Up & Coming Weekly

September 21, 2021

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 22-28, 2021 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Janice Burton OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR April Olsen editor@upandcomingweekly.com PRODUCTION MANAGER/ GRAPHIC DESIGNER Dylan Hooker art@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITER Elaina J. Martin REPORTER Jeff Thompson 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, Crissy Neville COVER Design by Dylan Hooker –––––––––––- 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 Army Airfield, 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 82 64 82 83 79 82 63 64 83 66 64 65 THU SEP 23 FRI SEP 24 SAT SEP 25 SUN SEP 26 MON SEP 27 TUE SEP 28 79 54 79 52 81 53 83 56 80 56 83 58 Scattered Thunderstorms Sunny Sunny Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny Association of Community Publishers Well, who would have ever thought the U.S. Congress would take on the task of trying to rewrite history, or maybe I should say erase history. Yes, it's distressing to most Americans, but that doesn't seem to matter to the woke minority. Crazy as it may seem, we are living in a nation of gross "hypocrisy." Yes, our proud and mighty Fort Bragg, along with many other military installations that bear the names of Confederate heroes, has been mandat- ed by Congress to be renamed. Look it up. e National Defense Authorization Act. Now they are authorizing and organiz- ing virtual town meetings, asking the gen- eral public to comment, and making them feel that they are actually participating in the process of renaming the traditional and proud home of the 82nd Airborne Division and the U.S. Army's Special Operations Command. Again, the hypoc- risy of this arrogant woke style of national thinking is frustrating and distressing to most Americans. at is if they are thinking at all. How do you declare a word like Confederacy taboo, socially unac- ceptable and obscene, not unlike the N-word or the C-word? en we have to ask ourselves: Where does this end? Indeed, not just with military bases. ere are literally thousands of institu- tions, schools, roads, businesses and organizations named after some aspect of the Confederacy. Here in our commu- nity of Fayetteville, Murchison Road was named in honor of a local wealthy planta- tion owner, Duncan Murchison. He not only owned slaves but had three sons that served in the Civil War. It gets better: Two of the Murchison boys, John R. and Ken- neth, were commissioned officers in the Confederate Army. So, what we have here is a "twofer." e Murchison's were both slave owners and Confederate soldiers. So, as the NDAA mandate dictates, will they embrace Fayetteville's historical past or strip our community of the Murchison name that has meant so much to so many in our community and rename Murchison Road? I think not. And, I hope not. is newspaper is on the record ad- vocating with Grilley Mitchell. Mitchell is a U.S. Army veteran, VFW member, program coordinator for ALMS House in Hope Mills, and candidate for the Hope Mills Board of Commissioners. Mitch- ell is a voice of reason representing the Cumberland County Veterans Council. ey put forth their common sense rec- ommendation: e installation should be renamed after Edward Bragg, Braxton Bragg's cousin, a Union officer in the Civil War. He put forth this recommendation on behalf of the CCVC, stating, "at's the decision that we also believe that belongs to the men and women that have served this nation, as well as their family mem- bers because they paid the price to have that choice to make that decision." ere are numerous common sense reasons that Fort Bragg (and Murchison Road) should remain Fort Bragg. Trying to change history is futile. And, trying to change history selectively is divisive and destruc- tive to our nation. Again, when and where does the canceled culture and hypocrisy end? When will America again start fo- cusing on the real issues facing our country? It's idiocy to con- centrate on changing streets signs when Americans are abandoned and being slain in Afghanistan. Why mandate vaccines and threaten American citizens with fines and punishment when 40 thousand illegal and unvaccinated immigrants cross into the U.S. every week? Hypocrisy and setting priorities — two of America's biggest chal- lenges. ank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly. BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COM- MENTS? BILL@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200. What do these two soldiers have in common? Fort Bragg by any other name should be Fort Bragg by BILL BOWMAN Two of the Murchison boys, John R. and Kenneth, were commissioned officers in the Confederate Army. So, what we have here is a "twofer." e Murchison's were both slave owners and Confederate soldiers.

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