Taking Back Our Street !

A WHKP Station Editorial-Feb. 22, 2008

Recent years have not been good on Hendersonville's Historic Seventh Avenue East.  Once upon a time, it was safe to walk, sit, bicycle, roller skate, live, work and worship on Seventh Avenue East.  It was safe, once upon a time, for kids to visit the best candy store in town....or for families to buy their groceries at the Depot Salvage.  But as the song says, "....that was once upon a time....and once upon a time never comes again." What was once Mr. and Mrs. Pace's candy store is empty and boarded up....the old Depot Salvage store has had violent GANG graffiti painted on its wall !

Where children used to play, where families lived and shopped and worshipped....and where local businesses worked hard to provide good products and services and to make a decent living...has been LOST to dope dealers, prostitutes, to a flood of illegal aliens, and to predators of every kind.

But lately, some very GOOD friends and neighbors have been leading the effort to TAKE BACK our Historic Seventh Avenue East !  Look at what Bob Quattlebaum has done with the Old Francis and Wright building !  Look at some of the BEST businesses in town...from M & M Freezer Locker, to City Tire Service, to Louis Williams, or the Crystal Barber Shop...some go back OVER three-quarters of a century !

We've all seen our Historic Seventh Avenue East neglected, almost abandoned, left to decay at the hands of thugs and illegals....and be pretty much "written off"...as the "BAD end of town"..... But these Seventh Avenue East businesses and merchants, property owners, citizens, and taxpayers...have FINALLY gotten the attention...of city officials, police, and others...and hopefully, we're beginning to TAKE BACK our street !

A contributor to the Times-News FORUM has seen the progress made in just the last few weeks.  And is suggesting that sometime this Spring, when temperatures warm back up, a "night walk" be held on our Historic Seventh Avenue East......that we all turn out and WALK Seventh Avenue East, at night, in the dark together, to PROVE....that OUR street is OURS again....and that this time, we intend to KEEP it !

As a long-time "neighbor" on Seventh Avenue, WHKP thinks that's a GREAT idea !  And if such a "night walk" happens, we'll be there to walk (or ride if we can't walk !) every step of the way!  What a GREAT way to show the community, AND the thugs who thought THEY "owned" our Seventh Avenue East, that decent people have taken THEIR street !....indeed their whole neighborhood.....BACK !

A lot of people, led by the businessmen we mentioned...and including Police Chief Herbert Blake, city council, public works, and others...deserve the credit for BEGINNING to take our street back.  But there's a lot MORE to do....and a long way to go before OUR street, our "neighborhood", our "end of town", belongs to decent, taxpaying, people and businesses and is OURS again.  A LOT of progress has been made in a short time...but it's only the beginning.  The thugs and the drugs and the illegal aliens, some with criminal histories brought WITH them from far and distant countries, have probably just moved OVER a couple of blocks.  There's still a lot to do.

But THANK  YOU.....all who began the effort and who've led the progress to where we are today.  and we're hoping this "night walk" that's been suggested really happens.  What a great way to celebrate Spring this year....TAKING BACK our street, and our whole end of town !  And proudly, safely, walking on it...and enjoying it AGAIN !

RAISING THE 35 MPH SPEED LIMIT ON FOUR SEASONS BOULEVARD

A WHKP Station Editorial-Jan.28,2008

The next time you're driving along Four Seasons Boulevard, in either direction....glance down at your speedometer.  We're willing to bet you'll be driving anything BUT the posted 35 miles per hour.  Chances are, you'll be driving 40 to 50 miles per hour....and driving it safely.  OOPS....if you find yourself driving OVER 35, better back off and slow down...a costly speeding ticket, an increase in your car insurance rate, maybe even a court appearance and an expensive lawyer...could be just a blue light and a siren away!

WHKP has been saying for years...that 35 miles per hour on Four Seasons Boulevard is too slow.  NOT because we like "speed"...but because we believe a smooth, steady, energetic flow of traffic is good for drivers, good for commerce, good for consumers...and good for safety!

We've heard all the arguments AGAINST raising the limit above 35 miles per hour for close to 30 years..."Raise the limit to 40, they'll drive 45 or 50".  "Raise it to 45, they'll drive 55 or 60...or even faster."  That may be true...and we only advocate raising the speed limit to 45 miles per hour to begin with....assessing the safety in THAT on down the line...and deciding WHAT to do with the speed limit AFTER we at least give faster speed limits a CHANCE. 

Again, we're not "speedsters", but we do see the wisdom in moving traffic along at a healthy, brisk, and SAFE speed.... and there's nothing to indicate that a speed limit of 45 miles per hour on Four Seasons Boulevard WON'T be safe.

Indeed...we just drove the I-95 corridor...from Orlando, to Daytona, to Jacksonville, to Savannah, to Columbia twice in a single week...and found NO posted speed limit BELOW 55 miles per hour...and that was in a "construction" zone.  And there weren't wrecks all over the highway either...in fact, we didn't see a single one.  Drivers were sticking to a sensible speed limit, or close to it, and they were doing it safely.  What we DID see were state troopers and local police stationed every few miles.....and that's ok.  they reminded us what the law was, that they were there to see it was obeyed, and a visible law enforcement presence is a BIG part of what keeps those faster speed limits SAFE.

Years ago, WHKP and the merchants up and down 7th Avenue East made a successful appeal to city leaders to raise the peed limit on 7th Avenue from 20 to 35 miles per hour.  After that, there were no big wrecks, 7th Avenue didn't become a race track....TRAFFIC just flowed smoothly, efficiently, and at a more sensible speed.  We're hoping city leaders will hear us...again.

20, 25, 30...even 35 mile per hour speed limits were designed for residential neighborhoods and hair-pin curves...NOT for the most critical and heavily traveled, broad and multi-laned routes of commerce through a growing, bustling city or town.

Of course, it's NC DOT who makes the final decision on what he Four Seasons Boulevard speed limit will be...lest we forget "the Boulevard" is STILL "U.S. Highway 64"...a federal highway and not simply a "city" street....all the MORE reason for us to expect our US HIGHWAYS and their speed limits to make sense and to keep up with changing times, traffic flows, and with the reasonable needs of those who PAY for them with their TAXES.

We CAN do better than 35 miles per hour on our Four Seasons Boulevard.  It's PAST time for those who SET the limits to give it a chance....to PROVE we can do it efficiently, SAFELY, and that we will drive within reasonable speed limits.The "old" rules are like fond memories...but IF we can do better in 2008, for every tax-paying consumer who spends his or her time and who pays his or her taxes and who then drives ON Four Seasons Boulevard, let's raise that limit...and give a better, a safer, and a bit faster....and a MUCH more sensible and efficient....speed limit a chance!

HHS Gym Dedication to Coach Jim Pardue

A WHKP Station Editorial

December 14, 2007

At tonight's basketball game at Hendersonville High School, the new gym will be dedicated to Coach Jim Pardue.  That will be one of the most well-deserved and appropriate things that's happened in our town in a LONG time.

Of course, Coach Pardue led the Bearcats to state championships; he excelled as a coach of basketball, baseball, and track; he taught the classroom courses coaches had to teach in ADDITION to their coaching responsibilities; and he helped school administration.  He did, in other words, whatever a good TEACHER, a good COACH, and an all-around GOOD employee, supporter, and cheerleader DOES for his or her school...they do whatever NEEDS to be done, for the sake of a GOOD education for our youngsters.

Coach came out of what is now Western Carolina University....before it WAS a university, back in the days when it was pretty much a teacher's college...that thankfully trained and provided a lot of good teachers for the mountains of Western North Carolina.  He came to Hendersonville to teach and coach...and met Rosie Shealy, a proud product of Clemson niversity....who began her career teaching biology at HHS.  As her student, and his, and as a LESS THAN STELLAR runner and jumper on his track team...I remember well their courtship and marriage was the "talk" of the school and of the "town" too....and not in any derogatory or joking or gossipy way...not AT ALL...they were good looking, smart, dedicated, and popular....made a great couple...set a superb example...and we ALL wished them well.

It was a PROUD day when Coach Jim Pardue led the Bearcats to a statewide championship.  this radio station was in the cable V business then, too....and we sent our crew down to video-tape the game....and a friendly state trooper sped the tape, in his patrol car, back to Hendersonville so local folks could watch the game on TV....later....the same night we "WON the big game".

Coach Pardue was a BIG man...tall in stature, and pure "class" through and through.  That deep, basey voice of his rang clear with authority...but his big, broad smile gave away "the secret" EVERY time....that his heart was even bigger than he was.

Coach didn't retire for a long time...and like a lot of us, "kept his oot in the door" at HHS, doing what he loved best, and helping TEACH our kids.  I remember just a FEW years ago, when I had tried "early" retirement, Coach convinced me to become a volunteer PAPER GRADER to help some over-worked teachers at Hendersonville High School grade papers.  I confess I "gave out" before Coach did.

For a lot of us, our best memories of Coach Jim Pardue were made in the old "rock" gym at HHS...in all of ITS "glory days"...young and happy days of ballgames, championships, physical education, sock-hops, growing up, and grand and lorious "Junior-Senior" proms.

But even though it's an all NEW gym being dedicted tonight, and an all new time, with all new bright and shiney young faces...learning, competing, trying to excel....NOTHING could be more appropriate than dedicating the NEW gym to Coach Jim Pardue.  For it was Jim Pardue...in the way he coached his teams, taught his classes, loved his family, and lived his life....that SET the high and most worthwhile standards of excellence, befitting every youngster who'll work out, compete, learn and just TRY in that new gym, as long as it stands.Yep...it's the RIGHT thing to do...and it'll make us all proud....to see HIS name....in letters as big and bold as he was above the door, each time we walk into the new gym at Hendersonville High School.

ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL, CHRISTMAS 2007

A WHKP Station Editorial, December 3, 2007

Right up the street from WHKP, there are about 650 homeless,abused, injured, neglected, unwanted animals...as ost of us know they've been cared for, for years, by volunteers....with volunteer money and donations...at the no-kill shelter, All Creatures Great and Small.  Because of problems at All Creatures, and we don't deny there have been problems, and because of mis-handling by the state and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture...the shelter, and most of all the animals there, have been placed in an impossible position.

Those  650 animals at All Creatures are NOT going to be accepted by other shelters, except those ready to kill them.  Yet due to a decree from the state, who is involved in the whole hing only because of allegations made by competing shelters...each with their OWN interests....All Creatures is no longer permitted to ask for VOLUNTARY donations...the very LIFE BLOOD of any shelter like that...donations that pay for food, veterinarians, medicine, warmth and shelter for those animals.

Drive by All Creatures some cold night this winter...you'll see the big lights are ON, on the hill where the outside shelters are...which means the HEAT and life-saving WARMTH is there for the animals outside.  But the STATE says they can't ASK for elp....to keep the lights and the heat ON and something in the food bowls.

At All Creatures, they can't ask for help...but at least the state doesn't say, not YET anyway, that they have to turn you AWAY if you OFFER help or donations.  The 650 dogs and cats have no where else to go, except to be euthanized by the county.  However you feel about All Creatures, or the business judgement of the people who've run it, or the wisdom of keeping unwanted animals alive....All Creatures Vice President Bob Dunn made a good point on the radio last week when he aid, "It's not about All Creatures....it's about the ANIMALS."

We think there needs to be some supervision OF and restrictions ON All Creatures....650 is WAY too many homeless animals in a private shelter, on the edge of town.  and the whole shelter needs to be somewhere else....AWAY from town.  But we also know it's the BIG HEARTS, the tireless work, and the unending "real" love and generosity of the folks there that's SAVED the lives of hundreds....of good dogs and cats....two of which are healthy, happy, and well...at OUR house as we speak.We've seen those dedicated people amost drown in flood waters from hurricanes, SAVINGS THOSE ANIMALS.  We've answered their calls for help at 5 in-the-morning at this radio station..."Please.....help us get these animals to DRY ground...and we've seen YOU and other good people and the whole community respond.  We've seen some of those "All Creatures people" give everything they had personally...to save those animals.  The smart thing to do?  We can debate that all day.

But ...NOW the "rubber hits the road"....it's time for us to put ur money, our bags of pet food, our old warm blankets, our volunteer time, our hearts, and our homes...to GOOD use for these animals...it's the RIGHT thing to do, especially in this season of "giving", and especially since the typically MIS-GUIDED State of North Carolina won't permit that shelter to ASK for our help...again...it's not about All Creatures...it's about the ANIMALS....and these 650 ARE the neediest of the needy.

It's no coincidence that when our Savior was born, his tiny body was laid in the animals trough, we call it a "manger"....the ultimate example of "humility"...with gentle animals there to itness, to verify, and to CELEBRATE the birth of Jesus Christ.  It's no coincidence indeed.  For when King Solomon wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes, he proclaimed in the third chapter...."they all have ONE breath...so that man hath NO PREEMINENCE above a beast."

However you feel about All Creatures Great and Small, and trying to save the lives of hundreds of unwanted animals, please remember this holiday season...the intentions behind it all are simple and good...and were SET BY EXAMPLE...almost 2100 years ago....at the birth of our Lord and Savior in a table.

PLEASE....don't be bashful about offering your help or donations...or better yet, ADOPT one or more of those animals...and give them more than just life...give them a HOME and your LOVE this Christmas.  We're absolutely SURE that's what All Creatures has been about...from its beginning.

There can be no better way to celebrate the birth of Jesus than to CARE for those who were there, looking into that manger, in attendance, to WITNESS with belief, faith, sincerity and simple, gentle, unquestioned LOVE.....our Savior's humble birth.

PREDATORS AMONG US

November 14, 2007

We certainly live in changing, challenging times. Hendersonville is no longer the "Currier and Ives" Christmas card, cozy, neighborly, safe and secure small town many of us grew up in.  And that's ok....change and challenge is part of life...and we can deal with that.  What we can't deal with, what we should refuse to deal with, is senseless, brutal crime....and predators on our street corners.

The murders of Connie and Ricky Sparks is a shocking, sobering, frightening reminder that some people are around, and some things are happening that shouldn't be.  The Sparks were the epitomy of innocent victims....good neighbors, solid citizens, a family that cared about and for each other, who had every right to live in and enjoy their home...and to feel safe and secure in it.  Instead....their home was invaded and they were murdered in cold-blood in their bedrooms.  Not for money, because they didn't have much...by predators who place no value on human life....who value only their worthless, selfish, evil whims of the moment.

It's bad enough that we have as many as 18 thousand illegal immigrants now in our county that no one knows what to do with...growing numbers of them rape and rob, steal and murder....and not just among each other.

But it's much worse that we obviously have now our own home-grown variety of predators...who kill neighbors as innocent and vulnerable as Connie and Ricky Sparks.  The suspects in that case have been caught...good police work all across the state ade that happen.  Folks are saying that if convicted, lock them away....and throw away the key.

But that's no good.  There's always a chance some prison may be over-crowded, some bureaucrat may lose them in the shuffle, or some bleeding heart may turn them loose.  No sir.  forget the plea bargains,forget the leniency, forget the mercy....the Sparks surely were shown none...let "Due Process" take its course...but then let happen to these predators what ought to happen to cold-blooded killers, to those who threaten us all, and rob us of the ability to feel safe and secure in the iddle of town, in the quietest neighborhoods....even in our homes, even in our own bedrooms.  The only thing, "Cruel and unsusual" in a case like this is what happened to the Sparks....no punishment is "Cruel" enough for those guilty of such a heinous crime...and the only thing that seems "unusual" in a case like this is that the guilty ones are entitled to any decency at all.

And if that's not enough...we're now told John and Irene Bryant were murdered, her from a blow to the head...his body still hasn't been found...while enjoying the sunshine and the Fall olor in the National Forest.

Folks, lock your doors.....even during the day.  Don't stop for or pick up strangers.  Don't let anyone flag you down on the road.  Watch your children closely.  Be careful in all public places...even in broad daylight.  Lock your cars.  If you live alone or are handicapped in any way, take extra-ordinary precautions for your safety.

And let's every one....for the Sparks and for ourselves...demand justice, swift and sure.  The Sparks deserved it and so do we all...it's past time we renew our ommitment to it....and settle for nothing less.

This has been a WHKP station editorial....we invite your comments.

BRCC BOARD CHAIRMAN JOE SPEARMAN

August 20, 2007

WHKP Radio was both surprised....and disappointed...to learn that Governor Mike Easley was not re-appointing long-time community leader Joe Spearman to the Blue Ridge Community College Board of Trustees.  Spearman has served on that board for 28 years....including 16 years as chairman.

The governor was quoted in the local newspaper as saying all the usual flowery congratulatory things one would expect of someone of Spearman's long, successful, and selfless service...then Easley added bluntly, "...it was time to make a new appointment".

Most of this last year of Spearman's tenure has been filled with conflict between his board and the State Department of Community Colleges.  We suspect most of that bru-ha-ha was nothing but a "turf battle" led by state bureaucrats.  Granted, some things probably did happen with the college baeball program that should NOT have happened....but as far as we're concerned, Joe Spearman's fundamental decency and good intentions, along with his contributions to education and his life-time record of service to this whole community are above reproach and speak for themselves.

What started as a dream and a lot of hard work...then grew into a "mission" and "a calling" for people like Bill Killian, Bo Thomas, Glenn Marlow, Hugh Randall, Tom Orr, Joe Spearman and so many others...has grown into an example of excellence in local technical and general education.  Thousands who otherwise may never have experienced the enlightment, enrichment, joy and fulfillment of higher education have been able to do so at Blue Ridge Community College...thanks to Spearman and the others.  So far as we're concerned, that's the legacy Joe Spearman will leave behind when his three decades on the board comes to an end.

One needs only to look at the beautiful campus, the ever-expanding and challenging curriculum, the dedicated and eminently qualified faculty and staff, and the constant flow of eager learners of all ages, hungry for knowledge and success, who "live" the Blue Ridge Community College "experience"...all due in large measure to Joe Spearman's exemplary service as a college trustee and the others who've served and led the community college. 

Service on a board as demanding as that of a communiity college is time-consuming, challenging, stressful, even gut-wrenching at times...and the real reward for such service is the success and better lives of those who've crossed that campus.  It's disappointing though that the only appreciation Governor Easley is willing to show for 28 years of service is a kick off the board and a few flowery words.

Since Governor Easley thinks it's time for " a new appointment", we hope the next time he's in the area he'll visit Blue Ridge Community College.  The governor will see just how huge Joe's shoes will be to fill....with this "new appointment".  and on that gorgeous campus, the governor will be staring straight into the face of the contribution, the sacrifice, the success, the LEGACY of Joe Spearman...and his fellow-travelers on the road of GOOD local education and community service.

$4 A GALLON GAS PRICES/THIS SUMMER?

May 14, 2007

A year ago, we were worrying about $3 per gallon gasoline as we planned our summer vacations and day trips.  Well, folks..those were the "good old days".  THIS spring we're facing the real possibility of $4 per gallon gasoline...and like the roulette wheel, with gas prices just as BIG a gamble..."where it stops nobody knows."

As you fill up your tank this week...and hear the familiar "ka-ching" as it FLIES past $3, $3.10, or even more with every gallon....remember the election last November.  The idea was, last fall, to "throw the bums out".  It was all about "reform" and "fairness".  And at what's happening to OUR disposable income with every dollar increase we're paying for gasoline.  From House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, to most members of last fall's much-heralded "new" Congress...what did Speaker Pelosi call them?  The most ethical Congress in a hundred years?

They all voted against, or in some way opposed, drilling for new sources of crude oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (land we taxpayers OWN, by the way); they were against the building of any new refineries; and they opposed off-shore drilling, even exploration.  They SAID it's all about "conservation"....Truth is, it's all out of Al Gore's play-book for FORCED conservation...which means for most of us working folks...doing with LESS, while paying MORE.

U. S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson told MSNBC last week...there are enough UN-USED oil reserves in the ground, underneath our own state of Alaska, to END our pathetic dependence on foreign oil.  And no matter what the environmentalists, those so-called "reformers", like those who were swept and RE-swept to power last November try and tell us...the people who live in Alaska are NOT opposed to using these vast un-tapped resources.  And why should they be opposed?  The whole area in Alaska, which has enough crude oil buried beneath it to FREE us from oil "robber barons" like Venezuela's thug dictator Hugo Chavez (who now controls 100 percent of Citgo, by the way)....is smaller in size than Washington's Reagan National Airport...and sits in a whole area that's smaller than South Carolina.

As for harming the pristine BEAUTY of the land in Alaska...Senator Hutchinson, who is from Texas and who knows oil drilling, points out that TODAY'S so-called "oil drilling" is all done UNDERGROUND, through a tentacle-like network of state-of-the-art machinery and connections...all UNDERGROUND.  The days of the old "dust bowl" oil wells and derricks are no more...the polar bears and caribou would hardly know we're there.

Adding insult to injury, those "reformers" who now LEAD the United States Congress are the very ones who have NOT allowed a single crude oil refinery, not a ONE, to be built in the United States in the last 31 years.  The last new refinery began operation in Garyville, Louisiana in 1976.  In these last 31 years, countless MILLIONS of additional people all over the world are driving, burning gasoline.  It's said that one-in-ten now has a car in China...they're not riding bicycles and pulling rickshaws anymore.  With no new sources of crude oil and no new refineries allowed, at least on American soil...demand is HIGH, supply is LOW, and we're at the hopeless mercy of Islamic radicals in the Mid-East and anti-american thugs like Hugo Chavez.

Let there be NO mistake.  Early in 2001, President George W. Bush did what he was elected to do.  He assigned Vice President Cheney specifically to the job...and together they presented to the American people, and to our Congress, a real plan for energy independence and for affordable crude oil prices...depending for the first time on our OWN resources. Then the so-called "reformers" who now lead the Congress began the"politics" of it all and they pronounced the President's plan dead-on-arrival.  We elected them and LET them do it, then RE-elected them and added to their ranks...and we're about to pay $4 a gallon for gasoline because of it.

Those same "reformers", and more like them, were given a "vote of confidence" by the American people last November...mostly because of an unpopular war in Iraq.  And because of that same unpopular war, where vast sources of oil and energy are AT STAKE in Iraq, these "reformers" are likely to be given another "vote of confidence" in 2008.  We're reminded of the old Pete Seeger folk song..."When Will They Ever Learn"....the "they" being US working....and voting....Americans, who could by the end of this summer be paying $4 a gallon for gasoline to drive back and forth to our jobs.

It's not a matter of 'Democrat versus Republican".  It IS, folks...a matter of EXTREMISM versus COMMON SENSE and REALITY. For those of us who drive to our jobs everyday, feed our families, and support this nation...OUR reality starts in our pocketbooks....and we need to REMEMBER when we vote in 2008....what those so-called "reformers"....those who got elected to "throw the bums out" last fall...are doing to us....with every expensive "ka-ching", ka-chiung" we hear at the gas pump.