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 stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES ASSOCIATE EDITOR Stephanie Crider kristy@upandcomingweekly.com Linda McAlister Brown ltmcmd01@aol.com Kristy Sykes OFFICE MANAGER Laurel Handforth officemanager@ upandcomingweekly.com accounting@upandcomingweekly.com Paulette Reinhardt 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 ........................................... 14 Concert Connection ........................ 18 TV ..................................................... 20 Movie Review .................................. 21 Social Media Impacts Real Life Wael Ghonim is not a household name in America — but it should be. Ghonim, a 20-something Egyptian student is the man who sparked the Arab Spring that brought revolution throughout much of the Middle East. Ghonim did it without fi ring a shot or dropping a bomb. He did it through savvy use of social media — one of the newest weapons of choice. If you don't believe that social media is a weapon you obviously missed the great Chik-fi l-A debate that raged throughout the hot, sultry month of July. The Internet carried bits and pieces of an interview with Dan Cathy, the president of the restaurant chain, in which Cathy discussed — because he was asked — his beliefs on marriage. Those words lit a fi re that dragged everyone from country clergy to metropolitan city mayors into a fi restorm that has yet to end. The result was an all- out social media war. Like Ghonim, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee launched a Facebook campaign to garner support for the beleaguered restaurant chain. The invites to support Chik-fi l-A Day on Aug. 1 made their way around the world in a split second via Facebook. And then the madness ensued. Over the past few weeks, I have observed some of the most vitriolic, hate-filled conversations between people who have never met each other and probably never will. That is one of the downfalls of this unlimited communication tool we call social media. In the cyber world, civility does not exist. People are not real. They are just some name, on some page. And if, by chance, you comment on something on someone else's page, you open yourself up to ridicule by people you have never even met. This latest skirmish over who should or shouldn't eat a tasty chicken sandwich brought out some of the most hateful, vindictive speech I have ever seen. As a user of social media, I was drawn into the Chik-fi l-A debate simply as a matter of the exercise of free speech and religion. I had some very insightful conversations with people Fayetteville's Weather Forecast August 10 Thursday August 9 Saturday August 11 Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Friday came to those meetings prepared to defend our positions. And we would debate them all day long. There were a number of liberal schools and a number of conservative schools involved in the legislature. While on the debate fl oor, we always knew where the line was drawn, and we respected those diverse opinions. At the end of the debate, we left our differences on the fl oor and went out and had a great time because we were able to agree to disagree. Many of those people are still dear friends today, and we engaged in the great chicken debate — and still left the fi ght respecting each other. Unlike real life, where we can call foul when someone steps out of line, that can't be done in the cyber world. As the Arab Spring showed us, there is power in words. They can build unity or they can tear things down. Sadly, it's almost impossible to predict which will happen. Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly. JANICE BURTON, Associate Publisher. COMMENTS? editor@upandcomingweekly.com CalCall 910.354.1679l 910.354.1679 Sunday August 12 Monday August 13 Tuesday August 14 on both sides of the debate. One of my very best friends, who is gay, chose not to discuss the topic with me over Facebook, but rather through private messages. Those private messages were intelligent, cogent and gave pause for thought — unlike a number of others that I read via social media. My mom used to say that resorting to cursing simply showed your limited vocabulary. This debate brought a new meaning to that idea. Anyone who resorts to calling someone who disagrees with them ignorant, backwoods, stupid or uneducated simply cannot debate an issue in an intelligent manner, and uses name calling as a way out of a fi ght they never should have started. Think a 4-year-old who calls his sibling poopy head. While in college, I was a member of the North Carolina Student Legislature. Once a month, students from colleges across the state would gather to debate important issues affecting our state and nation. We Free Wheelin' Feelin' ....................... 22 Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 23 Classifieds ........................................ 24 Games .............................................. 26 4 UCW AUGUST 8-14, 2012 Thunderstorms High 91° Low 73° Scattered Partly Cloudy High 90° Low 73° Thunderstorms High 90° Low 72° Scattered Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Thunderstorms High 91° Low 73° Evening Thunderstorms High 90º Low 71º Scattered Thunderstorms High 92º Low 72º Isolated WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 24 / 7