Up & Coming Weekly

June 19, 2018

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 JUNE 20-26, 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 SPORTS EDITOR Earl Vaughan Jr. EarlUCWSports@gmail.com REPORTERS Charles Bosworth, Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Elizabeth Long art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Martin, Pitt Dickey, Margaret Dickson, John Hood, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Jason Brady, Lauren Vanderveen, Matthew Skipper, Shane Wilson 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. ©2018 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Cover art created with artwork by: Walter, dfbphotos, Alvin Trusty, David Flores and Cliff on flickr. Various ads with art graphics designed with elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. WIDU radio personality and Fayetteville Observer columnist Troy Williams and I have journalistically crossed swords several times when it comes to perspectives on issues concerning the Fayetteville/ Cumberland County community. is is not a bad thing. I respect Wil- liams and consider what we do the pure essence of free expression. e free press accentuates the American privilege of free speech. Williams' article in last Saturday's Fayetteville Observer, titled "Council does the right thing with Culliton pick," was perceptive in identifying and acknowledging those people who want to use local government for their personal enrichment and political gain. Williams has put the Cumberland County Democratic Party and Fayetteville City Council on notice that identity politics comes up short on substance when talent, qualifi- cations and capabilities are ignored. e city voted 6-3 to replace District 2 Councilman Tyrone Williams, who resigned after the controversy relating to him requesting $15,000 from a downtown contractor, with Cumberland County Re- publican Dan Culliton, a white man, over Democrat Patricia Bradley. Bradley is an African-American woman currently em- ployed by Fayetteville State University. She previously served as assistant city attorney and was assigned to the Fayetteville Police Department during the city's "driving while black" racial profiling controversy. Bradley was no doubt the darling of local Cumberland County Democrats. Despite an aggressive Democratic campaign and political pressure from some of the sitting council members, common sense won out. Despite the pressure and a barrage of criticism from local Democrats, Council- woman Tisha Waddell and senior council member Bill Crisp held their ground and stood on principle, joining their council contemporaries in voting for what was in the best interest of District 2 and the entire Fayetteville community. For this, they should be applauded and admired. To quote Williams' Observer article, "common sense and decency prevailed." He said something else in his article that struck a sensitive but relevant note with me. He wrote, "Without a doubt, a good government ought to be colorblind." at statement reminded me of some- thing William T. Brown once said. Brown was a Fayetteville educator and principal during the years of desegregation in the schools and later a trustee at Fayetteville State University. In a discussion with Brown about the need to encourage and promote greater racial harmony within our community, I suggested that people needed to be more open, more tolerant and colorblind. Brown smiled as he cor- rected me: "Not colorblind, Bill; people need to be color intelligent." His point was that we always want to recognize and respect nationality and diver- sity, but character is what defines a person – and everyone needs to recognize this. Intelligence and character are what made Brown an exceptional educational icon and community leader. He was principal of E.E. Smith High School the first year that white students began attending historically black high schools in Cumberland County. To Brown's way of thinking, intelligence, common sense, hard work and achieve- ment were the keys to success. My conver- sation with him was more than two decades ago, and I have never forgotten those words. Entitlement and identity politics have put our city and county commu- nities in peril, and it needs to stop. Local Democrats, many in the black community, are angry and disgusted with Tisha Waddell and Bill Crisp because Waddell and Crisp are independent thinkers with principles and integrity. ey refused to be in- timidated or bought off or have their core values compromised. e recent 6-3 vote that chose Culliton over Bradley was a mandate and somewhat of a godsend at the same time. Bradley, after Culliton's appointment, referred to Fayetteville City Council as "a den of wolves and thieves" in a Facebook post. Really? is begs the questions: What was the real in- tention and motivation for getting Bradley elected? And, who is masterminding this league of helpless and hapless lemmings? It will be apparent soon. Honesty and integrity will win out when initiatives like this run out of strategy or logic or both. One thing is for sure, the 6-3 vote of the council for Dan Culliton has sent a resounding message. More and more people are beginning to connect the dots. Once the dots are connected, the only message that will be tolerated and ac- ceptable to the citizens of Fayetteville will be the one that reads: "Fayetteville First!" Now, that's color intelligent! ank you, W.T. Brown. anks for reading Up & Coming Weekly. The spirit of W.T. Brown by BILL BOWMAN Entitlement and identity politics have put our city and county communities in peril, and it needs to stop. HIGH 98 HIGH 93 JUNE 21 JUNE 22 JUNE 23 JUNE 24 JUNE 25 JUNE 26 PM Thunderstorms Thunderstorms Scattered Thunderstorms Mostly Sunny PM Thunderstorms PM Thunderstorms LOW 73 LOW 76 LOW 76 LOW 73 LOW 75 LOW 75 HIGH 97 HIGH 91 HIGH 97 HIGH 91 BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COMMENTS? BILL@upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200.

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