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 bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com PUBLISHER Bill Bowman editor@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Janice Burton caroline@upandcomingweekly.com MANAGING EDITOR Caroline Goins stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Stephanie Crider hal@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Hal Nunn kristy@upandcomingweekly.com Linda McAlister Brown ltmcmd01@aol.com Kristy Sykes OFFICE MANAGER Laurel Handforth officemanager@ upandcomingweekly.com accounting@upandcomingweekly.com ACCOUNTING art@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alicia Miller 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. Heather Griffi ths, Shannon Angry –––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Mar tin, Pitt Dick ey, Margaret Dickson, John Hood, Erinn Crider, Karen Poppele, INSIDE PUBLISHER'S PEN by JANICE BURTON Calendar ........................................... 16 TV ..................................................... 21 Movie Review .................................. 22 Concert Connection ........................ 25 Free Wheelin' Feelin' ....................... 26 Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 27 Classifieds ........................................ 28 Games .............................................. 30 The Not So Great Generation Has Readers Talking For those of us who have grown up in the newspaper industry, striking a chord with our readers is a great thing. It means we have inspired them to think, and sometimes so much so that they take the time to respond to something we have written. My most recent publisher's notes, "The Not So Great Generation," which ran June 6, 2012, sparked a chord in a number of our readers, and on the opposite page you will fi nd some of those responses. As you can see, people took the article to heart and didn't mind chiming in and giving me their opinions. As always, I welcome those opinions, in fact, I look forward to them when they are well thought out and make an argument that doesn't include name calling. Over the years, I have grown a rather thick skin when it comes to other's opinions on my opinion. You have to in this business. There's an old adage among newspaper folk that if half the people are mad at you and the other half are happy then you have done your job. And in this case, I think I have. But unlike many pundits, I don't write merely for reaction, I write from the heart about matters that really concern me. And, I am profoundly concerned about people's inability to take responsibility for their own actions. And in my article, I was addressing our entire society — not just one segment of it. In my article, I cited several instances where people make excuses: kids making bad grades, women not getting promoted and those violating traffi c laws crying racism. These are all examples of shirking the blame for personal failures — no matter the sex, color or age of the individual. One of our readers, zeroed in only on the issue of race, and wrote the letter that begins our letters to the editor. Mrs. English is right. I will never know what it is like to be black. I will never know the fears her parents and grandparents tackled every day. I can study them, but I can never truly understand them. In the same manner, I will also never know what it is like to come from an abusive home, to have an alcoholic parent or to be born in extreme poverty. But there are countless people who have faced Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Thursday June 14 Friday June 15 Saturday June 16 Fayetteville's Weather Forecast We as individuals — no matter our situation — must take responsibility for what we do. all of these things — being born black, poor, abused, etc. — and have taken those experiences to make successes of themselves, not to use them as an excuse for their mistakes. And that was the gist of my article: that we as individuals — no matter our situation — must take responsibility for what we do. We must be accountable. I'd like to share a personal experience: My son is 11. He's a smart kid, and I expect him to do well. Every afternoon when I come home from work, I ask about his homework. For weeks he assured me it was done, and everything was good. When progress reports came out, he had some very bad grades. I went to the school to talk with his teacher. He simply didn't turn in his homework. Life as he knew it altered immensely. A couple of the teachers tried to tell me not to be so hard on him because he is such a good kid. He is a good kid because my husband and I are hard on him and hold him to a higher standard. We hold him accountable, just as my friends — of all races — hold their children accountable. They are raising healthy and successful children not because they make excuses for them, but because they also teach them personal responsibility. stirred my feathers more than Mrs. English's implication that my grandfather may have been in the Klan, and this is something I really cannot let stand. My grandfather, who may have been one of the kindest men I've ever met, was a poor farmer who struggled to raise his 15 children. And he instilled in them the values, which I hold today. He was no nonsense, and excuses didn't work in his house. And for the record, he was never a member of the Klan, and he never made broad sweeping judgments about people because of the color of skin, rather he judged people by their actions and by the content of their heart, which is something we should all strive to do. Of all the things that anyone has written to me, none has JANICE BURTON, Associate Publisher. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com CalCall 910.354.1679l 910.354.1679 Sunday June 17 Monday June 18 Tuesday June 19 4 UCW JUNE 13-19, 2012 Thunderstorms High 88° Low 72° Scattered Partly Cloudy High 87° Low 70° Partly Cloudy High 89° Low 69° Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Partly Cloudy High 88° Low 71° Partly Cloudy High 89º Low 70º Partly Cloudy High 89º Low 70º WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 24/ 7