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 JANUARY 24-30, 2018 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, Erica Walls, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Paul Hall, Lauren Vanderveen 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 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 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/Various ads with art graphics designed with various elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COMMENTS? BILL@upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. Focus on the positive – who cares who gets the credit? by BILL BOWMAN America is acting badly. Never in my lifetime have I experienced such an atmosphere of intolerance, mean- ness and hate from my fellow Americans. What ever happened to "love thy neigh- bor"? Today, it seems like we hate just for the sake of hating. Instead of investing our time, money and resources in positive aspects of our American way of life, we have gravitated to degrading, debasing and try- ing to obliterate any person, organization or policy with which we disagree. is hostility and anger are costing us greatly in what we cherish most: joy, contentment and the pleasures of experienc- ing America's unique way of life. I place much of the blame for this on the news media and the new wave of journalists reaching for celebrity status as they desperately try to fill the story gaps cre- ated by a 24-hour news cycle. Equally at fault is the irresponsible and reckless use of social media. Both are making a mockery of the news, politics and the American dream. Much of this vile and mean-spirited sen- timent is coming directly from our elected officials in Washington, D.C. All of them. is kind of behavior must stop. is wholesale hatred preoccupies us, distracts us and robs us of enjoying and appreciating the successes, positive events and accomplish- ments happening in our country every day. Let's look back at 2017, and perhaps we can get a peek at what we may have to look forward to in 2018 if we are not distracted by hate. Ignore whether you like or dislike President Trump, and set aside your po- litical affiliations and thoughts about the recent government shutdown. Don't think about fake news, crazy tweets and the wild, wild west of social media. Disregard the crazy antics of characters like Lindsey Gra- ham, Chuck Schumer, Steve Bannon and Nancy Pelosi and anything, true or false, in Michael Wolf 's book "Fire and Fury." Let's look at the past year. ese 2017 events, regardless of your personal, social or political affiliations, will affect all of us and continue to impact our country and the world for years to come, so why not enjoy them – regardless of who was or was not responsible for their existence? e U.S. economy perked up by about 3 per- cent. is rate hasn't been achieved in years. e Dow Jones is up over 26,000 points with stock indexes at all-time highs. is is important. Why? Con- sider that 50 percent of Americans have stocks through their workplace 401(k) plans and pensions. U.S. unemploy- ment is at historic lows, hovering at about 4.1 percent. e U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that African-American unemployment fell to 6.8 percent – the lowest level in four decades. We are finally winning the battle against ISIS. Finally! Syria, for the time being, has stopped killing its people. North Korea and South Korea are begin- ning to talk with one another and will march together in the upcoming Olympics. Iran has been called out by other Muslim nations as an exporter of terrorism. Democra- cy is finally taking hold there, causing dissent toward its autocratic rule. Is this an indication that the world is becoming a safer place? A tax reform bill was initiated, meaning lower taxes will be paid by most Ameri- cans. e tax reform policies in place will result in many large corporations, like Apple, bringing manufacturing and jobs back to the U.S. Additionally, U.S. compa- nies, large and small, will expand, create more jobs and raise salaries. In 2017, according to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, small businesses were doing better than ever, and confidence in small business has reached a record high. ese are only a few examples of the good things happening that affect our country. Who cares who was responsible for these achievements? Everyone should be able to enjoy them. It's OK if you do not like or support a person, party, policy or even the presidency, but as civilized human beings, we should not indulge those who continu- ally generate chaos and disharmony by creating an atmosphere of hate. I hope that 2018 will be the year every- one comes to their senses. I refuse to be a pawn used by any person, organization or political party that only has their preserva- tion and self-interest at heart. It's time we recognize and disavow hypocrisy and let our voices be heard. Let freedom ring! We should hold our American values high, honor our Constitution and always respect the office of the president – regard- less of who is representing the American people. No one wins unless we do these things. Need proof? President Trump's approval ratings are historically lower than any other president after their first year in office. However, he still ranks higher than Congress and the news media. is is nothing to be happy about or proud of. anks for reading Up & Coming Weekly. Correction: At Up & Coming Weekly we make every effort to provide fair, balanced and accurate coverage of local news and events occurring in Fayetteville, Fort Bragg and Cumberland County. is has been a 22-year commitment to our readers. In an article published in last week's edition, our senior reporter, Jeff ompson, mistakenly reported that Fayetteville Police Chief Gina Hawkins was reorganizing three patrol districts into two. is was incorrect. Our apologies to the chief and the fine men and women of the Fayetteville Police Depart- ment. Chief Hawkins is in fact retaining the three patrol districts as they are. HIGH 59 HIGH 55 HIGH 63 HIGH 63 HIGH 55 HIGH 50 JANUARY 25 JANUARY 26 JANUARY 27 JANUARY 28 JANUARY 29 JANUARY 30 Sunny Sunny Cloudy Rain Sunny Sunny LOW 31 LOW 31 LOW 39 LOW 35 LOW 51 LOW 27 Let's look back at 2017, and perhaps we can get a peek at what we may have to look forward to in 2018 if we are not distracted by hate .