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/1241838
4 UCW APRIL 29-MAY 5, 2020 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Stephanie Crider editor@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR Jenna Shackelford jenna@upandcomingweekly.com HOPE MILLS AND SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR Earl Vaughan Jr. EarlUCWSports@gmail.com REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Elizabeth Baker art@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING ASSOCIATES Linda McAlister Brown and Melanie Twine linda@upandcomingweekly.com melanie@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING COORDINATOR FOR WOMEN'S VIEW AND FAYETTEVILLE LADIES POWER LUNCH Caroline Schafer caroline@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, Avery Powers, Crissy Neville ––––––––––– 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 publisher. 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. © 2020 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. PUBLISHER'S PEN Is it time to reopen Amercia? is week, Publisher Bill Bowman yields his space to our contributing writer, Jim Jones, to discuss just that. Did Bernie Sanders win? He ran on a platform for a socialist society. Webster defines socialism as "Any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and admin- istration of the means of production and distribution of goods." Although Sanders has dropped from the race, he did influence a majority of our tra- ditional thinking. Then just like that, here comes COVID-19, which brought a socialist society in the name of public safety. March 13, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in re- sponse to the COVID-19 outbreak. e origin of the order was to have hospi- tals and medical facilities surge capac- ity and capabilities and take additional measures needed to contain and combat the virus. We are living in the Dark Ages with the lights on. Since that declaration, the six-foot "safe zone" has been forcefully de- fended as the cure — at the cost of civil liberties and almost every constitutional right we are supposed to have — by power- hungry politicians. Government leaders and agencies have decided who can go where? Whose business can open? Who can work and who gets government assistance? Who can get health care? Who can get a stimulus check? Whose business is deemed blessed, I mean essential, to be operated with restricted hours and operational processes. We are essentially making them government-sponsored monopolies. All of this leaves the rest of the people to juggle work, kids, bills and rents and find food, find money and keep something called our sanity. Our society is moving an inch a month while COVID-19 spreads at the speed of a sneeze, a cough or a touch. In the name of "public safety," we deal with isolation, self-diagnosis, long lines, food and toilet paper shortages and an unemploy- ment crisis. All of these factors increase crime, violence, suicide, drug use and mental health crisis rates. All of these things are enforceable by force. Our leaders have taken advantage of us and this crisis for their agendas. e U.S. Congress loaded extra spending for their pet projects in the COVID-19 CARES Relief Bill while most small businesses did not get any relief. Facebook is pulling down rallies as "safety concerns." In concert with the government, Apple and Google have agreed to work together to build contract-tracing technology into their phones that will work with both platforms. In May, they will roll out updates to our phones that will send location data to servers and cross- reference your location with someone who has COVID-19. Of course, they said, all of this information will be protected, and you will never get another spam email again. Why are American's becoming impatient? America was founded by rebels. It is in our DNA. We come from forefathers who left Europe to find a new land to worship and prosper. We are the country that threw down with the king of England over a tax on tea. We howl, "Give me liberty or give me death." Except COVID-19. We are a nation of crazy people who swim with sharks, pet bears, land on the moon and can land a plane on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the night. We are the home of the brave! If you are alive, you are here because it is your time to be alive. In Bill Bryson's book, "A Short History of Nearly Everything," he said, "Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life's quest of deliver- ing a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result — eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly — in you." Americans seem to believe that we are immortal. It is true. We are, but for a minimal time. Whether we stay quarantined for an- other day or years, we have not faced the fact that we will either get this virus or we will not. Not until a vaccine is discovered. Anything short of that is just ideas. We have been scared to death that everyone is going to die or cause everyone to die. is is just silliness. Yes, people have died and that is sad. People die every day. Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in America. Not one person has recommended that you cut your heart out to avoid your own heart from attacking you. Not one! As much as we think we own our life, we do not. If a thug can walk up to you and kill you, your body is not yours. Let's face it ; you can die from a mosquito bite. ere are 8,000 ways a human can die. We only get one of them. Our life's Earth-clock started ticking the moment we took our first breath. Whether we think we deserve something or not, that is the way it is. When it hap- pens to someone we love, we only have our beliefs and experi- ences to hold on too. is virus is getting passed around, and it appears that everyone's body is affected and reacts differently. Knowingly or unknowingly. With each declaration and law, those orders are backed by force with a person with a gun. Is that socialism or commu- nism? e Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte, has told his country that "the police will shoot you dead for defying stay- at-home orders." Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya police have killed more people enforcing stay-at-home orders than the coronavirus has killed in their country. e virus will continue to spread until we build our immu- nity or die. Our best course of action to bring America back to a thriving and free country is to let individuals be individuals. Let them start to rebuild their businesses, jobs, careers and lives. Let us learn to mourn the dead, care for the sick and move for- ward with our lives. You have the power to choose to rejoice in life or live in fear. How you live should be your choice. At least I still believe that. Did Bernie Sanders win? by JIM JONES Are social distancing and stay-at-home orders protecting us and keeping us safe? Are the orders bringing the economy to its knees? Or are they trampling on our Constitutional rights as free citizens? Is it time to reopen America, or is it too soon? JIM JONES, Contributing Writer. Comments? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910- 484-6200.