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Publisher's Pen: Chamber Coffee Club is becoming a Club of Distinction

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Tuesday, 28 May 2024
Written by Bill Bowman

4I have written several articles over the last year expounding on the relevancy and growth of the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce and what it has meant to the development of our local economy and our growing community.
The successful growth refers to the impressive 47% increase in Chamber membership over the past year and the organization's makeup. The Chamber now has a robust and dedicated board of directors under the leadership of Cape Fear Valley Medical Center executive Brian Pierce, providing guidance and support to the Chamber's president, Nat Robertson, Fayetteville's former mayor. Robertson has assembled a support staff of extraordinarily talented and dedicated professionals who mirror the Chamber's mission and mandates.
Economic Development: The Greater Fayetteville Chamber believes in doing business locally. Money spent here stays here. The Chamber attracts and supports local businesses, attracts new investments and fosters economic growth. The Chamber helps create jobs by supporting local businesses and positively boosts Fayetteville and Cumberland County's financial health.
Networking Opportunities: The Chamber provides over one hundred opportunities yearly for local businesses to connect, collaborate, form partnerships, and brand themselves in the Fayetteville community. This network of events leads to increased business opportunities, resource sharing, and collective problem-solving within the community. It also provides a platform for responsible city and county elected officials and staff to meet with business constituents to share insights and comment on local issues impacting business and the community.

Advocacy and Representation: The Chamber acts as a collective voice for local businesses, advocating for their interests at all levels of government. Fayetteville Chamber businesses represent thousands of residents who can influence the business environment's policy decisions to create favorable economic activity and a higher quality of life.
Community Development: Far beyond business and economic functions, Chamber CEO Robertson and staff have engaged in community-building activities, such as organizing events, supporting local charities, and sponsoring free countywide concerts.4a
This fosters a sense of pride and cohesion within the community. These efforts improve residents' quality of life and create a stronger, more vibrant community.
All these successful traits were on display and evident at the May 16 Chamber Coffee Club at Segra Stadium when Chamber CEO Nat Robertson and Director Emeritus George Breece addressed a "standing room only" audience to recognize Tony Chavonne and his wife Joanne for their long-standing contributions to the Fayetteville, Ft. Liberty and Cumberland County.
Chavonne, former Fayetteville mayor, the retired general manager of the Fayetteville Observer, and owner of CityView Magazine, received the Breece Legacy Award with his wife Joanne, who co-founded Fayetteville Cares. This nonprofit organization sent care packages to deployed service members.
The Breece Legacy Award is presented each year to a Chamber member who distinguishes themselves by practicing and reflecting the same business values and high humanity standards as the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.
During the same event, the Chamber's Military Affairs Council chair, Nicole Winget, presented Ft. Liberty's Garrison Commander Col. John Wilcox with the Iron Mike trophy.
This bronze sculpture is a replica of the 15' statue at Ft. Liberty as a testament to the dedication, courage, and sacrifice of the Paratroopers who have fought and served their country in the United States Army. This trophy represents a tradition that has recognized and honored exceptional leadership and dedication for decades. Col. Wilcox exemplifies that with his many contributions to the Chamber and the Fayetteville community.
These are only two examples of what outstanding leadership can do for a community. The Chamber of Commerce makes three. Good leadership is present, seen, and heard throughout the community.
I hope others will follow their example of constantly "doing the right things for the right reasons."
Everyone here at Up & Coming Weekly Community Newspaper hopes you had a safe and relaxing Memorial Day weekend and remembered and honored all those who have served in the U.S. Military and died defending our freedoms. Every Day is Memorial Day in Fayetteville, Ft. Liberty, and Cumberland County!
Thank you for reading and supporting Up & Coming Weekly.

 

(Photos- Top Photo: Left to Right: Chamber CEO Nat Robertson, Chamber Board Chairman Brian Pierce, Legacy Award Winners Tony and Joanne Chavonne, Chamber Director Emeritus George Breece and Chamber Board member Gary Rogers. The Chavonnes were recognized with the Breece Legacy Award, May 16.  Bottom Photo: Chamber CEO Nat Robertson, Chamber Board Chairman Brian Pierce, Garrison Commander Col. John Wilcox, Military Affairs Council chair, Nicole Winget and Chamber Board member Gary Rogers. Col. Wilcox was presented with the Iron Mike trophy, May 16, which represents a tradition that has recognized and honored exceptional leadership and dedication for decades. Photos courtesy of the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.)

Rapunzel lets down her hair: A fairy tale retelling

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Tuesday, 21 May 2024
Written by Pitt Dickey

6Howdy boys and girls. It’s time once again to take a stroll into the deep woods of Grimms’ Fairy Tales to expose the real story of Rapunzel.
Buckle up, as this tale gets a bit hairy. Pull up a chair, light up a stogie, put Johnny Cash on the Hi-Fi, and here we go.
Once upon a time, long before in vitro fertilization existed or the Republicans tried to ban it, there lived a husband and wife who longed for a child but could not get pregnant.
They lived in a starter home next to a Witch’s mansion. The Witch’s property was surrounded by a high wall to keep out the riff-raff. Their house was zero lot line and had a small window that looked out through the wall into the Witch’s garden next door.
The wife eventually became pregnant. She developed the powerful food cravings that sometimes accompany that delicate condition.
Every day she looked out the window into the Witch’s garden. She became obsessed with the lamb’s lettuce which is sometimes called “rapunzel” growing in the garden. She told her husband that if she couldn’t get some of the rapunzel she would die.
The husband, not wanting her to die, promised to get her some despite the danger. He climbed the wall one night and got away with the precious veggie. Like the first shot of heroin is free, his wife liked the rapunzel so much, she demanded he get more. The next night when he went back the Witch caught him in the act.
The Witch was angry and threatened severe punishment. The husband begged her to spare his life because his wife might die without the rapunzel. Playing “Let’s Make a Deal,” the Witch agreed to let the husband live but they would have to give her the child when it was born. This is known as a contract of adhesion.
When the child was born, the Witch immediately took the beautiful little girl naming her Rapunzel. The Witch home-schooled Rapunzel until she was 12 years old.
Then the Witch took Rapunzel into the deep forest. She locked Rapunzel up in a tower that had no entry except a window at the top. Rapunzel never went to the beauty parlor so her long golden hair had never been cut. When the Witch wanted to visit, she would chant, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair.”
Rapunzel would let down her hair, which was now 60 feet long, so the Witch could climb up. One day a handsome Prince was riding by and heard Rapunzel singing. He was smitten but could not figure out how to see Rapunzel. He hung around in the woods for several days, eventually hearing the Witch’s hair chant. When the Witch left, the Prince chanted “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.” It worked like a charm. Rapunzel tossed her hair out the window.
The Prince climbed up her hair into Rapunzel’s room. At first she was afraid of him as she had never seen a man before. Fortunately, he was good-looking. After some awkward conversation, they hit it off.
After a series of visits, the Prince and Rapunzel got up close and personal. The Prince, being a gentleman, asked Rapunzel to marry him. She agreed. One day, when the Witch came to visit, Rapunzel complained her clothes no longer fit her. The Witch immediately realized Rapunzel was preggers. The Witch went into a rage. She cut off Rapunzel’s hair and teleported her to a distant wilderness. Rapunzel was homeless, miserable and soon, the new mother of twins.
The Prince came back to the tower and did the Rapunzel chant. The Witch dropped Rapunzel’s shorn ponytail out of the tower so he could climb up.
When he got into the tower, the Witch confronted him, calling him a “fancy boy, a leech, a lounge lizard, and a high-born mongrel!” She pushed him out of the tower where he fell into briars that blinded both his eyes. The Prince then had to live as a wandering beggar until he heard Rapunzel singing.
She recognized him, skedaddling over to the Prince who hugged her and the twins. Rapunzel’s tears of joy fell on the Prince’s eyes curing his blindness. The royal nuclear family was now intact. The Prince took Rapunzel and the twins back to his kingdom where they lived happily ever after.
So, what have we learned today? Lusting after a vegetable can have unforeseen and unpleasant consequences such as child kidnapping, social isolation, a bad haircut, poverty, unwed motherhood, and blindness.
If Rapunzel’s mother had just stuck to the Brussels sprouts in her own garden, none of this would have happened. The moral: Do not covet thy neighbor’s lettuce. Eat your own vegetables. Children in China are starving.

(Illustration by Pitt Dickey)

Can government make you happy?

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Tuesday, 21 May 2024
Written by John Hood

4Is it the job of government to make you happy? While it may seem like a straightforward question, there are some important subtleties packed into those few words.
On the face of it, “no” feels like the obvious answer. The Declaration of Independence states that governments are instituted to secure our rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The first section of our state constitution uses the same language, while adding that North Carolinians are entitled to protection of their right “to enjoyment of the fruits of their own labor.”
Under our form of government, you’re not entitled to be happy. Nor are you entitled to enjoy the benefits of someone else’s labor. You are free to yearn, to strive, to pursue. You may reach your goals, and feel happy about that. Or you may not fully reach your goals, yet derive satisfaction from the attempt and from what you gain along the way.
Governments are obligated, then, only to protect your right to pursue happiness. Simply being unhappy is not a justification for governments using coercion to transfer the fruits of other people’s labors to you.
On the other hand, the tasks governments are constitutionally authorized to do for us — ensure public safety, administer courts, and finance public goods that cannot otherwise be delivered by voluntary means — are obviously related to our happiness. We pay taxes, comply with the law, and otherwise give up some of our personal liberty in order to receive valuable public services. If we don’t get them, or their value is far less than the cost, that understandably makes us unhappy. As government failures increase, that unhappiness turns to anger.
Whether in Washington or in Raleigh, policymakers typically judge public policies according to objective criteria such as the pace of economic growth, changes in personal incomes, levels of educational attainment, or health outcomes. Increasingly, however, some analysts are using measures of public happiness or satisfaction to evaluate what government does (or fails to do).
The technical name for what they are measuring is “subjective wellbeing.” People differ in their preferences, circumstances, and definitions of a life well lived. The best way to gauge how happy or satisfied they feel is to ask them, not to make guesses based on facts external to their personal experience.
When it comes to the optimal size and scope of government, progressives and conservatives clearly disagree. In the North Carolina context, for example, progressives think our state expenditures and taxes are too low to finance necessary public services. Conservatives think North Carolina is closer to getting it right, and that making state government bigger than it is now would cost more than the additional services would be worth.
I’m a conservative, and I often cite studies about economic growth to support my case. But is that really the goal? One might argue that instead of measuring North Carolina’s gross domestic product, we ought to be measuring North Carolina’s gross domestic happiness!
A few researchers have done that kind of analysis. For example, a study by Baylor University political scientist Patrick Flavin, published in the journal Social Science Research, compared levels of state spending to levels of subjective wellbeing. He found no relationship between overall state spending and residents’ self-reported happiness. He found the same thing for major categories of state spending such as education and public assistance.
However, Flavin did find the states that spent more on true “public goods” — including highways, public safety, libraries, and parks — tended to have higher levels of subjective wellbeing. With true public goods, it is either impossible or prohibitively costly to exclude nonpayers from benefitting from them, and consumption by one person doesn’t significantly reduce the ability of another to consume it.
Taken together with other studies showing a link between economic freedom and subjective wellbeing, I read this evidence as generally consistent with a fiscally conservative approach to public policy. Perhaps you disagree. I’m happy to talk more about it.

Editor’s Note: John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His latest books, Mountain Folk and Forest Folk, combine epic fantasy with early American history (FolkloreCycle.com).

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