Home > So, what do you think?
My new posterior protection ordinance …
It’s amazing how far government officials occasionally go to find names for plans or programs that do anything but explain what the plans or programs actually are.
Three quick examples:
- I remember sitting in a planning meeting many years ago in High Point as a reporter, listening to well-meaning officials talk for a half an hour about the value of “single-family dwelling units” to a community.
Single-family dwelling units?
Oh, yeah … “houses” are what you and I usually call them.
“Single-family dwelling units” just sounds so much more impressive in a planning department document.
- Have you noticed how members of Congress insist on calling Henry Paulson’s brainstorm for helping banks a “financial rescue plan?”
I guess that sounds more noble and responsible than what everyone else in the world is calling it - a bailout.
- Rocky Mount police much prefer the term “youth protection ordinance” over the new policy that requires kids under 16 to be home before 11 p.m.
To the rest of us, the policy sounds like a curfew. But I guess curfew sounds too bossy.
If I had had a little more sense when I was a kid, I would have asked my parents to refer to my own curfew as a “Jeff’s butt protection ordinance.” Because that was what was going to kicked if I didn’t get home on time.
That’s not very politically correct, but it sure gets the point across.
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Extra, extra - A historic day for newspapers
Telegram Advertising Director Mark Wilson had a great idea last week. Why not offer for sale full-color proofs of Wednesday’s front page, featuring the historic election of Barack Obama?
Sounds good to me, I said. I figured we’d sell a dozen or so to people who like keeping newspapers for historic purposes.
We printed six copies on the color printer in our newsroom and took them to the front desk. Then I sat down to put together an announcement for our Web site to let folks know about the offer.
Before I could even finish writing the announcement, Margaret Harrison, our receptionist, was on the phone to me.
“Do you have any more?” she asked. “Those have already sold.”
Wow. I guess that’s why we have Wilson in Advertising, where we can use his thinking to make money, and me in Editorial, where I at least know how to punch the buttons to make the printer work.
We’ve sold at least 100 of the reproductions since Thursday, and we have plenty more people asking about them.
Our color printer offers excellent reproduction at a really slow speed. It takes about a half hour to print 12 copies. As a result, we’ve been running the printer morning, noon and night to keep up with the demand for the Nov. 5 reproduction.
Jeanne Brown, a longtime Advertising assistant who somehow manages to smile through hurricanes and any other crisis that comes her way, is laminating her fingers off to make the reproductions look as good as they possibly can.
On Friday, we had to order more card stock and laminate to replenish our supplies. We hope to be offering the front page on card stock and laminate again by Tuesday. Today, we’re offering the front on proofing paper only, which still looks pretty exceptional.
I’ve written before about some of the tough economic times newspapers are facing. If we could elect Barack Obama president everyday, I think some of our financial issues would be resolved.
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Nov. 5, 2008
Elections bring a twisted kind of fun to newspaper offices.
We sit down around 5 p.m. Tuesday and map out the post-election paper. It’s a chess game process of “If McCrory wins, we’ll play him here,” “If Dole loses, we’ll put her here.”
We make a call on which pages are best suited for local races, where we should put the state results, how late we can wait on national stories involving congressional results and governors’ races.
Then we order sloppy pizza and wait for the polls to close.
In the middle of everything else last night, we also took a few minutes to ponder history.
The election of Barack Obama as president could not legally have happened a generation ago. If you had told me even four years ago we would elect an African-American in 2008, I’d have thought you were crazy.
As many strides as the United States has made away from an era of Jim Crow laws, poll taxes and segregation, the significance of Obama’s election can’t be overstated. That civics lesson every kid hears in kindergarten came true: Anyone born in this country really can grow up and become president.
We face the most overwhelming challenges I’ve seen in my lifetime: two wars, a recession, a country divided ideologically on so many social fronts. But we somehow put all that aside this year and elected Obama in a way that flipped over just about every conventional thought we’ve ever had about modern politics.
As I write this, North Carolina is still too close to call, although Obama has a razor-thin lead. We’re no longer an automatic “red” state. Whatever the final result, we are finally a place that will command the attention of both parties in elections to come.
Obama won a majority of the popular vote, something George W. Bush couldn’t do in 2000 and even Bill Clinton couldn’t do in 1996. There are plenty of John McCain supporters who are unhappy with Tuesday’s results, but no one can say this election didn’t reflect the preference of a majority of American voters.
No one knows how well Obama will govern. Maybe he’ll be great; maybe he’ll be a bust. But whatever his term holds, he will be in the White House because most of the people in this country want him to be there.
And however his presidency is regarded in years to come, the foundation for it began in front of all of us on Nov. 4, 2008. A day that history will never forget.
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Come on down to Jeff’s Bank (offer good for a few days only)
I’m thinking about starting up a bank. I’ll call it … um … Jeff’s Bank, not to be confused with Jeff’s Brain Trust because financial genius I am not.
Then again … financial genius seems to be an oxymoron these days.
I figure I’m at least as dumb as the people who have driven the economy off the cliff, into the swimming pool and thrown in a bunch of electrical appliances to make sure the thing stays dead.
But the big difference is, those guys are lining up to collect their bailou- … excuse me … rescue plan checks, and I’m not. Heck, I’m still in the office every day working with a bunch of other people who haven’t realized what an opportunity we’re missing.
Not to brag, but I think I can run Jeff’s Bank into the ground within a week easily. I figure I’ll either lend money to every person on the planet or I’ll lend no money at all … whichever looks worse to Henry Paulson.
Then I’ll wait for Hank to call while I’m watching football this weekend. Anybody want to bet on the Colts-Packers game? Weekends seem to be Hank’s favorite time for coming up with bonanza payout- … I mean, rescue plans.
Afterward, I’ll be in desperate need of comfort and consolation to help me overcome my heartbreak and loss. Can anybody help me out on that?
I hear the spas in California are pretty sweet …
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Pardon our reconstruction
Folks, I hope you’ll bear with us for a little while as we tighten our belts and try to figure out how to best serve readers in tough economic times.
Many of you have noticed already that we’re moving features around in the Rocky Mount Telegram paper edition and that our page count on several days is fewer than what it has been in the past.
It’s no secret that newspapers everywhere face rising expenses and diminishing revenues. On the expense side, we’re victims of escalating fuel prices, just like everyone else. We’re also paying a bunch more this year for newsprint - the paper we print on.
On the revenue side, we’re getting whacked on two fronts. Retail advertising is down because advertisers are trying to cut expenses, too. They’re also scratching their heads and trying to figure out how much emphasis they should put on the World Wide Web and how much to continue with traditional print advertising.
We’re hurting in classified advertising, also. One of the benefits of a strong economy is a growth in Help Wanted ads by area employers. With unemployment in the Rocky Mount Metropolitan Statistical Area at almost 10 percent, fewer companies are hiring, and as a result, our Employment advertising is down.
On the circulation side, we’re wrestling to hold our own. We’ve dropped a few hundred subscribers in the past couple of years, as have a lot of newspapers across the country. Our Web site traffic, fortunately, has grown in leaps and bounds. We hit 1 million monthly page views for the first time In January. In September, that number topped 3.7 million page views.
We’re trying to save money by reducing the number of pages in our print product. By doing so, we hope to continue to deliver local news, sports and features to your doorstep without costing you more money.
Naturally, that involves some anguish on our part. We targeted our daily TV grid as one feature we could cut. We include TV schedules in an insert that’s included with our Saturday paper, so the daily grids seemed redundant.
In dropping the grid, though, we had to find other ways of accommodating our Dear Abby, Bridge and Horoscope features. I get more than an earful from readers whenever any of those features is inadvertently left out.
The result is an exeperiment in progress. During the next several weeks, we’ll be tinkering with the Telegram to figure out how to present the features that are most important to you in a way that helps us meet our economic goals, as well.
Comments and suggestions are appreciated. It’s easier to keep from making a mistake if we hear from our readers before we cut out something that’s more popular than we realize.
Right now, for example, we’re wondering about the future of our Friday Tech page and our Monday Travel page. They provide interesting reading, I think, but if we compare their value to, say, Religion, Marquee or Health, I think they have far less local content and are less read.
Tell me if you think I’m wrong about that. And any other thoughts would be appreciated, also.
Finally, thanks for your patience and for continuing to read the Rocky Mount Telegram, whether in print or online. We value your business, and we know what an important tool accurate information about local matters is in your lives.
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Here’s a candidate everyone can support
A few of us in the Telegram newsroom were kicking around some of our favorite political cliches a little while ago.
None of them actually say anything, of course. But that’s exactly why they’re perfect for any candidate, no matter what party or planet they’re from.
Staff writer Mike Hixenbaugh has a new puppy named Bowie. I’m proud to be on the Bowie bandwagon.
Here are some of the things Bowie may or may not be thinking as we approach the Nov. 4 election.
Washington is broken, and I’m here to fix it.
We have to stop thinking so much about Wall Street and paying more attention to Main Street.
Children are the future of this country.
My campaign is going to focus on the issues.
It’s time to take special interest groups out of politics.
My opponent wants to throw out the baby with the bath water.
Well, that dog won’t hunt, Mister.
At the end of the day, America will be a safer, brighter, more prosperous nation.
My opponent wants to embrace the past. I’m here to lead us into the future.
It takes a village to build a bridge to the 21st century so we can take back our streets from the criminals and break the gridlock in Washington.
Remember: Vote Bowie on Nov. 4.
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They call this justice?
I covered enough murder trials as a cops reporter to understand the value of a plea bargain - in theory, at least. It’s almost always better to take a guilty verdict from a suspect than put the question in the hands of 12 people you’ve never seen before.
But theories have to go out the window at times. I’m just as bumfuddled as everyone else at the plea bargain granted to Mark Bowling. Rose Vincent received 29 years in her “deal” in exchange for testifying against the man who asked her to do the killing. Bowling may be out of prison by the time he’s 50. That’s justice?
Look at it this way. If Rose Vincent had never been part of the picture, chances are that Julie Bowling would be dead anyway. A stripper who talked to the Telegram last year told us Mark Bowling had offered her money to kill Julie. Who knows how many other women he propositioned the same way? Or how many he would have asked before he found someone else to do the dirty work?
Rose Vincent is no innocent victim in the case. But even if she was the one who pulled the trigger, it was only because Mark Bowling was pulling the strings that made her do it.
Bowling is a jerk, a coward, a liar and every other name you want to throw at him. Thank goodness there’s a place in prison for him. It’s a criminal shame he won’t be there for the rest of his life.
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Defining moments in presidential debates
Even in this age of YouTube ads, incessant polling and action figures, debates have the potential to define a moment in a presidential campaign.
Just a few examples that come to mind:
* 1960 - Get me make-up! Richard Nixon vs. John F. Kennedy. Even I was too young to see this firsthand, but we studied it in a political science class my freshman year in college. Make-up and coolness gave Kennedy a decided edge over a pale, sweating Nixon. A defining moment in the role of television, one that would forever change how the candidates and campaigns approached mass media.
* 1980 & 1984 - There you go, again. Ronald Reagan vs. Jimmy Carter and later Walter Mondale. Again and again, Reagan shaped Carter’s record in four words, each time suggesting that nearly every statement Carter made came from a liberal agenda. The phrase became forever linked with Reagan. He reprised it in 1984 for his debate with Mondale, who had served as vice president under Carter.
1988 - Would you favor an irrevocable death penalty? George H.W. Bush vs. Michael Dukakis. Dukakis had plenty of hills to climb as a liberal governor from Massachusetts. But his campaign got no easier on the first question of his second debate with Bush. Then-CNN anchorman Bernard Shaw asked Dukakis if Dukakis would continue to oppose the death penalty even if Dukakis’ wife were raped and killed. Dukakis’ answer was so wooden and unemotional, it’s not even worth quoting here. His response did little to rally a spirit in American voters.
1988 - Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy. Dan Quayle vs. Lloyd Bentsen. Vice presidential debates don’t often become national conversation pieces, but this one did. Quayle, a little-known senator from Indiana, was a surprise running mate choice for George H. W. Bush. Quayle noted during a debate against Bentsen that he had just as much experience as John F. Kennedy had when Kennedy ran for president. Bentsen, a longtime member of the U.S. Senate, leveled his gaze at Quayle and said, “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator … you’re no Jack Kennedy.” The statement did nothing to knock Bush’s campaign off track, but it was an early sign (and many more would follow) that Quayle was a lightweight on the national political scene.
Those are a few that come to mind. Any others you want to share? More important, what do you hope to hear John McCain and Barack Obama address as the presidential debates begin Friday?
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Who’s going to bail out the rest of us?
This editorial will appear in Wednesday’s edition of the Telegram:
Washington doesn’t do emergencies well.
The United States rushed into a decision to invade Iraq … because it was an emergency. Congress passed the U.S. Patriot Act … because it was an emergency.
Now comes U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pressing Congress for a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street … because it’s an emergency.
In every instance, the onus has somehow fallen on Congress to act quickly, whether the move made sense or not. Should Congress fail to do so, the fault somehow gets shifted to Capitol Hill because of the lawmakers’ “short-sightedness.”
Lord knows, Congress has been guilty of thousands of other poor decisions, and the bailout may indeed be the only sound course of action for the U.S. economy. But here’s hoping senators and representatives will make that call after hearing reasoned arguments and evidence - not on panic-stricken cries from the financial institutions who cared little about abandoning their responsibility during the past couple of years.
The $700 billion it will cost U.S. taxpayers to rescue lenders is more than the war in Iraq has cost us thus far. For that kind of money, let’s hope taxpayers get a few reassurances out of the bailout legislation.
As Wall Street struggles back to its feet and begins to turn profitable again, those profits should be returned to the people who threw them their life line - that’s U.S. taxpayers. And the notion that the people who steer the recovery should be paid handsomely for their efforts needs to be thrown out the window, also.
Taxpayers are dog-tired of paying through the nose every time trouble comes along - in airline prices, at the gas pumps, for failed savings and loans - only to see how well the CEOs and other corporate leaders line their pockets.
We’d much rather help the family down the street in danger of losing its house because of the sub-prime meltdown than write another check to a Wall Street tycoon.
If Congress can come up with a plan that addresses those concerns, we’ll swallow the pill a little more readily.
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The loss of an award-winning writer - and mentor
Sad news on the state wire this week about the death of Mary Garber.
Mary probably wasn’t well-known in this part of North Carolina, but I’ll bet hundreds of kids who played high school sports around Winston-Salem remember her. So do their parents.
Mary was a longtime sports writer for the Winston-Salem Journal. I remember her well from my earliest days in journalism, when I was a shaggy haired college kid covering preps on weekends 30 years ago.
Even in the late 1970s, seeing a woman sports writer wasn’t that big a deal. I learned more than I could begin to tell you about writing of all kinds from Sarah Sue Ingram, then a sports writer at the High Point Enterprise.
But what set Mary apart from - well, just about everyone - was the fact that she was at a high school ball game of one kind or another every weekend, every Tuesday, for every holiday basketball tournament and who knows how many other events that I never attended.
She was in her early 60s then. She’d climb the bleachers in her blue sneakers and knit cap, and she’d take notes and offer pointers to kids like me trying to keep track of fumble recoveries and technical fouls. Always with a smile on her face. Always with an attention to detail and an eye on her watch. Not making deadline was out of the question.
I didn’t realize until reading her obituary today how prized she was by her peers. She was the first woman to win the Red Smith Award - the highest sports writing honor given by The Associated Press Sports Editors.
She never talked about such accolades when I knew her. The kids on the field or court in front of us were far more important.
Mary Garber was 92 when she died Sunday.
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Trying times for optimists
A guy named Gil Stern had a pretty good line about the value of optimists and pessmists: An optimist invented the airplane. A pessimist invented the parachute.
Wall Street could use one of each these days.
I try to stay sunny about the economy. No matter what we’re going through right now, I think things are going to pick up in 2009, once we have new leadership in the White House.
I don’t think it even matters much to the market who wins the election. Investors are so ready for a change from the past eight years of misery they’re convinced that happier times are just around the bend. They can’t get here soon enough.
The optimist in me remembers that the Dow bottomed out at 7,500 six years ago. In October of last year, we hit an all-time high of more than 14,000. The optimist tells me to be patient. Things will turn around again.
We sure have our work cut out for us though, don’t we? In addition to fighting two wars, trying to keep gasoline prices under $4 a gallon and figuring out what to do about health care, the new president now is going to have to keep banks from going under.
I’m 50 years old. A lot of folks my age and younger have pretty much given up on the idea that Social Security will take care of us in our old age. Many of us have sacrificed to put money into 401(k)s. That’s where the growth is, right?
I don’t even want to log onto the Web site that tells me how my mutual fund is doing any more. But what do you do? If you stop investing now, there’s no way you’ll pull back up. So we keep the contributions rolling out of our checks every payday and hope for good news from Wall Street.
I’m still an optimist. But more and more I’m looking around for a guy who knows where the parachutes are stored.
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The mysteries of gas prices
My wife and I drove down to the University of Georgia this past weekend to visit our daughter and watch the Bulldogs beat up my University of South Carolina football team on television.
It was perfect Herrin timing. With Hurricane Ike threatening Gulf Coast refineries, the oil companies did what oil companies do best - jacked up the prices of gasoline everywhere they could get away with it.
I was fortunate to have three-quarters of a tank on Friday, so I figured I could coast to South Carolina before having to refuel. As most of us know, the price of gas is always cheaper in South Carolina.
Yeah, so much for that logic.
We kept an eye on the signs as we drove down I-85. It’s funny. Gas stations during times like these become a lot like politicians who don’t want to answer a question. The politicans mumble. The gas stations suddenly develop “technical difficulties” with their electronic signs. They don’t want you to know how much they’re charging, so the signs display incomprehensible blips and garbage.
It’s the stations’ way of saying, “Never mind the signs, folks. Just exit the highway, pull up to the pump and then we’ll talk.”
I finally gave up on finding anything reasonable and bit the bullet for $3.99 a gallon. Only it wasn’t $3.99 a gallon. It was $4.05 a gallon because I was using a debit card. We have to pay for that privilege in South Carolina, it seems.
Still, by the time we got to Athens, I felt pretty lucky. Stations in Georgia were typically charging $4.09 or more a gallon over the weekend.
Ike spared the Texas refineries, fortunately, and by the time we got in the car Monday to come home, I figured we’d dodged a bullet. With the refineries intact, surely gas prices would be back in the $3.50 range, right?
Well, no. You see, it’s important for oil companies to jack up the price of gasoline immediately when there’s the slightest hint of a storm coming. It’s not nearly so important to bring those prices back down after the storm has ended.
I paid $3.89 a gallon on the way home and considered myself lucky.
But between the gas station lottery and radio reports about fuel prices, I thought of a whole bunch of questions.
Why are gas stations allowed on Friday to hike up the price of fuel that was bought (and sold) at a much lower price on Thursday? It’s not like the storage tank is suddenly costing them more.
In South Carolina, the price of diesel is lower than the price of gasoline. In North Carolina, the price of diesel is more than the price of gasoline. How can that be?
Across the street from the station where I bought gas at $3.89 a gallon on Monday was a station selling gas for - no kidding here - $4.69 a gallon. What kind of sense does that make?
A Georgia Public Radio report told us the average price of gasoline in Georgia Monday was $4.17 a gallon, but the average price of gasoline nationwide was around $3.78 a gallon. If the refineries in Texas process crude for gas stations nationwide, why was the national average so much cheaper than the prices I saw in the Southeast? Aren’t stations in other states affected the way we are?
I don’t have any answers to any of those questions. They just made a long ride home from Georgia seem even longer.
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How do you choose a president?
I’m not trying to send any more bullets flying than there already are in this political season, but I’d like to hear from you about what goes into your thinking when choosing a president.
I know some people focus heavily on key issues. A candidate’s position on abortion, for example, can be a deal breaker for voters on either side of the debate. Others want to compare experience, voting records and other tangibles when making their decision.
I have a feeling though that a lot of people look at those facts, then try to get some sense of what kind of person the candidate is. “Who would you rather have a beer with?” has been a popular question asked in recent elections.
I find myself drifting more and more into that camp. It’s not that issues aren’t important to me … they certainly are. But more and more, I think candidates tend to position themselves according to what they think will have the broader appeal. Maybe not on moral issues, but certainly on questions like offshore drilling.
I don’t mind those changes of heart. They happen to every single one of us at some time or another. In political campaigns, of course, they’re called flip-flops and they’re exaggerated to become the biggest sins a candidate can commit. In reality, I just want to know if the guy (or gal) is changing horses because it’s the right thing to do … or because some special interest group is calling in a favor.
That might sound shallow to some people, but I have to think it has a little more substance to it than lipstick or the number of houses someone remembers owning.
So, how are you going to decide whom to vote for?
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So, how bad was Hanna?
We lost a pretty good-sized limb from a tree in the front yard at my house, but other than that, we’ve been very fortunate.
How about you? Do you know of any power outages? Any serious damage? Anyone who needs help and hasn’t received it?
Or post here if you just want to say “Thank God, it wasn’t any worse than it was.”
Hope you’re all safe.
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Hurricane slams coast; journalists drenched by cliches
So, have you made that grocery store run yet? Got milk? Bread? Bottled water? Batteries?
Most important … have you hunkered down?
Hurricanes bring out the cliches in journalists like almost no other event. Headline writers get to use words like pound, slam, clobber, devastate. The TV guys tell us to hunker down so often, the phrase could be its own drinking game.
Even hurricane preparations bring out a steady stream of familiar reports. For a long time I’ve wondered if there’s a law that says TV cameras can’t photograph men nailing plywood over windows unless the men agree to take off their shirts first. And the men in question are almost always people who really shouldn’t be taking off their shirts for television cameras.
My other peeve is the TV weather people’s choice of location for reporting hurricane news. They always stand outside, no matter how hard it’s raining or blowing, and when they’re not telling us yet again to hunker down, they’re looking concerned and warning: “Whatever you do, don’t go outside!”
Do they listen to themselves?
And is it just me, or does it seem a little too coincidental that signs always happen to blow by the weather guys as they’re standing outside telling us not to do what they’re doing? I don’t know. The first few times, it seemed cool, but lately it seems to happen on every single shot on every single station.
Do you think they’ve got some guy standing off-camera, flinging signs at the weather guys to make the storm seem even stormier? And if so, why the heck isn’t that guy hunkered down? The reporters might be missing a screw for standing outside under such conditions, but at least they get to express their concern on camera.
The rest of the crew are just out there getting soaked.
I’m hoping Hanna makes a sudden right turn between now and Saturday and we won’t have to see any of the above. But don’t take any chances. Buy some bread and plywood and maybe a sign or two to fling.
And for gosh sakes … hunker … oh, I can’t even say it.
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Earth to media: Leave the girl alone
In all the scolding and what-does-this-mean-ing surrounding Sarah Palin’s daughter over Labor Day, something really big got lost.
She’s a kid, for crying out loud. Her whole world flipped upside down a few months ago. Her pregnancy is now being examined like no 17-year-old’s who ever came before her.
Lord knows, there are plenty of issues to discuss about her mom’s candidacy. We can only hope that the TV heads and pundits eventually get around to things like foreign policy, the economy and the price of gasoline.
But for now, it seems we’re far more interested in the impact of her pregnancy on the ticket. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a poll: Does Bristol’s pregnancy help John McCain or not? You decide.
There’s a reason most 17-year-olds still go to school and live at home. They’re kids. They make mistakes. That’s part of what being a kid is about. Growing up the hard way, on occasion. Learning lessons. With luck, it’s in the privacy of your home.
The difference between Bristol and almost every other 17-year-old in the U.S. is that Bristol’s life has been the alternate act to Gustav in cable news’ breathless round-the-clock drama.
How fortunate for television that the news broke on Labor Day, so all the folks at home could tune in, nudge each other knowingly. “Now that you mention it, she did hold her baby brother in front of her when McCain was introducing her mom. Wasn’t that clever.”
Can you imagine the stress on this poor girl? Not enough that she’s having a baby, marrying the father at such an early age and trying to pull her life together. We get a subplot involving her impact on the entire 2008 presidential election. You might make the history books, kid. Good luck with that.
Every time we see a flaw in a candidate’s family life or personal life, it seems, we wring our hands and talk about privacy and wonder if it should really be part of the public record.
Funny how those discussions change nothing the very next chance we get to expose a candidate’s human side.
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Living in fear of the streets
Rocky Mount police aren’t saying much about the shooting that last week killed Terrance Hanson on Blandwood Drive. But neighbors in the area certainly are.
They’re scared to let their kids play outside … scared to go out themselves … scared even to let their kids go to school.
The shooting, they say, was execution-style, gang-related. They worry that the people who killed Hanson will do anything to stop other people from talking to police about the case.
Police stopped a neighorhood kid last week to question him about the shooting. The kid didn’t know anything about Hanson’s death, but now his mom is afraid that Hanson’s killer or killers will think the kid had something to tell them.
“Everybody down here’s scared,” she said. “And they’re children. They had nothing to do with it.”
The woman didn’t want her name or her son’s name reported. She’s concerned about the safety of her family. She also wants to see more concern from the Rocky Mount Police Department.
“The boys who did this don’t live around here,” she said. “But we’re like sitting ducks. I want to ask the police, ‘What are you doing to protect this community?’ “
Rocky Mount Police Chief John Manley said he understands the concerns of the area.
“I’ve heard from some of the residents,” he said. “One woman in particular called, and I said to some of the other officers: ‘Can you see the lady’s pain? Can you see where she’s coming from?’ “
Manley said he has ordered extra patrols in the neighborhood. He also encourages anyone who sees anything out of the norm to contact the police department or Crime Stoppers. The Crime Stoppers phone number is 972-1111.
Manley described the case as a “very active investigation.” Police have charged one person with breaking and entering into Hanson’s home in a separate incident. No arrests have been made in connection with Hanson’s death.
The climate of fear doesn’t make police work any easier. Manley worries that witnesses will be reluctant to come forward if they feel threatened.
The fear points out another consequence of crime that we don’t always think of. If families are too afraid even to send their kids to school, what chance do the kids have of graduating, finding good jobs and escaping the streets?
If you know anything about this case, please give the police a call.
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Conventional wisdom … then and now …
Twenty years ago this summer, I drove down to Atlanta for my first and, thus far, only national political convention - the Democrats’ coronation of Michael Dukakis (that’s him in the picture).
I was a political reporter for the High Point Enterprise in an age before anyone had ever heard of the Internet. High Point had a decent chunk of representation in North Carolina’s delegation. Atlanta’s proximity made for a pretty cheap trip at a time when gasoline was a little over a buck a gallon.
As I watched the coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention Monday night, several key differences came to mind.
1) We sure as heck didn’t have anyone as talented as singer John Legend to entertain us. I know there were musical guests, but danged if I can remember a single big name among them.
2) Former N.C. Sen. Rachel Gray, D-Guilford, told me before the convention to expect big things from the governor of Arkansas, a guy by the name of Bill Clinton. Clinton loomed large, all right. His speech went on and on and on until, I swear, around 1992, when the country decided to make him president just to get him off the stage.
(ok, that might have been a slight exaggeration).
3) I completely missed the biggest story of the convention - a videotape involving convention attendee and then-Brat Pack star Rob Lowe and two women engaged in activities of a decidedly non-family-entertainment nature. That seems even weirder now because Lowe made such a great speechwriter as Sam Seaborn for the fictitious President Jed Bartlet more than 10 years later on television’s “The West Wing.”
4) Back to music for a minute … There’s a rumor going around the Internet and repeated on CNN Monday night that Bruce Springsteen may play at the convention on Thursday night, when presumptive nominee Barack Obama will address the delegates.
The closest I came to seeing Springsteen in Atlanta during the summer of ‘88 was watching a bulked-up Joe Piscopo walk around the floor of the Omni with an attractive blonde. Piscopo had made a name for himself in those days on television’s “Saturday Night Live,” where he occasionally parodied Springsteen.
(yeah, I’m a Boss fan. I remember stupid stuff like that).
5) My clearest memory of the convention actually was work-related. I stayed in the same hotel as the North Carolina delegation. We began each morning with a breakfast meeting in which the delegates listened to inspirational words from folks like former Gov. Jim Hunt and former Attorney General Rufus Edmisten.
This was incredibly convenient for me because the High Point Enterprise was an afternoon paper. I had a copy deadline of 10:30 a.m., meaning we could hit the streets each afternoon with a fresh take on what local delegates had to say as the convention progressed.
On about the third morning of the convention, I sat at the breakfast meeting, feverishly taking notes for the story I would file an hour later. I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was my then-publisher Randall Terry, who was a member of the N.C. delegation.
“Lemme have the keys to your room,” Terry said.
“Pardon?” I asked.
“I’ve been up all night. Need to lie down. Lemme have your keys.”
I was 30 years old with a young wife and two babies at home. I needed my job a whole lot more than I needed that hotel room.
“Yes, sir,” I said. “But … um … I have to go up there in a little while and write my story for today’s paper.”
Terry gave me a look that would have stopped Bill Clinton in mid-sentence. Then he sighed and walked away mumbling.
I don’t know what Democrats in 2008 hope to accomplish this week, but I managed to file my story that day and hold onto my job.
That’s my idea of a successful convention.
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School graffiti - the scourge of autumn
So … another school year is upon us, and so is another rash of no-class class graffiti.
Rash seems a pretty good description for the paint that already has started staining buildings, neighborhood entrances, street signs and anything else the vandals can touch.
Yeah, I know. It’s all in good fun, right? School spirit and all that jazz. I’m sorry if I sound like a grump, but I don’t see much to celebrate in runny paint that says something about as original as “09 rules!”
Can’t they at least use water colors? Something that’ll disappear after a week or so?
Or maybe the kids could confine their artwork to Nipple Rock … that infamous geological wonder that sticks out of the embankment on Hunter Hill Road as you approach Northern Nash.
Painting boulders isn’t much better than throwing graffiti on school walls, but at least it holds the mess to one location, and it upholds a tradition, however dubious that tradition might be. Plus, it gives us all a chance to snicker at the faces of folks new to the area the first time we say the words, “Nipple Rock.”
Then again, maybe I’m not that all more mature than the painters.
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A new look for rockymounttelegram.com
You may notice a few differences today as you’re checking out the Telegram Web site.
For much of the past week, we’ve been learning to use a new content program that makes posting stories, photos, videos and other features much easier. More important to you, the content we’re putting on the Web site is much better organized and easier to navigate.
We’re also offering Telegram Web site visitors the option of posting comments on every story on the site. We’re wading into this cautiously … much as we did with our blogs a few months ago. In other words, please keep your comments relevant, family-friendly, and don’t use the opportunity to launch a personal attack.
I think the comment tool can be a great way for us to learn from your feedback … just as this blog has been a wonderful resource for us as we investigate issues such as ElectriCities and police work. It also gives us a chance to talk back with you, making our Web site truly interactive.
We hope you like the new features. We have more to come soon. If you have additional suggestions, I’m eager to hear from you.
And please … keep the comments positive.
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Getting away with murder
I don’t think I’ve ever seen the kind of finger-pointing that’s been going on for the past couple of weeks between the Rocky Mount Police Department and lawyers involved in the James Taylor murder trial.
Police have complained in the past about a court system they feel goes too lightly on criminals. Nothing makes their job harder than a judge who delivers a slap on the wrist to a criminal police want to see behind bars.
That’s fairly standard rhetoric. More than a few of us are still up in arms over the Eve Carson case, in which at least one of the suspects should have been in jail when Carson was murdered. Political leaders like Rudolph Giuliani have staked whole careers on getting tough on convicted offenders.
But the legal community fired back on a whole new level, following the murder trial of James Taylor. A defense attorney for Taylor called out the Rocky Mount police department by name after Taylor’s trial ended in a plea bargain. He basically blamed the sorry outcome of that case on poor police work and didn’t mince words about it.
Assistant District Attorney Keith Werner and Rocky Mount Police Chief John Manley have met at least twice since then to discuss some of the issues facing law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Maybe it’s time for other leaders to get involved.
There’s probably blame to share on both sides of this case. Taylor probably will be out of jail by New Year’s Day 2009, meaning he’ll have served less than three years for shooting William “Lee” Corbett. That’s a horrible slap in the face of Corbett’s family, and it has to make the rest of us nervous, too.
Taylor has all but gotten away with murder, it seems. Will the system work better to protect us the next time around?
Latest comments
economy. question: just how IS the rocky mount/nash/edgecombe economy right now and the outlook?
watching tv/cable news yesterday it sounded pretty bleak for the country and the world—-one commentator said it looked to be the worst since
... read the full comment by ken | Comment on Extra, extra - A historic day for newspapers Read Extra, extra - A historic day for newspapers
agree. maybe we should have a Presidential election each year to help our economy.
Seriously, some ‘thieves’ stole our country blind the six months prior to the election, don’t you think?
this morning suddenly Fox News
... read the full comment by ken | Comment on Extra, extra - A historic day for newspapers Read Extra, extra - A historic day for newspapers
BK lone follower? I didn’t vote for Knight caus I can’t, however you are showing your ignorance to say that he only has one follower. You can call or go to the Board of Election Office and get the number of how many folks voted for Knight in
... read the full comment by Curmilus Dancy II | Comment on More police and better access to downtown Read More police and better access to downtown
wow! talk about fast action and at the grassroots level. Obama was just elected last week—Tuesday— now at the end of one week—on this Monday (Nov 10) I read in the Rocky Mount Telegram that city gas rates will be going down by 12 cents.
... read the full comment by ken | Comment on Nov. 5, 2008 Read Nov. 5, 2008