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/1349017
4 UCW MARCH 10-16, 2021 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR April Olsen editor@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Dylan Hooker art@upandcomingweekly.com EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Keyuri Parab REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Margaret Dickson, Pitt Dickey, D.G. Martin, John Hood, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Prudence Mainor, Crissy Neville COVER PHOTOS courtesy of Kaleo Supports. ––––––––––– 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 Anonymous letters carry no credibility by BILL BOWMAN 82 64 82 83 79 82 63 64 83 66 64 65 THU MAR 11 FRI MAR 12 SAT MAR 13 SUN MAR 14 MON MAR 15 TUE MAR 16 59 49 55 29 51 30 55 35 59 39 60 38 PM Showers Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Cloudy Association of Community Publishers Over 16,000 residents live in the Town of Hope Mills. It's one of the friendliest and fastest-growing communities in North Carolina. Unfortunately, there are about a dozen residents who find it ex- tremely difficult to get comfortable with the existing and competent Hope Mills leadership and the progress the community has made during the past decade. ese malcontents choose not to speak up in public with innovative ideas or constructive criticism. ey prefer to operate subversively by lurking in the shadows and taking guerilla style potshots at the current leadership. It has been a strategy that has proved flawed and ineffective, forc- ing them to resort to a more direct and sinister tactic — character as- sassination via trumped-up con- spiracy theories. A few weeks ago, the U.S. Postal Service delivered a letter to my office without a return address or signature. As many as five of these anonymous letters were circulated in Cumberland County, all of which made false, derogatory and dispar- aging claims and accusations about unsuspecting citizens in Hope Mills leadership positions. All were with- out substantiation or merit. ese letters were written pur- posely to cast aspersions, ruin their reputations, rob them of their livelihoods and embarrass them publicly. No doubt this Dirty Dozen of mean, ruthless, hateful, self-serving malcontents are extremely des- perate to destroy what they can't control. Well, here's my message to this cabal: 1. We know who you are! Your letters may be anonymous, but you are not. e content and context of each piece of correspondence point directly to its authors, who are the same mean-spirited ugly trolls that dominate the Hope Mills social me- dia scene with fake news. 2. Unsubstantiated and unsigned letters of this nature carry no cred- ibility. Only cowards and criminals use this method of intimidation. 3. Responsible, respectable and ethical people, businesses, organi- zations and institutions will con- tinue to reject this tactic, exposing it as the ruse it is. 4. is unethical tactic of utiliz- ing anonymous conspiracy letters to defame people has the opposite effect. Someone not willing to sign their name to a document means they cannot own up to its content. is is why we have whistlerblower laws— to protect the innocent from retaliation for coming forward with a truth or injustice. ese hostile and vile anonymous attacks on innocent and unsuspect- ing citizens can only be viewed as "desperate people, doing desperate things." ey will never, I repeat, never, be in leadership positions because their character will not allow it. e Town of Hope Mills has excel- lent leadership, and the town is growing and prospering. e Dirty Dozen are on the out- side looking in, and that's where they will stay. anks for reading Up & Coming Weekly. BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COM- MENTS? BILL@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200. Anonymous letters were recently circulated in Cumberland County to defame Hope Mills lead- ership. Without merit, these letters only serve to prove the unethical and cowardly tactics used by those who deal only in false whisper campaigns and social media vitriol.