Opinion
4A / Friday, April 2, 2010 / The Sanford Herald
Editorial Board: Bill Horner III, Publisher • Billy Liggett, Editor • R.V. Hight, Special Projects Editor
We have reason to be optimistic economically
T
he news has been so bad for so long that local officials and business types who crowded into Chef Paul’s Wednesday to hear Michael Walden’s annual Lee County Committee of 100-sponsored economic outlook were much hungrier for a morsel of optimism than they were Paul Duggan’s lunchtime feast. Walden, the N.C. State professor and economist, provided a glimmer of hope for those of us who have grown weary of wariness about the economy. The good news, according to Walden: the “severe recession” of the last two-plus years is showing some signs of waning.
The worst economic conditions since the Great Depression — brought about by a residential housing valuation crisis almost no one saw coming — are behind us, based on the economic tea leaves Walden reads. In the U.S., GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is rising, factory orders and production are up and employers are giving workers still on the payrolls more hours, plus hiring more temporary labor to help meet demand for output. In North Carolina, where economic cycles have tended to be more volatile, surveys show two or three months’ worth of job gains (after job losses every month for nearly two years).
That news was tempered, though, with the reality the any recovery will be slow. Getting “back to where we were” — including recovering the 8.5 million “lost” jobs across the nation and seeing housing prices rebound from their average drop of 30 percent — is a distant visage. North Carolina’s (and Lee County’s) high unemployment rates may recover more quickly than in some parts of the country, but they could still be higher than the traditional “full” unemployment rate of 5 percent for many years to come. Walden touched on a number of other economic issues,
but what he and other economists would find hard to gauge will be impact on the economy of the nation’s growing debt. The stock market doesn’t seem to be that bothered by the prospect. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 4.1 percent during the first quarter of this year, its fourth straight quarterly gain and the best first-quarter performance in more than a decade; the Dow is now pushing the 11,000 threshold, and if today’s March jobs report is as good as Walden thinks it will be, the markets (closed today for Good Friday) will likely push it higher. But payday is coming for our
federal deficit. The United States rakes in about $1 trillion a year in income taxes and other fees, but with nearly $12 trillion in debt there’s coming a day where the government won’t have enough revenue to support the interest payments on the debt. There’s always been a “buffer” between the level of federal debt and our borrowing capacity, but that margin is growing slimmer. Perhaps one recovery will lead to the start of another. Neither Walden nor anyone else can say for sure if that will happen, but given that we’ve persevered through a worse fiscal crisis, we have much to be optimistic about.
Letters to the Editor Bob Blue remembered as a ‘remarkable’ man To the Editor:
Scott Mooneyham Today in North Carolina Scott Mooneyham is a columnist with Capitol Press Association
Citizen Hollywood
A
mong a good portion of the national political punditry, Hollywood is often portrayed as a bunch of idealistic, liberal do-gooders. Apparently none of those commentators have paid much attention to how Hollywood has been manipulating state governments to rob from the tax coffers that go to pay for things like schools and health care for the poor. ... So, less than a year removed from convincing North Carolina legislators to increase the ante on its tax incentives to lure film productions, Hollywood wants more. Gov. Beverly Perdue recently took a brief trip to the land of make-believe only to learn that Hollywood executives want the state to drop caps on the amount of incentives that can be earned by film production companies working in the state. Only by doing so will the state see an increase in the movie-making business, Perdue said. Last year, legislators increased those incentives by allowing film production companies to receive a tax credit worth up to 25 percent of their expenses. This is a tax credit, not a deduction, meaning the expenses comes off their final tax bill. Before the change, when the tax credit stood at 15 percent of expenses, the state Department of Commerce valued the credit at $7.5 million on a $50 million film production. The incentives law caps the credit at $7.5 million and limits per-person wages considered in the calculation at $1 million. Those limits need to go, Perdue was told, if North Carolina doesn’t want to get beaten out by Georgia and other states that offer more lucrative incentives. State officials here and elsewhere believe the film business provides enough of a boost to the economy to make the incentives worthwhile. One study, conducted by the Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University, suggested otherwise. It found that incentives offered in New Mexico produced just 14 cents in tax revenue for every dollar offered by the state. That being the case, perhaps Hollywood ought to go back to doing what it does best, filmmaking. Here’s a suggestion for a new script: An aging, well-known filmmaker, his mantle lined with Academy Awards, sits up in his bed in his posh Hollywood Hills home, about to die. As he drops a crystal globe, he utters a final word. “Blackmail.” A young reporter from the Los Angeles Times hears the story and does his best to try to track down who could have been blackmailing this icon of the film industry. His investigation generates headlines and the speculation even ruins careers. In the end, though, he can’t unravel the mystery. In the movie’s final scenes, a teaching assistant in North Carolina is handed a pink slip, a doctor in Georgia tells a poor man that he no longer takes Medicaid patients.
His imperial highness R
OUM ROL, South Sudan — For those used to seeing the faces of slaves in Civil War-era tintypes — staring at the camera in posed, formal judgment — it is a shock to see the face of slavery in a shy, adolescent boy. Majok Majok Dhal, 14 or 15 years old (many former slaves have no idea of their exact age), dimly remembers his capture in the village of Mareng at about age 5. “I ran a Michael Gerson little and was taken. I was carried on horseColumnist back.” He recalls seeing other captives shot Michael Gerson is a columnist with the and killed after refusing to march north with Washington Post Writers Group the raiders into Sudan proper. His master, Atheib, was “not a good person.” He forced of Sudan’s two decades of civil war. With the boy to tend goats and live with them in patience, nearly every personal encounter a stable. Majok was beaten regularly with a reveals a story of struggle. A pastor tells bamboo stick, “if I was not quick and fast.” me how his congregation met for 15 years He recalls once being feverish and unable under a tree so they could quickly move to to work. The master “stabbed my leg with a avoid bombing raids. Cattle herds — the knife. He said, ‘I will cut your throat.’” Majok main source of stored wealth in South Sudan shows me his poorly healed wound. He was — were decimated. An estimated 40 percent forced to address Atheib as “father.” of people in this region depend on food Relating his experience, Majok shows no aid of some sort. There is almost no public anger — until asked about the master’s own health infrastructure. A Sudanese doctor children. “When they beat me up, I couldn’t informs me that he diagnoses a new case of raise my head. If I tried to fight back, the leprosy about every two weeks — a condition father would kill me.” He recounts their almost unknown in the West. Women in rural taunting. “They would say to me, ‘Why don’t areas play fertility roulette — a local aid ofyou go to your own home and eat?’” Majok’s ficial estimates that one in voice rises: “If he brought six will die from complicame all the way to take care ‘International relief tions during childbirth. of goats and cattle, why organizations provide many Just months from South did he not employ his own services, but the greater Sudan’s likely vote for children?” need is the building of local independence, its humanI talk to Majok through itarian challenges seem an interpreter, under a capacity — overwhelming. Internalarge tamarind tree, in a agricultural development, tional relief organizations setting as bleak as his story. trained government provide many services, The scenery tests every administrators, a credible but the greater need is the possible shade of brown: building of local capacity national teaching hospital.’ reddish brown, yellowish — agricultural developbrown, greenish brown. It ment, trained government is a landscape of thatched, administrators, a credible national teaching conical huts, circling scavenger birds, rutted hospital. Direct international aid in the form mud roads and wandering goats. A haze of of cash can encourage local corruption. But fine, red dust blurs the horizon. Nearby, about 125 recently released slaves technical assistance to build specific caare being interviewed by Christian Solidarity pabilities may be the only way to avoid the destructive failure of a new nation. Still, as International (CSI), an organization that has helped redeem and resettle tens of thousands one U.S. State Department official recently vented to me, “We are doing about 10 perof captives during the past 15 years. Though cent of what we need to do.” no more slaves are being taken by northern Meeting a Sudanese goatherd released militias — the raids generally stopped with from slavery, it would be difficult to expethe American-sponsored peace treaty in 2005 rience greater cultural distance without — an estimated tens of thousands more are leaving the planet. But my main impression still held within a hundred miles of South of Majok was his profound resemblance to Sudan’s northern border. my sons of similar age. It is a hopeful thing The background of each man, woman about humanity. In a timid smile, in a turn of and child at the makeshift camp is recorded, the head, we see similarity, we see family. We reflecting a determination by CSI that none should also see responsibility. of these people, and none of the crimes they have experienced, be forgotten. A woman is missing teeth from being tied and thrown to the ground. Others reluctantly admit that Set your mind on things above, not on their genitals were mutilated. One woman things on the earth. (Colossians 3:2) tells me, “Sometimes I run out when I PRAYER: Help me to think about and do dream.” things that are right. Amen. Slavery is only the most extreme legacy
Today’s Prayer
I remember my first meeting with Bob Blue with great clarity. He was eight years old. And I recognized immediately that he was a remarkable human being. He had dancing, bright eyes, filled with the wonder of contemplated life adventures, and he exhibited pure joy when talking about his plans for the future. He had, already at that young age, fashioned a cartoon strip. His characters became alive as he described them, and I learned he wanted to develop them into a fullblown theatrical production. Even in his earliest years, before entering school, he “made up” plays and “produced” them in the basement of his family home. Naturally, he played all the parts, changing voice and posture for each character. Fortunate friends and neighbors were invited to be the audience. They loved the productions and marveled at his talent. In 1968 he auditioned for and won the part of Louis Leonowens in Sanford Central High’s The King and I. Appearing in a proper gray Eton suit and speaking with an impeccable upper class English accent, he was a wonder. He stayed “in character” every moment he was on stage. The play ran for three nights to packed “houses.” He loved it all so much that at the conclusion of the play he wept copiously. By his senior year in school he had become a major part of every musical presented by Sanford Central High School. But the best was yet to come. Fiddler on the Roof was the choice for 1974. And Bobby was Tevye. He became the beloved Russian milkman from the skin up, even donning under his outer wear the vest worn by pious Jews. Attached to the four corners of the vest were the requisite four sets of corner threads. His research of the character was so meticulous that each corner thread had 13 twists and then a double knot, ensuring the threads would not come undone. His was the finest Tevye I have ever seen, including two Broadway productions! There are others who will echo that statement unequivocally. After graduation Bob went on to college, earning degrees in theatre and education. He appeared in many plays and became a director of note. He was instrumental in organizing an amateur theatrical troupe in Lee County (The Center Stage Production Company). He gave unstintingly of his talents both to the community and to hundreds of young people during his time as drama teacher at both the high school and college levels. Even though a voracious reader, he battled dyslexia all his life. Offsetting this was a prodigious memory. He could quote books, plays (even Shakespearean plays, his great love) delivering the lines of all the characters. He was gifted with a wonderful mind and a talent that truly was awesome. We will remember his booming laughter, his generosity, and his loving and caring heart. He will not be forgotten, and he will continue to be loved by many, many friends. I think we will not see his like again in our lifetime. “Good-night, sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.” JO ANN C. BOWMAN Sanford