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.
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4 UCW SEPTEMBER 30-OCTOBER 6, 2020 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM KARL MERRITT, COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. (910) 484-6200. STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Stephanie Crider editor@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR April Olsen april@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Dylan Hooker art@upandcomingweekly.com EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Keyuri Perab REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING ASSOCIATES 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, 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 Publisher Bill Bowman yields his space this week to former Up & Coming Weekly contributor Karl Merritt. is article first appeared at www.karlmerrit. com. I am watching with sadness, but with a higher level of hope, as the wheels of government churn to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. My sadness regarding the general state of our country is not new, but this higher level of hope for America is a rare experience for me in the context of the past few years. I suppose my hope comes from the fact that Republicans in the Senate have apparently awakened to the truth of something former President Obama said to a group of them years ago. In a meeting with Republican Congressional leaders during 2009, then President Barack Obama said to them, "Elections have conse- quences and at the end of the day, I won." is was a time when Democrats had a majority in the House and Senate. en came 2016 and a Supreme Court vacancy during the last year of Obama's second and final term. Republicans held the major- ity in the Senate. President Obama nominated Merrick Garland. Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader (Rep), said there would not be a vote on a nominee until the next president was in office. Democrats were outraged. Trump won the 2016 presidential election, nominated Neil Gorsuch, and he was confirmed by the Senate that still had a Republican majority. Now comes the current vacancy and McConnell says when President Trump submits a nominee, there will be a vote prior to the 2021 inauguration. Democrats are outraged again because they say this is hypocrisy on the part of Republicans. As of 25 September, it appears Republicans have the votes to confirm a person nominated by Trump. Democrats are making all kinds of threats as to what they will do if this nomination goes forward. ese threats are being made even though Trump has a constitutional right and responsibility to put forth a nominee. One threat is to impeach Trump again and, by so doing, slow the confirmation of a justice. Beyond that, they are threatening to, if they win the presidency, House and Senate, add seats to the Supreme Court (making it more political); ending the filibuster (requires 60 votes to stop debate on some issues) in the Senate; making the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico states because they are very heavily Democratic areas. As I finish this post, several Democrats are backing away from some items in this threat package and moving to talking about how health care and some other issues, by Democratic priorities, would be adversely impacted by a Trump nominated justice. In the face of these threats, I would expect Republicans to "roll-over" and do as the Democrats say. Apparently, enough Senate Republicans recognize that elections have consequences and they won. Beyond that, they understand that if Trump loses and Biden gets to nomi- nate the Ginsburg replace- ment, it will be a liberal who believes he or she gets to make laws according to their views rather than simply interpret- ing the Constitution and laws legitimately passed by legisla- tive bodies. Forthrightly examining the facts and adjusting course is not hypocrisy. In this case, that means looking at the destruction brought on America by liberal justices making laws instead of in- terpreting laws that have been, by proper procedure, put in place. Be advised, there are at least two Republican senators who apparently do not understand this argument that says there are times when one must stand up and do what is right for the country. ey are Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. ese two senators hold that the next president should make the nomination. Under pressure from Democrats, I expected this kind of response from more Republi- can Senators. So far, surprise-surprise. Here is a closing question: Who out there believes that if Democrats were faced with the opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court justice under the conditions now faced by Republicans, that Democrats would leave the selection to the next president? Obama spoke a great truth by KARL MERRITT HIGH LOW HIGH HIGH HIGH HIGH LOW LOW OCT 5 OCT 4 OCT 02 OCT 6 OCT 01 THURSDAY FRIDAY SUNDAY MONDAY HIGH LOW LOW TUESDAY LOW Showers OCT 03 SATURDAY Partly Cloudy Sunny Sunny Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny Meeting with Republicans in 2009, then President Barack Obama said "Elections have consequences and at the end of the day, I won."