Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

Your Letters

A market-based approach

I am writing in response to your editorial "Wishful Thinking" in the Nov. 4 edition of your newspaper. I would like to provide some additional information so you and your readers have a better understanding of Garner's downtown-revitalization efforts.

The Garner Revitalization Association was formed in 2005 to do exactly what you recommend - get the private sector involved in what takes place in downtown. Our current planning initiative, the Historic Downtown Garner Plan, is led by a group made up of citizens, elected officials and town staff. We believe this model is a good partnership between the public and private sectors and will result in a realistic and achievable plan that serves the needs of the community.

Garner is not trying to "arbitrarily create the viable downtown of its choosing." The process behind the Historic Downtown Garner Plan is a very methodical and market-based approach to revitalization and redevelopment. First, we have enlisted experts to study the market to determine the types of retail, commercial and residential needs that are not currently being met. We have limited our planning to include only the amount of each of these products the local market can support - down to the square foot. We have only included potential anchors that the Garner community has said it wanted or needed and that the market analysis determined could be beneficial to the area. (While I agree with you that a government building will not drive the traffic needed to support businesses, a visible public facility could have a significant impact in helping create a sense of place for the community.) The last phase of our planning process will be the creation of a Strategic Action Plan, with items for both the public sector and the private sector to start working on.

Achieving this plan will take determination and investment from both the public and private sector. It will not be achieved by either one alone. We believe that this planning process will provide both groups with the vision, strategy and tools that will be needed for a prosperous Historic Downtown Garner.

I would like to thank you for the thorough coverage your newspaper has given this project. We look forward to your continued assistance in keeping the public involved in the planning process.

John Hodges

Executive Director, Garner Revitalization Association

They can't take what away?

Today we are celebrating Veterans Day. On this day, as on many patriotic holidays in the United States, many Americans will probably be listening to the song "I'm Proud to be an American" by Lee Greenwood. Earlier this year, on Memorial Day, I sat beneath a red-and-white-striped tent and listened to an enthusiastic gentleman sing this song. The first verse goes: "If tomorrow all the things were gone I'd worked for all my life, and I had to start again with just my children and my wife, I'd thank my lucky stars to be living here today, 'cause the flag still stands for freedom, and they can't take that away." As I listened, a whirl of melancholy emotions rushed through my heart. Yes, we are a free people, and two centuries after it was founded, America is still a free nation. We still have most of our freedom, but who said it can't be taken away?

My friends, our freedom can be taken away from us. Some of the American rights and policies most articulated and loved by our founders have already been taken away. Many of our rights will continue to be taken away. And the most dangerous thing for us to do as Americans is to think we are immune to such a treachery.

There is a character in a movie that I love who says, "Julian, there will always be those who try to corrupt the pure." This character is right. There will always be people who undermine the necessity of a solid moral code. There will always be people who sit back and watch as something beautiful is marred and corroded before there eyes. There will always be people who worship at the feet of ease and materialism while the very essence of their being is ripped out from beneath their feet.

Fellow citizens, we are those people. We have belit tled the absolute truth of God's word and called it "political correctness." We have condoned perversions and called it "alternative lifestyle." We have neglected the needy and called it "self-interest." We have rewarded laziness and called it "welfare." We have killed our unborn and called it "choice." We have neglected to discipline our children and called it "self-esteem." We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it "freedom of expression." We have ridiculed the time-honored values of the people who built this nation and called it "progress." I ask, is this freedom, people? Is this what we have done with the legacy left to us by the sweat and blood of faithful Americans? Is this prosperity?

Not only have we wasted our own freedom, but we have also sat back and willingly allowed some of our freedoms to be taken from us.

You might disagree with me. You might think we are just as free today as we were when the nation was founded. Well, for anyone who thinks this, are you aware that there was a time in America when taxes were imposed only during times of war or to pay off wartime debt? Did you know there was a time when a man, standing on his own land, had the liberty to raise a new barn or build a new house without the permission of his state politicians? Did you know there was a time in America when it was unheard of to have to be licensed by the government in order to get married? This is just a scratch on the surface of a long list of encroachments on our rights by the federal government.

I am not against the practice of having a federal government. I am very much for it. But the people of a nation have to understand that they cannot just hand power over to the government and sit back while the government runs with it. We have to be involved. We have to hold our politicians accountable. We have to stop idolizing them and start to keep a watch on them. After all, they too are mere men. And yes, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but some of them do try to corrupt the pure. And we are too passive and naive to stop them. Get up on your feet, Americans. Learn about the principles written in the Constitution. It's not an encrypted document. With a little effort, you can understand it. I can, and I'm only 19.

As of today, the flag does still stand for freedom. But what about tomorrow? They can't take our freedom away, huh? Says who, I want to know? Says who?

Elise Allen

Smithfield

Will segregation return?

In the late 1960s as Durham struggled to implement integration, our family of unrepentant Northern liberals had the odd distinction of living next door to Joe High, president of the White Citizens Council. The Council established the all-white Council Christian Academy, whose lone yellow bus often parked in front of High's house. Joe's three older kids all attended.

As the unofficial civic arm of the Ku Klux Klan, the Council strove to gain respectability among Durham's businessmen and civic leaders. Joe was ubiquitous in the fight for segregation; he was often quoted in the old Durham Herald and the Sun. And he worked hard to put a respectable face on racism, never using the n-word (in public), but politely conveying his message of "separate but equal." His biggest bugaboo was busing: Kids belonged in their neighborhood schools.

Fast forward 40 years, move one county over to Wake, and on the newly elected school board you'll find Joe's five 21st-century disciples for neighborhood schools and (re)segregation, with their photogenic spokesperson, John Tedesco. John's not just against busing; he doesn't even want magnet schools used to achieve socioeconomic diversity. And he's quite open about his scorn for "those people" inside the beltline.

Come Dec. 1, this new majority will begin dismantling 30 years of progress, ignoring Charlotte's failed experiment with neighborhood schools. In 11 years that district has gone from 58 percent white students to 33 percent.

Joe High died a while back, but you can be damn sure he's smiling in his grave.

Mark Hamblet

Orange County