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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THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET Featherweight Culture by MARGARET DICKSON Years ago, my grandmother telephoned to tell me how worried she was about my around Cumberland County. mother's serious and ultimately fatal illness, my uncle's general physical condition, and What the North Carolina General Assembly is doing with education funding and "poor Carol and Bob." healthcare matters. Now that our state ranks 48th in the nation in teacher pay, no As she spoke, I understood and agreed about my mother and my uncle, but I one should be surprised when the best and brightest of our teachers move to other wracked my young 20-something brain to come up with whom "Carol and Bob" states, not because they do not like it here but because they can no longer afford to live might be. My grandmother's new neighbors? Cousins I met once when I was 6? A here. Now that North Carolina has decided not to expand Medicaid coverage, no one figment of my grandmother's 85-year-old imagination? should be surprised when disadvantaged people do not seek medical care until they are Turns out they were none of the above. Carol and Bob were characters on my very sick and then show up at local emergency rooms, leaving local taxpayers with bills grandmother's favorite soap opera, and they were experiencing marital woes. Gobbie, for medical care delivered the most expensive way on God's green earth. always a sweetheart, was concerned about them. So why are we more interested in the love lives and health of movie stars, the I still smile when I recall that little story, because I adored my grandmother and if inevitable gaffes of politicians and alien invasions than in people and events that really relating to television characters helped her pass her mostly house-bound days, that was do affect our own lives? just fine with me. We live in a complex, multi-layered world and it is complicated Nowadays, I also see it as my first — if then unrecognized indeed. Understanding Congressional or legislative actions and — clue that our American culture was on the way to an why something that occurs on the other side of the world is overwhelming preoccupation with people, events, ideas and important is hard work. mass media coverage that are, at best, trivial and, at worst, Understanding requires ongoing attention so that we get not meaningless. only what is happening but why it is happening. Understanding Who, for example, really cares whether a young actress with drug means we have to stay engaged and think about the world around issues violates her parole and spends a few nights in a California us. It is the opposite of simply taking in factoids that exist but have county jail? Does that make any difference in your life? It is a fine no impact on us. thing that hosts of morning television and daytime talks shows are In fairness, this is a chicken-and-egg situation. We gravitate recovering from their illnesses and/or injuries, but does this have any We gravitate toward the trivial because it is toward the trivial because it is easier than the substantial and media personal meaning to you? easier than the substantial and media outlets outlets give us more of it because that is how they get readers and Do you actually care about which "celebrities" — and I have no give us more of it because that is how they viewers. definition of what that word means and who qualifies to be one — It is also a downward spiral for our cultural and civic life as long get readers and viewers. are smooching with whom, having babies with whom or otherwise as Americans choose easy and empty information over working socializing with each other on television and in grocery-store to understand what forces and which individuals are shaping our magazines? Does a murder trial, no matter how sensational in some other part of the collective lives as communities, states and a nation. nation or world impact your life in any way? Are Michelle Obama's newly clipped We can do both. bangs affecting your life? My mother and grandmother stressed moderation in all things, and they put fresh I doubt it. foods on our table. Chips, sweets and processed foods were occasional treats, but the So what news — or do we now use the term media stories — really matter? most of our food was healthy and substantial. The sequestration, the across the board budget cuts by a Congress whose members Fluffy news stories can be entertaining, especially when balanced with more could not cooperate with each other enough to stop it, does matter. It matters meaningful information, but I think earlier generations would see especially in a military community like ours, because the Department of Defense is our overwhelming preoccupation with all things trivial as the mental taking about 40 percent of those cuts. That means that our neighbors — people we equivalent of eating only junk food. MARGARET DICKSON, Conwork with, attend church with, whose children sit next to ours in classrooms — are I also think they would be very worried tributing Writer, COMMENTS? going to be furloughed. It means less money spent in our community on day care, in about the consequences. Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. restaurants, at movie theaters, on cars and that has real meaning to all of us in and APRIL 7-13, 2010 y y's n ing Weekl Up & Com VOLUME 15 ISSUE 14 Now e! n Onli WLIXOFRP OHEHDX \HWWHYLO ZZZID Cumberland County Library ary Presents The Big Read d 201 2010 m com y.com comingweekl www.upand Fa ayet Fa teville Bea You re You're A G Good an C Charlie B Brown at FSU PROUDLY SPON SORED BY HEY! THIS PAPER ide d Poc et Gu FUN FAMILY EDUC ATIONAL RESOURCE *HSSF REE l Focus on D d UP Up VOL. 10 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM OF CUMBERLAND & HOKE CO BELONGS TO: AY 2010 HAPPY MOTHER 'S DAY! CAMP GUIDE INS IDE! 3 9LHZVUZ [V THYRL[ HUK HK]LY[PZL `V\Y I\ZPULZZ ^P[O \Z Pocket Guide 5V^ VUSPUL! ^^^\WHUKJVTPUN^LLRS`JVT MARCH 13-19, 2013 UCW 5