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/409963
4 NOVEMBER 5-11, 2014 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM High 69º Low49º Partly Cloudy STAFF Calendar.......................................14 Concert.Connection....................20 Free.Wheelin'.Feelin'...................22 Horoscopes/Advice.Goddess.....23. Classifieds....................................24 Games..........................................26 INSIDE PUBLISHER'S PEN High 74° Low 51° Partly Cloudy 7 Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Monday November 10 Tuesday November 11 High 68° Low 48° Partly Cloudy 24 / Thursday November 6 High 69° Low 46° Mostly Sunny High 70° Low 49° Sunny High 71º Low 51º Sunny Friday November 7 Saturday November 8 Sunday November 9 Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Call 910.354.1679 PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Janice Burton editor@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, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Heather Griffiths DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/ OFFICE COORDINATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Aurora Alexander aurora@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 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. Thank God, the election is over. Now, maybe, just maybe, the human race can try to return to some semblance of civility. Ugly, mean and with malice this no-holds barred assault on civility disguised as an election has bombarded, infuriated, depressed and turned off all Americans who dared turn to the media for news and information. After months and months, this horrific behavior has solidified itself as the norm when participating in America's free democracy. Did I say "free"? How free can it really be if running for any public office costs hundreds of thousands of dollars as well as your reputation and dignity? My concern here is the effect this negative campaigning is having on our young people. Politics is not just an adult sport. Our children see the ads on television. They see the mailers sitting on kitchen tables before they are thrown into the garbage where they rightfully belong. What message are we sending them? At a time when we are trying to teach them about honesty, pride, charity and good character, we demonstrate and condone the opposite behavior. When did we become such an intolerant "search-and- destroy" society? Unfortunately, more and more, this kind of behavior is permeating and consuming our Fayetteville and Cumberland County community. It has to stop! When did exercising our constitutionally protected rights to free speech and opinion become the catalyst for assault and character assassination? Words have power. The way we wield them says a lot about who we are. The malicious attacks seen in this year's election not based on ideology or issues, but rather about a candidate's character, their families and their businesses have gone far beyond the pale. There are no innocent parties in this year's election debacle. There are no good guys. As long as we allow this negativity and character assassination to prevail in our community, all of the mentoring programs, community organizations and anti-bullying programs will be for naught. Life lessons are most effectively learned by example, and the example set during this year's campaign taught our children that it's okay to lie, to bully and to harass those who don't agree with you. I will leave you with this thought: In North Carolina, the slander campaigns on behalf of Kay Hagen and Thom Tillis exceeded $100,000,000. Can you imagine what kind of impact that kind of money would have if spent on developing North Carolina's young people? Ask yourself these questions: Do we have the best government money can buy? And, who are the only people who can change it? Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly. Bruised, Bloodied and Battered Citizens Emerge From the Horror of the 2014 Mid-Term Elections by BILL BOWMAN BILL BOWMAN, PUBLISHER, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COMMENTS? BILL@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. Over the past decade, the tone of campaigning has taken a nasty turn. That was seen clearly in the Senate campaigns of Kay Hagan and Thom Tillis, which cost more than $100,000,000. As Americans, we have to ask ourselves: Are these the people we really want making decisions for us?