Sunday August 29, 2010
TINA DUPUY: Let’s have our fears be more accurate. TOMORROW
Opinion Page Editor: Vince Wheeler vwheeler@hpe.com (336) 888-3517
6B
Alcoa critic sees evil where none exists Oh, my! Dean Naujoks, the Yadkin Riverkeeper, continues to show how out of touch with reality he is. In his recent guest column (Aug. 26), he accused his perennial villain, Alcoa, of bullying UNC-TV into removing its controversial reports on Alcoa from its website. Anyone who’s read the released UNC-TV e-mails knows the only bullies around were state Sens. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, Fletcher Hartsell, R-Cabarrus and Stan Bingham, R-Davidson. As YES! Weekly put it, “the pressure placed on UNC-TV management didn’t come from Alcoa, but from politicians like Basnight. Therefore, if UNC-TV management laid a finger on Vajda’s Alcoa
YOUR VIEW
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segments, state legislators, Gov. Beverly Perdue’s administration and every single Alcoa opponent would have cried foul.” Consequently, UNC-TV relinquished its usual editorial oversight, and aired reports which were roundly criticized by fellow journalists. UNC-TV’s General Manager Tom Howe termed one of the episodes a “train wreck.” Eszter Vajda found her employment terminated, and UNC-TV removed the episodes from its website. I’m not surprised Naujoks hates losing the only piece of sensational, yellow journalism which re-
ported his unfounded accusations of pollution without verification. It’s hard to find a journalist who will do that. Naujoks continues to rant about Alcoa’s PCBs causing contamination, and now, even deaths. That’s in spite of the fact that the state’s lead environmental agency, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, has found that the PCBs in Badin Lake fish cannot be fingerprinted to Alcoa, they are a watershed-based issue. Naujoks continues to rant about Alcoa’s PAH contamination, when a state epidemiologist has concluded
that the level of PAHs are about the same as those found in urban soil, and pose no health risk. It goes on, and on, and on. The Yadkin River needs a new Alcoa license – and a new riverkeeper! ANN BROWNLEE Salisbury
An independent newspaper Founded in 1883 Michael B. Starn Publisher Thomas L. Blount Editor
YOUR VIEW POLL
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Vince Wheeler Opinion Page Editor
The White House says President Obama is a Christian, not a Muslim. What do you think about Obama’s religious beliefs? In 30 words or less (no name, address required), e-mail us your thoughts to letterbox@hpe.com.
210 Church Ave., High Point, N.C. 27262 (336) 888-3500 www.hpe.com
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HIGH POINT
Downtown face-lifts could lead to more
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City Council
W
hat an outstanding idea! Make empty former storeroom/former showroom buildings downtown look more attractive by giving them a faux face-lift, suggesting what the buildings may look like if refurbished. Give Pamela Dobbins Stern a pat on the back for stepping forward to “do something” about the situation downtown and to mural artist Nancy Rothrock for partnering with Stern on a plan to begin illusory revitalization in the center city area. We say illusory because rather than slapping a mural on the buildings, Stern and Rothrock will create and decorate partial false fronts to make them more attractive and to draw attention to them in hopes they will sell to someone who will establish and maintain businesses there. The projects can’t be done free of charge – estimates indicate that most projects will require $1,000 to $2,000 each and those amounts mostly are for supplies. Stern, who owns Move It! Makeovers, will donate her time and resources, plans to get volunteers to paint a building with a base coat and Rothrock has volunteered to create a scene on the wood across the bottom floor of a building. You can trigger their fundraising mechanism by buying face-space: For $150, Rothrock will paint your face onto a figure in a mural and, for $250, she will create a scene in street-level windows and/or paint a full body with your face on the figure. Names of those purchasing face-space will be listed on a street-level plaque. These murals will be considerably different than those High Pointer Phil Christman has painted on various buildings locally as well as in Colorado, Hawaii and Virginia to name a few states and painting backdrops in Hollywood; and those of Eric Alan Grohe, a New York City native, graphic designer and illustrator, who in 1973 got into painting murals for Expo ’74 in Spokane and since has received national recognition for his work, which he says now is focused on painting figurative and architectural murals for clients throughout the country. One of Grohe’s many murals in Massillon, Ohio, is shown below this editorial. The Christman and Grohe type murals may become part of the downtown landscape later in the process but, for now, Stern and Rothrock want to produce something that will spark your imagination and, hopefully, those of people willing to go into business in some of those abandoned buildings downtown. As Stern told The High Point Enterprise, “You’ve got to start somewhere.” What an outstanding idea!
OUR MISSION
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The High Point Enterprise is committed to this community ... and always will serve it by being an intensely local newspaper of excellent quality every day.
If you don’t have thick skin, don’t even think about it
T
he Quotations Page [www.quotationspage.com] is a wonderful resource, especially when you want to accurately recite a quote to make a point. In this column, I’ll use a word-play on a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” Ahh, if current-day politicians, including (and perhaps particularly) President Obama and quite a few (from both parties) in congressional leadership positions only would take such advice to heart. But that’s not my point. Before I get to that, I need to explain that we at The High Point Enterprise have been receiving queries from a surprisingly increasing number of people – teens, 20- and 30-somethings, even folks older (some much older) – interested in becoming journalists, even print journalists. I haven’t quite figured out why, given the gloom-and-doom reports we’ve all seen, heard and read about the future of newspapers the last few years. Still, I’m mighty glad they are interested, and, as we did with Wesleyan Christian Academy student Lauren Shore just last weekend, we’re usually glad to help give them whatever information they need. I often tell inquirers that, as a journalist, paraphrasing Lincoln’s statement, you can please some of the people some of the time, you can anger some of the people some of the time and you can rest assured that you never can please all of the people any of the time. Journalists deal daily with three major groups of people: 1. Those who want their stories (even if they aren’t of much interest to anyone else) in print. 2. Those who don’t want their stories in print. 3. Those who often are opposed, sometimes vehemently, to the way a story (negative or positive) is written or presented. That’s the nature of the beast. Journalists with thin skins often pretty quickly seek jobs in some other line of work. Enterprise reporter Paul B. Johnson jarred my memory a couple of weeks ago by noting that “we began reporting at least two years ago that CBL & Associates Properties Inc. was toying with a possible sale of Oak Hollow Mall and many folks in the community called us sensationalist, negative, etc.,” for publishing such stories. It turns out, he reminded me, that the coverage not only was newsworthy, it has been
proven to be correct. CBL officials listed in a financial report that the mall is about to be sold (closing hasn’t taken place yet) and rumors about who is buying it have been flying ever since. We did get confirmation quickly OPINION that High Point University, subject of many rumors, is Tom not the buyer. A persistent Blount recent rumor has owners of ■■■ a company with major outlet mall complexes as the buyer – but many of the people keeping that alive are the same ones who insisted HPU was the buyer. Most often when readers see something in the Enterprise with which they disagree, they try to discount the value of the information by remarking something akin to “Ah, they’re just trying to sell papers.” Well, duh! Now that the local weather has cooled considerably from the seemingly constant stretch of 90-plus-degree days, many people have returned to what has become the standard conversation-starter the last couple of years: “How’s business?” I catch myself asking that, too. Several times a day, I am asked, “How are things at the Enterprise?” My answer remains the same: “Improving gradually but we need more advertising.” As you might imagine, that causes many who asked the question quickly to change the subject. But for those brave souls who pursue further, I explain I simply can’t understand, especially in a sour economy, why people in business who desperately need to increase traffic in their businesses don’t advertise in their local newspaper – by far the best advertising bargain out there. Think about it! These people want other people to come to them to conduct business, but they don’t want to use the best medium for getting the message out. Go figure! Whenever such things happen, I merely close my eyes, take a deep breath and read to myself: “God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.” Try it. You’ll like it. Well, some of you will. As I wrote earlier, we can please some of you some of the time ...
YOUR COMMUNITY. YOUR NEWSPAPER.
tblount@hpe.com | 888-3543
Mayor Becky Smothers, 1843 Country Club Drive 27262; (o) 882-0662, (h) 882-0662 Mayor pro tem Chris Whitley, Ward 5, 3603 Greenhill Drive 27265; (h) 8691251 Bill Bencini, Ward 4, 1412 Trafalgar Drive 27262; (o) 8594552 (h) 8859420 Mary Lou Andrews Blakeney, At large, 811 Runyon Drive 27260; 886-1033 Latimer Alexander IV, At large, 1520 Blandwood Drive 27260; (o) 889-2531 (h) 8414023 Bernita Sims, Ward 1, 1720 Candlewood Court 27265; (o) 315-4265 (h) 8836865 Foster Douglas, Ward 2, 309 S. Scientific St. 27260; (h) 4716839 Michael D. Pugh, Ward 3, 112 Kenilworth Drive 27260; (o) 861-7653 (c) 4711129 John Faircloth, Ward 6, 2332 Faircloth Way 27265; (h) 8414137
LETTER RULES
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The Enterprise welcomes letters. The editor reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity and decorum. Writers are limited to 300 words and to no more than one letter every two weeks. Please include name, home address and daytime phone number. Mail to: Enterprise Letter Box P.O. Box 1009 High Point, NC 27261 Fax to: (336) 888-3644 E-mail to: letterbox@hpe.com