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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The Charlotte Hornets — and an Enemy General Everywhere by D.G. MARTIN brought a real hornets' nest to school, she read an extra chapter that day after she What enemy general who fought in North Carolina is most memorialized here? Here is a hint. The Charlotte pro basketball team is taking back the Hornets name. proudly displayed the nest on the classroom wall and gave us a short lecture on our proud heritage. One reason they are taking back that name is because the old Charlotte Hornets The British commander who came up with "damned hornet's sports gear is still selling all over the world. It is in fact one of the nest of rebellion" designation was Lord Cornwallis, who is my most popular NBA brands long after original owner George Shinn nominee for most memorialized enemy general. moved the team to New Orleans. Why has this defunct brand In 1780, after occupying Charlotte and Hillsborough, he fought been so popular? At the beginning the Charlotte Hornets had an a critical battle at Guilford Court House, and then marched to appealing story. It was North Carolina's first major league sports Wilmington to lick his wounds and prepare for the march to team, with amazing attendance and plucky teams that played Yorktown, where he surrendered in 1781. above their potential. But that was in the past. Folks in Chapel Hill Cornwallis traveled across more of North Carolina than many of argue that their own Alexander Julian's colors and design of the us who have lived in the state for years. uniforms are the secret of their continuing popularity. Up in Hillsborough, they remember Cornwallis's brief occupaI like to think that the Hornet name itself had a lot to do with it, tion in their town's histories, and there is a residential community in part, because it was an insect. Such little creatures, even those named Cornwallis Hills. with big stingers, are rarely used for athletic teams, although some There is Cornwallis Avenue in Gastonia; Cornwallis Streets college teams like the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets have big fan in Garner, Pittsboro and Winston Salem; Cornwallis Roads followings. But Charlotte was the first modern major league pro in Riegelwood and Rose Hill; Cornwallis Lane in Charlotte; British commander, Lord Cornwallis team with a stinging insect mascot, and it set the team apart. Cornwallis Drives in Mocksville and Greensboro; and of course, History probably played the most important role in the attach- referred to Charlotte as a "damned hornet's nest of rebellion" —hence the the long Cornwallis Road that runs from just north of Chapel ment the local community holds to the Hornets name. Hill, across Durham and then through the Research Triangle Here is where the hint about the foreign general comes in. Charlotte hornets. Park. Surely some of the thousands of commuters who see his name During the American Revolution, British troops occupied the every day wonder why we so prominently honor a general whose invasion caused North village of Charlotte for a short time. The patriot militia and general population Carolinians such great suffering. harassed the occupiers so effectively that the British commander tagged Charlotte Perhaps it is to remember the strong resistance that General Cornwallis and the surrounding area "a damned hornet's nest of rebellion." encountered from patriotic North Carolinians across our state. Ever since, Mecklenburg people have been proud to be called hornets and have Or maybe it's just in gratitude for giving us that Hornets nicktheir county identified as a hornets' nest. Check the seals, flags and symbols of Charlotte and Mecklenburg and you will usually find a hornets' nest somewhere in name, one that after 225 years, is still worth fighting D.G. MARTIN, OHost of UNC-TV's Bookthe design. Miss Leticia Currie, our wonderful teacher at Davidson Junior High, watch, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? for. loved local history. Every day she read a chapter of a favorite book. If a student Editor@upancomingweekly.com. Gulf of Mexico Restoration From the Editors of Environmental Magazine the Gulf ecosystem." Gulf dolphins aren't the only ones suffering. NWF found that more than 1,700 sea turtles were stranded in coastal areas of the Gulf between May 2010 and November 2012 — almost three times the pre-spill rate for the animals. When an undersea oil well blew out 50 miles off Researchers have also detected changes in the the Louisiana coast on April 20, 2010 and caused cellular function of Gulf killifish, a common bait fish an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig at the base of the food chain. And a coral colony above it (killing 11 workers), no one knew that an seven miles from the offending wellhead struggles even bigger disaster was yet to come. Over the next due to oil and dispersants compromising its ability to three months, 4.9 million gallons of crude poured into rebuild itself. the water before BP could get the wellhead capped to "The oil disaster highlighted the gaps in our stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. understanding of the Gulf of Mexico," says Florida According to BP, which has already spent $14 State University oceanographer Ian MacDonald. billion on clean-up and restoration, the Gulf "What frustrates me is how little has changed over is returning to baseline conditions prior to the the past three years. In many cases, funding for disaster. "No company has done more, faster to critical research has even been even been cut, limiting respond to an industrial accident than BP did in our understanding of the disaster's impacts." response to the Deepwater Horizon accident in MacDonald and others are optimistic that a 2010," reports the company. federal court will find BP accountable for further But not everybody sees the situation that way. Many Many environmentalists are concerned that, while BP has done a damages in a civil trial now underway. NWF says environmentalists are concerned that, while BP has thorough job removing visible oil from the water column and surface, little that substantially more money is needed to carry done a thorough job removing visible oil from the has been done to repair damage to marine life and ecosystems. out restoration efforts vital to the biological and water column and surface, little has been done to economic stability of the Gulf region. "Despite repair damage to marine life and ecosystems. the public relations blitz by BP, this spill is not "Three years after the initial explosion, the impacts over," says NWF's David Muth. "Justice will only be served when BP and its coof the disaster continue to unfold," says Doug Inkley, senior scientist at the National defendants pay to restore the wildlife and habitats of the Mississippi River Delta Wildlife Federation (NWF). A recent report by the group found that the three-year-old and the Gulf of Mexico." spill is still having a serious negative effect on wildlife populations in the Gulf. For one, CONTACTS: BP Gulf of Mexico Restoration, www.bp.com/sectionbodycopy.do?c dolphin deaths in the region have remained above average every single month since the ategoryId=47&contentId=7081352; NWF, www.nwf.org. disaster. In the first two months of 2013, infant dolphins were found dead at six times EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered prespill average rates. Says Inkley: "These ongoing deaths — particularly in an apex trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). predator like the dolphin — are a strong indication that there is something amiss with Dear EarthTalk: The three-year anniversary of the 2010 BP oil spill just passed. What do green groups think of the progress since in restoring the region? — Mary Johannson, New York, NY WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM JUNE 5-11, 2013 UCW 17