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/1379376
4 UCW JUNE 2-8, 2021 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR April Olsen editor@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Dylan Hooker art@upandcomingweekly.com EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Keyuri Parab REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Margaret Dickson, Pitt Dickey, D.G. Martin, John Hood, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Crissy Neville COVER Cover photo courtesy Legends Pub. –––––––––––- 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 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. © 2020 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Various ads with art graphics designed with elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. PUBLISHER'S PEN Being optimistic with a world in chaos by REP. RICHARD HUDSON 82 64 82 83 79 82 63 64 83 66 64 65 THU JUN 03 FRI JUN 04 SAT JUN 05 SUN JUN 06 MON JUN 07 TUE JUN 08 87 67 87 68 86 67 89 67 90 69 91 68 Thunderstorms Thunderstorms Thunderstorms Thunderstorms Thunderstorms Cloudy Association of Community Publishers If you turn on the television, it looks like the world is on fire. From Chinese aggres- sion towards Taiwan, to Russian hacking, to terrorists backed by Iran attacking Israel — American resolve is being tested like never before. However, I remain optimistic for the future and took action last week to address several of the crises we are facing. Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle East and came under increasing attacks last week from Hamas terrorists. It is heartbreaking to see what is happening to innocent civilians during these attacks. I have always stood with Israel, which has a right to defend itself and should have overwhelming and bipartisan support in Congress. Yet, I have been so disap- pointed with anti-Israel rhetoric coming from some of my Democrat colleagues. I was encouraged last week when President Biden affirmed Israel's right to self-de- fense. However, in recent days, Democrat- ic Members of Congress blamed Israel for attacks and the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee called for a delay to arms sales to Israel. Last week, I voted to support the Pal- estinian International Terrorism Support Prevention Act, which would sanction per- sons and foreign governments that provide support for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, such as Iran. My Democratic counterparts unfortunately rejected con- sideration of this bill outright. ey also overwhelmingly voted against providing emergency funding to Israel for the Iron Dome and other defense programs. ese, along with ongoing efforts by the Biden administration to negotiate with Iran, one of the largest state sponsors of terrorism, harm the security of Israel and undermine peace in the region. Israel announced a ceasefire that I pray will lead to a lasting peace. However, this conflict has reinforced the importance of providing security assistance and support to Israel. I hope President Biden will not waver on this long-standing commitment and ignore the growing anti-Israel faction in his party to stand with Israel against terrorists. Sadly, President Biden gave an early Christmas gift to a different foe last week: Russia. As a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and U.S. Helsinki Commission, I am focused on both ex- panding America's energy economy and holding Russia accountable. President Biden's decision to green light the Nord Stream II pipeline seriously undermines both of these goals. At the same time President Biden stopped an American pipeline that would create American jobs, he approved a Russian pipeline that would strengthen Russia's stranglehold on Europe. is ridiculous logic is a slap in the face to American workers, as well as our allies in Europe who will now fall even more under Russia's thumb. I introduced a resolution last week to oppose this pipeline and urge President Biden to stand up to Russia. It also calls out the Biden administration for reversing on previous statements made opposing the Russian pipeline. I have worked for several years to op- pose this pipeline because Russia uses nat- ural gas as leverage over Europe. Should Europe refuse Russian demands, Russia could easily cut off energy exports to the European Union, leaving Europe in an energy crisis. Our allies should never have to operate under fear of Russian retaliation and blackmail. I am disappointed by the President's reversal on this project but will continue to build opposition in Congress. While there are many challenges facing our nation, House Republicans have solu- tions to many of them. In addition to these measures to stand with Israel and push back against Russia, I joined my colleagues in the Republican Study Committee to unveil a common-sense budget proposal. is proposal balances our budget in 5 years, cuts spending by $14.4 trillion, and reduces taxes by $1.9 trillion - or $16,000 per household. While Washington Demo- crats try to raise taxes and spend us into oblivion, we laid out this framework for how to grow our economy. It also secures our border, includes 17 pro-life bills, and defends our Second Amendment by including my H.R. 38, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. I was glad my bill was included in this proposal, which offers a clear contrast of the priorities between House Republicans and House Democrats. We are facing many challenges. But with these solutions and others, we can be optimistic about our future. Just look at the COVID-19 pandemic. We celebrated the one-year anniversary of the creation of Operation Warp Speed. On May 15, 2020, former President Donald Trump set the ambitious goal of having a vaccine developed, manufactured and distributed in record speed. One year later, anyone who wants a vaccine, can get one. is was, and continues to be, a remarkable achievement that set us down the path to- ward a renewed sense of normal. Clearly, we can accomplish anything we set our minds to. I will continue to seek bipartisan solutions and will never stop working on behalf of you and your family. REP. RICHARD HUDSON, R-N.C. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200.