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 Going and Coming by MARGARET DICKSON We have reached that peculiar time of year when we look both backward and forward as one tired and spent year rolls both relentlessly and inevitably into the next new, fresh one. The Internet, television, newspapers and all sorts of publications are recapping 2013 — its biggest news stories, who died during the year and what their legacies might be, its quirky events and personalities. At the same time, they are projecting what is coming at us in 2014, both known and, much scarier, unknown. This week has always felt to me like having one foot in one year and the other in another. My 2013 foot stands in a year that brought me two great trips with good friends and all the memories that go with those. It also brought some personal bumps in the road, as it does to all of us in one year or another. Maturity has given me the understanding that no one, no matter how seemingly fortunate, escapes life's bumps altogether. For almost all of us, 2013 continued the frustration of an ongoing sluggish economy generating little job creation and governments at all levels stalemated by partisan bickering or running roughshod over segments of their constituencies. Less weighty stories that interested us, according to Yahoo's annual list of its most searched items, include in the top spot no less than Miley Cyrus who taught us a new word, "twerk," which I honestly wish I had never heard, much less seen in action. Also on the list are Minecraft — a video game which keeps a running tally of its sales on its website, more than 13 million when I checked, and the iPhone 5. Obamacare, which will affect most of us in some way, was number six, and Edward Snowden, whose unauthorized release of classified material sent U.S. and world intelligence communities into a tailspin and may have affected our national security, did not make the list at all. Fortunately, neither did Ron Burgundy. Locally, 2013 brought us continuing cuts to public education, K-12, our community college, our public universities and a stunning departure of teachers from school systems across the state, including ours. It also brought a new Fayetteville mayor and city council members, with all the promise and apprehension that comes with change. So what should we expect in 2014? No one has a fail-safe crystal ball, of course, but my guess is we will have more of the same. Our economy will probably continue to grow and recover, but slowly. As our knowledge-based sector expands and others get smaller, our workforce will have to be trained to handle the jobs that are available and the ones that will come in the future. This is yet another example of the sometimes painful nature of change. Partisan bickering shows no sign of slowing down and will likely get worse in an election year. North Carolina is the site for one of the hottest U.S. Senate races in the nation for the seat now held by Democrat Kay Hagan. She and whoever her Republican opponent turns out to be face a political contest of epic proportions. Ditto for the North Carolina Senate seat now held by Republican Wesley Meredith. He and his eventual Democratic opponent will duke it out for a seat that could go either way. Brace yourself for a torrent of negative advertising from quarters known and unknown. I also suspect the venerable Prince Charles Hotel, a Fayetteville landmark for nearly a century, will bite the dust. Various rehabilitation plans have failed, some more spectacularly than others. The kiss of death seems to have been dealt by vandals who stole so much material and did so much damage to the old structure that the latest would-be developer walked away in disgust when the city declined to put in its resources. It is a sad ending, but all good things come to an end at some point, and it seems the Prince Charles has reached its end. I hope the end is swift and clean and that planners much smarter than I are already at work on what comes next for the 21st century. As for me, and probably you as well, there are some probable resolutions floating around in my head. Most involve the conventional — getting healthier and staying that way, keeping up with old friends, places I want to go, learning something about gardening, taking the best care of those I love. Resolutions are made to fail, but it is worth thinking about what is most important to each of us and trying the best we can to do right by ourselves and others. As you think about what 2013 has meant in your life and what 2014 might bring your way, I wish you and your family a safe, healthy, and MARGARET DICKSON, Conprosperous New Year! tributing Writer, COMMENTS? 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