Up & Coming Weekly

August 24, 2010

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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STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Janice Burton Joy Kirkpatrick editor@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITER Stephanie Crider stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Marybeth Lieby Marybeth@upandcomingweekly.com Steve Rogers Steve@upandcomingweekly.com OFFICE MANAGER Suzy Patterson suzy@upandcomingweekly.com –––––––––––––– GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alicia Miller art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Soni Martin, D.G. Mar tin, Pitt Dick ey, Margaret Dickson, Bob Cogswell, John Hood, Shanessa Fenner, Erinn Crider, Karen Poppele, Renee Gibbs, Heather Griffi ths –––––––––––– 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 infor- mation 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 per- son. 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 PUBLISHER’S PEN by JANICE BURTON I, along with many Americans and others around the world, have followed the controversy surrounding the building of a mosque at Ground Zero in New York City with great interest. The topic is infl ammatory at best. People have very strong reactions and thoughts on the topic, and while many are rushing into the fray, a great many more are holding their tongues for political gain (read politicians up for re-election.) In recent weeks America’s President Barack Obama weighed in on the subject, kind of. On Aug. 13, Obama noted to an audience at the White House celebrating Ramadan, “As a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country.” For once, I am in total agreement with the President. Muslims have the right to practice their religion just like everyone else in our country. But at the heart of the controversy, that’s not what the debate is about in my opinion. For many, the building of a mosque at Ground Zero can be equated to pulling a bandaid, slowly, painfully, from a not quite healed wound. It’s stinging. It’s biting. It’s painful. Those in opposition to the mosque have not called into question anyone’s right to practice their religion. What they have called into question is the appropriateness of building it on what for our nation is a hallowed piece of ground, made so by the blood of innocent American citizens — men, women and children. Those behind the project, including Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, see the community center, which will house the mosque, as a means of building understanding about the Muslim faith within the community. Perhaps what they fail to realize is that while rational people understand that the men who crashed their planes into the Twin Towers have radicalized and bastardized the Muslim faith, there is still an inherent fear that seeped into the fabric of the American populace the day the towers fell. Overcoming that fear won’t happen anytime soon, and can’t be forced down anyone’s throat. That fear can only be exacerbated when comments by Rauf are replayed wherein he blames America for the attacks on the World Trade Center, in short saying we brought it on ourselves. While Rauf is often Fayetteville’s Weather Forecast August 27 Fayetteville’s Weather Forecast Friday Thursday August 26 Saturday August 28 High 90° Low 70° Isolated Thunderstorms 4 UCW AUGUST 25-31, 2010 High 86° Low 67° Isolated Thunderstorm High 86° Low 67° Mostly Sunny not there.” That same sentiment is being expressed by many of the families whom lost loved ones at Ground Zero. Nothing will bridge the gap for some of them. When they see Ground Zero, they will forever have the picture of the towers falling in their minds and the sounds of the last conversations they had with their loved ones echoing in their hearts. They don’t look at the placement of the mosque at Ground Zero as an exercise in religious freedom. They see it as a painful, in-their-face reminder of what they lost — to radical beliefs. I don’t believe the placement of the mosque at Ground Zero is a test of religious freedom. I believe it’s a test of propriety, sensibility and compassion. And in this case, if the mosque goes there, we will have failed on all three accounts. JANICE BURTON, Associate Publisher. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Call 910.354.1679 Call 910.354.1679 Sunday August 29 Monday August 30 Tuesday August 31 praised as a peacemaker by people across the spectrum of beliefs, those types of comments, and comments made in regard to Hammas, make it hard not to see him as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Thinking about the controversy at Ground Zero brought me back to a similar controversy that has been swirling here in Fayetteville. There are those in our community who want to make Soc Trang, Vietnam, a Sister City to Fayetteville. That idea is as infl ammatory in our city as the mosque is to the nation. Veterans who served in Vietnam have criticized the idea. In fact, they have lambasted the idea. Some in the community have suggested they get over it, and move on. No one else can decide what is healing and cathartic for another individual. For those who did not serve in Vietnam, and who did not watch their brothers-in-arms die in the bloody grounds of that nation, that idea might seem foreign. I grew up in the house of a Vietnam veteran. To this day, my father will not watch a Jane Fonda movie. What he views as her betrayal to our nation is not something he is ready to get over. I mentioned the idea of Soc Trang to him, and he gave me an incredulous look, turned his head, and noted, “They obviously were Internet Directory ............................ 12 Calendar ........................................... 14 Concert Connection ........................ 22 TV ..................................................... 20 Movie Review ..................................20 Movie Schedule ............................... 21 Free Wheelin’ Feelin’ ....................... 22 News of the Weird ........................... 23 Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 23 Classifieds ........................................ 24 Games .............................................. 26 Dining Guide .................................... 27 Mosque at Ground Zero: A Test of Religious Freedom or Not? Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 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