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/879539
4 UCW SEPTEMBER 27 - OCTOBER 3, 2017 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM PUBLISHER'S PEN STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/ EDITOR Stephanie Crider editor@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com ASSISTANT EDITOR Leslie Pyo leslie@upandcomingweekly.com SENIOR REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR Earl Vaughan Jr. GRAPHIC DESIGNER Elizabeth Long art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Martin, Pitt Dickey, Margaret Dickson, John Hood, Erinn Crider, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Paul Hall SALES ADMINISTRATOR/ DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com ––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan Street 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 wel- comes 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. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Cover art designed with various elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. Shameful: Politics over People by BILL BOWMAN More and more I hear com- ments from ordinary citizens about how frustrated they are with Washington and our "do nothing" Congress. eir frustration and disappoint- ment are warranted. With Republicans controlling both the House and Senate, their lack of communication, cooperation and progress in advancing major legislative initiatives only amplifies the lack of leadership and vision provided by our nationally elected officials. It also ex- poses their misplaced priori- ties of putting their personal and political agendas above the health and welfare of the Americans they represent. Of course people are frustrated and scared. And because leadership — both good and bad — comes from the top, I'm afraid this kind of selfish and self-centered gov- ernance is having a negative trickle-down effect on North Carolina, our city and our county. Case in point : the serious situation we have in our community and in eastern North Carolina concerning GenX, C8 and other various and potentially harmful pollutants threatening our local drinking water and the health and future of the Cape Fear River. Both the Republicans and Demo- crats are accusing each other of playing politics with these serious issues when they both are. Shameful. This begs the question: When will the needs and concerns of the citizens be addressed? We're talking about drinking water here! We're talking about leadership that is systematically cutting environmental funding and protection and knowingly and willingly creating their own Flint, Michigan, style catastrophe. Water is the lifeblood of human exis- tence, and our General Assembly in Ra- leigh is playing a game of "political got- cha." is politics over people scenario is sad and scary. One pathetic example of this comes with the introduction House Bill 56, which Governor Cooper recently and rightly vetoed. Among other things, HB 56 would appropriate a measly $435,000 to locally research the possible dangers of chemical pollutants like GenX contaminating the Cape Fear River and our drinking water. is would have come in place of the $2.6 million Cooper requested to purchase equipment, hire scientists, chemical experts and profes- sional researchers to pursue testing in the quest of finding out the true cause and source of the contamination in an effort to protect the health and welfare of North Carolina citizens and the future of the Cape Fear River. Protecting our environment, riv- ers and water supply should not be a partisan issue. Another example of North Carolina's politics over people approach is the request to repeal the 2009 ban on plastic bags on the Outer Banks, overruling the objec- tions of local leadership. e Dare County Board of Commissioners, Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce and dozens of area towns and mu- nicipalities wrote letters to protest the repeal resolution, citing many tangible and successful beautifica- tion and environmental outcomes. Why would the politicians so bla- tantly go against the people's wishes to maintain the plastic bag ban? Answer: Politics before people. e North Carolina Retail Merchants As- sociation is a powerful lobbyist and a big donor to those in political of- fice in Raleigh. Why not throw them a bone to keep the money flowing, even if means betraying a trust or know- ingly destroying the environment? I'll close with this: If our North Carolina leadership cannot come together to pro- tect our rivers, wells and drinking water, they are not protecting the people. So, I wouldn't spend too much time being concerned about fracking, coal ash, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, global warming or North Korean missiles. Without clean drinking water, it won't matter. Thanks for reading Up & Coming Weekly. BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COMMENTS? BILL@upandcomingweekly.com. (910) 391-3859. Water is the lifeblood of human existence, and our General Assembly in Raleigh is playing a game of "political gotcha." HIGH 84 LOW 62 HIGH 93 HIGH 79 HIGH 78 HIGH 80 HIGH 82 LOW 65 LOW 56 LOW 57 LOW 59 LOW 61 SEPTEMBER 28 SEPTEMBER 29 SEPTEMBER 30 OCTOBER 1 OCTOBER 2 OCTOBER 3 Mostly Sunny Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Closest Fall weather Yet! Closest Fall weather Yet!