4th Friday is a celebration of the arts and Historic Downtown Fayetteville. There is always something fun and
exciting happening. 

This month there will be more activity than usual. “This is an exciting 4th Friday because it is the kickoff to the Dogwood Festival,” said Mary Kinney, Marketing Director of the Arts Council of Fayetteville/ Cumberland County. “They are going to be over in Festival Park doing their official kickoff party to the 35th annual Fayetteville Dogwood Festival.” 

Here are a few 4th Friday events that will take place Friday, April 28: 

Friday night will feature free country music concerts in Festival Park followed by fireworks. Brittany McLamb will perform at 6 p.m., LANCO at 7:30 p.m. and
Parmalee at 9 p.m. 

Experience the continuation of the exhibit, Arts and Flowers, presented by Ellington-White CDC at the Arts Council at 301 Hay St. 

Rock music will be performed by the 82nd Airborne Division Band’s “Rizer Burn” from 7-9 p.m. at the Arts Council as well.

Cape Fear Studios presents Skewed Reality: The Drawings of Steve Opet from 6-9 p.m. at 148
Maxwell St.

The Ellington-White Gallery presents the continuation of the Common Ground exhibition from 7-9 p.m. at 113 Gillespie Street. 

Fascinate-U Children’s Museum, located at located at 116 Green St., will have meet-and-greet with your favorite princesses along with free play from 7-9 p.m. “This is one of my favorite stops because I have little ones,” said Kinney. “They will have real-life princesses to meet that night and the kids can have free play in the museum.” 

Fayetteville Area Transportation Museum presents a new historical exhibit: Saint John’s Episcopal Church — The First 100 Years. It examines the unique architecture, symbolism and stained glass windows in the church. 

The museum also has a display of cool and vintage cars, a recreated 1920s gas station and Fayetteville’s 1880s Silsby Steam Pump Engine from 6-10 p.m. at 325 Franklin Street. “There will be some beautiful history about the church that will be talked about in this particular exhibit,” said Kinney. 

The Market House is featuring the educational exhibit Scottish Heritage and the permanent exhibit A View from The Square: A History of Downtown Fayetteville from 6-10 p.m. 

“The Market House is open to visitors on 4th Friday so you can actually go upstairs inside the Market House,” said Kinney. “They have a permanent exhibit in which you look in four directions out of the Market House and it gives you the history in
that direction.” 

All events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.theartscouncil.com or call the Downtown Alliance at (910) 222-3382.

Almost 10 years ago, Fayetteville and Cumberland County declared itself a “Soldiers’ Sanctuary.” In September 2008, in a statement of support for the nation’s military men and women, Cumberland County declared itself the “World’s First Sanctuary for Soldiers and Their Families.” It was an undertaking of the Fayetteville Convention and Visitors’ Bureau. “The Communities of Cumberland County have always supported our military neighbors,” said FCVB President & CEO John Meroski.  The now- familiar blue and white signs were posted along all major highways leading into the county. 

The idea of a sanctuary for soldiers was and is to provide them and their families with local services ranging from free child care to job placement for soldiers’ spouses. On Declaration Day, then-8th District Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.) read a proclamation in a ceremony at Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry Armory and Museum in Downtown Fayetteville. What became known as a 500-plus member Army’s Army of community leaders and volunteers pledged to “watch over those who watch over us,” by designating military families honored members of the community.

The Army’s Army was a frontline support group at a time when two wars raged in Iraq and Afghanistan. Local member businesses offered discounts and preferential treatment to the troops. Many of them still do nine years later. An online networking website, www.Fayettevillewantsyou.com, was created to connect soldiers considering moving to Fayetteville with one-on-one citizen guides that helped steer them through the relocation process. It’s still online and calls itself “the foremost military resource for our community.”

The Soldiers’ Sanctuary is spearheaded by Cumberland County community leaders and the Army’s Army. It was an outgrowth of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Act. Thousands of military and defense department families moved from Atlanta to North Carolina when Ft. McPherson was closed and the Army’s Forces Command was repositioned at Ft. Bragg. They were required to settle in one of the 11 counties closest to Fort Bragg. Try as it did to accommodate them, Cumberland County was not the choice location for many of those soldiers and civilian DOD employees. Hoke, Moore, Lee and Harnett Counties became temporary homes for many of the transplants. Some of them rented their Georgia homes and returned to the peach state after fulfilling their obligations to the Army.

Yet, in the face of those disappointments, Greater Fayetteville poured its collective heart out to those military families who continued coming to Fort Bragg. First Lady Michelle Obama adopted support for service members and their families while she was in the White House. “You have found ways to help strengthen families under great stress. You’ve found ways to make life fun for children who wake up and go to sleep worried about their moms and dads,” she said of Fayetteville and its commitment to the military. The FCVB’s Meroksi put it best when asked to reflect on the creation of the Soldiers’ Sanctuary Community: “Community and state leaders who came together to declare the county a Sanctuary Community were merely stating what was already true.” 

Fayetteville Technical Community College President Dr. Larry Keen hosted Cumberland County Commissioners at lunch to make an informal budget request. Only three members of the seven-member board accepted the invitation. Commissioners Jeanette Council, Larry Lancaster and Jimmy Keefe showed up. Dr. Keen gave the board an update on student enrollment and asked the county to consider increasing the school’s budget by $544,000 in the new fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The local budget allocated to FTCC by County government is $11.6 million. The college’s total budget this year is $136 million, said Chief Financial Officer Betty Smith. “We have pinched until it hurts,” declared Commissioner Council while at the same time praising FTCC for its commitment to higher education. Council points to the County’s $16 million budget shortfall, drawing attention to a significant decline in property values as recently disclosed in the tax administration’s revaluation report.

Keen’s annual report revealed a small reduction in student enrollment. “Community colleges nationwide are losing students because the economy is getting better,” he said. 

Seven hundred ten thousand full-time students are enrolled in North Carolina’s 58 community colleges; 11,800 of them at FTCC. Keen told commissioners the college also serves 27,000 adults in continuing education classes. And there are 1,510 active-duty military men and women, and 2,300 veterans enrolled. The college was ranked second in the nation among technical colleges by the Military Times. A year ago, FTCC announced the hiring of three head coaches for the inaugural men’s and women’s intercollegiate basketball and golf teams. 

Commissioners seemed surprised to learn that Cape Fear Valley Health System has told FTCC it needs 400 new nurses each year. 

“210 nursing students are enrolled next fall,” Keen said. He added that he believes FTCC can turn out the 400 nurses needed within five years. In other areas, Dr. Keen told county commissioners and administrators he would like to provide FTCC employees a 3 percent cost of living pay raise in the coming fiscal year. 

As for students, Keen said based on course enrollments, course credit hours and course level, individual full-time equivalent student enrollment support is $982, well below the state average. He said it would take an 8 percent funding increase to bring FTCC per student spending up to the state average. He’s asking for a 5.1 percent increase, which would make FTCC 27th in student financial support of the 58 colleges in the system.

FTCC provides affordable vocational-technical, business and industry, general education, college transfer and continuing education programs on four campuses across Cumberland County. FTCC meets the needs and desires of its diverse student body as well as the economic development needs of the community. The Fayetteville/Cumberland County Economic Development Center is headquartered at the main campus. 

Shawcroft Road Temporarily Opened

City contractors have completed the temporary installation of a culvert beneath Shawcroft Road, the only entrance to the King’s Grant neighborhood off Ramsey Street. 

The road has re-opened, having been closed for six months. A culvert, which carried a small stream beneath Shawcroft Road, was destroyed when the street collapsed during Hurricane Matthew last October. The City decided to make temporary repairs while awaiting Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to make permanent repairs. Since its original development, King’s Grant has grown to a community of 3,000 residents and 600 homes. A popular public golf course is also on the grounds. City Engineering and Infrastructure Director Rob Stone said Shawcroft Road will remain open for at least two months while a final decision is made on whether to install a permanent culvert or a bridge over the stream. That process is set to begin in June.

Fort Bragg’s All-American Division

America’s Guard of Honor is observing its 100th anniversary this year. The 82nd Airborne Division was constituted as part of the U.S. Army National Guard in August 1917 to support America’s entry into World War I.  

The division rose to international acclaim during World War II and has long been recognized as the most celebrated military unit in American history. The Fort Bragg division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Erik Kurilla, is often referred to as the nation’s Global Response Force, although the GRF designation is officially given to one of the 82nd brigades and placed on standby duty for a year at a time. The 82nd’s Third Brigade is currently assigned the responsibility of being prepared to “mobilize, load and land anywhere in the world in less than 36 hours,” as outlined in its mission statement. “We are trained, prepared and ready to go,” said 82nd spokesman, MSgt. Daniel Bailey.

The Hurley Pots

About 30 years ago the city of Fayetteville added to the Downtown ambiance by placing dozens of large, black landscaping pots along the sidewalks. They were not universally accepted at the time, and were named after then-Mayor Bill Hurley. 

Maintenance of the Hurley pots was not kept up, and the flora planted in them died. For years, the pots were neglected. But, as Downtown began to flourish, various local residents took a renewed interest in the pots. Seasonal flowers and plants designed to survive in the large cast iron containers were planted. For the first time, this spring, Fayetteville Technical Community College’s Horticulture Department agreed to freshen them. April 18 was designated planting day, and FTCC horticulture students went to work replanting 100 Hurley pots. 

FTCC Honored Again

Fayetteville Technical Community College is in the top five large two-year colleges in the nation when it comes to digital education. The Center for Digital Education ranks FTCC fourth in its 12th annual survey of how community colleges use technology to improve services to students, faculty, staff and the community at large. Colleges surveyed indicated that mobility devices and app support is their top priority in the coming year, followed by website redesign/updates, cybersecurity tools and digital content and curriculum. The survey revealed that 54 percent of colleges offer professional development courses on how to use mobile apps for instruction. CDE is a division of e.Republic, the nation’s only media and research company focused exclusively on state and local government andeducation.  

Why the heck would Joe upload a picture of a dandelion weed for his Facebook profile photo? It struck me as odd.

Joe was a popular jock with a perpetual smile. But he also has a brain that earned him an ROTC scholarship to Arizona State University. After his stint as an Army officer, Joe returned to ASU as its principal systems analyst.

Again, I asked myself, why would a tough jock put a dandelion flower on his Facebook page. Then I saw others pop up on my high school alumni page, just like they do in my yard.

Slap to the forehead! It’s April and the dandelion is the symbol of children of military parents — often referred to as military brats; a derogatory term worn as a badge of honor.

Joe and I were brats. We are among 15 million Americans who at one time were children of military parents. We all have some of the same things in common. We were newcomers, outsiders, sometimes outcasts, but most of all we were adaptable. When people from a nonmilitary background asked us where we were from, we often paused before answering because the answer could be from nowhere to everywhere.

It was our way of life and I accepted it without a second thought. I thought going to nine schools in 12 years was normal. I never realized that this was a bad thing. Ignorance can be bliss.

I asked Joe via email what he thought was so great and not so great about us being military brats. His response: “The best part of our life as brats was that we were exposed to a more diverse group of people … not only in the countries we lived in, but the kids that became our friends.” He went on to say the exposure made us more accepting and understanding of the differences and similarities we have.

The worst part, he wrote, was moving away from our friends. While there would be new ones, “leaving the others was really tough.”

I posted the same question on my Wurzburg American High School Alumni Facebook page. Answers varied but the theme was consistent.

Exposure to new cultures and diverse people who would become friends was the most common positive response. The most mentioned downside was leaving new friends.

One person said every time he had a steady girlfriend, either his or her father would get orders to move.

I didn’t know him personally, but I knew many others whose steady heartthrobs left because a parent received orders. Not having “officially” ended their relationship, they usually became conflicted about forming new relationships. In the end, chances were they’d never see each other again.

Today, there are almost 2 million school-aged children of military parents. The Army at more than 911,000 makes up the largest portion, followed by the Air Force at about 430,000, Navy at about 300,000 and Marines at 120,000.

In 1986, then-Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger, citing the frequent moves and separations military children face, designated April the month of the military child. It apparently caught on, and military installations across the U.S. and overseas celebrate the day. 

The military also ramped up family support programs for the children.

Purple is this military children month’s official color, representing a combination of the colors from all services. And, according to Brats Inc., several years ago an online debate resulted in an official flower: the dandelion. It’s a weed, blown to the four corners of the world, hard to kill, and one that can thrive anywhere in any climate.

Let us begin by giving a shout out to Nicholas Pelletier who, on April 25, 1792, became the first guest of the guillotine in Paris, the city of light. Nick was a murderer and a robber sentenced to death. France had been using a two-tier system of capital punishment until Nick came along. In the late 1700s, common criminals were executed in a variety of unpleasant ways: torture, burning at the stake and breaking on the wheel. Convicted aristocrats got a better deal. They were dispatched by the State Executioner Charles Sanson. Chuck was an expert swordsman who could slice off their heads with one swift blow from Rufus, his special Executing Sword. 

The disparity between the send offs for common criminals versus aristocrats seemed unfair to the bleeding hearts of France. In the interest of equality, the idea spread that commoners and rich guys should both check out in the same fashion through sword beheading. 

Like all simple solutions for complex problems , there were practical issues with cutting off everyone’s head with a sword. Chuck, the state executioner, pointed out that many more executioners would have to be hired to travel France. Sometimes the special Executing Sword would break, creating a mess. Ordinary swords just wouldn’t do the job. Paris only had two such swords. Sacre bleu!

Enter our old buddy, Dr. Joseph Guillotin, with his bright idea. He invented the guillotine. His device dropped a heavy blade from a scaffold onto the neck of the condemned. Joe enthusiastically explained the value of his invention, saying: “The mechanism falls like lightning; the head flies off; the blood spurts; the man no longer exists.” Progress is our most important product. After a number of trials on farm animals, and allegedly with some suggestions of French King Louis XIV, the guillotine was ready to be tried on Nick in late April 1792. The Guillotine was painted a festive red and set up in downtown Paris. A crowd worthy of the Gator Bowl came to watch the send off. Whack! Mon Dieu! It worked. Nick was dispatched to his reward.

 The guillotine went viral. It was manufactured and spread all over France, lopping off heads with industrial efficiency. French toy makers made tiny guillotines that children could use to lop off the heads of their dolls or live mice. Chuck Sanson became a lean mean killing machine. He killed 300 people in three days after the French Revolution turned into the Reign of Terror. As a side effect of Dr. G’s invention, Louis XIV lost his head to Chuck.

Currently, the Pharmaceutical Side Effect Development Council has spent many years developing opioids to mask pain and create legions of addicts to its products. The goal of the Side Effects Council is to mask one medical problem while creating multiple new exciting and expensive side effects that can only be remedied by taking another drug, which in turn creates new side effects. Have you ever held one mirror up in front of another mirror and watched the endless reflections curve off into infinity? That is the business plan of the Side Effects Council. One drug begats side effects that can only be remedied by another drug, which begats different side effects. As the King of Siam once said, “Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.” Side effects equal profits. 

 How can this be? Oh, it be. If you are of a certain age and watch TV news, you can’t avoid the TV ad for Movantik which has been invented to cure opioid-induced constipation, or OIC as the cool kids call it. A rugged construction foreman tells us he hurt his back and has to take opioids for pain. The opioids have backed him up. He’s tried prunes, laxatives and various folk remedies by the light of the moon. He finally tells his cute doctor that he is constipated. She smiles and asks him how long he has been holding back this information. This is his Movantik Moment. He is now happy and free to discuss his constipation. He smiles, takes the meds as prescribed, and becomes a regular fellow again. 

Dr. Guillotin would be proud. King Louis the XIV died due to a side effect of the guillotine. America’s opioid addiction epidemic has created side effects undreamed of by Dr. G. Opioid — side effects that exist on a scale that makes the French Reign of Terror look like an ice cream social. If you are not sitting in twin bath tubs next to your beloved waiting for the Cialis to kick in, you, too, can have a Movantik Moment. Big Pharma is full of something other than just obscene profits. The ad guys originally wanted to call this a Movantik Movement but Standards and Practices nixed that slogan.

Let my people go. 

We Americans like to think of ourselves as an egalitarian, classless society where “all men are created equal.” Thomas Jefferson penned those words in our Declaration of Independence, and while they embody a beautiful sentiment, I wonder whether even he believed them, because the only people who were “created equal” were white, landowning men. The reality is that we are not and have never been an egalitarian, classless society.

Two recent books, a meaty read by a college professor and a memoir by a self-described “hillbilly,” look at our country and see much the same picture. They see a society stratified by culture, education, resources, language, social capital and just about every distinction we can imagine. 

In White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, Nancy Isenberg, an American history professor at Louisiana State University, makes the case that glaring class differences have been with us from the beginning. 

We all know that women and blacks were pretty much left out of our original Constitution and Bill of Rights. We also all know that our Founding Fathers — think George Washington and Thomas Jefferson — were men of education, sophistication and material resources. 

What many of us do not know is that most of our original English settlers were more-or-less refugees, people not wanted in their homeland because they were non-productive drains on the English economy. Some of them walked up the plank and headed for the New World voluntarily, and others were simply deported.

Jefferson’s writings refer to these people as “rubbish.” Since his day, they have been referred to as “crackers,” “Okies,” “hillbillies” and, more recently, “rednecks” and “trailer trash.” All are derisive nouns for the poor white people who have been with us since before our actual founding. 

In Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance movingly chronicles his childhood in the Kentucky mountains in a working-class city in Ohio. The first person in his family to go to college, Vance graduated with honors in less than two years and went on to Yale Law School. At 32, he said he escaped a hillbilly culture of violence, drugs, transience, multiple father figures and poor or no work ethic only because his grandparents and several others believed in and supported him when the rest of his young life was in chaos. 

Maybe coincidence and maybe not, these two widely-read books burst onto the literary scene at a time when such inequities are becoming more pronounced and when many Americans are deeply concerned about this these issues.

The Pew Research Center reported several years ago that the wealth disparity between America’s upper-income families and middle-class ones is greater than it has ever been across our two-plus centuries of existence. In fact, the top 0.1 percent are now worth more than the bottom 90 percent, with the big slice of the pie continuing to grow and the smaller one still shrinking. In addition, while the Great Recession affected almost everyone, the folks at the top have recovered, but the folks at the bottom continue to struggle. 

Other disparities abound as well. Upper incomers have access to and better health care opportunities than those at the bottom. They live longer. They are better educated, and as Vance points out, they practice their religions more often and have fewer marriages. 

It is not getting any better for an overwhelming number of Americans. Baby Boomers, my generation, expected to do better than our parents, and by and large, we did. Millennials, people born in the early 1980s, have only a 50 percent chance of doing better than we did, about the same as flipping a coin, according to the Equality of Opportunity’s report released late last year. The report noted that “children’s prospect of achieving the ‘American Dream’ of doing better than their parents have fallen from 90 to 50 percent over the past half century.”

Such statistics do not make for screaming headlines or lead the evening news, but they are quietly and profoundly changing our country. Both Isenberg and Vance acknowledge there are no easy answers to any of this. Both say government policies can play a role in helping people, but at the end of the day, it is up to us to make positive decisions about education, work and family life.

It is all worth thinking about as our new presidency unfolds and as we make electoral decisions in future election cycles.

I admit I was never a fan of the location chosen for our new $12 million multimodal transportation center now under construction at the corner of West Russell and Robeson Streets in Downtown Fayetteville. It’s in the wrong location, too expensive, poorly designed and built on a small lot with no room for future growth and facility expansion. 

But, hey, what do I know? Or, for that matter, what did the professional consultants City officials hired to assist them in finding and recommending the most feasible locations know? To my recollection, we (the City) rejected not one, but three of their recommendations and paid them tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars for the privilege. 

Now, with construction over budget and a year behind schedule, City officials say they have now learned some very valuable (and expensive) lessons. It will be very interesting to see who will show up for that ribbon-cutting celebration in June. 

On the positive side, I was extremely glad the building’s final design incorporated a cultural statement by including a $100,000 line item for local art to hide two huge black cisterns from public view. 

Contracting the Arts Council to create and manage the RFP (request for proposal) for this project was another prudent decision. 

This being said, City officials should reject the Public Arts Commission recommendations to accept the only bid received from Greensboro artist Jim Gallucci. No doubt he is a talented and renowned professional in his own right. That is not the point of contention here. 

An RFP that attracts no local artist participation, comes in $40,000 over specifications and nets only one out-of-town bid needs to be rejected on principle. I’m confident we have artists in our community talented and creative enough to camouflage two cisterns, and for a lot less than $140,000. 

Our recommendation: Shop local, even for art. We have dozens of talented budding artists here in our community. Case in point, check out the beautiful artistry of FTCC student Kimberley Hardee on this cover of Up & Coming Weekly. Here, this talented artist and mother of three created art with the personality and sense of anticipation, wonder and excitement that depicts exactly what the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival is all about. 

This is the kind of talent we have nurtured, showcased and supported at Gallery 208 for the past 10 years without grants or government subsidies. 

So, if we are going to spend taxpayer money on art and artists, I say we spend it locally on our own. I urge our elected officials to reissue the RFP and call for “local” artists. If we still get no response, we’ll do a feature story on the artistic value and inner beauty of two black cisterns. 

Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly.

Every spring Fayetteville breaks out into a big weekend-long party that fills Festival Park and several blocks of Downtown Fayetteville with music, food, rides, shows, activities, art and more. It’s been that way for decades. And for the most part it is an event run by volunteers. Volunteers who like to have fun! This year, the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival runs April 28-30.

The festival kicks off  Friday, April 28 at 5 p.m. with the Bloom and Boom party sponsored by H&H Homes. The evening’s entertainment features Brittany McLamb, LANCO and Parmalee. The opening ceremony is at 5:30 p.m. Music starts at 6 p.m. with Britanny McLamb onstage at the Festival Park CenturyLink Stage.

A Salemburg, North Carolina, native, Britanny McLamb grew up listening to gospel, bluegrass and country music. As a youngster, she sang in choir at her church and performed in local talent shows and pageants. After high school, she performed on television shows such as Arthur Smith’s Carolina Calling and Jimmy Snow’s Grand Ole Gospel Time. She studied at East Carolina University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in Social Work. 

From there, she headed to Nashville to chase her dream of becoming a star. McLamb released her first EP on iTunes in 2013. It included “Summer Rain” as well as songs like “Back from Your Goodbye” and “Mr. Right.” Several singles later, “I Like Where This Is Going” was released April 2016, which McLamb penned herself along with band member Phillip Howard and Lauren McLamb.

LANCO takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. Formed in 2013, LANCO released their EP in 2015 and quickly followed with Extended Playin April 2016. 

The band’s website explains that Extended Playcontains “three of the same songs as their debut, exchanging “High” for newer track and lead single “Long Live Tonight,” a pop-fused country song with a Kings of Leon undercurrent. 

Their song “American Love Story” was also featured as the theme for the Netflix series The Ranch. The band is known for its country feel with a touch of classic rock and blues influence.

At 9 p.m., kick back with Parmalee. The North Carolina natives earned high praises for their first album Feels Like Carolina. In 2014, the band was a semifinalist for the Academy of Country Music’s “New Artist of the Year” Award and was nominated for the 2014 Teen Choice Award “Choice County Group.” The group’s latest hit “Close Your Eyes” was in the Country Radio top three. After touring with Brad Paisley on his “Country Nation Tour,” Parmalee’s new single, “Already Callin’ You Mine,” is currently in the Top 30 at Country Radio. Rooted in bluegrass, traditional country music, southern rock and blues, the band members grew up listening to and eventually playing alongside their families. Eventually, they made their way to Nashville where they lived and worked out of their RV in the parking lot of the Comfort Inn on the legendary Demonbreun Street.

Friday’s festivities conclude with a firework show immediately following the Parmalee concert.

Saturday and Sunday are packed with things to do as well, including carnival games, rides, art exhibits and more. This year’s festival features several performance venues as well. The Cape Fear Music Center Stage has performers lined up from noon to 6:30 p.m. Artists include more than 45 performers ranging in age from 7 to 55. Special performers include KasCie Page, Clairice and The Combustibles, Borderland Band, Rivermist and Upscale-N-Casual.

The Hay Street Stage features local bands from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday. At 3:30 p.m. Earth, Wind & Fire Tribute will perform until 5 p.m. On Sunday featured performers include Fayetteville Jazz Orchestra, The Fayetteville State University Jazz Express and Reggie Codrington. Check out the wine garden near the stage for refreshments.

The parking lot beside Hay Street United Methodist church is the performance area that showcases dance troupes. Performers include:

Saturday

12:00 Little Gym Jets

12:15 Dazzling Dolls Pom Squad

12:30 Shimmy Mob

1:00 Elevo Dynamics

1:30 Shadows of the Fire

2:15 Audience Participation

2:30 World Dance

3:00 Aloha Ka’naka O’Hula Halua

3:45 J’s US Taekwondo

4:15 Shadows of the Fire

5:00 Audience Participation

5:15 Aloha Ka’naka O’hula Halua

Sunday

12:00 LS Music & Arts Studio

12:15 Yvette’s Dance academy

12:30 Shimmy Mob

1:00 Dashawn Byron

1:30 Shadows of the Fire

2:15 Audience Participation

2:30 World Dance

3:00 Aloha Ka’naka O’Hula Halua

3:45 J’s US Taekwondo

4:15 Shadows of the Fire

5:00 Audience Participation

5:15 Aloha Ka’naka O’hula Halua

Saturday is a rockin’ good time in Festival Park with a focus on 80s and hard rock entertainment. Violet Smoke is set to perform at 1 p.m., followed by Fourth Hour
at 3 p.m. 

At 5 p.m., acoustic band Wood & Steele opens for Winger, who takes the stage at 7 p.m. Wood & Steele’s repertoire is an inclusive one, ranging from The Beatles to Pink Floyd to STP or Johnny Cash. Winger is a hard rock band with roots that date back to 1987. The group is still going strong with recent hits  “IV,” “Karma” and “Better Days Comin’.” 

Winger has been on Billboard’s Top 100 and in 2016, Grammy nominee Kip Winger hit #1 on Billboard and iTunes charts with his debut classical music album Conversations with Nijinsky. 

At 9 p.m. Skid Row takes the stage. Skid Row is a rock band with titles that include “Youth Gone Wild,” “I Remember You,” “18 and Life,” “We Are the Damned,” “Monkey Business” and “Let’s Go.” The band has toured with KISS and has maintained a strong fan base.

Sunday, blues and soul performer DieDra will grace the CenturyLink Stage at 1:30 p.m. She’s been called the “Blues Diva” and “The Alabama Blues Queen.” Her album Overcoming Hurdleswas nominated for several awards and her song “Hip Swingin’ Blues” went as high as number five on Roadhouse Blues Charts and topped all Beach Music Charts that year. 

At 3 p.m., the Duck Derby Race releases thousands of ducks into Cross Creek in a race to raise funds for local schools and nonprofits.

At 4:30 p.m., fusion rock band Lotus Sun performs. The band is a local favorite and a winner of Best of Fayetteville’s “Best Local Band” award. Lotus Sun is a local favorite at music venues like Fayetteville After Five as well as other festivals. 

All the events are free. Tickets are available for $25 for prime seating at the CenturyLink stage concerts. Local artists and vendors will have items available to purchase, as will food vendors. Tickets for midway rides are for sale and can be purchased at the Dogwood Festival.

Parking 

Parking for those with disabilites will be designated in the Hay Street United Methodist Church Parking lot and the Bank of America Parking Lots on Ray Avenue. Availability is first come first served.

Downtown parking is available. Suggested areas include:

•New Parking Deck on Franklin Street, FREE weeknights and weekends

•Cumberland County Courthouse parking lots

•Paid parking in various Downtown locations

Event Rules

•No Coolers

•No Pets (except service animals)

•No Weapons of any kind

•No Bikes, Rollerblades or Skateboards

•No Drones/Aerial Toys or Equipment

•No Inappropriate language or behavior

•Zero tolerance for bad behavior

Midway Hours (Carnival, Behind AIT)

Friday Noon - 10 p.m. - All you can ride wristbands $25.00

Saturday Noon - 8 p.m. Tickets only

Sunday Noon - 6 p.m. Tickets only

Find out more at http://www.faydogwoodfestival.com.

Brittany Broome

Jack Britt• Tennis • Senior

Broome recorded a 5.03 grade point average while playing tennis for the Buccaneers last fall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacob Winkleman

Terry Sanford• Track/wrestling

Winkleman runs in the distance races for Terry Sanford and carries a 3.7 grade point average. He plans to enlist in the Marines after graduation.

Westover’s football team made a major step forward under coach Stephen Roberson last season, sharing the Cape Fear Valley 3-A Conference football title with Lee County and advancing to the first round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association football playoffs.

But the 8-4 record and a 35-34 first-round playoff defeat to a Jacksonville team that comprised the 3-AA Eastern Regional finals are history as far as Roberson is concerned. The focus this spring is to start taking the steps to be even better in the fall.

“I thought we were better than a one-and-out team,’’ Roberson said of the first-round defeat against the traditionally strong Cardinals. “We felt we underachieved and had a little chip on our shoulder coming back into
this season.’’

Roberson said the goal for the spring sessions will be fundamental work. He plans to give special attention to blocking techniques, as the Wolverines will be looking for three new offensive linemen from the junior varsity team.

Spring sports will cut into some of the numbers Roberson would like to have on the practice field, but he’s been pleased with the turnout so far. “We lost 20 seniors but we’ve got 11 starters returning,’’ he said. “We have a lot of experience, guys who have played for two or three years and guys who have played a solid two years of varsity.’’

One thing new this fall that Roberson has no control over is the new conference Westover will join. It mingles 4-A and 3-A schools from Cumberland County together with Overhills.

“When you’re a 3-A... 4-A schools in the conference you’re never happy,’’ Roberson said. “I thought we could have kept it a straight 3-A conference with the 3-A teams in the county.’’ 

Cape Fear and E.E. Smith are dropping to 3-A to join former Cape Fear Valley 3-A Conference members Douglas Byrd, Gray’s Creek, Terry Sanford and Westover. The new 4-A teams in the conference are Overhills, Pine Forest and South View.

“Those decisions are over my head,’’ Roberson said of the new split conference. “We’ll adjust and be ready to go.’’ That’s the feeling of junior linebacker Jayson Leach, who felt last season was a big step forward for the Wolverines and wants to continue turning the Wolverine program around. “We’ve proven to everybody we can win,’’ he said. “We want to be better than the next team.’’

He expects the new conference to be more challenging than the Cape Fear Valley 3-A was. “We have in our mind to be the best, don’t think anybody is better than us,’’ he said. “We’re staying focused and not listening to what everybody else in the county is saying.’’

As you’ll note elsewhere on this page, today begins the first in a series of spring high school football previews as teams hold conditioning workouts preparing for the 2017 season.

This year’s workouts are a little different, as the N.C. High School Athletic Association gave schools two options for how to hold them. Schools could have 21 players out per day for a slightly longer stretch from early April to mid-May, or they could opt for having the full squad out for 10 days beginning in mid-May.

We’ll preview the teams that chose the early workouts first: Westover, Seventy-First, Jack Britt and South View. Then we’ll pick up with the remaining six county schools who chose the mid-May start: Terry Sanford, E.E. Smith, Pine Forest, Cape Fear, Gray’s Creek and Douglas Byrd.

• Changes look to be coming for the N.C. High School Athletic Association playoffs as soon as the 2017-18 school year.

The N.C. Athletic Directors Association held its annual gathering in Wilmington recently, and central office staffers from the NCHSAA were on hand to discuss the possible new look of the state playoffs in all sports.

Vernon Aldridge, student activities director for Cumberland County Schools, attended the meetings in Wilmington. He said the change is being forced by the new alignment of schools which goes into effect for the 2017-18 school year. The NCHSAA has changed the number of schools in each of its four size classifications.
The largest schools are now in the 20 percent that make up the 4-A class.
The smallest 20 percent of schools will be in the 1-A class.

That leaves 30 percent in 2-A and 30 percent in 3-A.

Under the current plans in football and basketball, 64 teams make the playoffs in each classification. Football subdivides classes into A and AA based on enrollment with 32 playoff teams in each
subdivided class.

Under the new alignment, there will be less than 80 schools in the entire 4-A class. That would mean a little over a dozen wouldn’t make the playoffs, and that’s why the state is looking at dropping the numbers.

This will likely be taken up at the NCHSAA’s spring Board of Directors meeting in May. It’ll be interesting to see what they decide.

• Pine Forest High School is holding its annual golf fundraiser on Sunday, May 21, at King’s Grant. The individual registration fee is $65 and sponsorship packages are available for $100, $300, $750 or $1,500.

Registration is at 11 a.m. the day of the tournament, with lunch at noon and a 1 p.m. shotgun start. There will be door prizes and awards for longest drive and closest to the pin. There will also be a putting contest
at 11:30 a.m.

For further information on entering, call head football coach Bill Sochovka or athletic director Jason Norton during school hours at 488-2384.

The moment you surrender your life to Christ, a checkered flag is waved and you’re off to the races … on the greatest adventure of your life. It’s a race that’s already been won, yet one you’re committed to run for the duration of your existence. It’s a race the men of MercyMe have been running for a while, and 23 of those years have been spent making music. Their relentless commitment to faith, music and the gospel shows no signs of slowing down on their ninth studio project, aptly titled LIFER (Fair Trade Services).

With more than 9 million units in cumulative sales, MercyMe has seen 27 of their songs reach No. 1 across multiple Christian radio formats, in addition to garnering four mainstream radio hits. Their landmark song, “I Can Only Imagine,” was the first digital single in Christian music history to be certified platinum and double-platinum. Billboard named LIFER the Christian Artist of the Decade in 2009. In addition, the group has received multiple Grammy nominations, GMA Dove Awards and American Music Awards.

2014’s Welcome to the New proved to be one of the biggest releases of the group’s career, earning them two Grammy nods and four long-reigning No. 1 smash hits at radio. The album continues to be a top-selling title from a band that has been churning out hits for more than two decades.

Millard grasped the concept of the no-strings-attached grace that Christ offers … and it literally changed him from the inside out. And now, LIFER serves as the next natural chapter. If Welcome to the New’s central message was grace, LIFER’s core message is triumph.

“With anything, there’s a point where the honeymoon phase kind of goes away. Life will set in. Life is going to stink at times, and it’s going to be hard to remember that I’m brand new. That’s the way it goes,” Millard said. “We’re going to get this wrong a lot, but there’s never a moment in the life of a believer where Christ will ever say, ‘I’m disappointed in you. You’ve let Me down,’ because there’s no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”

The funky groove of the title track might have stretched the band’s sonic muscles, but the message fits MercyMe like a glove. “We’ve been a band for over two decades, so I think it’s OK to use the title LIFER and nobody question it as far as being in it for the long haul,” Millard quipped. “But at the same time, it’s who we are. The term ‘LIFER’ is typically used for someone in the military or in prison. In other words, they ain’t gettin’ out. They’re stuck in there. They’re in for life … It’s the same thing with a believer. It’s not something you can turn on or off or walk away from. Christ is now part of me.”

Many selections were an overflow of the abundant writing the band did for Welcome to the New. The breezy, soulful “Grace Got You” is a gift from that cutting room floor. The driving tribal rhythm of “Hello Beautiful” counters the enemy’s lies with God’s truth. Campfire closer “Ghost” speaks to the irony and mystery of the Holy Spirit, exposing some of the most creative lyrics of the band’s career.

But it’s the stunning “Even If” that is LIFER’s crown jewel. It was the last song written for the album and the first song sent to radio. “If there’s a moment on the record to reach people where they are, it’s ‘Even If.’ We’re ministers first. We’re trying to reach the hurting first. This song wrecked us,” Millard candidly admitted. “It’s just an open wound for me.”

Millard was thinking of his 15-year-old son, Sam, when he penned the song. Sam has been a diabetic since he was 2, and it’s been an uphill climb for the family ever since. One day, Millard shared his frustration with the ongoing thorn in his son’s side with his friend and fellow songwriter Tim Timmons, who battles an incurable cancer himself. Following their conversation, Timmons sent Millard a demo of a chorus he had co-written with Crystal Lewis years ago. Millard took the idea and ran with it, quickly writing the remainder of the cut through tears.

“The whole point of the song for me is the change that Jesus made in my life is so real and so life-transforming that if He went dark, if He went silent from now on, He would still be my greatest hope because of what He has already done,” he shared. “Basically, there’s not a single circumstance, I pray, that can derail me from what Christ is to me and who I am because of Christ.”

“The enemy never lets up,” Millard said, “but we have the Spirit inside of us that is telling us over and over, ‘You are enough because of Christ in you... On my worst day, Christ is OK with me. He adores me. He’s pleased with me. How is that possible? No clue, but it is,” he affirmed. “That’s the most amazing news of all. That’s the point of the album. That’s the reason we keep making records.”

Content provided by Fair Trade Music Services.

Interesting that they chose to call the film Life (106 minutes), considering the complete lack of vitality displayed onscreen. After about 30 minutes, all I could think was: In space, no one can hear you yawn. Little wonder the studio moved the release date from the weekend that Alien: Covenantwas scheduled to open … it’s one thing to release a low-rent Alienknockoff. It’s entirely another to release it the same weekend that Ridley Scott is set to revive the franchise.

The plot revolves around the trapped-in-space chestnut, with six characters on the International Space Station desperately trying to ignite a plot spark. The film begins with the capture of a space probe carrying a soil sample from Mars. Over time, British biologist Hugh Derry (Ariyon Bakare) is able to extract a cell and grow extraterrestrial life with the power of his full pouting lips and come hither eyes. At this point, the alien life could have evolved into a sexy space lady, like Species. That was a good movie. Would anyone disagree that every bad science fiction movie could be saved with a sexy space lady?

Center for Disease Control representative Dr. Miranda North (Rebecca Ferguson) flips through the script for Alienand determines the creature they are nurturing is a perfect killing machine. It does not have acid for blood, though. The crew allows the children of Earth to name the creature, probably because, like Earth children sent to daycare, it is extra-aggressive. I would have picked Elder Thing because nobody beats Lovecraft for names. They go with Calvin.

Calvin is surprisingly sensitive to changes in the environment, and a whoopsie with the atmosphere causes it to go dormant. Hugh repeatedly pokes it with an electric prod. To the surprise of no one, Calvin takes this personal, wraps around Hugh’s hand and crushes it to powder. Hugh passes out from the pain, which I can’t imagine Ripley doing, but I can’t imagine Ripley being as dumb as these scientists either. When Calvin escapes its containment cube, I expected an immediate resolution. What space scientists would be so stupid to begin growing a possibly hostile alien life form, but not have a protocol for flushing the oxygen from the room in case it escapes? Or dropping the temperature? Or rapidly changing the atmospheric pressure? Or jettisoning the entire compartment into space? Idiots.

At this point, the slow slide into unwise behavior accelerates. An engineer named Rory (Ryan Reynolds) opens the door to rescue Hugh, irresponsibly exposing the entire crew to further risk from the patently homicidal new life form. After floating Hugh out of the room, he flips through the Aliens script and finds out that Ripley went after a bunch of Xenomorphs with flamethrowers, so he tries that.
Spoiler alert: this fails.

Calvin continues to mow through the crew as they frantically flip through rejected plot points for Alien 3to get ideas on what to do next. Since Alien 3was terrible, they get nothing. The Japanese pilot Sho Murakami (Hiroyuki Sanada) has some brief moments of not being too foolish to live, but his flash of brilliance isn’t enough to resolve anything plot-related. 

Overall, I was bored. The various characters were fine individuals, but as a collective I wanted Calvin to eat them all, except Sho Murakami. The ending somewhat redeemed the previous hour and forty minutes, and I sort of wish for a sequel that picks up on Earth. Sort of.

Now playing at Patriot 14 + IMAX.

Sweet Tea Shakespeare presents “As You Like LIT” at the Arts Council, April 21 at 7:30 p.m. This program is the third production in the Lit Series, in which the Sweet Tea troupe interprets classic Shakespearean works in new and innovative ways.  “We use the original text, cut down to the essential storyline, but peppered with modern language to make sure the audience is getting the full meaning of all the lines.  Shakespeare was popular entertainment in his time, and people are often surprised by how many raunchy jokes are hidden within that seemingly ‘fancy’ language,” Director Marie Lowe explained. 

Another unique part of the show is the role of the audience. In a traditional play the audience would just quietly observe, but the Lit Series aims to make the stories much more engaging. “There is no fourth wall in a Lit show. If we’re at a wrestling match, audience members are spectators at the match; if we’re at a wedding, they’re wedding guests,” Lowe said. “The audience participates throughout the show— it could be anything from contributing to our infamous ‘Monologue Mad Libs’ to playing a drinking game or a small walk-on role. However, all audience participation is strictly voluntary. No one gets hauled onstage unless they want to be.” Because each show relies on the audience so intensely, the experience is incredibly unique to each performance. This is further enhanced by the fact that each show is only presented for a night and each performance is hosted in a different venue; and each space can come with its own challenges. 

Of course, the crucial role of the audience can pose a little bit of a challenge for the actors as they prepare for the performance. It is hard to simulate that live experience during rehearsal, but this unpredictability also creates an incredibly rewarding experience. There is a lot of creativity in this sort of performance. 

“The main difference in rehearsing a Lit show is how collaborative the process is. Actors help create their own characters, but also the jokes, songs and drinking games we use. One of my favorite pieces of feedback came from a cast member who said that being in a Lit show was the best because the audience gets to see and participate in all of the fun we have in rehearsal,” Lowe said. 

The show on April 21 begins at 7:30 p.m., but preshow entertainment begins at 6:45 p.m. It will feature live music performed by The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers, also called WoCo. In addition to fantastic and fun music, this is also an opportunity for audience members to get acquainted with how this style of performance works. 

“For the Lit shows, we sing some songs that everyone will know, and pre-show is when we solicit volunteers for drinking games and other audience participation pieces,” Lowe said. “I’d strongly recommend coming for the entire pre-show— seating is first-come, first-served, and it’s also the best time to get your food and drinks!”

While the Lit series is all about having fun and engaging with the audience, it is still about great theater and incredible actors. “We’re a company full of Shakespeare traditionalists, and this is how we have fun! Amongst all the silliness, traditionalists will recognize we’re using early modern staging conditions, such as static lighting and casting across genders, and achieving the kind of festive atmosphere for which Shakespeare’s troupe was known,” Lowe explained. 

For more information and to learn about the other incredible productions that Sweet Tea Shakespeare will be presenting this season, visit : http://www.sweetteashakespeare.com.

A joint committee of Fayetteville and Cumberland County elected officials, along with the mayors of the County’s small towns, met for the first time to discuss the future of sales tax distribution. At issue is how millions of dollars of local sales tax revenues are distributed annually. 

City Council had named four of its members to a standing committee, but County Commission Chairman Glenn Adams allowed only two of them at the table. Commissioner Jeanette Council presided at the meeting and intimated her favored outcome was to leave things as they are. After an hour or so of discussion, Mayor Nat Robertson used a parliamentary maneuver to adjourn the meeting. Adams wanted committee members to vote on the controversial issue rather than continue negotiations.  

County Commissioners have the authority to select from two sales tax distribution methods, one of which is based on population and is currently used. As the city has grown to almost 210,000, it has benefited from that method, which has been used for many years. 

A caveat that city officials would like to see done away with is a side agreement that the city rebate to the County and the other towns 50 percent of sales taxes collected in areas annexed by the city 13 years ago. The rebate is the heart of the issue. 

Mayor Nat Robertson wants to phase it out over a period of several years. The County wants to leave the current agreement in place for years to come. While he doesn’t agree with Robertson entirely, committee member Mitch Colvin said there should be room for compromise. 

Commissioners have threatened to adopt the other method of taxation which distributes revenue by tax district. Because the entire County is its tax district, the County would benefit and the city would immediately lose more than $4 million a year. 

Spring Lake Mayor Chris Rey suggested that cooler heads meet on another day. He and the mayors of Hope Mills, Stedman, Falcon, Linden, Wade and Eastover also favor the current tax method because they all receive small rebates from the city of Fayetteville.

The meeting adjourned with most in attendance agreeing that the city should come to the next session with a specific proposal for change that others could agree to. That’s going to be difficult for Fayetteville City Council because not all members agree with Robertson. He believes the city should receive all sales tax revenue in areas annexed during the “big bang” when nearly 50,000 residents were taken into the city. 

Council member Jim Arp, who was not allowed to speak during the meeting, told Up & Coming Weekly that as Fayetteville’s commercial and business development grows, all units of government benefit from increased sales taxes. “Our council has some work to do to come up with a plan,” said Councilman Kirk deViere. He also attended the meeting but was not seated at the table.

A joint committee of Fayetteville and Cumberland County elected officials, along with the mayors of the County’s small towns, met for the first time to discuss the future of sales tax distribution. At issue is how millions of dollars of local sales tax revenues are distributed annually. 

City Council had named four of its members to a standing committee, but County Commission Chairman Glenn Adams allowed only two of them at the table. Commissioner Jeanette Council presided at the meeting and intimated her favored outcome was to leave things as they are. After an hour or so of discussion, Mayor Nat Robertson used a parliamentary maneuver to adjourn the meeting. Adams wanted committee members to vote on the controversial issue rather than continue negotiations.  

County Commissioners have the authority to select from two sales tax distribution methods, one of which is based on population and is currently used. As the city has grown to almost 210,000, it has benefited from that method, which has been used for many years. 

A caveat that city officials would like to see done away with is a side agreement that the city rebate to the County and the other towns 50 percent of sales taxes collected in areas annexed by the city 13 years ago. The rebate is the heart of the issue. 

Mayor Nat Robertson wants to phase it out over a period of several years. The County wants to leave the current agreement in place for years to come. While he doesn’t agree with Robertson entirely, committee member Mitch Colvin said there should be room for compromise. 

Commissioners have threatened to adopt the other method of taxation which distributes revenue by tax district. Because the entire County is its tax district, the County would benefit and the city would immediately lose more than $4 million a year. 

Spring Lake Mayor Chris Rey suggested that cooler heads meet on another day. He and the mayors of Hope Mills, Stedman, Falcon, Linden, Wade and Eastover also favor the current tax method because they all receive small rebates from the city of Fayetteville.

The meeting adjourned with most in attendance agreeing that the city should come to the next session with a specific proposal for change that others could agree to. That’s going to be difficult for Fayetteville City Council because not all members agree with Robertson. He believes the city should receive all sales tax revenue in areas annexed during the “big bang” when nearly 50,000 residents were taken into the city. 

Council member Jim Arp, who was not allowed to speak during the meeting, told Up & Coming Weekly that as Fayetteville’s commercial and business development grows, all units of government benefit from increased sales taxes. “Our council has some work to do to come up with a plan,” said Councilman Kirk deViere. He also attended the meeting but was not seated at the table.

The New York Police Department’s long-anticipated plan to outfit its officers with body cameras is being rolled out this month. Some critics are trying to block it. About 50 officers working the 4 p.m. to midnight shift in Manhattan’s 34th Precinct will be the first to add body cams to their standard uniforms. “We have hit the point where we really can’t learn anymore by reading and talking,” said Assistant Commissioner Nancy Hoppock of the NYPD’s risk management bureau. The NYPD’s policies do not vary much from those adopted years ago by Fayetteville Police. The FPD was one of the first major North Carolina city police departments to outfit its patrol officers with cameras. As in New York, policy does not require that cameras record all police encounters, despite the potential for low-level encounters to quickly escalate. 

Anthony Kelly, Fayetteville’s interim police chief, said cops are to turn on their cameras as they arrive on the scenes of incidents that are not clear to them. Once they determine situations are not confrontational, they can turn them off.  “But the cameras are to be reactivated as soon as officers sense something may go sideways,” said Kelly. It’s a judgement call, but Kelly noted poor judgment can be disciplined. The devices automatically record whatever occurred thirty seconds before they were turned on, he added.  

It would be cost prohibitive for officers to record every minute of their tours, officials said. “The initial purchase (of the cameras) included storage … for a period of 5 years,” said Lt. Todd Joyce. Use of the Microsoft Cloud for video and audio storage costs $77,100 per year for a period of 5 years, or $385,500, he said.

Officers have no control over downloading, editing or storage. Camera content is downloaded automatically as officers end their tours of duty. They may view video recordings before writing up their reports to make sure they are in sync. NYPD critics say that would allow officers to tailor their version of events to what was recorded and undermines the cameras’ effectiveness as an accountability tool, and contradicts transparency.

“Reality-based training has revealed that stressful situations can result in incomplete recollection,” Chief Kelly countered, so he said it makes sense for officers to review recordings in those instances. State law does not allow the general public to view video of controversial situations. Victims and others portrayed in videos, as well as accused perpetrators, can view recordings during supervised screenings. It takes an order from a district court judge for a video to be released to the public. 

Police body cameras “increase officer safety and reduce department liability,” according to Law & Ordermagazine. The Fayetteville Police Department’s 300 uniformed patrol officers wear them, as do Hope Mills and Spring Lake cops. Body cameras have been embraced by many law enforcement agencies following controversial interactions between officers and suspects. The Fayetteville Police Department has spent more than a million dollars on body cameras, much of it grant money. The cameras are worn on officers’ uniform collars or lapels. 

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and detectives with Fayetteville Police Department’s Cold Case Sexual Assault Unit are working to clear several cases
with arrests. 

A focus for one of the active investigations is the assailant police have dubbed the “doo-rag rapist.” He is accused of assaulting nearly a dozen women over the course of one year, seven years ago. Victims said his face was covered each time and he wore a doo rag. The rapes occurred at night at various apartment complexes between June 2009 and July 2010. Detectives worked with the victims to compose a sketch of the suspect. He was described as in his 20s at the time. He stood 5’9” to 6’ tall, weighing between 160 and 200 pounds. The same suspect’s DNA was recovered at several of the crime scenes. 

“The doo rag rapist is tied to at least eleven attacks,” said Police Lt. John Somerindyke, but detectives have not been able to identify him. Many states, including North Carolina, now take DNA samples of suspects accused of major crimes for identification purposes. 

This subject’s DNA is not in the data base. Authorities said the attacks took place in Fayetteville and the Hope Mills area. None of the victims suffered any other injuries. Somerindyke said the perpetrator apparently stalked the women before forcing his way into their apartments and overpowering them. He knew they were alone at the time. Two of the victims told police he smelled strongly of cigarettes. At least one said she thought he was intoxicated.

Most of the victims no longer live in Fayetteville, police said. “Victims of rape never get over the trauma of being assaulted, and are always looking over their shoulders,” said Somerindyke. 

Rape Crisis Volunteers of Cumberland County provides companions to victims of rape. They are on call 24/7 for hospital and courtroom companionship. The organization provides victim advocacy and community networking, and conducts support group meetings throughout the year, according to its website. Detectives were awarded a federal grant to step up their investigations of cold cases that remain unsolved. They’ve identified hundreds of dated cases as far back as the 1980s. Lt. Somerendyke said older sexual assault cases are among the most difficult crimes to solve. 

Technology, additional funding and the addition of private laboratories to augment the State SBI Lab have expedited investigations. Since the cold case unit’s formation less than three years ago, 17 perpetrators have been arrested in 21 rape cases. Anyone with information on this case is asked to contact the lead investigator, Detective John Benazzi, or phone CrimeStoppers at (910) 483-TIPS. Information can also be submitted to CrimeStoppers online at http://fay-nccrimestoppers.org or by texting a tip to 274637. In the text box type “4Tip,” followed by the message.

Robertson to Seek Re-election

Fayetteville Mayor Nat Robertson is seeking a third term. “Since being sworn-in as Mayor in December 2013 as Fayetteville’s 35th Mayor, Fayetteville has become the envy of many Southern cities. In less than three and a half years, our city has accomplished more than any other administration in recent history,” Robertson said in a lengthy news release. Robertson had not indicated prior to this week’s announcement whether he would seek re-election. 

He has said repeatedly he would do so if no one of a caliber he believed up to the task announced. City Councilman Kirk deViere has hinted that he might run. Robertson defeated deViere in 2013. “Your City Council has … been moving Fayetteville forward by working together as a team and setting good policy,” Robertson stated. “It is with great honor and humility that I again ask for your support to continue serving as Fayetteville’s Mayor. Thank you for the opportunity to serve the community Kim and I love so much,” he concluded. 

Cumberland County Jail Health and Medicine

The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners has apparently decided it can get the jail healthcare system reaccredited if a private company does the work. The board has issued a request for proposals for firms to submit bids to provide health care services at the Cumberland County Detention Center.  The jail lost its accreditation last year when standards were changed and became more expensive to provide. Vendors interested in submitting proposals attended a conference and visited the site to view the facility and get a feel for the scope and nature of work to be performed in the detention center. Proposals must be submitted no later than May 18. Specifications are available online at: https://ccmunis.co.cumberland.nc.us/MSS/Vendors/default.aspx, or at the Finance Department, located in the Courthouse.

Cumberland County School Chief Honored

Dr. Frank Till, Jr., Superintendent of Cumberland County Schools, received the 2017 Raymond Sarbaugh Leadership Award at the North Carolina Association of School Administrators’ annual conference in Greensboro. The award is given annually to a member who has shown outstanding leadership in public school service as well as commitment to enhancing and supporting the efforts of the association on behalf of his or her fellow school administrators. 

Dr. Till began his career in education as a middle school math teacher in San Diego, CA. In 1999 he was selected as Superintendent for Broward County Schools in Florida, which was at that time the fifth largest system in the country. He joined Cumberland County Schools as superintendent in 2009. His commitment to public education for all North Carolina students is demonstrated through his ongoing willingness to speak out publicly on important issues and take on leadership roles to engage his peers in advocating for good laws and policies that govern public school operations. 

City Management Vacancies

Fayetteville City Manager Doug Hewett has a lot of senior management positions to fill. His priority is replacing retired Police Chief Harold Medlock who left at the end of last year. He told Up & Coming Weeklyapplications have been closed, and he hopes to interview four to six finalists by the end of this month. Hewett’s goal is to hire a new chief by the end of June. There’s also a vacancy in an assistant city manager’s office. Replacing Rochelle Small-Toney is not a priority because Hewett said he first wants to reorganize his office. The director of Environmental Services retired recently. Planning and Code Enforcement Director Scott Shuford is retiring soon. And there are two assistant fire chief vacancies.

Did you know if you get caught speeding anywhere in the United States, the State of North Carolina can punish you — on top of whatever punishment you received from the state you were speeding in? 

That’s right. According to North Carolina Statute § 20-16, North Carolina reserves the right to suspend your license for any crime committed in another state if that crime would result in a suspension here in North Carolina. 

You might ask, well, what’s so bad about that? Let’s just say you get caught speeding in another state. You pay the ticket, or even get a lawyer and go to court. You go through the entire process. You think everything is over. 

A few months pass and you receive notice from North Carolina. Your license will be suspended. This is exactly what happened to a North Carolina resident, an active duty soldier traveling in Alabama. When caught speeding, this LT did the responsible thing by not contesting and paying his ticket. Despite this, North Carolina punished him a second time, by suspending his license.

As written, NC § 20-16 serves to unnecessarily punish North Carolina State Citizens — just because we call North Carolina home. We are not waived from punishment for violating the traffic crimes committed in other states. Just like every other United States Citizen, we are required to fulfill all punitive sentences for violations of that state law. This statute serves to add an additional punishment, beyond that of the original state. 

When our citizens have fulfilled their duty for a traffic violation, it is unnecessary and unjust for North Carolina to submit them to additional punishments, simply because they are a North Carolina resident. This LT is a perfect example of how our citizens are burdened by this law. He “thought [I] was doing the right thing” by accepting responsibility and paying the ticket. 

And he DID do the right thing. This LT is an upstanding, successful representation of North Carolina, as are the thousands of residents that travel throughout the country every year. 

You might ask, don’t states have the right to punish how they want? Well, yes and no. Our constitution delineates a separation between federal and state powers. Essentially, states are allowed to govern themselves, but not 100 percent. This law acts as an overextension of North Carolina’s state powers. 

States are given the ability to govern the action of their own citizens within their state; however, governing the actions of their citizens in every other state is an over reach of power. Additionally, this law violates the Double Jeopardy clause guaranteed in our constitution. 

This clause prevents a citizen from being punished twice for the same crime. When a North Carolina Citizen violates a traffic law in another state, they are subject to the punishment. To punish a North Carolina citizen a second time amounts to a violation of the Double Jeopardy clause. 

There is a reason our constitution created a balance between federal and state powers. The combination creates a balance for the American citizen — a balance that helps protect our individual rights. When this balance is thrown off, as in this case, we suffer. It’s time for North Carolina to revise this law, because as is, every resident could suffer, and many already have.

It was a rather scathing question: “How did you feel when you were at your peak fitness?”

I twitched a bit, and then responded, “Great.” The truth is I did feel great. But that was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

In middle school and high school, I was quite the athlete. I wrestled 135-lbs and played football. At that time in my life, it was nothing to run five miles and lift weights four to five days a week. Even in college, I lifted and played basketball four days a week. 

At the peak of my fitness, I felt great. I even looked great … at least for me. Then life happened. I got a full-time job. I went on to graduate school. Got married and had four kids. The list goes on. Quickly, the gym routine fell from its place of priority in my life. 

A few years ago, I started going to the gym again. I started re-shaping this tired, old body into a picture of fitness (or at least that’s the goal). At first it was slow. But now I’m making real strides: I ran the Rock-and-Roll Marathon last week in Raleigh!

Our physical fitness is a great analogy of our spiritual fitness. 

Do you remember back when you were really on fire for Jesus? When you read the Bible regularly? When you were consistent in your quiet times, prayers, church attendance?

Let me ask you a question. How did you feel when you were at your peak fitness … spiritually? 

I know my answer. “Great!” 

But then life gets in the way. We start off with great strides. We’re studying, praying, reading, soaking it all in. Then life gets in the way. We miss a workout, then two, then a week and so on. 

Consider the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27: “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. … I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”

With all the hype on physical fitness, shouldn’t we give at least equal priority to our spiritual fitness? Some dedicate hours a week to the local gym … yet minutes (if that) to their spiritual wellness. 

Spend some time wrestling over God’s word. Sweat over your prayer list. Endure the process of becoming a follower of Christ. Let’s get back to our spiritual gym. Why not get a workout in today? 

For help, consider taking the tuition-free “How to Study the Bible” class at Carolina College of Biblical Studies. Consider us your spiritual fitness trainer.

Many years ago, I asked my father what he viewed as the best form of government. His response was “a benevolent dictatorship.” I understood he was saying citizens would be best served by a dictator who had absolute authority, but loved the people he or she governed. My thinking was that the American system was working, and I did not need to give further attention to Daddy’s response. As I look at what is happening today in America by way of the actions and attitudes of politicians, especially those in Congress, I have tremendous appreciation for what Daddy said all those years ago. He understood that fair and productive governance only happens when those who govern love the people they govern. 

This reflection on my part leads me to ask, “Members of Congress, do you love us?” That is, do these politicians, who primarily hold the future of this nation in their hands, love the citizens they represent and govern? Four experiences over the period March 19-26, 2017, cause me to ask this question. 

On Sunday, March 19, Carol Day died. For several months, she had visited the Sunday school class that I am a part of at First Baptist Church (Anderson Street in Fayetteville). Anybody reading what I write correctly concludes that I am conservative in my thinking and beliefs.

 Suffice it to say, Carol was not in the same camp. Consequently, we had some serious discussions in class from two different perspectives. In every one of those exchanges, she was calm and measured in her comments, while I exhibited my usual passionate tone. As I have spent a lot of time thinking about those exchanges between Carol and me, I believe if we had needed to come to consensus on some issue to directly help people, we would have done so. We would have done so because of our shared love for people. That love for people would have mandated our reaching consensus.

Then came my four-and-a-half-hour drive to Asheville, North Carolina, on March 23, for two days of facilitation training. All the way up, I listened to reports regarding Republican efforts to pass legislation in the House of Representatives that would repeal and replace Obamacare (mixed in was information on Senate action relative to confirmation of Judge Neal Gorsuch as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court). There was a parade of Republicans and Democrats to microphones. Some Republicans strongly supported the health care legislation, while others of the party vowed their opposition. Democrats did absolutely nothing other than repeatedly oppose the repeal and replacement of Obamacare, which is, without doubt, failing. 

Among Republicans, opposition came from multiple groups and several individual members of Congress. I hold that chief among the opposing groups was the Freedom Caucus. This caucus is made up of over 35 members of the House who are committed to conservative values. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairs this group. Meadows and members of the caucus seemed to be endlessly, before cameras, voicing their opposition and seeming to bask in having the votes to defeat the proposed legislation. Even senators, such as Rand Paul, R-Ky., seemed to live in front of a camera while attacking the proposed legislation. In the end, the legislation was not presented for a vote because President Trump and Republican House leadership realized it would not pass. 

The Democratic Congressional approach to addressing health care is consistent with their response to working with President Trump and the Republican majority in Congress on any matter presented by the president. To this point, that approach is to oppose whatever is put forth and to do so without making a rational argument. In addition to the proposed Obamacare repeal and replace legislation, this lack of rational argument was profoundly demonstrated in Democratic opposition to confirmation of Judge Neal Gorsuch to serve on the Supreme Court. It is clear that much of the Democratic opposition to Judge Gorsuch is rooted in Republican refusal to act on President Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland for the same seat. 

That nomination was made on March 16, 2016, 10 months before the end
of President Obama’s term. Republican Chuck Grassley represents Iowa in the United States Senate where he serves as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Lack of rational argument by Democrats shows in the following quotes from an opinion piece by Senator Grassley titled “The truth about Schumer, Democrats and Gorsuch:” “To many of us, it appeared to be a simple case of amnesia. They obviously had simply forgotten that both Senator Reid and Senator Schumer had declared that George W. Bush would get no Supreme Court nominees through the Democratic Senate more than 18 months before the end of his term. Or, even in 1992 when then-Senator Biden made clear his intentions in a long, detailed speech on the Senate floor outlining the reasons why the Senate wouldn’t consider a Supreme Court nominee of George H.W. Bush in his final year.”

Anybody watching the nomination hearing for Judge Gorsuch before the Senate Judiciary Committee witnessed a brilliant presentation showcasing his command of the law, record of independence, strong sense of humility and focus on following the Constitution instead of prejudging cases or promising results.

In the end, Judge Gorsuch was approved, but only after Republicans changed the rules in order to overcome Democratic opposition.

The next experience occurred during the two days of facilitation training in Asheville. The course was “ToP Facilitation Methods” (ToP is Technology of Participation). I would call the course tagline, “The people of planet earth need ways to create their future together.” Quotes from the course workbook:

“In Summary: ToP is not a technique for deciding something in a meeting. Nor is ToP a process that leaves people irritated and exhausted by the struggle to reach agreement.”

“Top is both an empowering culture in which decisions get made, and a process that leaves people enlivened and motivated for action.” 

Over the course of 16 hours together, eight strangers learned the ToP process and practiced the techniques. We became a united group and walked away with a valuable tool for leading people to consensus and commitment to action.

The final experience was on Sunday, March 26. Stephanie Bohannon, assistant pastor at First Baptist Church, preached a sermon titled “The Questions Jesus Asks: ‘Do You Love Me?’” She spoke from that passage in John 21:15-17 where Jesus, three times, asked Peter, “…do you love me?” Every time, Peter answered yes, and every time, Jesus commanded him to take some action. Bohannon explained that Peter was answering the wrong question. He thought Jesus was talking about Philia which is a companionable love. She said Jesus, instead, was referring to agape. According to www.mcleanbible.org, “Agape desires only the good of the one loved.  It is a consuming passion for the well-being of others.” Jesus was calling Peter to go “above and beyond,” to take great risks on behalf of people.

All of this brought me to realize Daddy was, in his statement about a benevolent dictatorship, saying that those who govern must have agape love for the governed. Remembering those exchanges with Carol Day reinforces that there is hope for consensus, even among those who disagree, when they share agape love for people who will be helped by the achievement of consensus. The facilitation training showed me how it looks when people seek consensus with a clear aim and because of love for those affected by the outcome. Stephanie Bohannon reminded me that this all-important agape love shows itself through actions, not meaningless words. Against the backdrop of these experiences, seeing how Congress handled the health care legislation and Gorsuch nomination prompted my “Do you love us?” question.  

This thinking-through leads me to conclude there are some members of Congress who love us, but most don’t. Consequently, the American people need to be about determining who loves us and sending the rest home. Yes, it is definitely time to “Drain the Swamp.” 

A million years ago, when I was a very little girl, my mother and grandmother — art lovers both — took me to Raleigh to visit North Carolina’s newly minted Museum of Art. Ours is the first state-funded art museum in the country, and its much grander current incarnation is the envy of states, even nations. That visit instantly turned a preschooler into a person who has sought out art in almost every place I have ever been. My first glance at that state-owned office-building-turned-art-museum took in a huge Gainsborough portrait of a woman wearing a full-skirted white satin dress. My mother saved that fine English painting just in the nick of time by scooping me up before I got my grubby little hands on what I thought was gleaming
white fabric.

I was hooked.

A generation later, a Precious Jewel wept every afternoon when Mr. Rogers put on his cardigan to signal the end of that day’s program. He would toddle to the TV sobbing, “Don’t go, Mr. Rogers,” with such emotion that I eventually learned to get him out of the room just before the goodbye music began.

He, too, was hooked.

Such is the power of art and culture. We cannot quantify or measure them, but they enrich our lives and separate us from non-human beings on God’s green Earth.
Arts and culture are not food, water, clothing or shelter, but few among us want to
do without them. 

It is now 2017 with a new generation of Americans eager to learn, but the president’s proposed budget would decimate funding for arts and humanities and public media. It would cut funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to a big fat zero and eliminate the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities altogether. No other president in our history has ever proposed such a drastic measure. Goodbye Bert and Ernie. Goodbye Downton Abbey and other Masterpiece Theater programming. Goodbye partnerships with state and local arts organizations like Arts Councils. Goodbye financial support for libraries, colleges and universities, and documentaries like Ken Burns’ The Civil War,viewed by 38 million Americans.

Let’s put the money into perspective. 

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting received $445 million in the last federal budget, with the Endowments getting about $148 million each. That entire budget was a whopping $4 trillion, of which our investment in public broadcasting and the arts and humanities comprised a mere fraction. According to CPB President Patricia Harrison, that investment amounts to $1.35 per American per year. That federal funding is used to leverage contributions from other public and private sources, giving federal dollars more bang for each and every buck.

Sounds like a deal to me.

No less a heavyweight than retired Army General Stanley McChrystal, hardly a stranger to the Fayetteville-Fort Bragg community and certainly no effete wuss, thinks so, too. McChrystal shared his thoughts earlier this month in an op-ed column published in the New York Times. He made a strong case for public broadcasting, noting among other points that more American children do not attend preschool than do, and that public television is an important teaching tool for them. McChrystal also addressed a reality that keeps me up at night — our lack of national common experience, in other words, little national “glue.” 

The general wrote, “Trust among Americans and for many of our institutions is at its lowest levels in generations, and stereotyping and prejudices have become substitutes for knowing and understanding one another as individuals. … Why would we degrade or destroy an institution that binds us together?”

The president’s proposed budget includes a massive increase in defense spending, which the general also acknowledged. “We need a strong civil society where the connection between different people and groups is firm and vibrant, not brittle and divided. We need to defend against weaknesses within and enemies without, using the tools of civil society and hard power. We don’t have to pick one over the other.”

No need to panic yet. Congress will parse and dissect the president’s proposal, and you can bet your bottom dollar that public broadcasting and arts advocates will be crawling the halls to lobby against the president’s stunning proposals. But there is plenty of room for concern. The CPB, NEA and NEH have been part of our national fabric for half a century, enriching and challenging Americans rich and poor, urban and rural, of all backgrounds and experiences. 

We undo them at our peril.