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: https://www.epageflip.net/i/136115
STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Janice Burton editor@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS OFFICER Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR Stephanie Crider stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com ART DIRECTOR Alicia Miller art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Martin, Pitt Dickey, Margaret Dickson, John Hood, Erinn Crider, Karen Poppele, Heather Griffiths DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/ OFFICE COORDINATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Cynthia Deere cynthia@upandcomingweekly.com Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com Kristy Sykes kristy@upandcomingweekly.com Beverly Pone beverlypone@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 welcomes 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. Subscriptions can be purchased for $30 for six months or $60 for 12 months, delivered weekly by first class mail. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. INSIDE Calendar ........................................... 16 Concert Connection ........................ 22 TV ..................................................... 24 Free Wheelin' Feelin' ....................... 26 PUBLISHER'S PEN Is America Getting Punk'd? by JANICE BURTON In 2003, America was introduced to a different kind of television show — Punk'd. The show, a hidden camera practical joke reality television series, first aired on MTV in 2003. It was a meaner, smarter version of Candid Camera and Bloopers and Practical Jokes. In a refreshing twist, the cameras were turned not on the everyday man on the street, but instead on celebrities. In today's vernacular, being "punk'd" refers to someone being a victim of a practical joke. After the string of headlines that have hit the news over the past couple of weeks from the IRS targeting conservative groups to Verizon customers' phone calls being dumped for review by the government to the IRS partying like its 1999 and the EPA targeting conservative non-profits via the Freedom of Information Act, a lot of Americans may feel that they are being punk'd. At least, that's how one of my co-workers explained it to me the other day. My office on Fort Bragg has a pretty diverse group of people working in it. We come from different areas of the United States, are of varying ages and have some differing outlooks on politics and life as a whole. But we are all news savvy and are very aware of what is going on in the world around us. Frequently, world events come up in conversation, and the recent headlines have engendered some discussion and spirited debate. My boss, a native of Kentucky, brought the idea of punk'd into our conversation last week. And after she brought it up, it seemed like the only way to look at what's going on without losing our minds. It has got be a big, cosmic practical joke. Surely there is no way that our government would target individuals. Surely, Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Thursday June 13 Friday June 14 4 JUNE 12-18, 2013 High 83° Low 66° Isolated Thunderstorms MENTS? editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Sunday June 16 Saturday June 15 High 86° Low 68° Mostly Cloudy our freedom of speech and privacy, which at one point was sacrosanct, cannot have been sacrificed to the degree that the government can listen in on our phone conversations without probable cause. Surely, there has to be someone within the IRS who recognized that spending millions of dollars on conferences while many Americans were losing their life savings from unemployment was beyond ridiculous. So the only possible answer is that as a nation, we are getting punk'd, because these kinds of things don't happen in the America that our forefathers fought and died to bring to life. Surely, it's all a joke. That can be the only answer. And then that reality shattered when the news broke that the president was naming Susan Rice as his national security adviser. Rice, who was used by the administration to misinform the nation on the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, is going to become one of the most powerful people in the administration. She will be making decisions that impact the way information is shared and ultimately decisions are made concerning the security of our nation. Is that not the ultimate punk? Ms. Rice is a smart woman. Was she a sacrificial lamb when it came to the Benghazi situation? Probably so. Do a large number of Americans doubt her veracity and her ability to make sound decisions? You bet. That being the case, you can see why many Americans are waiting for the play back from the hidden cameras. The past month has been a series of bad headlines and the only way we can deal with it JANICE BURTON, Associate is to not believe it. Publisher, Up & Coming Weekly, COM- Call 910.354.1679 24 / High 95° Low 69° Partly Cloudy Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 27 Classifieds ........................................ 28 Games .............................................. 30 Dining Guide.....................................31 Monday June 17 Tuesday June 18 High 88° Low 71° Partly Cloudy High 91º Low 73º Partly Cloudy High 91º Low 72º Partly Cloudy 7 Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM