Municipal Vote Tuesday Nov 3rd

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THE BUTNER-CREEMOOR NEWS
EDITORIAL PAGE
THURSDAY
October 29, 2009
After election day next
Tuesday the Board Members for
Butner, Creedmoor and Stem
will all be in place for four year
terms.
One of the first priorities for
all three towns should be to
pass an ordinance to restrict
businesses which might present
a hazard to the residents living
in the three towns.
Having such an ordinance
might have helped keep out
such potential problems as the
hazardous waste incinerator,
the bio lab and several other
“prizes” such as a low level
radioactive storage warehouse,
a Super Conducting
Supercollider, a lead acid
battery recycling yard and a
new county landfill all of which
were targeted for the Butner
and Stem area and had to be
kept out by direct citizen action
with little or no help from
elected officials at least until
the elected officials were
confronted by tirades from
angry citizens who were
determined to protect their
community and their children.
If adequate ordinances were
in place at the local level a lot
of the taxpayers trauma could
be avoided by establishing the
fact that southern Granville is
a community which cares about
the areas environment, our
children’s health and the future
of our area.
Unfortunately many of the
town board members have not
shown major alarm in cases
when many of these issues were
The Butner-Creedmoor News
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Harry Coleman Editor and Publisher
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© 2009 by Granville Publishing Co.
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Obama, The Statesman
o The Editor:
olitics has become a nasty game,
erving only those who seek personal gain.
tatesmanship, on the other hand,
eeks to provide the best for every man.
presented. The majority of
the members of the Butner
Town Council still seem to
have mixed feelings about
the Bio-Lab project and the
Granville Commissioners
had to be lobbied hard to
turn against the Hazardous
Waste Incinerator.
The
County
Commissioners still do not
require the Granville
County Economic
Development Commission
to provide inclusive
information about the safety
potential or danger to the
air and water of new
industries which are
considering locating in
Granville County. The
County still however
provides a major part of the
money under which the
EDC operates.
A local ordinance aimed
at protecting our citizens
from harm could possibly be
overturned by state or
federal agencies if they
pursued the issue in court.
Still at the very least the
legal process could slow
down an undesirable industry
from locating in our
midst and facing a potential
court challenge may be all
that it would take to cause
a polluting industry to look
elsewhere for a sucker
community.
Good clean industry that
brings well paying jobs
should be encouraged.
The Town Boards
should, however, put
ordinances on the books
possibly with help in wording
the laws from local and state
environmental groups to
make sure that southern
Granville County doesn’t
become a giant dumping
ground for the worst
industries in the world.
Granville citizens decades
ago gave up their family farms
when the government took
their land to build an army
camp. They were promised a
chance to buy back the land
by the government but in
most cases those promises
couldn’t or weren’t kept.
Many citizens worked for
low wages for many years to
take care of patients at John
Umstead and Murdoch.
Many of these people have
sacrificed enough for their
government and their
patriotic duty.
The local governments
should take it on as a priority
to pass ordinances to protect
the health of these and new
citizens in the future.
Harry Coleman
Cloudy Horizon On The Coast
"This isn't over, not by
a long shot."
With those words, Joe
Albea left the room where a
state House committee had
just met. It was May, and the
committee failed to take a
vote on legislation that the
Greenville resident and
other recreational fishermen
were pushing to put two
species of fish -- speckled
trout and red drum -- off
limits to commercial
fishermen.
Albea, co-host and
producer of UNC-TV's
Carolina Outdoor Journal,
and a group called the
Coastal Fisheries Reform
Group had already suffered
a defeat before the state's
Marine Fisheries
Commission in January.
The nine-member
commission, which sets
coastal fisheries policy,
rejected a petition from the
group to establish tougher
restrictions on recreational
catches of speckled trout and
ban commercial fishing nets
from trout nursery areas.
Albea, though, was right.
It's not over.
T h i s
week, a
lawyer
representing
a sea turtle
hospital on
T opsail
Island sent
a letter to
state and
federal
fisheries officials signaling
its intent to file a lawsuit to
remove gill nets from state
waters. Recreational fishing
groups are encouraging the
suit.
The letter essentially
says that the gill nets --
nylon mesh nets typically
set in shallow-water bays in
200-yard lengths -- are
killing sea turtles in
violation of the Endangered
Species Act.
Assuming the lawsuit is
filed, it won't be the first
targeting the commercial
fishing industry in North
Carolina.
But it could turn into one
of the most serious.
Turtles are dying in nets,
A V IEW
F ROM
R ALEIGH
By Scott
Mooneyham
and fisheries
officials know
it's happening.
In June,
National
M a r i n e
Fisheries
S e r v i c e
observers, in
four of five
trips taken to
gill nets set in
Core Sound in Carteret
County, reported finding 11
turtles ensnared in nets,
four of them dead or dying.
The findings prompted a
warning from national
fisheries officials that dead
turtles at this level could
expose the state and
commercial fishermen to
prosecution under the
Endangered Species Act.
Meanwhile, the rhetoric
between commercial and
recreational fishing groups
has become more overblown
every day. Recreational
fishermen pushing for
change are "anti-commercial
zealots," according to the
head of a commercial fishing
industry trade group.
A $250 Donation
Commercial fishermen are
"indiscriminate killers"
operating "walls of death,"
according to recreational
Over the years, I've
once spent a night on a
shrimp trawler with a
fishermen and his wife in
blog posts.
spoken
commercial
with
fishermen.
many
I
Rattan Bay, at the mouth of
the Neuse River.
They're a lot like farmers
-- hard-headed, proud and
can't be told a thing about
their business that they
don't already know. When
times are good, they could be
better. When they're bad,
they've never been worse.
One of the worst things
that could happen to coastal
North Carolina is to see the
fishing villages and the
watermen's way of life
disappear.
But smart fishermen
don't dismiss a change in the
wind, a dark cloud on the
horizon. And you can't
always fight every front that
blows through.
bama, for example, a noble statesman is he,
e fights for the needs of people, from sea to shining sea.
urrounded, however, by politicians en masse,
aking it difficult for him to accomplish his tasks.
et us all pray for the rise of more statesmen,
or only they may change the way
lected officials by the people,
ill begin, serve and stay.
lory be to any statesman,
ho will step forward to aid the fight,
or you are needed now more than ever,
o prevent greatness from taking flight.
Yes, Obama is surely a statesman,
After observation, it’s so easy to see,
or he fights hard for the rights of others,
specially regular folks like you and me.
ow he’s been met with grand opposition
y politicians who practice their game,
rying hard to yield the same old finish,
ne with little purpose or gain.
think this time, however,
he statesman will prevail,
And will emerge with sweet victory
efeating a system that’s heading to Hell.
or just as Good overcomes Evil,
he statesman will set us free,
And free is how we all belong,
or it is the way God intended us to be.
o to our valiant statesman,
ontinue to wage your fight,
ur prayers and support given to you
ill outlast even the meanest might.
John Mayo
Creedmoor
This story begins, as
do so many dramas, at the
box office. We are standing
in line, three generations
defined by a three-tier price
structure: senior, adult,
child.
This provokes yet
another rant from the
eldest on the subject of
senior discounts. Why, I ask
again, should the "adult"
who carries the financial
burden of raising the "child"
be charged more than her
gainfully employed
"senior"? Can't elders at
least be offered the option
of donating our senior
discounts to some junior
cause?
I repeat this dialogue
and plot because my box
office encounter occurred
days after President Obama
asked Congress to allocate
$250 to 57 million
beneficiaries of Social
Security and other federal
entitlement programs,
regardless of our income.
This one-time special was
framed as a way to
compensate for the fact that
older Americans won't get a
cost-of-living increase in
their 2010 checks. "Even as
we seek to bring about
recovery," said the
president, "we must act on
behalf of those hardest hit
by this recession."
Well, sure, but let's go to
the numbers. This will be
the first time in 34 years
that seniors won't find a
raise in
their checks.
We are not
getting a
cost-ofliving
increase
for
one simple
reason: “The
cost of living
has decreased”
The checks
that rose 5.8 percent last
year -- largely on energy
costs -- are already buying
more this year.
As for the idea that those
on Social Security were
"hardest hit" by the
recession, not so fast.
There's evidence that older
Americans suffered fewer
mortgage foreclosures. They
were no more affected by the
stock market meltdown than
other age groups, and
retirees were obviously less
affected by unemployment.
And while, yes, they were hit
by rising health care costs,
were they hit harder than,
say, citizens with no health
insurance?
I'm not in the business of
fomenting generational
warfare. My own box office
story ended with a modest
generational transfer of
income in the form of tickets.
Nor do I believe in greedy
geezers. But this is a $250
moment.
There is no question that
some of the neediest
Americans are elderly,
ELLEN GOODMAN
AT
LARGE
especially
single women.
But age is not
the same as
income. Indeed,
poverty
among the
elderly has
gone down
from 35 percent
in 1959 to
By Ellen Goodman
10 percent in
2008. Today,
elders are half as likely to be
poor as are children.
So, why exactly would we
give $250 to every senior at
every income while poor
children remain in deep
trouble? How do we justify
the transfer of $13 billion or
$14 billion to seniors?
There are similar
proposals in Congress where
it is an article of faith that
you never go wrong pleasing
the elderly. Obama may be
wooing a population that is
least supportive of health
care reform. But this is part
of the same problem.
The president has long
talked about "responsibility,"
especially
among children. By 2030,
about 20 percent of
Americans will be over 65.
What are we asking of them?
To be nothing but passive
recipients of entitlement? Is
their only social responsibility
to remain
financially independent of
their children?
The word senior already
stretches over four decades
of life. Social security checks
go out to people who fought
in World War II and people
who were born in World War
II. The first baby boomers
are getting Social Security.
Boomers have long been
seen as the great change
agents of America, ushering
in one social movement after
another. But there's a real
risk that they could become
an I've-got-mine resistance.
I've always thought that
elders were the ones
designated by society to take
the long view -- back to the
past and forward to a future
when we won't even be
around. In that long view,
caring flows down the
generations.
Now we face this tiny but
telling test. The $250
moment. Wouldn't it be
something if those of us on
Social Security looked this
particular gift horse in the
mouth and said no to the
Congress? And if a check
arrives in the mail, wouldn't
it be something if elders who
are able, endorsed it to
schools that are meagerly
training the next generation
of Social Security
supporters?
Oh, did I mention that
the movie we saw was
"Cloudy With a Chance of
Meatballs"? The preview for
this country is "Aging With
a Chance of Bankruptcy."
And it's not just the box
office treating seniors like
children.