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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6 FEBRUARY 4-10, 2015 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM TO BOOK EARLY TIS' THE SEASON Recently engaged? Gates Four Golf and Country Club would like to celebrate your engagement by saving you money from the start! Secure your wedding date by December 31 st , 2014, you will receive 50% off your room rental! New bookings only. Discover what's hidden behind the gates. Phone: 910-425-6667 x235 or Email: Ashley@gatesfour.com TO BOOK EARLY TIS' THE SEASON Recently engaged? Gates Four Golf and Country Club would like to celebrate your engagement by saving you money from the start! Secure your wedding date by December 31 st , 2014, you will receive 50% off your room rental! New bookings only. Discover what's hidden behind the gates. Phone: 910-425-6667 x235 or Email: Ashley@gatesfour.com TO BOOK EARLY TIS' THE SEASON Recently engaged? Gates Four Golf and Country Club would like to celebrate your engagement by saving you money from the start! Secure your wedding date by December 31 st , 2014, you will receive 50% off your room rental! New bookings only. Discover what's hidden behind the gates. Phone: 910-425-6667 x235 or Email: Ashley@gatesfour.com TO BOOK EARLY TIS' THE SEASON Recently engaged? Gates Four Golf and Country Club would like to celebrate your engagement by saving you money from the start! Secure your wedding date by December 31 st , 2014, you will receive 50% off your room rental! New bookings only. Discover what's hidden behind the gates. Phone: 910-425-6667 x235 or Email: Ashley@gatesfour.com Gates Four Golf and Country Club would like to celebrate your engagement by saving you money from the start! Secure your wedding date by February 14th, 2015, and you will receive 50% off your room rental! New bookings only. Discover what's hidden behind the gates. BOOK EARLY TIS' THE SEASON Recently engaged? Gates Four Golf and Country Club would like to celebrate your engagement by saving you money from the start! Secure your wedding date by December 31 st , 2014, you will receive 50% off your room rental! New bookings only. Discover what's hidden behind the gates. Phone: 910-425-6667 x235 or Email: Ashley@gatesfour.com 910.425.6667 • Ashley@gatesfour.com TO BOOK EARLY TIS' THE SEASON Recently engaged? Gates Four Golf and Country Club would like to celebrate your engagement by saving you money from the start! Secure your wedding date by December 31 st , 2014, you will receive 50% off your room rental! New bookings only. Discover what's hidden behind the gates. Phone: 910-425-6667 x235 or Email: Ashley@gatesfour.com Many years ago, before I joined the Army as a young 18-year-old, someone told me that the Army would give me a trade and put some money in my pocket and that I'd see the world and I'd get to serve my country. Coming from a military family, I felt it was my duty and I was eager to join like the thousands before me. But this person added that the service would take some of my youth in exchange. I didn't understand the full meaning of what the person said until many years later after I returned from the Gulf War. If it wasn't for the military, my path would have been a different one. Service in our nation's military takes a toll on each one that raises his right hand to swear the oath and don the uniform. In exchange for your service the nation requires the strength of your youth. It is the young who are the most resilient and are able to defend our nation. Anyone who has put on of the uniforms of our nation's military branches understands the dedication and sacrifice that come with it. It requires a dedication across all areas of your life, and also your family's. From the moment you begin basic training until your last day in service, you are required to be one of the strongest members of society — to push beyond all physical pain, emotional and mental stress and to continue on with the mission. This is called the "Warrior Ethos." The Warrior Ethos are the words that guide each service member through battle to make sure they continue on and push through all pain for the purpose of the mission, which is ultimately for our families and our country. It decrees that 1) I will always place the mission first, 2) I will never accept defeat, 3) I will never quit and 4) I will never leave a fallen comrade. These words guide my fellow service members to push forward and keep guard over the man or woman to their left or right. The first three declarations of the ethos tell us to push beyond our pain and weakness and to carry on at all costs. This is why there is a very special bond between veterans. We are brothers and sisters bound in service and often in pain and sometimes death. But there is also a cost. Those words spoken to me those 25 years ago didn't register within me until many years later when I saw friends and fellow vets not only have the negative physical effects of our military service, but emotional and mental issues, too. It is sometimes obvious, easy to see and treat those physical injuries of service. However, there are injuries that sometimes are hidden, and not easily addressed. They are often times mental and emotional injuries that can be pushed away and not seen by those around us. After leaving the military, our training and life under the Warrior Ethos make us accustomed to saying we can handle things, pushing them away and continuing our new mission, which is being a member of civilian society. Many times, those unseen injuries are not evident until it spills over around us and people see the silent suffering may have been occurring in front of them for many years or depressed by substance abuse. We are proud of our veterans and truly thankful for their service to our country. We all know that it is the obligation of each of us to take care of those who placed their lives on the line and often times suffer physically and mentally in silence. We ask for the strength of their youth but need to embrace them in the years of their aging. Our service members are some of the most decent and contributing members of society. They are disciplined, caring and selfless. However, some have lost their way. We are fortunate to now have a Veteran's Treatment Court here in Cumberland County. Fayetteville and Cumberland County is a unique community where we are part of Ft. Bragg, the largest contingent of U.S. service members in our nation. The number of veterans who are part of our community is one of the largest in the nation. Local military units are some of our nation's "first responders" to anywhere around the world at a moment's notice. We are the "tip of the spear." We have a great deal of young soldiers here paying with the strength of their youth and a large community of retirees who have paid with theirs. There are countless veterans who are suffering in silence. Right here in our community. They were once the proudest and highest contributing members of our society. Some have lost their way but as former warriors, they have put their pains aside — often without complaint or request of assistance. We owe our veterans so very much. And for my fellow veterans, I have not forgotten our commitment to each other. We will accomplish the mission together to get you back to where you were once. To the men and women who have and will serve in our nation's Armed Forces; you are my comrades, and I will not leave you behind. -Lou Olivera is 1 of 10 District Court Judges in Cumberland County. Judge Olivera is the only judge who is a combat Veteran in Cumberland County. He is also the presiding judge over the county's newly established and first Veteran Treatment Court. The Price of War Paid By Our Soldiers by LOU OLIVERA OPINION LOU OLIVERA, District Court Judge and U.S. Army Veteran. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcom- ingweekly.com. MONDAY Jersey Giveaway & $5 Pizzas FRIDAY Live Music THURSDAY Corn Hole Tournament SATURDAY All Day College Football KickBack with us later, now open until 2 a.m. 5081 Morganton Rd., Fayetteville, NC 223-7676 • Open Daily 11am-2am kbjacks.com Cloudy Sunny Sunny Cloudy Rain Rain