Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1096807
4 UCW MARCH 27-APRIL 2, 2019 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/ EDITOR Stephanie Crider editor@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly. com ASSISTANT EDITOR Leslie Pyo leslie@upandcomingweekly.com SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR Earl Vaughan Jr. EarlUCWSports@gmail.com REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Elizabeth Long art@upandcomingweekly.com SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR Kimberly Herndon kim@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/ SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Martin, Pitt Dickey, Margaret Dickson, Karl Merritt, John Hood, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Prudence Mainor ––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan St. P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: (910) 484-6200 FAX: (910) 484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and information on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the pub- lisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. © 2019 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Various ads with art graphics designed with elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. State continues to expand freedom by JOHN HOOD PUBLISHER'S PEN Editor's note: e March 20, 2019, issue of Up & Coming Weekly featured an article by Earl Vaughan Jr. titled "Hope Mills losing UNC-Pembroke student sculptures." e article talked about the removal of several sculptures that University of North Carolina- Pembroke art students had put on display in Hope Mills. ere was a strong reaction to the article. So, Vaughan wrote a follow-up that was planned to run in this issue of Up & Coming Weekly. However, Hope Mills Com- missioners Jessie Bellflowers, Meg Larson and Mike Mitchell were so outraged at the origi- nal article that they called a special meeting, which will take place prior to this issue being released. To avoid confusing the situation further, we are withholding Vaughan's follow-up article to run at a later date. On a separate note: In that same issue of Up & Coming Weekly, the cover story, "Fayetteville Cumberland Parks and Recre- ation Bond Referendum update: continued, exciting progress," incorrectly stated that the bond referendum was passed by both Cumberland County and city of Fayetteville citizens. e article has been corrected in its web-based forms to state that the bond refer- endum was only passed by citizens of the city. While election scandals, national issues and candidate announcements for 2019 and 2020 races have dominated the politi- cal headlines, North Carolina is continuing to head in the direction of greater freedom. at's welcome. I believe North Carolina state and local governments have important responsibili- ties. ey finance or deliver critical public services. eir regulatory authority can be used to protect public health, combat fraud and resolve disputes. But government power is inherently coercive. at's quite literally what a government is, a social institution that enjoys a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force in a given geographic area. It's necessary. It's also dangerous, which is why we constrain the day-to-day exercise of govern- mental power with written federal and state constitutions, explicit grants of state author- ity to localities, and the common law. To the extent government is limited to its essential powers, expenditures and exactions, we enjoy the freedom to make our own decisions, to form our own private agreements and associations accord- ing to our own personal values. I believe such freedom — the freedom to live as we choose as long as our actions do not endan- ger the equal freedom of others to do the same — is both a natural right and a practi- cal solution to many social problems. Among the 50 states, North Carolina is relatively free. ere are various ways to measure this. One reasonable and consum- er-friendly tool is the Cato Institute's "Free- dom in the 50 States" project. On its website, you can compare state performance on the overall index as well as on specific criteria. North Carolina currently ranks 18th in Cato's overall freedom measure. We earn better-than-average scores in economic freedom, a bundle that includes taxes, spending and regulations. We do even bet- ter, ranking 17th, in a bundle of personal freedom measures that includes education- al freedom (sixth), regulations on tobacco (eighth), property rights for those accused (but not convicted) of crimes (11th) and overall incarceration rates (17th). In the category of regulations on alcohol production, marketing and consumption, North Carolina ranks below average at 35th. But it looks like that ranking is going to be improving soon. e state's beer wholesal- ers and emerging craft-beer industry, at loggerheads for years, have just announced a compromise that, if enacted by the General Assembly, will loosen the state's tight restrictions on direct distribution by breweries. Other proposed legislation would reform North Carolina's archaic and counterproductive system of ABC stores. Another problematic ranking for North Carolina is in the area of health-insurance regulation. We impose too many mandates on what health plans must cover and how they can be structured and sold. Again, however, there is room for optimism. A bill to strengthen the market for associa- tion health plans, which allow businesses and individuals in the same industry to band together to get better deals on health insurance, has just passed the North Caro- lina Senate with a bipartisan vote and now awaits action in the House. When it comes to property-rights protec- tions, our national ranking isn't horrible at 20th. But protections are stronger in our neighboring states of South Carolina (sec- ond), Tennessee (fourth), Georgia (11th) and Virginia (12th). e General Assembly could improve the situation this session by placing a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would limit the abuse of eminent domain and by putting a final nail in the coffin of the state's unconstitutional Map Act, which had deprived property owners of the just compensation to which they were due as part of the process of planning and constructing state roads. I don't favor expanding freedom in North Carolina because I think North Carolinians always make the right deci- sions for themselves. We are flawed crea- tures, subject to temptations and prone to mistakes. But politicians are no less flawed than the rest of us, to put it charitably. I prefer to trust the wisdom of crowds, as reflected by the outcomes of free choices by millions of people over time. We try, we err, we learn from each other. at's freedom in practice. It works. Among the 50 states, North Carolina is relatively free. JOHN HOOD, Chairman of the John Locke Foundation. Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200