Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Curbing bullies: Focus ‘sensitivity’ on good students
The State Board of Education is taking a stronger stance against school bullies. It is prepared to require all public school systems to institute measures to prevent bullying and to get involved should it occur. Apparently, specific measures would be...Published: Jun 30, 2004 12:27 PM Full Editorial
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Lou Dobbs: On both sides of ‘outsourcing’
Lou Dobbs, a popular CNN business news announcer, has met himself coming down the other side of the street. Dobbs has been on an almost nightly crusade against U.S. companies that export jobs — profiting by using cheap foreign labor...Published: Jun 29, 2004 11:15 AM Full Editorial
Monday, June 28, 2004
Unity: Its importance is shown in leaders’ initiative, but not always in oratory
Wayne County’s governmental leaders had a nice, peaceful time together last September, then another in February. The meetings were courteous and fruitful as everyone talked about the county’s problems and how they might work together to solve them. It is...Published: Jun 28, 2004 12:11 PM Full Editorial
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Conjecture: What if we had known about the post-war killing?
What if President George W. Bush had somehow been able to predict that insurgent guerrillas would continue to ambush and bomb American soldiers long after the coalition forces deposed Saddam Hussein as the ruler of Iraq? Would he still have...Published: Jun 26, 2004 11:42 PM Full Editorial
Friday, June 25, 2004
Enough: Put U.S. lives above Arab sensitivities
Four United States civilians working for a company based in North Carolina are kidnapped by Iraqi dissidents aligned with an opportunistic crazy. The world is subjected to the spectacle of the men’s mutilated and partially burned bodies hanging from a...Published: Jun 25, 2004 12:22 PM Full Editorial
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Good man: Richard Slozak has served well
Goldsboro City Manager Richard Slozak will retire at the end of this year after 33 years of service. He is a good man who will be hard to replace. City managers — and county managers — can have high “mortality”...Published: Jun 24, 2004 11:09 AM Full Editorial
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Coonslaughter: A strange thing happened to a Tar Heel lad in Georgia
In the western North Carolina town of Marble, a lot of folks grew up eating an occasional portion of coon meat. Undoubtedly, its popularity, and that of other game, increased after they had mined out the last bit of the...Published: Jun 23, 2004 11:54 AM Full Editorial
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
9/11 Review: Seek solutions, not scapegoats
The commission “investigating” the September 11 attacks trained its eyes in recent days on the military. There were critical suggestions regarding the readiness of the Aerospace Defense Command. The command didn’t get its interceptor aircraft in the air “as quickly...Published: Jun 22, 2004 12:30 PM Full Editorial
Monday, June 21, 2004
Anticlimax: Court skirts substance of suit against pledge
The question of whether the words “under God” can remain in the Pledge of Allegiance has not been settled, even though the Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit that challenged the wording. That challenge ended in an anticlimax. The suit...Published: Jun 21, 2004 10:29 AM Full Editorial
Sunday, June 20, 2004
Father’s Day: What about those who don’t have dads?
Imagine this: You’re sitting in the congregation and the pastor is preaching on fatherhood. It’s Father’s Day, and he talks about how important fathers are in our lives. He tells about successful people who credited their fathers with guiding them...Published: Jun 20, 2004 12:24 AM Full Editorial
Friday, June 18, 2004
What if ... Saddam presents a real dilemma
The interim government that will take over Iraq wants custody of Saddam Hussein. On the surface that sounds good. His greatest crimes were against his own people. He presided over the mass murders of hundreds of thousands of them. He...Published: Jun 18, 2004 1:10 PM Full Editorial
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Stem cells -- The potential is awesome, but we shouldn’t rush in
This country faces few questions as difficult or as misunderstood as the one that is being raised by Nancy Reagan — stem cell research. Before he died June 5, former President Ronald Reagan’s mind was ravaged for several years by...Published: Jun 17, 2004 1:56 PM Full Editorial
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Politics: Non-story raises some questions
That was an intriguing story provided by The New York Times and given as much as six-column headline prominence by some newspapers this past weekend. The story quoted unidentified sources as saying that Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry had...Published: Jun 16, 2004 11:58 AM Full Editorial
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Child labor: Flip side of the issue
Thanks to Human Rights Watch, the world now knows that some kids “under the age of 18” are working in El Salvador’s sugar cane fields. The New York-based group has called for a boycott of Salvadoran sugar. Boycott has become...Published: Jun 15, 2004 10:46 AM Full Editorial
Monday, June 14, 2004
Flag Day: Some thoughts on Old Glory
Betsy Ross designed and made the first U.S. flag, right? Probably not. The real designer of the flag, according to some historians, was probably a New Jersey congressman named Francis Hopkinson. Eventually, he wished he hadn’t, but that is getting...Published: Jun 14, 2004 11:28 AM Full Editorial
Saturday, June 12, 2004
Another researcher finds no increase in pollution
Once again an authentic study tends to discredit the widely held notion that eastern North Carolina’s rivers are being polluted by hog farms. The results of the latest study were announced Monday in Raleigh. This study was conducted by Dr....Published: Jun 12, 2004 10:34 PM Full Editorial
Friday, June 11, 2004
Corporate weal: Samuel Johnson set example for private firms
Samuel Johnson was the kind of industrial tycoona humanitarian could love. He knew how to make money, and he loved to give it away. Johnson was the head of SC Johnson of Racine, Wisc., which was known as Johnson’s Wax...Published: Jun 11, 2004 12:05 PM Full Editorial
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Consensus: Ronald Reagan again brings us harmony
Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called the sons of God. —Matthew 5:9 Ronald Reagan’s passing was lamented on this page a couple of days ago. Sad as it was, reaction to his departure has been, in one...Published: Jun 10, 2004 1:35 PM Full Editorial
Wednesday, June 9, 2004
Salaries: Thoughts on a bill to limit the pay of company leaders
A proposed state law would limit the amount that a company could pay its chief executive. The North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry, a group whose membership is composed largely of chief executives, ridiculed that. The proposal is in...Published: Jun 9, 2004 10:58 AM Full Editorial
Tuesday, June 8, 2004
Reagan: History must rank him among our greatest
Ronald Reagan, dead at 93. If history is fair — and it eventually is — he must go down as one of the nation’s truly great presidents. And one of the world’s greatest leaders of the last century. Most liberals...Published: Jun 8, 2004 11:04 AM Full Editorial
Monday, June 7, 2004
Rogers’ idea: A state lottery? Why not casinos?
Raleigh News & Observer columnist Dennis Rogers has a large and appreciative following. Consequently, he undoubtedly is getting considerable feedback from a piece he did in the June 2 edition. He advocated canning the notion of a state lottery and...Published: Jun 7, 2004 11:21 AM Full Editorial
Sunday, June 6, 2004
Baptism bust: Zealous park keepers drive Christians out
Officials of a public park near Fredericksburg, Va., have agitated everyone from the American Civil Liberties Union on the left to the Christian Defense Coalition on the right. The officials caught a Baptist preacher holding a baptism in a river...Published: Jun 6, 2004 2:06 AM Full Editorial
Friday, June 4, 2004
Not Irish: Kerry family ties are fascinating
If Masschusetts Sen. John F. Kerry is elected president, he would be perhaps the most cosmopolitan leader in our history. His roots go back to several European countries and even to China. Many people think he is of Irish descent...Published: Jun 4, 2004 12:20 PM Full Editorial
Thursday, June 3, 2004
Nit-picking: Sex offender’s case overturned
North Carolina law requires convicted sex offenders to register with their county sheriff’s office. Four years ago, Roy Eugene Bryant moved to Winston-Salem after serving time as a sex offender in South Carolina. Less than a year later, Bryant was...Published: Jun 3, 2004 12:44 PM Full Editorial
Wednesday, June 2, 2004
At hospital: Visitor deeply moved by wounded soldiers
Goldsboro’s Mike Farfour hears a lot of grousing about the war in Iraq. But in April he was in the company of a “band of brothers” who yearned for only one thing — to get back into the war. Ironically,...Published: Jun 2, 2004 11:11 AM Full Editorial
Tuesday, June 1, 2004
Hogwash - Cute characterization had one problem: It was wrong
Don Reuter, a tax-paid spokesman for a state agency, does North Carolina’s people a disservice when he mischaracterizes a review of scientific data on our rivers. Reuter works for the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The Associated Press...Published: Jun 1, 2004 11:57 AM Full Editorial