Personnel Services Unlimited, Century 21-Hometown Realty, Badcock Home Furnishings, Clevemont, Ray McKenney Chevrolet-Geo, Town and Country Barbecue, First Union, Home Savings Bank, First Carolina Federal Savings Bank, Belk-Cleveland Mall and Amity Finance. The increasing support of the business community allows us to have more beautiful floats each year. Thanks to the Kings Mountain Police Department for its assistance before, during and after the parade. It could not be done without them. Most importantly, thanks to the spectators. It was rewarding to see all the smiling faces. As always, suggestions and comments are wel- come. David Dellinger NAACP stops own To the editor: Blacks have not served on the Cleveland County Commission for over 100 years. That's history. ; Over the years this, that and the other group al- ways got blamed. Racism was always claimed. Nobody ever proved anything. Nothing ever gets proved in this county. But 1994 was going to be different. Two well-qualified blacks were set to be sworn in office December 5. | Guess what group steps forward and puts a stop; | ‘to blacks from taking office? The NAACP} It was] the NAACP! Toto, this ain't Kansas! Danny Barkley Lawndale DSS does nothin To the editor: : Imagine this. : You're discussing how the Cleveland County Substance Abuse Task Force says 80 percent of county crimes are drug related. Twenty-five thou- sand people are affected by drugs, they say. Then you try to tie in how most of the serious child abuse cases and child murders were related to drug use. And that many reported cases of abuse and neglect are on a drug addicted parent on welfare. That Food stamps, child’ support and - AFDC money buys drugs instead of providing for the children. The DSS Board ought to pass a policy to re- move children from drug addicted parents, you say. : You can't prove Food stamps and the other ben- efits are used to buy drugs, says the DSS Director. Then, you ask, where does the welfare recipient get money to buy those drugs? = You're out of order. Meeting adjourned. We've got to go, it's supper time, says the DSS Board Chairman. That's how they do things in California and England, shrieks the ad hoc crowd. Imagine that and you've been to a DSS Board meeting. And you've seen how they know noth- ing-do nothing DSS Board operates. Robert Williams Fallston crime rate Over the past decade and a half. our decidedly left-leaning state legislature has been too busy spending our tax money on preventative pro- © grams to listen to any tough law and order agenda dealing with building adequate prison space. Instead, they simply buried their heads in the * sand, claiming that the state could not afford to lock up the criminals. They conveniently forgot that by not locking up the guilty, they would con- . sign tens of thousands of their constituents to be- ing victims of the criminals they attempted to ig- nore. Now the political breeze has changed direction. All of the newly elected legislators ran as tough law and order candidates. They know first hand that the people of North Carolina are tired of business as usual. The voters want criminals to serve "real time for real crimes.” Survey after sur- vey shows that crime is the number one public concern. Making the right call on providing more prison space and keeping criminals off our streets should not be difficult to do since the problem is so very apparent. It's just a shame that tens of thousands of innocent people have had to suffer before common sense Kicked in.
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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Dec. 8, 1994, edition 1
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