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Publishers Pen: The Best of Fayetteville Starts Now!

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Wednesday, 25 September 2024

Written by administrator

Left: Nat Robertson, President of the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce speaks at the Best of Fayetteville 2023 Party.
Middle: Bill Bowman, Publisher of Up & Coming Weekly presents a Best of Fayetteville Award to the Cliffdale Regional Branch in 2023.
Right: Representative Diane Wheatley, NC House District 43 talks to the attendees at the 2023 Best of Fayetteville Party.
(Photos by Royal Soleil)

For 28 years, the Up & Coming Weekly community newspaper has proudly served residents, visitors, and guests by providing timely, accurate, and trustworthy news,
views, and relevant community information, enhancing the quality of life in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.

Up & Coming Weekly is equally proud that our 27-year-old Best of Fayetteville initiative has survived the test of time in recognizing the people, businesses, and organizations who have been exceptionally successful in investing their time, talent, passion, and financial resources into defining the values and standards of excellence in our community.

Our Annual Best of Fayetteville readers survey is unique in several ways. We receive thousands of ballots and painstakingly record the comments and sentiments of our readers, who pride themselves on determining who deserves to be acknowledged and honored as Fayetteville’s Best of the Best.

However, our Best of Fayetteville readers' survey is not scientific. It is an informal, well-executed, documented survey that has proven highly efficient, accurate, and
incredibly reliable for the past 27 years. We make no claims otherwise. Our longevity, popularity, notoriety, and success bear this out.

The Up & Coming Weekly’s Best of Fayetteville survey mustn’t be confused with other local and online advertising, marketing, and promotional programs.
Our readers solely decide the merits of the winners by their survey entries.

We do not accept nominations, and no person, business, or organization must purchase advertising space, sponsorships, or event tickets to find out who the winners are.

Most importantly, U&CW’s Best of Fayetteville does not award or recognize 2nd or 3rd-place finishers or honorable mentions. We implement strict, well-defined, and monitored voting guidelines that elevate the Best of Fayetteville designation’s value, honor, and prestige. There can be only one Best of Fayetteville winner for each category.

We will again celebrate the 2024 Best of Fayetteville winners with an Award Presentation Party on September 24th at the Crown Coliseum Complex hosted by Up & Coming Weekly and the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce. This is where we will recognize and honor these local outstanding people, businesses, and institutions and their achievements.

The Fayetteville community, as our newspaper, has changed over the last 27 years. However, the Best of Fayetteville survey and our commitment to our readers have not. We continue to accentuate Fayetteville’s “Best of the Best” aspects. And you, the reader, is a significant part of the process. For this, we are grateful.

The Up & Coming Weekly Best of Fayetteville edition you are holding in your hands will serve you well throughout the year. It is a valuable visitors' guide, shopping, service directory, event, and cultural resource. In print and online, the Visitors Bureau, the City, County, and Chamber of Commerce will utilize this Special Edition
of Up & Coming Weekly throughout the year to promote the Fayetteville community and the people, businesses, and organizations that define it.

Since the first ballots were cast more than two and a half decades ago, Up & Coming Weekly has proudly told the Best of Fayetteville winners’ stories. With your votes and support, we are incredibly proud to share this year’s Best of the Best winners.

Please join me, the Up & Coming Weekly staff, and all our 2024 Best of Fayetteville winners and sponsors as we begin this year-long celebration. This Special Edition will be posted online at www.upandcomingweekly.com — with 24/7, 365-day-a year access to the Best of Fayetteville winners directory. While on the website, sign up for your FREE electronic subscription to the Up & Coming Weekly community newspaper and receive it conveniently on your home or work computer.

I want to thank our sponsors for their support and participation in making this Best of Award's Party successful. Nat Robertson, President of the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, Beasley Media Group, and the most critical component of any survey, Lee Utley of Utley & Knowles CPAs, have partnered with us for over two decades. Every legitimate survey needs the oversight of a competent CPA, and we have the best. Utley’s services have been invaluable in maintaining the integrity of the survey.

General Manager Seth Benalt and Asst. Mgr. Dorothy Strahley of the Crown Coliseum Complex did an outstanding job coordinating and setting up the Awards Party.

Last but certainly not least, a very special thank you to Don Garner and the entire Up & Coming Weekly staff, who have spent
months working tirelessly on this major undertaking.

Best of Fayetteville is our most significant and challenging event and the most popular and most-read edition of the year. With pride, they have gone above and beyond their duties to produce this award-winning publication. Keep it handy and refer to it often.

We sincerely thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly and supporting Fayetteville’s only local community newspaper.

Publisher's Pen: School Cell Phones, Illiteracy, Absenteeism, OH MY!

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Tuesday, 17 September 2024

Written by Bill Bowman

Dr. Marvin Connelly, Cumberland County School Superintendent, spoke "truth to power" at the recent Greater Fayetteville Chamber’s State of the Community regarding the commitment to providing quality education to all students in Cumberland County schools. His leadership has made a difference in Cumberland County education and has been recognized locally, regionally, and statewide for his achievements. We have the right man in the right position and time. However, too many parents and taxpayers are not pleased with the direction local education is taking or the decisions handed down by our Cumberland County Board of Education members. Residents are looking forward to the November elections, hoping for a significant change in leadership and policies to revamp local school priorities. This change would provide Connelly more flexibility to improve our children's educational experience at all levels.
On the street, when talking with parents of school-age children in Cumberland County public schools, the most significant concerns are illiteracy (their child can't read) and the use of cell phones during school hours. When speaking with teachers, principals, and school administrators, absenteeism is the biggest concern that needs to be addressed. This trifecta of concerns formulates an equation that doesn't bode well for Fayetteville, Ft. Liberty and Cumberland County's future generations: cell phones + Absenteeism= Illiteracy. Our current Cumberland County School Board seems to be ignoring the nationwide trend of banning cell phones in the classroom. CCS has gone on record for not changing its cell phone policy and leaving the use of phones in the classroom up to individual teachers and principals. To many parents, this shows a reluctance of the School Board to take a responsible leadership role in the advocacy for their child's quality education while ignoring the detrimental effects cell phones can have on young children.
Studies nationally and worldwide have substantiated that the overuse of cell phones is responsible for many childhood mental health disorders and extreme depression. Again, it makes one wonder where the educators’ priorities are. In Cumberland County, reading levels are 52% below state and national levels, and student proficiency in math scores is worse at 59% below proficiency levels. Children can't learn if not in school, and absenteeism in Cumberland County schools is a whopping and embarrassing thirty percent. That is scandalous and may be the origin of this poor performance. Again, it makes you wonder who is setting the educational priorities. Maybe, just maybe, cell phones could be a significant part of the problem, along with the lack of parental responsibility.
Our local educational leaders can't do much about parental responsibility; however, they can influence the school and classroom environment where our children spend most of their day. School is not just about learning to read, write, and do arithmetic. It's about learning social skills like manners and interacting with others by developing good, solid character traits. This is why banning cell phones from the classroom is gaining momentum nationwide. Seeing our local educational leaders take a proactive stance on this topic would be encouraging to our community.
It's no secret that cell phones reduce face-to-face communication and interactions with peers. So, students become isolated from their classmates instead of communicating with them and developing friendships and social skills. Teachers, teachers' aides, parents, and even students claim that cell phones in the classroom disrupt and distract from the flow of teaching and learning by their use, ringing, and notification bells going off.
Cyberbullying is another concern. Back in the sixties, when I was in school, we called it a "Slam Book," where classmates answered questions and wrote comments about their teachers and classmates. Even though it had the propensity to make negative comments, it was mainly passed around to a small circle of close friends with no mass circulation. It had questions like: Do you like Jimmy Jones? Yes or No. Do you think Billy B. will ask Jenny G. to attend the prom? Yes or No. What do you think of our third-period Civics class teacher? Do you think Mr. Howstead is cute? The content was never nasty or threatening. Besides, you knew the person who was handing you off the book. However, the use of cell phones and social media has made high-tech cyberbullying ruthless. Trashing another classmate has become easy and convenient for children when using their cell phones to send hurtful messages, spread rumors, or post inappropriate information about their peers during school hours. Information that is disseminated in minutes. Cell phones in the hands of immature children only increase the likelihood of cyberbullying.
In addition, there is the concern that cell phones in the classroom create the opportunity to facilitate cheating on tests and assignments by accessing information online (Google).
All the above concerns are legitimate. However, I will refer back to educational priorities. Who is setting them? WRAL TV recently reported that some North Carolina school districts spend tens of thousands of dollars on "pouches" for students to store their cell phones until the end of class. I think that solution is absurd. How can an expenditure of that nature be justified when there is a substantial lack of reading and educational materials and resources in the classroom, and teachers are spending their own money on basic school supplies? At some point, responsible educational leaders must address the correlation between chronic absenteeism, the use of cell phones in schools, and illiteracy rates and set priorities to ensure our children receive a quality education.
I applaud those Cumberland County teachers and principals who have taken responsible action to ensure their students are not distracted from the educational process and keep the child's education and development as their highest priority. I hope our soon to be newly elected Cumberland County Board of Education also addresses these issues responsibly in the coming years. Our children's future depends on it. Thank you for reading the Up & Coming Weekly community newspaper.

The high cost of toxicity for US Armed Forces

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Tuesday, 17 September 2024

Written by Margaret Dickson

If there is a single American who is not concerned and disheartened by the toxic swamp our nation’s politics have become over the last decade, I do not know that person.
Most Americans on both sides of the political aisle seem concerned about what division and name-calling culminating in the violent January 6th insurrection have done to our body politic. Closer to home, families and friends have been so damaged by entrenched feelings about both elected leaders and partisan political positions that some people who once cared for and respected each other no longer do.
If this has happened in your circle, you know what I am talking about, and if it has not, you are fortunate.
It turns out, there may be other measurable costs to our national security.
A Washington Post story late last month reported on the plight of a Toms River, New Jersey 6-person Army recruiting team struggling and failing to meet its monthly quota of 7 recruits from a list of 30 possibilities. The team is hardly alone.
The Army’s overall recruiting goal for 2024 is 55,000 new soldiers, about 10,000 fewer than the prior year’s missed goal. These goals reflect not what Army leaders believe they need, but numbers they believe they can realistically recruit from a shrinking pool. Of our US military services, only the Marines made their 2023 recruiting goals.
Part of the problem reflects demographic realities. Of Americans aged 17-24, only 23 percent meet the Army’s physical, moral, and educational requirements. Obesity is often a factor, as are substance abuse and certain medications. In addition, recruits must pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a challenge for many. About 23,000 prospects are expected to participate in a tutoring course for the ASVAB this year.
Less tangible factors are also at play.
The Toms River leader of the recruiting team, Sgt. 1st Class Dane Beaston, told the Washington Post reporters, Greg Jaffe and Missy Ryan, that he knew he would join the armed services from the moment the Twin Towers collapsed when he was in the 4th grade. Today’s prospective recruits view 9/11 and the wars that followed as history.
While many of our national institutions such as the Supreme Court and public schools have lost public confidence, military services still enjoy the confidence of about 60 percent of Americans. That said, only about 9 percent of young people say they would consider joining the armed services, down from roughly 16 percent two decades ago, despite perks such as educational benefits. Interestingly, as military service becomes more remote for many Americans, 81 percent of Army recruits come from military families.
Army leaders and recruiters understand that asking a young person to join is not like offering them a job. It is asking them to trust our nation’s leaders with their very lives, leaders who often sound like they are at war with each other and their fellow citizens. While our leaders yell at each other about threats coming from our borders and from a potential autocracy, it is understandable that young people on the cusp of their lives might not want to swear an oath to the Constitution of a nation seemingly at war with itself.
Recruiters like Beaston wish our country could “come together.”
The cost of not doing so could be high as the United States and its allies around the world work to deter nations like Iran, North Korea, and China. Secretary of the Army, Christine Wormuth, put it to the Washington Post this way.
“If we get too small, our ability to do those things is at risk.”

Time to take an unsentimental journey

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Tuesday, 10 September 2024

Written by Pitt Dickey

Kindly put on your Tom Terrific Thinking Caps.
Some of you may be able to remember Doris Day, a popular singer in the ‘40s and ‘50s. If you remember Doris, please do not drive at night. Also, be warned that Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z wish you were dead so they could get your stuff. I digress, back to Doris Day.
Miss Day (who was around before Ms. Day would be the appropriate honorific) sang a popular ditty called “Sentimental Journey” in which she warbled: “Gonna take a sentimental journey/ Gonna set my heart at ease/ Gonna make a sentimental journey/ To renew old memories.” This column is going to take on the changing meaning of the word journey.
In the middle of the 20th Century, a journey was something that involved actual travel across geography. Now a journey is something that Madison Avenue uses to try to get you to buy something. As Julius in “Pulp Fiction” would say: “Allow me to retort.”
A journey should only be considered travel across physical space. Not everything is a journey. Admittedly, people my age tend to shout: “Hey you kids, get off of my lawn.”
No less an authority than the New York Times produced a column by Lisa Miller in May 2024 opining that now everything was a journey. I had personally noticed that TV commercials had jumped on board the Journey Train even before the Times pronounced “journey” to be an experience rather than just covering physical miles. Journeys are now physical, metaphysical, and First World Problems.
Folks can pack up their troubles in their old kit bags and go on menopause journeys, fertility journeys, cancer journeys, faith journeys, divorce journeys, adoption journeys, hair loss journeys, reclaiming sobriety journeys, Lyme disease journeys, surviving toxic relationship journeys, unsuccessful folding of fitted sheets journeys, ring around the collar journeys, inattentive restaurant waitress journeys, inability to parallel park journeys, intermittent WIFI journeys, lost remote control journeys, bad haircut journeys, self-checkout grocery stores journeys, lack of likes on Facebook journeys, all my friends turned out to be insurance salesmen journeys, lost shaker of salt journeys, cold French fry journeys, rejected credit card journeys, excessive mold on cheese journeys, and expired gift card journeys.
You get the picture.
For example, people who are overweight and diabetic are now experiencing weight loss and diabetic journeys. These conditions can be alleviated by taking a Magic Drug. Just so you understand.
Strong men with tears in their eyes come up to me and say: “Sir, the Magic Drug ad is tremendously wonderful as it glorifies diabetes and minimizes its consequences. No one has ever seen anything like it. It is so incredible. No one could believe how quickly and easily it cures overweight and manages diabetes. It is now such an honor to get diabetes.”
Consider the manic big-boned lady in the ad who dances frenetically around while singing: “I’ve got Type 2 diabetes but I manage it well/ It’s a little pill with a big story to tell.” Like Doris Day, the Diabetes lady is beyond perky. She is at the hyperspace level of the Zeta Reticuli Star System of perkiness. If she were any perkier, she would be a coffee pot. There is a hysterical smile in every word she sings on her Sachrinereligious hymn to the Drug. She is surrounded by dancing overweight people all happily enjoying the Magic Drug. After her exuberant song ends, a male voice comes on to remind the viewer that, “the Magic Drug may cause serious side effects that include ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration that may lead to sudden worsening of kidney function, and genital yeast and urinary tract infections.” Curiously, we only see the happy peppy people dancing around for whom the Magic Pills work. None of the patients enduring the ugly side effects are ever shown. Perhaps they are in the ICU and don’t feel like dancing. We will never know. The Perky Lady finishes the ad by maniacally belting out “The Magic Drug is really swell/ The little pill with the big story to tell.”
Have we learned anything today? Once again, nope. Complete your “wish I could get my 3 minutes of reading drivel journey” by considering the closing lines of Miss Day’s song: “Never thought my heart could be so yearny/ Why did I decide to roam? / Gotta take a sentimental journey/ Sentimental journey home.”
Enjoy the finest example of the use of the word “Yearny” ever written.

(Illustration by Pitt Dickey)