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/1443850
4 UCW JANUARY 19 - JANUARY 25, 2022 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR Emily Sussman editor@upandcomingweekly.com ASSISTANT EDITOR Hannah Lee assistanteditor@upandcomingweekly. com PRODUCTION MANAGER/ GRAPHIC DESIGNER Dylan Hooker art@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITERS Elaina J. Martin, Alyson Hansen MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Margaret Dickson, Nadia Minniti 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 JAN 20 FRI JAN 21 SAT JAN 22 SUN JAN 23 MON JAN 24 TUE JAN 25 51 31 41 24 43 30 47 26 45 24 45 23 Showers Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy AM Snow Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny Association of Community Publishers "Doomsday for democracy." "Rubber stamp of dictatorship." "Arrogance of power." ese are how politicians have described ending the Senate's filibuster in recent years. Another leader said, "If the major- ity chooses to end the filibuster, if they choose to change the rules and put an end to Democratic debate, then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse." ose quotes came not from Republicans, but from Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Like a majority of Americans, all three Democratic leaders once supported main- taining the long-standing filibuster as a check and balance that ensures the voices of millions of Americans are represented. In fact, in 2020 alone, Democrats used the filibuster 327 times to block Republicans. Unfortunately, it appears now-President Joe Biden and Democratic leadership have changed their tune. Last week, President Biden and Senator Schumer pushed to end the filibuster in order to pass more of their radical agenda, beginning with a federal takeover of elections. eir so-called voting rights bill would scrap any state voter ID laws, give more power to the IRS, and direct billions of your tax dollars to political campaigns. Under the proposal, Chuck Schumer would receive up to $44.1 million for his reelection, while Nancy Pelosi would receive up to $22.7 million. While President Biden campaigned on being a moderate and unifying the coun- try, in Atlanta last week, the President said anyone who disagrees with the legislation was comparable to segregationists George Wallace and Bull Connor. is rhetoric is divisive and extremely shameful. I have long supported reforming our vot- ing laws to strengthen the integrity of our elections. However, Washington Democrats have created a false narrative to justify a fed- eral election takeover that strips rights from states and gives politicians more power. I voted against this bill in the House and will continue to oppose it. Yet instead of changing the rules and pushing their radical agenda, the President, Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi should be focused on the pressing issues mounting in our nation. COVID cases are at an all-time high. Mi- grants and deadly fentanyl illegally crossing our southern border are at record levels. December recorded the worst jobs numbers of Biden's presidency. And just last week, inflation reached its highest rate in 40 years. I am sure you are feeling the effects of this at the gas pump, grocery store and in your utility bills. is inflation also means wages are not keeping up with the increased demand. According to the New York Times, just 17% of workers say their pay has kept pace with inflation. ere is a crisis in our economy, at our border, and in our communities dealing with increased crime and the pandemic. Washington Democrats ignored these is- sues and spent December focused on their $4 trillion Build Back Broke agenda which stalled. Now they risk spending January focused on nationalizing elections and once again ignoring our challenges. is is unacceptable and why I am fo- cused on the issues impacting you and your family every day. We must keep our schools open. We need to slow government spend- ing and get Americans back to work. It's time to secure our border once and for all. And we need common sense solutions to end the pandemic that respect science and freedom. Ultimately, we must work toward expand- ing opportunities and prosperity in our nation. While addressing these issues, this [past] weekend we also commemorated the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. His life's work and guiding principles continue to impact our nation and inspire all those seeking freedom and justice. As we confront the challenges facing our nation, I hope we can all recall his words and strive to create a better nation for every American. We must work toward expanding opportunities, prosperity by REP. RICHARD HUDSON Photo courtesy of Pexels. REP. RICHARD HUDSON, R-N.C. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200.