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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Army Ground Forces Band Performs at Methodist by AMANDA JENKINS The U.S. Army Forces Command's Army Ground Forces Band performs at Methodist University on Saturday, March 3, in Reeves Auditorium. The group of 59 talented and dedicated soldiers hit the stage at 7 p.m. will and provide the audience with an hour and a half of entertainment — free of charge. "This will be our fi rst regular concert in the Fayetteville area," says Maj. Treg Ancelet, commander and conductor of the Army Ground Forces Band, "The last concert we did in Fayetteville was our big holiday concert in Reeves Auditorium, but it was a joint concert." The band, which has been stationed at Fort Bragg for a year, has high expectations for their members. "All of our musicians are highly trained and had to go through a band audition to become a member of the major-command band," says Ancelet. "They have to score very high. Some of the band members have been to conservatories of music and are working on their doctorates." Army Ground Forces Band will perform on March 3 at Reeves Auditorium. The origin of the band dates back to 1846 when the band members helped Two Tries at the One Percent by JOHN HOOD Although those involved may wish us to forget, there were actually two attempts over the past year to make a certain statistic, one percent, into a political cause here in North Carolina. Both fl opped in telling ways. The obvious example is the Occupy movement, which began on Wall Street but soon spread to Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro and other North Carolina communities. Protesters rallied against crony capitalism, bailouts and insider infl uence. So far, so good. Then the rallies turned into squalid camps of bums and professional agitators, with no coherent message or goals. That far, that bad. The Occupiers sought to frame the fi scal and economic challenges facing us as a war between the wealthy one percent and everyone else. But the other attempt to use the same "one percent" statistic to score political points was less explicit. When the new Republican majority took over the North Carolina General Assembly last year, its leaders promised to balance the state budget without imposing new tax increases or extending those about to expire. Gov. Perdue insisted that they break their promise — and hers from 2009 — by extending a sales-tax hike for another two years. Otherwise, she said, there would be devastating cuts in education and other core programs. The legislature refused. Republicans and a handful of Democrats passed their no-tax-hike budget over Perdue's veto. The governor was frustrated. Liberal lawmakers and activists were furious. After Perdue announced her retirement, the Democrats seeking to replace her have played to their audience by excoriating the Republicans for cutting the education budget rather than raising revenue. Governor Bev Perdue. In education, the difference between the two budgets was even smaller — either .6 percent or 1.4 percent, depending on how a fund transfer is counted. Call it one percent for short. Not exactly the stuff of budgetary devastation, was it? That's one reason why Perdue and her allies lost the battle. In the end, their weak argument persuaded few. Recognizing that, the Left shifted gears. Rather than claiming large differences in education spending between the two budgets, liberal lawmakers and activists settled on a different talking point: that the Republican budget had worsened North Carolina's level of education funding to 49th in the nation. I agree with them that their "49th in the nation" claim was more rhetorically effective than their prior claim. But it was inaccurate. The statistic originated with the North Carolina Association of Educators, the state affi liate of the nation's largest teacher union. Someone apparently tried to compute what would happen if the Republican budget went into effect in North Carolina and no other state made signifi cant alterations to their own education budgets. That wasn't the right way to look at the matter, of course. Most states had fi scal problems last year, too. Most states adjusted their budgets accordingly, including their education budgets. Just this week, the national union released its annual ranking of per-pupil expenditures, and the latest talking point of the North Carolina Left melted away. In 2010-11, before the Republicans took over the state legislature, North Carolina's education spending ranked 45th in the nation. This year, despite modest budget cuts, North Carolina education spending ranks 42nd in the nation. So, what have the two sides been arguing about since last summer? Yep, one percent. That's the difference between what Gov. Perdue proposed spending on public education and what the GOP-led legislature ended up authorizing for the current fi scal year. The Perdue administration proposed a General Fund budget for FY 2011-12 of about $19.9 billion. The fi nal Republican budget was $19.5 billion, about two percent less. Both proposals represented cuts from the "current services" baseline — Perdue's plan held General Fund spending four percent below the baseline, vs. six percent for the fi nal GOP budget. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM By the way, I reject the underlying assumption that the more money a state spends on public schools, the better they perform. I'm more interested in outcomes than inputs. But simply as a factual matter, North Carolina's national ranking in education spending went up, not down. I await the Left's next statistical claim with curiosity. JOHN HOOD, Contributing Writer, Up & Coming Weekly, COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. FEB. 29 - MARCH 6, 2012, 2012 UCW 11 in winning the Battle of Monterey and became the only Army band to receive a combat distinction from the President of the United States. The band uniforms have a red stripe down the pants to display this victory from 1846. "This concert band will mix it up with some transcriptions," says Ancelet. "We'll do standard band repertoire, like Grainger; we've got to do a few student marches and there will be a lot of vocal and patriotic bids." The concert also features videos that will accompany different songs, the service medley and some John Williams: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Also, at intermission the band will bring the Dixie Land Band out to play some Dixie music. "I'm really proud of this concert; I think it's going to be really fun and stuff that people don't normally see," says Ancelet. "There will be a lot of different dimensions that most bands don't bring to the public." The ultimate goal of the four-star general's band (General Rodriguez) is to spread the Army's message around the country. "With a band of this size and caliber, one of our missions is not just to bring morale for the troops, but to bring the Army's story to all of America," says Ancelet. While The Army Ground Forces Band has performed for audiences as large as 3,000, they are hoping to have a great turnout for the Methodist University concert. "We have given concerts to a large crowd before, and were kind of curious because it is our fi rst regular concert. I hope everyone comes out and has a good time," says Ancelet. "It should be fun for all!" This event is free and open to the public. Find out more about the Army Ground Forces Band, and the concert at www. forscom.army.mil/band. AMANDA JENKINS, Contributing Writ- er, Up & Coming Weekly, COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com.