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/710337
4 AUGUST 3-9 2016 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM PUBLISHER'S PEN Communicating About Our Community's Future by BILL BOWMAN STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Janice Burton editor@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR Stephanie Crider stephanie@upandcomingweekly. com ASSOCIATE EDITOR April Olsen stephanie@upandcomingweekly. com SENIOR REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com ART DIRECTOR & GRAPHIC DESIGNER Sara Smith art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Martin, Pitt Dickey, Margaret Dickson, John Hood, Erinn Crider, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Heather Griffiths BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Keri Dickson keri@upandcomingweekly.com SALES ADMINISTRATOR/ DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com ACCOUNTING Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Nicky Hart Linda McAlister Brown linda@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 wel- comes 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 BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COMMENTS? BILL@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Call 910-354-1679 for more info. August 4 Partly Cloudy August 5 Partly Cloudy August 6 Partly Cloudy August 7 Scattered T-Storms August 8 Showers August 9 Partly Cloudy THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY HIGH 90 HIGH 92 HIGH 95 HIGH 96 HIGH 94 HIGH 93 LOW 72 LOW 73 LOW 75 LOW 76 LOW 73 LOW 73 Editor's Note: By the time you read this, our publisher, Bill Bowman, will be on his way to Sturgis Rally 2016. It is the one time a year that he takes to get away and recharge before our Best of Fayetteviille celebration, which is on Sept. 13. Best of Fayetteville is a party you won't want to miss as we celebrate the very best that Fayetteville has to offer. And it is you, our readers, who declared the winners. While we wish Bill safe travels, here is a recent article he wrote that was well received and that we think is worth another look. Wow! What a great weekend we had. Celebrating our country's birthday always makes me recognize and appreciate the great country we live in. Though I think we have a tendency to take our freedoms for granted, especially in times like these when we seem to be straining and stressing under the weight of our own governance. Well, I'm not really worried about it. Americans have always proven their resilience time and time again when it comes to defending our rights and the American way of life. I love Fayetteville. Life here is good. Could it be better? Absolutely. But, then again, we suffer from too much governance locally where old habits, unilateral motives and conflicting priorities hinder and stifle our progress and growth. Recently, a former resident of Fayetteville returned for a visit after a 30-year absence. He was amazed and pleasantly surprised and even impressed with our city's transformation - especially downtown. He hardly recognized it. Taking pride in his compliments and observations, I couldn't refrain from making the comment, "Yeah, but we're not where we should be or could be. If only we could get out of our own way." And, it's true. Everyone I talk with loves Fayetteville/ Cumberland County. The problem is, they love "their" community. A common theme runs through every conversation I have with Fayetteville and Cumberland County residents. That one single thing that everyone mentions and agrees with consistently is: we are a community that fails to communicate or cooperate with each other. It is amazing. Everyone agrees that we should communicate and cooperate, but, openly admits that we don't. Go figure. This is sad and not necessarily the type of thinking that inspires, energizes and motivates a progressive community. We seem to be in a perpetual circular firing squad. At least everyone recognizes the problem, and they say that's 50 percent of the solution. I agree, we have made great progress over the past three decades. However, we still have plenty of work to do - and with several awesome opportunities on the horizon, let's all hope that our collective community communication improves. After all, we could talk ourselves into a future baseball stadium, a performing arts center and a North Carolina Civil War Education Center. It could happen! What do you say? Can we talk about it? Thank you for reading the Up & Coming Weekly.