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 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, Shanessa Fenner, Heather Griffiths DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/ OFFICE COORDINATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Cynthia Spears 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. .......................................... 14 . Concert Connection......................... 19 TV...................................................... 20 Movie................................................ 21 PUBLISHER'S PEN Thank a Soldier by JANICE BURTON While many in the United States were watching the football playoffs, I was watching Lone Survivor. Yes, that's right, I was watching a movie while the rest of the United States was watching the real-world drama of who would play in the Super Bowl. Yep, they were watching a game. I have to say that no matter how painful it was to watch the 49'ers/ Seahawk game, it doesn't begin to compare to the pain I felt watching the movie. Of course, I am biased. I spend my days surrounded by special-operations forces. (If you want to know what a hero is, find one of them.) I know them by name. I hear stories about their families. I joke with them. I listen to their frustrations. Oh wait, I live with a former one of them. So, of course, a story about them losing their lives would be more important than a football game. I know, I have just broken a cardinal rule; football, basketball, baseball, celebrity, they are all more important than the sacrifices made by our military. At least, that's what the world tells us and that's what our Congress reinforces, when military benefits, which are something earned, vs. an entitlement like welfare, which is something mandated by Congress, are taken away without a moment's hesitation.. A veteran of multiple deployments by my husband, I don't consider myself an easy sell. I am, after all, the mother who was watching We Were Soldiers, (call me a glutton for punishment) when my 4-year-old son crawled out of bed, and started smacking the TV, yelling at the Vietnamese to leave his father alone. It doesn't really matter that he wasn't in Vietnam, but that my 4-year-old knew what war was. Yes, at 4, he knew what war was — never mind the girl at the gaming store who thought when he was 12 that I was a bad mother for letting him play a game with the word war in the title. Of course, I had lived the life my son has lived. My father, at 30, was called pappy in Vietnam. I didn't know that. I was only 3. What I knew, was that my daddy (now approaching his 80th birthday) was gone. I was the one who laid by the front door, waiting for him to come home. I was the one whom my grandfather and mother put to bed; only to find me in the morning, laying in front of the same front door, waiting for my father to come home. Knowing my history, you can maybe understand my thoughts reference this movie — or not. I really couldn't care less. Yep, I just Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Thursday January 23 Friday January 24 4 JANUARY 22-28, 2014 High 36° Low 22° Cloudy High 47° Low 30° Cloudy said that. You see, like many of you who are reading this, while I do not know the men in this movie, I know men just like them. I know the men who fought up the mountain and back down again in the Shok Valley of Afghanistan (Google it. It's just as compelling). While I do not know their names, I have heard the stories of the villagers who climbed up the mountain in Afghanistan, and vowed to protect my husband who was setting up communications during the beginning of the war. They knew and understood the meaning of Pashtunwali, which is described at the end of the movie. It's a concept of hospitality. Once someone offers you their protection, they will die to make sure you are safe. I know the name of the Iraqi woman, who asked me to be her friend because my son sent Christmas presents to her children in hopes that her husband wouldn't want to kill his daddy who was deployed there. By the way, she asked me to be her friend. I count myself lucky. As a member of the 4th estate, I read the news (all sources) and have read the reviews of the movie, including the one where the reviewer said it was farfetched and over blown. Really? Climb a mountain in Afghanistan. HALO into the wilds of Africa. Then tell the world what our soldiers do is overblown. Let me know if you will fight your way through an Afghan town, walking in front of a HUMVEE, keeping villagers away from the vehicle so your men will be safe. To the critics, who are trumpeting that the film rings false, let me know if you will go into a remote village in Africa with limited food and medical supplies and spend months doing a mission — eating whatever the villagers can provide you — even if you don't know what it is. If you want to criticize our soldiers, stand by a grave of someone you love, and hear "Taps" played and watch their children's world fall apart — when you can do that, write your letters and your ignorant Facebook posts. Until then, say thank you and say a prayer every night, because they are the ones who keep harm from your door and their spouses and children are the ones who have helped pay the price. Overblown, not true to life? We can't even begin to imagine. Thank a soldier that you don't JANICE BURTON, Associate Publisher, have to. Up & Coming Weekly. COMMENTS? bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com. 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