Vol. 15, Issue 7 FREE ~ GRATIS September 2017

County Line www.chathamcountyline.org

CHATHAM

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RANDY VOLLER ON CHATHAM'S HIGH VOTER TURNOUT

INSIDE:

SATYRS ON THE WING Page 5

UNCLE HU HU Page 6

Are we engineering the extinction of our own species?By Joe Jacob

For the past 29 years I have been spending part or all of my summers teaching and guiding in Alaska. When not teach-ing, guiding and preparing for or cleaning up after trips, I take time to read books about Alaska and books written by Alaskans. I do this because it helps me understand how we humans, both in Alaska and in North Carolina, are affect-ing the life support system I call Nature. I suppose you could say I am searching for the silver bullet to understand why I feel our civilization is marching toward extinction and if there is something we can do to change what appears to be our destiny.

Two authors and three books increased my understand-ing this summer. The first book, written by Eva Saulitis, is entitled “Into Great Silence”. The author studied transient killer whales before, during and after the 1989 Exxon-Val-dez oil spill in Prince William Sound. You find out early in the book that she is recovering from breast cancer, and

unfortunately she died after the book was published. Her specialty was understanding killer whale communication. She points out that there are three types of killer whales. Resident killer whales eat salmon. Transient killer whales eat other mammals like seals, sea lions and porpoises. Sea going killer whales eat sharks. Killer whales tend to hunt in pods so communication in resident and sea going killer whales is very vocal. Being very quiet is key to the success of transient killer whales so that they do not alarm their prey.

What you learn from reading the book is that all of the offspring in a pod of killer whales stay with and learn from the mother whale which is the dominant factor in a killer whale’s life. If she dies before the young whales learn from her, the pod eventually goes extinct even though the young whales may grow to be adults. This is exactly what is hap-pening today in Prince William Sound. Adult transient

Pets and Women’s Safety (PAWS) ActThe first time I realized there were people who would hurt an animal to enact revenge on their partner was while working at an animal emergency clinic in York-town, Va. One evening a woman came in with a basket of very young kittens; their eyes weren’t even open yet. The lady had broken up with her boyfriend and in a rage he stomped on the newly born litter. The kit-tens were so mangled and torn up there was nothing that could be done to save them, and they all had to be euthanized. It was horrible.

In the years since, as an animal rescue volunteer, requests come in every so often from people asking if the group could keep their pets as they transition from an abusive situation to a new life. It could be they have arranged to stay in a battered women’s shelter or with relatives and their pets aren’t allowed. Unfortunately, most rescue groups aren’t set up for this kind of situ-ation. Foster home volunteers would have to agree to take in abuse victims’ animals for many months, meaning the space they provide for homeless animals would no longer be available. Other issues can arise as well. Perhaps the abuse victims’ pets have major behavioral issues that the foster homes aren’t pre-pared to handle. What if the abuser finds out where the pet(s) are and shows up at the volunteer’s home?

Animal shelters aren’t typically a viable solution either, as they are not a boarding facility and don’t have space to hold pets for months on end. Most people trying to escape an abuser can’t afford to keep their pets at vet clinics or boarding facilities for long term stays. Options are usually quite limited for pets of people needing time to restart their lives.

Leaving pets behind with an abuser isn’t a good option due to the high likelihood the animals will be victims of abuse. Violence against humans and animals are closely related. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 71 percent of women entering domestic violence shelters reported that their partners abused or killed the family pet. Red Rover, an non-profit that helps pets in crisis, reports up to 65 percent of domestic violence victims say they delayed their decision to leave the situation out of fear for their pets’ safety. The book When Bat-tered Women Kill, by Angela Brown, includes insight about how children are more traumatized by wit-nessing loved ones being abused than when they are targeted. It is likely in many cases this could also be true when experiencing a beloved pet being abused. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence also reports of pet-owning women entering battered women’s shelters that 32% say their children have hurt or killed animals.

Bills were introduced on February 7, 2017 in both

the United States House and Senate to expand domes-tic violence protection to include pets. The Pet And Women Safety (PAWS) Act (H.R. 909/S. 322) has 231 House cosponsors and 18 Senate cosponsors. These bills have bipartisan support and many states already have similar legislation. Congressional cosponsors want to help ensure safety for all members of a family, including pets, who need protection no matter where they live in America.

Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), says the PAWS Act makes it harder for domestic violence abusers to prey on their battered partners and pets by:

1) Allowing pets to be protected across state lines when restraining orders are issued in domestic vio-lence cases; and

2) Authorizing grant money so that domestic vio-lence shelters can accommodate pets (currently, only 3 percent of these shelters allow pets) or help arrange for the pet to be sheltered.

According to Erica Geppi, NC State Director of the HSUS, including pets in domestic violence protection orders has a lot of support. The difficult part of this bill will be getting enough grant funding to be able to include pet-friendly spaces in battered women’s shelters.

Until the legislation is passed, victims of relation-ship violence may be able to find financial help with temporary boarding and/or veterinary bills for their pets by contacting RedRover.org. Donations can also be made to Red Rover via the website or by phone at 916-429-2457.

Relationship violence is an issue that affects every social and economic group. Every community, includ-ing Chatham County, would benefit from the protec-tion and help the PAWS Act could provide.

For an up-to-date list of the current cosponsors and the status of the bills visit www.congress.gov or www.govtrack.us. Rep. David Price is one of the cospon-sors. Members of the public can contact other NC leg-islators to ask them to support the bills. Rep. George Holding at 202-225-3032, Sen. Richard Burr at 202-224-3154, and Sen. Thom Tillis at 202-224.6342.

Valerie Broadway, the Canine Coach, is a dog trainer and behavioral specialist. For information: 919.542.4726 or www.caninecoachingservices.com.

EXTINCTION CONTINUED, PAGE 4

When Stones Speak: Confederate Statues Come AliveBy Julian Sereno

The silver lining in the current controversy over Confederate monu-ments is the spotlight that it is shining on history. History is a good place to start when discussing them.

Silent Sam, dedicated on the UNC campus in 1913, has been the seen of protests since the 1960's. This one, on August 31, protested the removal of placards, banners and literature before Carolina's football home opener.

PHOTO BY JULIAN SERENO

the Canine Coachby Valerie BroadwayBy Valerie Broadway

STATUES CONTINUED, PAGE 11

OPINION

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Come Out and PlayFor the 16th year in a row, sculptors will dis-play their creations at the Come Out and Play sculpture show at JimGin farm just outside Carrboro. Many of the works will be for sale. Artists, who range in age from 8 to 90, keep 100% of the proceeds.

There are free picnic receptions on Satur-day, September 9, and 16, and 23 beginning at 3 p.m. and going until dark. There is no admis-sion, and all are welcome, including dogs if they are on leashes. We know how much dogs love art! Sculptures of many media and form will dot the landscape of this 17-acre horse farm at 150 Wild Horse Run, Pittsboro, NC 27312.

This show began in 2002 as part of a group of shows put on by Hunter Levinsohn, Jackie Helvey, Anke Gassen, Hollie Taylor, and Debbie Meyer to honor those directly affected by the events of 9/11. Attendees, who loved seeing sculpture in an outdoor setting, and artists, who often don’t have a place to display larger sculptures, asked for it to continue. Over 2,000 people attended last year’s show.

For information, contact Debbie Meyer at writetoeloise@gmail.com or at 919.357.6142. She and her husband, Eric Brantley, put on the show each year as a gift to the community. The link to the invitation is www.comeoutand-play.info.

“Patch” by TJ Christiansen

Tiger Rescue wins $25,000 N.C. Science Museums grantIn August, Carolina Tiger Rescue was one of 54 recipients across the state to receive a grant from the North Carolina Science Muse-ums Grant Program, which helps invest in sustaining and advancing one of the most diverse networks of science museums in the country. It was the second year for the $2.39 million program, which has a primary goal of enhancing STEM education opportunities.

Carolina Tiger will use the $25,000 award to expand its education program. The funds will help secure supplies and equipment for the program, which currently includes tours, internships, field trips, community presenta-tions and exhibits and a variety of camps.

“The grant will allow us to continue to grow our education program,” Carolina Tiger Education Director Katie Cannon said. “It is imperative people understand how important it is that these animals are taken care of in cap-tivity and how vital they are to their natural ecosystems. With this grant, we will be able to grow our offerings, develop additional ways to reach new audiences to share our mission, and further help these amazing animals.”

Educating the public on the importance of preserving wild animals in their natural habi-tat is one of Carolina Tiger’s chief goals. The organization embraces every opportunity to educate in hopes of changing the future for wild cats in the wild. For more information, call 919.542.4684 or visit CarolinaTigerRescue.org.

The Center Is not Holding –Name and Origins of our Political DivideThat is the title of this year’s Lindgren Lecture, sponsored by the Shared Learning Associa-tion, Chapel Hill, Friday, September 22, 2017, 11 a.m. Expand Church, 114 Weaver Dairy Road, Chapel Hill.

Speaking will be Jonathan D. Weiler, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergradu-ate Studies, Curriculum in Global Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Weiler is well versed in this dynamic topic, since he has been working with Marc Hetherington on a book, giving reasons “why Americans are so divided” – to be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018. He and Dr. Hetherington also published Authoritari-anism and Polarization in American Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2009). At UNC, he has taught courses in Russian Politics, Human Rights, European Politics and Com-parative Development. Also, he writes politi-cal commentary for the Huffington Post and the Independent Weekly of NC. In addition, he serves on the Board of Community Home Trust, an organization that provides affordable housing to hundreds of families and individu-als in North Carolina.

An alumni of the University of Michigan, Dr. Weiler received his Ph.D. in Political Sci-ence at UNC.

Free and open to the public. For more infor-mation: www.sharedlearningchapelhill.com.

2017 Parade of Homes features 58 homesThe Home Builders Association (HBA) of Durham, Orange & Chatham Counties pres-ents the 2017 Parade of Homes on September 30-October 1, October 6-8, & October 13-15 from noon – 5 p.m. in exciting new homes throughout Durham, Orange and Chatham Counties. In its 34rd year of inviting the public to view some of the finest homes in the area, this HBA event showcases new home construction with inno-vative designs, products, and technology. A variety of homes will be on Parade, meeting the needs of home buyers in all price ranges, from budget conscious shoppers to those looking for a grand estate. Thirteen homes on Parade have met the stringent requirements of Home Innovations NGBS Green Certification.

“Looking forward to this year’s Parade of Homes”, said Florica Shepherd, of Sierra Pacific Mortgage, Chairperson of the Parade of Homes committee. “These homes are specifi-cally selected to represent the latest in design, trends, and styles. With prices ranging from modest to exquisitely elaborate, there is some-thing for everyone.”

The Parade of Homes is free of charge and offers prospective buyers the opportunity to see fresh products and designs in the new home industry in a comfortable and relaxed

environment. No registration is required, and the public is invited to visit any, or all, of the homes. At each Parade home, books are avail-able providing price and floor plan informa-tion, maps, and directions to all of the homes on the Parade. Parade books are also available at various locations in our community includ-ing Harris Teeter magazine racks.

“The Parade of Homes is a fun and casual way to check out what is currently available in new home construction and the latest and greatest building technology”, said HBADOC CEO Holly Fraccaro. “Our builders are lead-ers in the residential construction industry.; Even if you are not in the market for a new home, this is an opportunity for the public to take a peek inside and appreciate the art and science of new home construction.”

F o r m o r e i n fo r m at io n o n t h e Parade of Homes (#TriangleParade), call the HBA at 919-493-8899 or visit

www.TriangleParadeofHomes.com. Also follow the HBADOC Parade of Homes on Facebook. The Parade is sponsored by BMC Building Supply.

The Home Builders Association is affili-ated with the National Association of Home Builders and the North Carolina Home Build-ers Association. It has more than 600 members who are builders, developers, subcontractors, suppliers, and professionals in businesses related to residential construction. For more information, please call 919-493-8899.

Chatham County LineSEPTEMBER 2017 3

Friendship and the Fickleness of CancerBy Brenda Denzler

I was standing at my kitchen window the other day, gazing out aimlessly at my garden, now overgrown with grass and red clover that the local rabbits are finding delightful to munch on. I was contemplating, with surprise, the hesitation I felt at the prospect of getting to know another IBC sister better.

As I stood there wondering at my reaction, I realized the cause: this growing friendship was with a woman with Stage IV (terminal) disease. “My heart can’t take this again,” I thought. “I don’t know if I can bear the pain of losing a close friend to cancer one more time.”

My friend Kate died last March. We had become very close in the years since we met in an online support group for IBC patients, but we were really unlikely friends. Kate was an exercise buff, keenly interested in photogra-phy, a sharp “what not to wear” kind of dresser with two homes worthy of being featured in Better Homes and Gardens, and a disability/retirement portfolio that enabled her to travel anytime and anywhere if she felt well enough.

I am an inveterate couch potato who’d rather have a book in her hands than a camera, a “comfort first” dresser with a little modular home that is overstuffed with books, furniture my dad made and pets, and a financial portfolio that enables me to live literally hand-to-mouth and travel to the grocery store and back.

Socioeconomically speaking, we were very unevenly matched. The force that drew us together was cancer…and the glue that held us together, at first, was Janet’s death.

Kate, Janet and I had been diagnosed at about the same time and were thus going through our cancer treatments at about the same pace. By the time we connected in the sup-port group, we were starting radiation, so we called ourselves the Fry Gals. (Get it? Because we were being “fried” to a crisp with rads!)

Kate had been diagnosed at Stage IV from the outset, so she was always going to be in treatment. But when Janet and I finished our treatments, the three of us met at Janet’s house in the summer of 2010. Her place, though more

casually furnished, was also Better-Homes-and-Gardens-worthy. In addition, she was outdoors-y, a photography buff, and financially set. Given all this, Kate and Janet really hit it off. Among Janet’s outdoor enthusiasms was kayaking, which I’d always wanted to try, so the three of us agreed that the following summer we would go kayaking down the James River.

We did take that trip—but only to honor Janet’s memory. Within four months of fin-ishing her treatment, the cancer returned, spreading like wildfire through her lungs. Two months after that, she was dead.

Cancer is a funny beast. Since Kate had a terminal diagnosis from the outset, we all presumed that she would die before Janet and me, who had been diagnosed “early” at Stage IIIB. Naturally, we hoped that it would be years in the future before that happened, but Kate was fully aware that she was terminal. She would talk frankly about dying, but make plans for tomorrow anyway. As for Janet and me, we knew we could recur, but then again, we might not. And if we did, we were hoping it would be years before it happened. When all was said and done, though, it was Janet who died first…. Who could have known?

Kate and I grew closer after Janet died, as we consoled one another and processed the fickleness of cancer. Despite our superficial differences, we found common ground at a deeper level: We were both rather intellectu-ally oriented; we both had adult children and, later, grandchildren; we were politically in sync; and we had a strong interest in religion. Through texts, phone calls and in-person visits, we came to share the ordinary, daily details of our lives (past and present)—which is where you find the real glue that binds human beings to one another.

Kate and I had many thoughtful conversa-tions about religion. At one point, though, we got into tall weeds. Several years ago, one of our IBC sisters—a young woman in her 30s with two small children—died after a long and painful struggle to live. Kate was both

devastated and outraged. Where is this all-wise and benevolent God? she wanted to know. How could he let this happen?

Although my degree is in religious studies, I was out of my depth. Kate was an adamantly lapsed Catholic who was trying to use that framework to get answers to age-old questions about the justice of God. So I tapped an old grad school chum to help us find our way.

Maureen was on the theological faculty at a Catholic university in NYC, and, based on her personal history, I knew that she had to have confronted this question, herself. As I expected, she gave our conversation a richer texture with her insightful comments. Ironi-cally enough (cancer being the fickle beast that it is), Maureen got pancreatic cancer two years later and died early last year.

At that point, Kate was not far behind. As one treatment after another failed her, as her body wore out, and as the cancer spread, Kate and I talked more and more often about death—not just in the abstract, but as a reality she would have to face soon. I tried to be calm and supportive, even though I was raging inside.

Finally, one day, it happened. “I’m actively dying,” she texted. “I can’t take any more. I think I’m going to call hospice.”

She was weak and in constant pain that was only relieved by powerful narcotics that put her to sleep. When awake, she couldn’t hold her head

up anymore; a growing tumor was pushing it to one side. She had no quality of life left.

“I know,” I wrote back, a lump in my throat and tears welling up in my eyes. “I don’t think it’s a bad decision, if you’re ready to make it.”

This is the cost of friendship in Cancer Land: having the ability and will to help a friend as they approach death. Putting your own feel-ings aside to nurture someone as best you can while they take that often-difficult journey from one life into what I sincerely hope is another.

Becoming good friends with someone in Cancer Land is not a bad decision. It has its lasting rewards. But it can be hard, because cancer is fickle. You may have a Stage III friend for decades, or she may recur and die suddenly next month. A friend with a terminal diagnosis may struggle for a bit and then die, or she may hold on with a reasonable quality of life and be a boon companion for years. For that matter, a friend who has never had cancer may wind up dying from it tomorrow….

I guess you can’t pick your friends accord-ing to the stage of their diagnosis—or lack of it. You can only pick them according to the quality of their soul and how it resonates with your own. As Kate’s did with mine.

Brenda Denzler was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer in 2009. She became a cancer survivor on the very day she was diagnosed.

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The Power of MenopauseBy Allison Koch, CNM

How much do you know about the life transition we call Menopause? Menopause is what is known as a retro-spective diagnosis. That means that women are defined

as “in menopause” or “menopausal” when they have had no period for a full year. Women may go 10 or 11 months without a period, then have a period. We call that “peri-menopausal.” Once women have achieved Menopause, they are considered Post-Menopausal.

In the USA, the average age of menopause is 51. Despite wom-en’s shorter lifespan throughout history, age 51 has remained the average age of menopause for the past 300 years. Most women will experience some symptoms that make them aware that their bodies are changing, but few women that I have seen in my practice are aware that there are nearly 100 symptoms that may coincide with the menopausal transition.

The hormones involved in the changes of menopause are likely to be estrogens and progesterone, but also could be DHEA, testosterone, or an imbalance in another body system brought on by changing hormones.

Hormones are natural chemicals present in our bodies that interact with each other or with our cells and organs. Hormones exist primarily to regulate processes and keep our body in homeo-stasis, a state of natural balance. Menopause is a process, fre-quently taking 10 years or more, designed to change our bodies and prepare us for a lifetime beyond the fertile years!

In perimenopause, most women experience some of the same hormonal symptoms that heralded menarche. Anxiety,

emotionality, irregular periods are all normal in young girls approaching puberty. Worsening PMS is often the first symptom noted as we enter the perimenopausal period. Although our youth-oriented culture doesn’t generally approach the Elder “rites of passage” with as much anticipation as other milestones, there is still cause for celebration (raise a glass of red wine!)

Beginning in September, the main focus of my practice at Women’s Birth & Wellness Center will be perimenopause and menopausal care. I am here to guide and support you through the menopausal transition. I want to optimize your experience, your health and your adjustment to the power of a new way of life. Together we will explore the process and your options for managing challenges.

Additionally, September 25 and October 2, I will be hosting

a two-part workshop titled, “The Power of Menopause.” Meno-pause is one of the Women’s Mysteries, along with menarche, pregnancy and birth. Come celebrate your unique and magical transition (as the midwives do) and learn more about what to expect during this exciting time.

I am overjoyed to be expanding our wellness and women’s primary care offerings with a focus on the wonder years (“I wonder where I put my keys…”)

The great anthropologist Margaret Mead said: “There is no geater creative force in the world than a menopausal woman with zest!” We wholeheartedly agree!

Allison joined Women’s Birth & Wellness Center in January of 2008. Her entire career has been devoted to empowering and advocating for women. She has been politically active for midwifery and birth reform and strives to preserve the midwifery model of care. She especially enjoys working with healing herbs, homeopathy and energetic therapies.

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killer whale offspring cannot find places to prey on seals and sea lions because they never learned the location from their mother who died from exposure to the oil during and after the oil spill. Imagine, extinction in this case is because of the lack of communication among a population of transient killer whales, not because of insufficient food. The seals and sea lions are there. The transient adult killer whales just don’t know where they are. Is there a parallel story among people and cultures? Of course there is.

Seth Kantner is the other Alaskan author I referred to ear-lier. His two books are entitled “Shopping for Porcupine: A Life in Arctic Alaska” and “Swallowed by the Great Land: and Other Dispatches from Alaska’s Frontier”. The author was born and raised along the banks of the Kobuk River in northwestern Alaska. His life began with his mother, father and older brother in a sod house built into the side of a hill many miles from the

nearest village. From a very early age, he learned to track, hunt and trap animals. He learned everything he could about which body parts to eat and what he could do with the bones and skins. A keen observer of Nature, he came to an early understanding of how the land related to the animals and on what aspects of Nature he could always depend. It was not uncommon for him to go out into minus forty degree weather for days without the comforts and safety of modern-day clothing. He learned a lot from his father, but even more from elder indigenous people who had lived in other remote areas of Alaska. From time to time they would stop at his sod home to find shelter during a snow storm. Now over 45 years of age, the author spends a lot of time photographing and writing about a time that no longer exists even in the most remote parts of Alaska. Things began to change when three things happened. Snow machines made dog teams obsolete, so you could get farther into the wilderness, but have to depend on fossil fuels rather than animal power to get you there. High-powered weapons made hunting too easy, so you could kill more animals than you really needed. Modern-day

clothing, transportation and electronics take the risk out of trophy hunting which puts subsistence living at a disadvantage because the overall population of animals is reduced.

We talk a lot these days about living a sustainable lifestyle, but really have no clue as to what that really means. There is no physical risk involved when we trade paper money to buy food or acquire goods. Seth Kantner had to endure subzero temperatures and the risk of being attacked by a pack of wolves in order to feed his family. Instead, as we avoid risks to get what we want, a little of our spirit dies and we are not even aware of it just like adult transient killer whales are not aware of a place to find food. Have we lost our ability to experience and communicate about what is really important in life, and by doing so, insure our demise?

Joe Jacob, a Chatham resident for more than 30 years and a marine biologist, is president of The Haw River Canoe & Kayak Co., www.hawrivercanoe.com, 336.260.6465. He worked for The Nature Conservancy for 20 years and served as Director of Science for TNC’s Southeast Region.

EXTINCTION CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Chatham County LineSEPTEMBER 2017 5

Chatham Park continues to move forward in Pittsboro and Chatham County with exciting plans on drawing boards and new retail con-struction at the entrance to the project located across 15-501 from Northwood High School

Q: What is Penguin Place and what will be located there?

A: Penguin Place is the first retail center to be built in Chatham Park. It is where the Root Cellar Café & Catering will open its second location. Owners and Pittsboro residents Sera Cuni and Susan White first acquired the former Foster’s Market in Chapel Hill in 2013 and rebranded it in 2014 as the Root Cellar. Susan grew up in Chatham County and Sera moved to Cha-tham in 2003. “We love this community and look forward to bringing our scratch-

made food to Chatham Park and to help-ing our local economy grow.” The 3,725 square foot Root Cellar Café & Catering is projected to open in late 2017/early 2018. Joining the Root Cellar in Penguin Place’s 14,000 square foot retail specialty building will be Bottle Revolution, a bottle shop and bar carrying local, Triangle, and NC beers. There’s a self-serve wine station too. Beer and wine selections will rotate offering different price points and styles. This is also the second store for Bottle Revolution owners Lewis Hendricks and Julie Paddison. Opening is slated for 2018. Penguin Place will feature sculp-tured works from local artists William Moore and Edwin White.

Q: What is Mosaic and what will be there?A: Mosaic at Chatham Park (Phase1) is a 44-acre lifestyle center. When completed, Mosiac will add over $150 million in tax base to Pittsboro and Chatham County. Tenants will include a brewery with a restaurant/tasting room, a 120-room hotel, a 125-unit artist colony for residents

55 and older, a 250-seat live performance theater, a first-run movie theater with 8 screens, a community church, class A office space, apartments, a language-immersion day care, a specialty grocer, several farm-to-table restaurants, a coffee shop, fitness center, urgent care office, dental/medical/optical services, local pharmacy, spa + hair salons, and general mercantile. Mosaic at Chatham Park (Phase1)will also include: public art, an outdoor, live performance stage, a “works yard” (an open-air and conditioned market space for local merchants), play areas and family gathering places, multi-modal access to scale with bicycle lanes, appropriate access points and parking areas. Mosaic at Chatham Park (Phase1) is being developed by the ECO Chatham Group, a partnership between local devel-opers John Fugo of Montgomery Devel-opment and Kirk Bradley of Lee-Moore Capital Company.

For more information please visit the site and download the leasing brochure from www.mosaicatchathampark.com

“We’re futurists. We’re imagineers. We’re dreamers. And Chatham Park was a big dream for us, probably the biggest dream you could possibly have. We want to change people’s lives when they live here.” TIM SMITH, CO-OWNER, PRESTON DEVELOPMENT

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Uncle Hu HuBy Don Basnight

Dad said they buried Great Uncle Hubert in a piano case. I have never seen a piano case, and I am not sure one would be big enough. We called him Uncle Hu Hu and he was huge. Even into his sixties his physical strength was used on the farm like a secret weapon no money can buy. He could hold a pissed-off cow for castrating, or pull a barbed wire tight enough to be nailed to a fence post. He would just put his weight into the fence wire and pull. It would stretch and sing like a punished banjo. He could throw bales of hay high onto the second floor barn loft.

Out of school one summer, I pulled up to the barn lot and noticed four or five men strug-gling with the front end of a tractor. A couple of cousins, a couple of uncles, and granddad were there, along with Uncle Hu Hu. It seemed the tractor had a bad front tire, and they had set about changing it. This was no riding lawn-mower, this was a big Ford. Wrenches and the new tire were laid to the ready. Then came the moment I expected someone to set a jack, but instead, Uncle Hu Hu stepped forward and hitched his Pointer overalls. He squatted in front of the axle of that F4000, stabled him-self on his size fifteen brogans, and began a two arm curl of the front end of that old work horse. The strain in his shaking arms was frightening. His back was as straight as a bank column; his thighs, parallel to the ground, were as stable as the concrete picnic table at Fowler’s Food Store on Franklin Street. His neck turned red well beyond the farmers tan. You could see the pulsing in his carotid as the front axle lifted off the ground. He did not have to spit out a “Hurry up, damn it!” my cousins jumped to the task, awestruck, snatching the old tire off the teetering front end and bolting the new rubber tight. Down it bounced, and I leapt back as Uncle Hu Hu staggered from the release of the weight. Had I not been quick I might have been stepped on or crushed. “Good God, Hubert!” his brother mumbled as he turned away. “Whatcha reckon

that weighs Granddaddy?” I asked. “You boys get him a Pepsi,” was the only reply.

He was granddad’s younger brother by nine years and lived next door on the farm. Married three times, and widowed twice, I sometimes imagined my aunt’s demise, God forbid. I only knew Aunt Ebbie; his second wife. She was a sweet wisp of a woman who was a wonderful cook. When I was grown I learned she died of cancer. Because of his obe-sity most folks assumed he would go first of a heart attack or stroke, but no, time after time he outlived his wives and lived deep into his seventies.

At the Farmers Exchange, the town’s men and farmers mix as they buy and sell supplies, grain, young plants, and work clothes. Some are dodging work, others the heat of the day, but they all look up when Uncle Hubert comes in. He would step on the big flat metal plate of the freight scale to the thrill of the idle men in the store. The arm on the big dial face would spin ‘round twice before it would settle near the big number, everyone leaning in to see. The men would howl! Pushing four hundred pounds, none could compare to Hubert’s sheer size and some would egg him on to show some feat of strength with bets, cajoles, and dares. Not to disappoint, Uncle Hubert would offer

some contest and let guys strut around the bay area claiming some way they could best him. After a few dollars were put at risk in a friendly wager, Uncle Hu Hu bent and grabbed the belly of a fifty pound burlap bag of feed grain. He tucked it under one big arm pit. He grabbed another fifty pound burlap bag of grain feed and tucked it under the other sweaty arm. He bent down and while a sales clerk was laying yet another bag across his big broad shoulders, he picked up two more burlap bags, one in each hand. With two hun-dred and fifty pounds in his arms and on his neck he then clenched one more bag of grain in his wide mouth and began to stagger up the stairs to the warehouse loft! The greenbacks were flying!

Later in his life, after Aunt Ebbie had passed, Grandmamma sent my cousin Susan and me over to his house one Thanksgiving afternoon with a platter. Susan went ahead of me holding down the wire fence to cross into Uncle Hubert’s yard. Down past the smoke house, and over the “step over” creek, past the bamboo thicket. Goo, our nickname for Susan, opened his sliding glass door and let me go in first. I used two hands to carry the feast across the black and white tile. He was on the porch day-bed, his preference to coming over

and folding in with our house full of folks on holidays. He lay on his side, his great bulk at ease with his bushel basket sized head cradled in his huge hand, held high by a crooked arm. His ear a squeezed grapefruit half; wild hairs sprouting here and there. His tee shirt was pulled up some showing soft side-belly.

“Whatcha got there, Boy?” he said look-ing at my cargo.

“Where do you want me to put it Uncle Hu Hu?”

“You and Goo bring me some Thanksgiv-ing? Just set it right here.” patting the side of his enormous torso. I set the platter on the side of his belly where he ate without sitting up. It did not rock or slide, there was no risk of losing any food. I looked around the sun porch while he began to eat the contents of grand mamma’s gift. The porch held battered rattan and a knotty pine wall of framed certificates and accolades. I read a newspaper clipping of where Uncle Hubert won the swimming race at Sparrow’s Pool, beating out all the boys including Samuel Lloyd a collegiate athlete. He had won by inches. Susan and I set with him awhile. Years later my cousin Rob found him dead in his home. Uncle Hu Hu did not come to the barn that morning and Rob went looking. He was 79 and could more than fill any piano case I can imagine.

Don Basnight is a real estate sales person in Carrboro who has learned that old people are just young people that have lived a long time. He lives in Chapel Hill with his wife and loves exploring North Carolina.

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SATYRS CONTINUED, PAGE 9

Satyrs on the WingBy Michael Pollock

Walking along a woodland trail in summer, you have probably seen small grayish-brown butterflies skipping along the trail

just ahead, flying very close to the ground. When they come to rest on a fallen leaf or bare ground, they almost always keep their wings tightly closed, displaying rows of dark spots with pale marks and rings, resembling eyes. These are satyrs, along with related wood-nymphs, browns, and pearly-eyes, while alpines and arctics are relatives in cooler climates, as far north as Greenland. These butterflies generally don’t visit flowers and are cryptic, blending with last year’s fallen leaves or bark. Landed, they may turn around a few times before standing completely still, while on cool days they tilt towards the sun or open their wings. Despite their flightiness, satyrs and related butterflies can be approached, revealing fine details.

In this area there are Carolina satyrs, Georgia/helicta satyrs, gemmed satyrs, and little wood-satyrs. The endangered Mitchell’s satyr (we have a subspecies called St Francis’ satyr) lives in abandoned beaver ponds, and craters on military bases, south of Chatham County. Carolina satyrs, Hermeuptychia sos-ybius, have many small black spots with pale

centers, outlined in yellow, along the edges of the grayish-brown undersides of their wings,

along with two vertical brown lines closer to the body. These spots probably dis-

tract predators so that the butter-flies can survive attacks, though

satyrs rarely appear very beaten up. Possibly they are also used in courtship. On the rare occasions when Carolina satyrs open their wings, the upper sides are plain brown. Satyrs are relatively small butterflies, and Carolina

satyrs are a small species. Satyrs, and some other butterflies have swollen veins in their forewings, which may allow them to hear, but what are they listening to? Satyrs appear to have four legs instead of the usual six, because the front legs are small, as in the brushfooted family of butterflies, of which satyrs are now considered a subfamily. Carolina satyrs are supposed to drink nectar more than their relatives. Satyr caterpillars are typically green, nocturnal, and feed on grasses, such as centipede and carpet grass in the case of Carolina satyrs, yet the adults live in woods, not fields. The caterpillars also have differ-ently sized eyes. Like other satyrs, Carolina satyrs winter as caterpillars, hatching from eggs laid by themselves, rather than in groups.

Apparently Georgia satyrs don’t live this far inland, but the species was divided in two in 1999, and what are now called helicta satyrs are rare residents here. Georgia satyrs are said to hide in tall grass and live in pine woods created by fire, and this probably applies to helicta satyrs. Their eyespots are shaped more like star-filled slits. Their caterpillars might eat sedges and bulrushes.

Gemmed satyrs, Cyllopsis gemma (gemma means jewel) are relatively common and easily identified by ‘eyespots’

like broken crystals, surrounded by bluish gray. Like some of their relatives, their green caterpillars are sleek, like old cars with fins, having two ‘horns’ and two ‘tails.’ Summer caterpillars are green while those in the fall

are brown. They eat grasses, especially Bermuda grass, under cover of dark-ness, hiding near the ground in daytime.

Little wood-nymphs, Megisto cymela, are supposed to be most common, and are found throughout the East. They have several eyespots on each wing, but each wing has two larger spots, each with two white spots inside. Despite being called little, they are relatively large, and may fly high in the trees. Their tan caterpillars are covered with a coat of fine spines and are most active at night, feeding on grasses such as pastel orchard grass and bluegrass. What we call little wood-nymphs might actually be two species that look identical, but fly at different times, and therefore don’t interbreed. Their

caterpillars seem to differ in color and hiber-nate at different points in their growth.

Despite their name, Appalachian browns, Satyrodes appalachia, live here. They are slightly larger than the satyrs and are patterned like the larger pearly-eye butterflies. They have four large, round eyespots on the margin of

the upper wings and more on the hind wings, not in a line and the first and last are

usually larger, and there are curving brown lines further from the edge. They live in and around swamps and drink things like sap, while their caterpillars eat grasses and sedges.

I saw a pearly eye perched, head down, on an outer wall of a bathhouse at Falls Lake’s Rollingview access. Originally I thought it was a Southern pearly-eye, Enodia portlandia, but it must have been a Northern pearly-eye, E. anthedon. Creole pearly-eyes, E. creola, also live here. Pearly-eyes probably don’t visit flow-ers, and both Southern and creole pearly-eyes eat cane as caterpillars, while Northerns feed on woodland grasses. According to the State Parks’ online data-base, Butterflies of NC, Northern pearly-eyes are found here, and include invasive Japanese sti lt grass as a larval food, and prob-ably not cane. Their caterpil-lars, and pos-sibly those of other pearly-eyes, show off their mandibles i f d ist u rbed. The pearly-eye I saw was probably a territorial male. Southern pearly-eye courtship is supposed to be around sunset. Male creole pearly-eyes have wing scales that produce pheromones, yet they mate during daylight. Like

Southern pearly-eyes, they are active late

and might be seen at night. Enodia seems to refer to a Greek goddess; the data-base calls the genus Lethe and includes the Appalachian brown.

Common wood nymphs (Cer-cyonis pegala,

apparently referring to a Greek king and beautiful), also called large wood nymphs or blue-eyed graylings, are relatively large butterflies of late summer. I imagine the rasping, tree frog-like calls of Robinson’s cicadas filling the hot air as I walk along in a scrubby area, when suddenly up springs a swift butterfly with a yellow patch at the tip of each forewing. The butterfly is probably too fast to see the two eyespots with white or blue centers in each yellow patch. The eyespots are largest underneath. On the upper surface of each hindwing there is one eyespot, but sev-eral on the underside, against a grayish back-ground finely hatched with dark brown. The eyespots may distract, while the sudden flash of yellow could throw off a predator’s attack. Across their range, wood nymphs vary a lot, and can lack yellow patches. Wood nymphs perch on logs or head down on tree trunks, wings closed, and these wary butterflies have to be approached carefully. Their caterpillars

Chatham County LineSEPTEMBER 2017 7

What is the Future of Our Civilization and Planet?How do we know the future of our lives? How can we chart our course? Many of us believe in the information we received from our prophets and gods. Jesus and his dis-ciples told us the new way of living in love over 2000 years ago. What happened then? Any analysis or even glance at history will tell us the world has been consumed by stress, sickness and war, with a few assuming power and collecting riches and the many living downtrodden and poverty-stricken lives. When I studied war and wrote about it several years ago, I looked at the 200 years of the Crusades, then discovered that our USA has actu-ally lived through another 200 years of war and conflict. And if we look around the world we see that the USA has fared better than most of the world. What about now? If you follow politics you see chaos around us in a rigid political system that is taking care of itself and the rich with increasing hardship spreading to our people. Our TV and other systems and gadgets distract us, but a look at the world finds chaos, increasing threats of violence and wars everywhere.

So let’s look back at Jesus. He came to bring us love and peace but was assassinated and his messages of Love and the Golden Rule have not taught us to really love ourselves and our neighbors. Recently however, we have been receiving more messages of peace and love from Jesus, messages to wake up and rededicate ourselves. But have our governments, our televisions, our Facebooks, all these cultural messages, been helpful? We now have increasing poverty and we face wars throughout our world. Although 2012 came and went without big changes, messages recently have started promising that negative world changes have begun.

Let’s look back at our spiritual messages, especially from Jesus, for guidance as to what has gone wrong and what changes need to be made to actually find a world of love and kindness for all. I’ve been bringing you informa-tion systematically to improve your lives and most recently to look at spirituality for assistance. I’m not the only one

of course, and I’ve just been reporting about the many publications now available to update us. You can find many such articles in the Advice Line section of my website www.BettyPhillipsPsychology.com with the most recent listed first.

Today I’m bringing you more information. Let’s start with “A Gospel of Truth and Light to Mankind: The Padgett Messages.” Although these messages arrived 1914 to 1920, they have only recently become available on Google and Amazon. Google will bring you a brief overview and a hard-to- read printing of over 1700 pages crammed with messages. Amazon now has made five volumes of these messages available on Kindle.

The Padgett story is that Jesus and his disciples and other spiritual beings decided they must change the inac-curate messages being fostered by multiple mistransla-tions of original events in the life of Jesus. Padgett was chosen as a talented medium to receive these messages. Written in long hand, the messages were not made avail-able to the public until recently. Jesus was adamant to try to spread his message of love and to get off the cross. He did not die to save us from our sins as many other com-mentators discovered when their trips to Eternal Life did not result in heavenly rewards. The main Padgett messages can be found in Kindles three and four. Many fascinating messages were also received from historical persons, some living in the darkness of sin (example the historical Queen Elizabeth I) and others in the glory of heaven (example Abraham Lincoln.) The main message was to teach us to learn how to access Divine Love as taught by Jesus and the saints.

Let’s fast-forward to today. I’ve already written about contemporary messages from Jesus received by Suzanne Guiesemann and Roberta Grimes. Another clear chan-nel is Tina Louise Spalding. She’s already written six books, but also has a You Tube channel, realizing that now fewer people actually read books. (I do because I learn to read before TV and modern movies came in to

dominate our culture.) Tina is not actually the source for this information which is Jesus and a group of spirit channels calling themselves Ananda. She recommends that you read the books in order of publication with Jesus channeling his life and messages in the third book. The messages of love and redemption continue until a recent message calling upon us to recognize a major change in our world. The latest book has the hopeful and challenging title “You Can Free Yourself from the Karma of Chaos.” ( Hay House, 2017.) The world will soon be changing as predicted in 2012 and we all must adapt as more loving and spiritual beings to free ourselves from the traps of the modern world. The messages of change quicken as you will also hear on their You Tube channel where Jesus recently decided to bring a seven part series to speak with us directly.

Pay attention to the ominous final message in the most recent Ananda book: “You are going to witness a great change in the next few years in your world, and we want to prepare you for that, but to do that, you must put down the weapons inside your mind… the weapons of hateful thinking.”

So I bring you words of change, hope as well as fear, to turn toward love, both human love and divine love, and away from hate and war.

Need Advice? Send questions to BettyPhillips@BellSouth.net or 466 Eagle Point Road, Pittsboro 27312. Questions can be anonymous. www.bettyphillipspsychology.com

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Historical Perspectives

by Dr. Lynn Veach Sadler

Historical Perspectives

Sanford’s Hotel Wilrik — Once a Major Stopover for TrainsA Massachusetts tourist on his way to Florida asked the location of the new hotel he’d heard so much about. The Durwood Barbour Col-lection of North Carolina Postcards, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, has “The Hotel Wilrik, Sanford, N.C. and Its Two Genial Hosts [Theo. Barrow and H. L. Chapman],” published (ca. 1930-1945) by Marken & Bielfeld, Inc., of Frederick, Maryland. It indicates that the hotel is “Located directly on U.S. Routes 1 and 15 and State Routes 50, 75, 60 and 52” and is an “Official AAA Hotel.” The same card appears in Jimmy Haire and W. W. Sey-mour, Jr., Sanford and Lee County. Arcadia Images of America Series (Charleston: Arca-dia Publishing, 2006), pp. 104-105, along with two other views of the Wilrik, one of which is the lobby. Hand renderings can be found in Downtown—Your Town (for fourth grad-ers, 1988), coordinated by Mary Ellen Bowen, Head, Downtown Revitalization Department of Sanford, and Dr. Shirley Owen, Elementary Supervisor, Lee County Schools.

The name of the Wilrik derived from [Lucien Perryman] Wilkins-Ricks Com-pany, opened 6 August 1925, on the corner of Wicker and Steele. Built by local contrac-tor J. W. (“Joe”) Stout for $200,000, it was Sanford’s largest and tallest building and a major attraction.

Jesse Wicker once ran a small watch repair shop on the lot, and the Wilrik seems to have symbolized “change over time.” An old livery stable was razed to make way for it. A stopover for train passengers, it later catered to companies from Boston and other northern cities that conducted annual tours along Highway 1 (Maine to Florida) to prove how comfortably people could drive their own cars to Florida for the winter. These “tours” influenced the passage of bond issues for southern road improvements, and, in turn, hotels like the Wilrik would be supplanted by motels.

The Wilrik was also a local venue for ele-gant dining and dancing, civic club meetings, housing for families moving into the area, and (in the 1940’s) overflow accommodations for soldiers from Fort Bragg. As bachelors, “Twin Auctioneers” John W. and Herbert Goldston lodged there. Henry McLean was a porter.

The first meal served (Grapefruit Cocktail, Puree of Tomato, Fried Spring Chicken, Cold Roast Beef, French Fried Potatoes, Carrots and Peas, Corn on the Cob, California Peach Salad, Vanilla Ice Cream, Wafers, Hot Rolls, Coffee, Tea, and Milk) was a noon banquet for the Sanford Rotary Club, of which Wilkins was a charter member. Special guests from town were invited. The servers were “young women” dressed in white; the bell boy and butlers wore uniforms; an orchestra of San-ford youth played on the mezzanine.

On opening night, cars and buggies filled the streets of Sanford, and many drove their automobiles into town in the afternoon to be assured of good parking. In its first December, some 200 ate “supper” at the Wilrik on their way home from the Carolina-Virginia game in Chapel Hill.

About a year after the Wilrik’s opening, hundreds watched “Human Fly” George O. Polley advertise for Oldsmobile by climbing its walls, at times swinging from the window sills by the fingers of one hand. When he reached the top, he stood on his head on a corner of the roof. In the mid-thirties, the State Bureau of Investigation posted men with machine guns throughout downtown Sanford to cap-ture “Public Enemies” Bill Pane and Wash Turner exiting the Wilrik.

The outside, largely plain, relied on sheer mass to make its impact and succeeded: a visi-tor seeing a Buick sign on the sidewalk near the hotel exclaimed, “Ain’t that a devil of a big garage!” The façade of the first two floors was covered with Indiana limestone and “capped” with a molded cornice. The upper four floors were brick, with the fifth and sixth divided by a horizontal stone band. The green tile skirt-roof was supported by brackets with diamond-shaped stones between them. The windows on the second and upper floors were simply but carefully distinguished.

The story of the Wilrik was primarily its

interior, whose furnishings throughout were in shades of wisteria and taupe. The lobby was tiled but offered Saxony rugs. On pillars near the clerk’s desk were two mounted deer heads. The dining room was known for its magnificent draperies and beautiful accou-trements. The superb ballroom was on the mezzanine level. A beautifully decorated (courtesy) “retreat room” provided a place of “retirement” for ladies waiting for trains. The Wilrik had an elevator and 92 bedrooms that could sleep 150. The rooms offered hot and cold running water and phones, and many had private baths.

Entrepreneur Wilkins, of Turbeville, Vir-ginia (near South Boston), needing $2,000 to pay off his beef cattle farm, came to Sanford with his wife and two children around 1903 and encouraged other Virginians to accom-pany him. With the financial backing of a Mr. Ricks of Rocky Mount, he started a department store, Wilkins-Ricks Company, originally on Moore Street overlooking the train depot; moved it to Steele Street; and expanded it into what became Williams-Belk (1910). He built a second commercial business area a block west of Moore and also owned, on Wicker Street, a farm supply business (later Palmer-Reeves), a mule stable, a tobacco ware-house, and a car dealership. South of Sanford

on Highway 1 was Wilkins Peach Orchards. In 1932, he chartered Wilkins Corporation.

One of the six children of Lucien Perry-man and Susan Temperance Betts Wilkins was William Banks Wilkins, who twice served as Sanford’s mayor and become another area developer. As examples, he added grocery stores, gasoline stations, and tobacco-related refining operations on Wicker and saw that it was paved south to its intersection with Carthage.

Time had its way, and the Wilrik closed. The Wilkins children gave the building to Lee County (1969) for a Government Center (1970’s-early 1980’s). Later, the mezzanine level was converted to apartments, and the former lobby, which originally occupied the entire street level of the hotel, became a “ballroom.” Known as the Wilrik Hotel Apartments and Ballroom Facility, it is still used especially for wedding receptions.

Dr. Lynn Veach Sadler, of Burlington’s The Village at Brookwood, a former college president, is widely published in academics and creative writing and works as a writer and an editor. As Central Region Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet 2013-2015, she mentored student and adult poets. Her latest book, Chased with Truth, a collection of historical fiction, is recently out.

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RambleBy Gary Phillips

Of all the things I love to doThe one that’s my delightIt is to take a rambleOn a starry night

— as sung by Betty Smith, from an old ballad

I am a child of Appalachia. My family ranges from the Cherokee foothills all the way up to the high forests of Pisgah.

I have written about my grandma Lilly, the first great love of my life, that she grew up just light enough to pass but not to matter. Married at 13 and raised 8 babies.

My people were subsistence farmers, sharecroppers, multi-racial poor white trash and worse, taking to the forests to gather firewood and hickory-nuts, to hunt squirrel, rabbit, bullfrog, catfish, trout, raccoon and sometimes even possum.

My grandma Etta brought all the Chero-kee into our line, and hers was a family who chose during the Great Removal, like Marrano Jews, to hide in plain sight, assimilating into white culture and fading into the forests. They could not persuade their bodies to leave those hills, no matter the cost.

Grandma was a fey hill-witch too. She prepared herbals, met with women, for-aged; pointed out to me the sacred places, under stone and by water, the trees of worth, the shy creatures of air and earth and sky.

She let me see they meant no harm, had their own ways and business to perform.

Her husband was Robert Holloway, who I was named after. His people were driven off their land by the famine and the Eng-lish, flung toward America in coffin-ships where thousands died, were impressed into armies as the poorest of the poor, wandered south and west until they found any scrap of ground abandoned, and stayed.

The cause of social justice and the love and care of land are married, and always have been.

A story:When I stayed in Big Creek in Yancey County my grandparents left me to sleep in a little room off the high porch, which I loved.

In the middle of the night one summer grandpa knocked on the door and stepped in. He had his old hand-made rifle in his arms.

“Get up,” he said; “if you want to go coon hunting.”

Grandpa was never a man for words, but I was, and so I asked him a thousand questions on the way to the dog-lot, but he

never answered. We opened up the pen and the hounds swirled out in a mob, 4 or 5 tall bony black-and-tans that my grandfather tended like kin.

We all headed up the mountain together, using a trail that went through his cow pasture and up to the high ridge. I raced to keep up with him.

“Grandpa, where’s my flashlight?”“You don’t need a flashlight,” he said.

“We got a moon tonight.” And so I began to inculcate a night vision, to ken that a beam of sharp light is blinding to the target and the bearer, dividing the whole into seen and unseen. It’s been a useful metaphor.

That night we followed the dogs for hours, up hill and down valley, crossing wet creeks and little bogs, dodging dog hobble and laurel hells, avoiding any lit place, working our way deeper into Pisgah Forest.

Sometimes we sat and listened to the dogs talk to each other, their voices chang-ing if they caught a scent or went to tree. It was beautiful.

I was on my last legs when we crested a rise and looked down on a long ribbon of water under the moonlight. The old man motioned to a massive pig-nut hickory and I slid down to lean against it. After a time light slowly crept in on cat feet, and the whole mountain erupted into birdsong and rustling. Fifteen feet away from me I saw a long-eared rabbit politely looking away. Grey squirrels heaped scorn at us from the trees, who seemed to breathe and stretch all around us. On the forest floor little quaker-ladies were blooming and bowing to each other, falling away to cohosh and beeches and then the Cane River, where a doe and two fawns gingerly entered the water.

I could hear the trees in conversation, the rustle of creatures in the leaf litter. I could sense somehow the pheromones on the wind, everything. It’s all alive, I thought. Every little bit of it. I knew that this was my grandfather’s way of reveal-ing his interior life, his love and loyalty.

It takes a lot of lies not to love this earth.And those lies are beginning to fall

apart, outside the seats of power.This is our day.Let their day be over.We are part of the mountainWe are of the forests; we are animal and mineral.

Maybe we can take the wisdom of the old and the courage of the new to form a culture and tell the truth, every day. The world is waiting for that, every day.

Aho.

Gary Phillips is long-time Chatham resident.

NearbyBY LOU LIPSITZ

Recently, the astronomers

discovered several stars

only four light-years away

and around them circled

a group of possibly earth-like

planets. Somehow that

seems close, though four light

years mean something like

trillions of miles. It reminds me

of when we met again,

my dear childhood friend, after

fifty-five years of silence.

Suggestions for Being and Judging America’s President

BY LYNN VEACH SADLER

He/She must have both a knowledge base on-the-build

and be always in learning mode supported by Cabinet members

best in their fields. Especially, he/she and that Cabinet must always,

before acting, lay out the possible reactions

of the world’s countries and choose accordingly.

What if, prior to assuming office, the President writes out a code

of operating and uses it to judge actions before taking them and

to self-evaluate? He/She might read Gene Autry’s “Cowboy Code,”

(“A cowboy must never shoot first, shoot at a smaller man . . . ”) and

listen to the voice-over at the end of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

Every piece of the American Heritage is a valuable learning tool.

Why not a President’s “Personal Cabinet” of representatives of

the people’s sects and schisms (including youth) meeting every

two weeks, changing members every three months?

Among the rest? Helping America, Americans, and the world;

complying with rules in place; being truthful;

eschewing provocation, ridicule, revenge;

exemplifying dignity; keeping promises or explaining why not;

giving others recognition; retaining self-and family-time.

As Shakespeare knew, after first passing the self-test,

the President cannot be false to others.

eat many grasses, such as purple-top and blue-grass, yet I associate adults with dry woods or brushy habitat. Adults, males probably metamorphosing first, appear around June or July and females might linger into September, their yellow bands whitening with age. Some adults might aestivate around August, the summer version of hibernation. According to Mathew Tekulsky’s butterfly gardening book, besides rotting fruit and sap, wood nymphs visit composites such as purple coneflowers and sunflowers, alfalfa, mint, Spirea, fleabane, Penstemon, ironweed, and wild clematis, but I can’t recall ever seeing one at a flower. Wood nymphs lay single eggs in late summer and the caterpillars lash themselves to grass stalks or hide in the leaf litter for the winter, appar-ently without eating first. There are smaller Western species and the English call similar butterflies meadow browns.

IDENTIFY "YOUR" BUTTERFLIESn www.dpr.ncparks.gov/nbnc/n www.butterfliesandmoths.org/

Michael Pollock is a freelance writer living in southern Durham and founded Northeast Creek Stream Watch (www.northeastcreek.org). He studied biology and anthropology at UNC.

SATYRS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

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Think Globally: Act Locally.

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TO PLACE AN ADContact Julian Sereno

919-740-5231 oreditor@chathamcountyline.org

SEPTEMBER 201710 www.Chatham County Line.0rg

Chatham County Line nececita noticias bilingües de la comunidad Hispano de Chatham

Buscamos artículos y noticias de acontecimientos en español e ingles. Fotos son bienvenidas también, con información en ambas lenguas. Mandarlos por email a editor@chathamcountyline.org

Chatham County Line needs bilingual news from Chatham’s Hispanic CommunityWe need articles and press releases in Spanish and English. Photos are welcome also, with

caption information in both languages. Email them to editor@chathamcountyline.org

No Siler City Early Voting Site for 2017 Municipal ElectionsBy Randy Voller

Access to the ballot box is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy. As our lives have become more complicated and more people have moved into our communities the ability to access early voting is a key to increasing participation from voters at the ballot box and ensuring an inclusive and vibrant local democracy.

Chatham County can be rightfully proud of our county-wide voter turnout. We’ve topped the state over the past decade. We led North Carolina once again during the 2016 election with a turnout of 78.1 percent of our registered voters.

The Chatham County Board of Elec-tions has done an excellent job to encourage voting and their stewardship combined with the prevalent community spirit in Chatham County have yielded these impressive results.

And despite national trends that indicate increasingly lower turnouts in local elections over the past 17 years, the Chatham-wide democratic spirit has crossed over to influ-ence our off-year municipal elections as well. In Pittsboro, voter turnout has consistently exceeded regional and national trends as the community has embraced the ease of voting at a conveniently located early voting site.

Unfortunately, Siler City has not secured a local early voting site for its municipal elec-tions and therefore its participation lags behind Pittsboro’s .

Here are the turnout results for the last three municipal elections for Pittsboro (PITT) and Siler City (SC):

n 2011 turnout: 36.90 percent (PITT) and 21.1 percent (SC)

n 2013 turnout: 26.78 percent (PITT) and 20.0 percent (SC)

n 2015 turnout: 31.40 percent (PITT) and 19.1. percent (SC)

There are many variables that may con-tribute to this disparity, but the availability of a convenient and easy-to-use early voting site in Siler City for its municipal elections is a likely factor in the difference/variance in turnout. Currently, Siler City voters have to drive at least 16 miles one-way to Pittsboro to vote early at the Chatham County Board of Elections, while Pittsboro voters can easily access the same early voting site at

984 Thompson Street in Pittsboro.This extra drive time and the associated

costs likely have had an effect on the ability of Siler City voters to conveniently and easily access the ballot box. Not only does the extra distance cost more in gas, but the drive time ensures that the effort to vote early will likely take more than an hour and perhaps as much as two hours to accomplish.

So unless an effort is made to pick up and ferry voters across the county to the polls, the turnout in early voting for Siler City’s municipal elections will likely be dismal.

And the data proves it.Below are the early voting results for the

last three elections for Pittsboro (PITT) and Siler City (SC). (The percentages indicate the percent of voters who chose to vote early)

n 2011 early voter turnout: 40.98 percent (PITT) and 3.02 percent (SC)

n 2013 early voter turnout: 36.52 percent (PITT) and 3.52 percent (SC)

n 2015 early voter turnout: 45.93 percent (PITT) and 10.56 percent (SC)

The uptick in 2015 can most likely be attributed to the efforts of East Siler City Precinct Chairman, Jesse Scotton (D), who ferried voters across the county to the polls in Pittsboro for Albert Reddick (D) in 2015 when Reddick challenged incumbent Mayor John Grimes (R) and lost by eight votes.

The outcome was significant because had Reddick prevailed, he would have been the first African-American Mayor ever elected to serve as a Mayor for any of the municipali-ties in Chatham County’s 246 year history.

In July of 2017, Lou Forrisi (D) and Frank-lin Gomez Flores (U), filed to challenge three term incumbent Siler City commissioner Cindy Bray (D) for an at-large seat to the board and Forrisi immediately addressed the Town Commissioners about securing an early voting site in Siler City for the municipal elections of 2017.

Forrisi said that “our citizens should not be required to make a round trip of nearly 34 miles in the car in order to cast their vote during the early voting period” and that a local early voting site would “make it easier and less expensive for all citizens to vote in our municipal elections”

On August 21st the Siler City Town Board took up the issue with a number of people gathered in the audience who were interested in the topic. Five of the six public speakers spoke in favor of adding an early voting site at the Earl B. Fitts Center in Siler City for the fall 2017 election, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.

The Town Board was not convinced and although the Chatham County Democratic Party offered to reimburse Siler City for the estimated cost of $4,300 for one week of early voting the offer was refused.

One pointed comment made by a Town Board member was that the Democratic Par-ty’s generous offer to help the citizens of Siler City secure an early voting site “amounted to pay for play”.

Given that the Town Board has the power itself to request an early voting site, has the power to fund its cost and the power to ensure that the citizens have convenient access to the ballot box, the only “play” that evening was the board’s unwillingness to make it easier for its citizens to participate in its local elections.

After the spirited discussion and impas-sioned input from candidate Reddick, who questioned how some of the Town Board mem-bers who support the NAACP could be against securing an early voting site, the board tabled the matter until it could receive more input from the Board of Elections.

Since the Town Board knew that the Board of Elections had a deadline for action and needed a request from Siler City for an early voting site for its official meeting the following evening, the delay by the Town Board effec-tively killed the opportunity to add an early voting site for its 2017 municipal elections.

The Chatham County Democratic Party voiced its displeasure with the inaction by asking in a post on its Facebook site “what kind of American opposes making voting easier and more convenient?” and why would the Siler City leadership “rather have their citizens drive to Pittsboro to vote early—or not vote early at all—-than have its own early voting site in Siler City?”

These are good questions since 73 percent of Siler City voters used early voting in 2016, while less than 11 percent of the voters used the early voting option during the municipal

elections of 2015.(The County administers the sites and

pays for early voting during Presidential and off-year congressional elections such as 2010 and 2014, while municipalities like Siler City and Pittsboro are financially responsible for their elections and by law must reimburse the County Board of Elections for the cost of administering an election.)

After the dust settled, Siler City called a special meeting for Thursday, August 24th to discuss early voting. The news sparked some excitement that perhaps the Town would secure an early voting site in Siler City after all for the 2017 municipal election.

Unfortunately the meeting featured some good ol’ fashioned political theater which was supplemented by old school political oratory and stem winding. The result was a 6-1 deci-sion by Town leaders against an early voting site for 2017 and an agreement by the Town Board to pursue the early voting option in its future budgets.

Perhaps half a loaf is better than no loaf, but the result for 2017 speaks volumes.

Before the Town Board meeting the hope was that the special meeting would send a clear and coherent message to Siler City residents that the Town wants to increase participation in its democratic process and thus ensure that participation at the ballot box is convenient for all of its voters.

After the meeting there was disappoint-ment about 2017, but hope for 2019 .

The bottom line is that an inclusive Siler City is a prosperous Siler City and a prosper-ous Siler City is good for Chatham County and the region.

And one method for achieving inclusiv-ity and thus greater prosperity is to increase participation of citizens in the democratic process during all elections— especially the local municipal elections— where the citizens are most likely to encounter their elected offi-cials and be more directly affected by public policy and governing decisions.

Randy Voller is the former Mayor of Pittsboro, a consultant, business owner and Democratic/progressive political activist. He served as delegate for Bernie Sanders at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Chatham Joins Nationwide Grade-Level Reading CampaignThree North Carolina communities are taking on one of the most significant crises facing the state – the majority of our young children are not proficient in reading. Chatham, Durham and Rowan counties are joining the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (CGLR) with more than 300 communities across the nation to increase early reading proficiency. Chatham Reads, Durham’s Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and Ready, Set, Read... ROWAN! support strategies beginning at birth that will put children on a pathway to grade-level reading by the end of third grade, the single greatest predictor of future academic and career success.

“Sixty-seven percent of jobs by 2020 will require some post-secondary education, yet today only 42 percent of the workforce possess that level of education. Early reading proficiency is critical to our children’s academic and career success. Com-munities investing in early learning are investing in their com-munities’ economy,” said Lisa Finaldi, Community Engagement Leader for the North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation.

The CGLR mobilizes funders, nonprofit partners, business leaders, government agencies, states and communities across the nation to ensure that many more children succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a career, and active citizen-ship. Chatham Reads, Durham’s Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and Ready, Set, Read... ROWAN! join six other CGLR communities in North Carolina – Gaston, Mecklenburg, Moore, Nash/Edgecombe, Wake and Wayne.

Only 38 percent of North Carolina fourth graders and 25 percent of students from economically disadvantaged families scored at or above reading proficiency on the National Assess-ment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2015. Reading in the early grades predicts high school and later success. Those who read well go on to graduate, but those who are not reading well by the end of third grade, are four times more likely to drop out of high school.

“Chatham County has so many inspiring and remarkable organizations aligned to focus on the importance of early lit-eracy. Supporting our children to read on grade-level by the end of third grade is truly a community effort. We are engag-ing families, local businesses, non-profit organizations and community leaders in this endeavor,” said Krista Millard, Program Coordinator for Chatham Reads.

“Rowan County has a rich history of excellence and perse-verance, and our community is working together to ensure our children have a strong foundation for learning. Because the future growth and productivity of our local economy depends upon the success of our children, our number one priority is to engage parents and to help prepare our children to read on grade level by the end of third grade,” said Leah Ann Honeycutt, Program Coordinator for Ready, Set, Read...ROWAN!

In North Carolina, the Campaign is led by the North Caro-lina Early Childhood Foundation (NCECF). Membership in the Campaign provides communities’ access to experts focused

on early literacy, support in addressing challenges that keep many children from learning to read, and opportunities to share and learn best practices from communities across NC and the nation.

The Campaign addresses three underlying challenges that can keep young children, especially those from low-income families, from learning to read proficiently:

n School readiness — too many children are entering kin-dergarten already behind

n School attendance — too many young children are miss-ing too many days of school

n Summer learning — too many children are losing ground academically over the summer

ABOUT NCECFNCECF builds public will by advancing understanding of birth-through-eight child development and promotes practice and policy solutions that drive aligned action to support each child being on a pathway to grade-level reading. Learn more at www.buildthefoundation.org and www.gradelevelreading.net.

Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/buildthefoun-dation. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/buildthefoundation. Follow us on Twitter at @ncecf and @tracyzimmerman. Follow us on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/north-carolina-early-childhood-foundation.

SEPTEMBER 2017 1111

Forgotten HistoryWith all the discussion about racism, the KKK and monu-ments being desecrated, entire political parties being described as fascist, racists, etc., it is appropriate that we understand what the factual history of the parties is in the U. S. As every schoolchild knows, with the appearance of the Republican Party and Abe Lincoln, slavery was outlawed – at least in states that seceded. After the Confederacy was defeated, the Federal Government established interracial reconstruction governments throughout the South. Needless to say, this did not sit well with the Democrat white power structure that had governed the South since colonial days. Not surprisingly, after the Civil War, the white power structure fought to reclaim what they felt was their rightful place and part of that fight was through the KKK.

The Democrats claim Jefferson and Jackson as cofounders of their party and, of course, both were slaveowners. Jefferson took it a step further by fathering at least, if DNA records are reliable, six children with Sally Hemmings, a slave, who was shipped overseas to him in France when she was fourteen. Jackson had his own unique part of history when he perfected the art of dispossessing Indians and making a fortune in the process, while the Indians became wards of the state on reser-vations. FDR leading up to World War II was being pressured to integrate the Armed Forces, since bullets do not discriminate, but alas, the Democratic power structure would not allow it, so segregated forces continued.

Two 20th century political figures illustrate the close con-nection of the Democrats and the KKK. The first was Woodrow Wilson. As was noted in an earlier column, Woodrow Wilson

was fond of showing the film “Birth of a Nation” in the White House. It had changed its name from “the Clansman” under which it debuted in California, in order to broaden its appeal. There was a Wilson quote used in the film, “The white men were roused by a mere instinct of preservation.…until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veri-table empire of the South, to protect the Southern country.” The NAACP, weighing in on the film called it “3 miles of filth.”

Lest you think this may have been a youthful indiscreet writing and not truly Wilson’s thoughts as President, con-sider the following. Before Wilson the Federal Government had been integrated, however Wilson resegregated it. There were protests by W E B DuBois and black professionals – all to no avail. There have been some muted calls for Wilson’s name to be removed from some public buildings, but also to no avail. Dinesh D’Souza while being interviewed on his new book “The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left” opined that Wilson “almost single handedly is respon-sible for the revival of the Ku Klux Klan”, pointing out that the Klan had effectively died, but not only was it revived in its former base, but was expanded to states outside of the South. D’Souza added “So, if anyone is going to going on pulling down statues, Woodrow Wilson is a pretty good candidate to have his statue pulled down.”

Let’s look at another prominent Democrat from later in the 20th century – Harry Byrd, who was a Kleagle (an official recruiter for the Klan, who was paid to sign up members). Byrd in the 1940s stated “The Klan is needed today, as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia” and “in every state in the union.” He used the term “white nixxxrs” on a TV show, for which he received a mild rebuke,

but black leaders remained silent. One wonders what would have happened had a Republican been so grossly insensitive. In 2010 former President Bill Clinton at Byrd’s funeral seem-ingly provided Byrd with cover for his KKK involvement by saying “He was a country boy from the hills and hollows of West Virginia. He was trying to get elected.” There are many dozens of places named for Harry Byrd or his wife, Erma Ora Byrd, in West Virginia. What a fertile place for today’s monu-ment removers/desecraters.

However, removing tributes to these liberal/progressive heroes may not be easy. To wit, a number of African American pastors have in the past requested that a bust of Margaret Sanger be removed from the “Struggle for Justice” exhibit at the Smithsonian, because of her ties to the eugenics movement which cast blacks as undesirables (“weeds”). Sanger advocated birth control/abortion, but chiefly for “undesirables”, which is why they located so many of their clinics in/near the ghettos. The pastors explained that Sanger was far from a champion for their race. Their request has been denied!!

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” — George Orwell 1984

As my children used to ask on long trips – “Are we there yet??” and my response was “No, but we are getting closer.”

Don Lein is a regular contributor to Chatham County Line. A Chatham resident, he is involved in a variety of civic organizations.

SEND YOUR LETTERS OR ARTICLES TO JULIAN SERENO EDITOR@CHATHAMCOUNTYLINE.ORG

Confederate monuments were built by the children and grandchildren of Confed-erate soldiers, to honor them and their ter-rible sacrifice. Those who built them also built and sustained Jim Crow, born with the Supreme Court’s 1896 Plessy vs. Fergu-son decision legalizing racial segregation. Jim Crow meant the disenfranchisement of African-Americans. It meant state sanctioned oppression, including lynching, enforced by a powerful Ku Klux Klan. It was responsible for a lot more lynchings than rebel monuments.

Jim Crow died with the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling outlawing racial segregation, followed by non-violent civil rights protests led by the Rev. Martin Luther King. Jim Crow’s death knell was the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act a little more than 50 years ago.

The Confederate officers in their monu-ments and the rebel troopers in front of court-houses looked out over a changing South, one where African Americans could vote and win elective office, where integration was the law of the land, and where lynchings came to an end.

The statues became sentimental symbols of the past to many who were born less than 50 years ago. To others they are unpleasant reminders of injustices past and present. Those who loathe them have demonstrated to demand their removal. Those who revere them demonstrate to preserve them; among

them Neo Nazis who have joined their KKK brethren. The monuments have come alive.

Ironies abound. The current champions of the Confederacy all seem to have been born Yankees. In North Carolina, a recent law let the state seize control of all public Confederate monuments and hand it to the State Historical Commission, ripping it out of the hands of local elected officials. It was made law by the most powerful politician in North Carolina, State Senator Phil Berger (R), born in New Jersey, and signed into law by then-Governor Pat McCrory (R), born in Ohio. Silent Sam seems to be staying put.

It gets weirder. Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) went so far as to compare Confeder-ate memorials to 9/11 memorials. Maine is the state that produced the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment and one Col. Joshua Law-rence Chamberlain, hero of Gettysburg and winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Then there is New York, New Yorker Presi-dent Donald Trump, whose fondness for rebel monuments is matched by his fondness for his rebel flag waving followers. President Trump is Commander in Chief of what once was called The Grand Army of the Republic, which crushed the Confederacy and freed the slaves. Isn’t Trump supposed to love winners?

Republicans have switched sides from the days of Honest Abe. And hush my mouth, but they seem to want to bring back Jim Crow. Racism never really went away.

Tea Party Republicans who came to power after the 2010 election decided to make it as difficult as possible for certain groups of likely Democratic voters to vote, particu-larly African Americans and young people.

Crying “voter fraud!” they limited early voting, banned same-day registration and demanded a government-issued photo ID to be able to vote.

In North Carolina they threatened col-lege students with loss of tax deductions if they voted near their university rather than at home. Armed with the 2010 census, they redrew districts to favor Republicans, diluting the vote of African Americans. With gerryman-dered districts, they won veto-proof control the State Legislature and the congressional delegation. They are the contemporary edition of the Southern Democrats of the Jim Crow era 100 years ago, when the Confederate monu-ments went up.

Federal courts have put a halt to many of their shenanigans, ordering new voting maps for districts gerrymandered by race and overturning other restrictive voting laws. But the Republicans keep trying, and they have the votes.

Meanwhile, statues come tumbling down, as they did in Durham and Kansas City in acts of vandalism; or get hauled away, stealth-ily in the dead of night, as happened in New Orleans, Baltimore, and most recently Duke Chapel. What are they going to do when the dust settles?

The worst kind of thing they can do is what they did at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Saunders Hall. It was built and commemorated in 1922 to the service of William L. Saunders, who died in 1891. Saun-ders edited the ten-volume Colonial Records of North Carolina, was a member and secretary-treasurer of the Board of Trustees at UNC, his alma mater, and served as North Carolina

Secretary of State for the last 12 years of his life. He also served as a colonel in the Confed-erate Army and as head of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina.

The name drew protests from the start of the millennium. Many wanted it renamed for Zora Neale Hurston, an African-American writer, folklorist and figure of the Harlem Renaissance, with no apparent connection to North Carolina or UNC. A better choice might have been George Moses Horton, an enslaved man in Chatham County who taught himself to read and write, wrote and published a book of poetry and tutored students at UNC, long before his emancipation in 1865.

North Carolina’s politically correct powers-that-be chose none of the above. They didn’t rename it for a person who meets contemporary criteria for virtue or worthi-ness. They didn’t leave Saunders name intact, adding an honest account of what he actually did during his life. Instead they renamed it Carolina Hall, unoriginal, uninventive, insipid and meaningless. Rather than record-ing and acknowledging history, they chiseled it away and glossed over it. A real whitewash.

One final irony: the monuments they despise have amplified protesters’ voices and their messages. After the monuments have moved, they’ll fall silent again — even Silent Sam. All this as Jim Crow makes a comeback.

George Santayana’s words, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it,” come to mind. But maybe a South-ern sentiment, William Faulkner’s, is apro-pos, “The past is never dead; it isn’t even past.”

Julian Sereno is editor and publisher of Chatham County Line.

Chatham OPINION Line

Lifestyle and PoliticsBy Jeff Davidson

It happens so often, I ought to expect it. Still, I’m hoping things will be different next time. I switched to a vegan diet years ago for health reasons. My principal foods during the week are greens, beans, and berries. Occasionally, I allow myself to stray, no more than once or twice a week, and usually when I’m out and about with others.

One of my local groups, Triangle vegans, periodically holds a potluck dinner. Everyone brings some yummy dish that con-tains no meat, fish, eggs, or dairy. Periodically, at the start of meetings, someone will make an announcement of “community interest.” Invariably such announcements are political.

PROGRESSIVE IS NOT SYNONYMOUS WITH PROGRESSVirtually all such announcements represent the ‘progressive’ viewpoint, which I might or might not share. ‘Progressives’ believe they are on the “right side” of history, although I can discuss at length how ‘progressive’ policies have doomed whole subcultures within our society, have decimated the black family, have placed us on the brink of national bankruptcy, et cetera, but I’ll spare you.

I’ve chosen to eat a vegan diet, but I do not subscribe to the mindset that only ‘progressives’ have the intelligence to do so.

I happen to be a registered independent.At a dinner recently, in conversation with one of the ladies

at my table, I learned that she does not believe any Republican “would choose a vegan diet.” I told her, “I know several who are vegans.” She was surprised, as if no Republican could muster the requisite brainpower to come to such a decision.

‘Progressives’ believe that anyone who does not capitulate to their point of view, by definition, must be an idiot. So, in their world, it’s nearly impossible that a registered Republican could be a vegan. What’s more, it’s not likely that a Republican would be interested in donating his time and effort to charity.

For any social cause or community good you can site, the ‘progressive’ view is that Republicans don’t participate in such activities. Why don’t they? Apparently Republicans (and this means all of them) are too busy looking out for themselves, seeking to make obscene amounts of money, exploiting others, ravaging the environment, and suppressing women and minor-ity groups, among countless other misdeeds.

ALL SIDES OF THE SPECTRUMAs someone who has voted on all sides of the spectrum, in the last couple decades I have leaned towards the right despite their faults and short-sidedness, because I’ve witnessed that the left is even worse and causes more damage. I personally participate in a variety of charitable activities. I know other registered independents as well as registered Republicans who

do the same.I know Republicans who, whether in business for themselves

or holding an executive position in a larger organization, are totally committed to the well-being of others. These people wouldn’t think of making a dishonest dollar. They participate in community activities. They help others. They look out for the environment.

I have remained silent over the years when I attend functions primarily consisting of ‘progressives’ even when they endlessly perpetuate the same false narrative. “Everyone here must be a progressive because, after all, we know what’s best, such as being vegan. How could a Republican, or someone leaning right, have any interest in this lifestyle?”

NO MORE MR. SILENT TYPEHereafter I will speak up. I will not seek to refute their politi-cal views however destructive I find many of them to be. I will simply state that I am here for the meal, not the politics, and the two, despite the intense wish of ‘progressives’ that they are inextricably linked, are not linked.

Jeff Davidson of Raleigh is a regular contributor to Chatham County Line. He is “The Work-Life Balance Expert®” , the premier thought leader on work-life balance issues, Jeff is the author of 65 books, among them Breathing Space, Dial it Down, Live it Up, Simpler Living, 60 Second Innovator, and 60 Second Organizer. Visit www.BreathingSpace.com

STATUES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

BILINGUAL NEWS ~ NOTICIAS BILINGÜESChatham Comunidad

Fiesta de la Herencia Hispana en Siler CityUNA CELEBRACIÓN DE LA CULTURA Y ARTE HISPANA¡Están invitados! El Vínculo Hispano, en colaboración con otras agencias locales, será anfitrión de la 5ta Fiesta de la Herencia Hispana el sábado, 16 de septiembre, 2017. Les invitamos a este evento para toda la familia en celebración de la cultura y el arte hispano.

Habrá música latina en vivo, bailes folklóricos, mesas informativas de negocios y agencias, comida, una exhibición de arte por Renzo Ortega, actividades para niños, piñata, rifa, Feria de Salud, un desfile de trajes típicos, y más. Todo esto se llevará a cabo desde el mediodía hasta las 7 PM entre las calles N. Chatham Avenue y Second Street, en el centro de Siler City. (Ambas calles estarán cerradas para el tránsito este día.) ¡Anticipamos a más de 500 personas de diversos orígenes!

Todos son bienvenidos e invitados a participar con nosotros para las festividades. También damos la bienvenida a quien esté interesado en participar como voluntario, no necesita hablar inglés. Contamos con un grupo maravilloso de voluntarios de la comunidad y

de organizaciones quienes han planeado nuevas activi-dades, incluyendo un desfile de trajes tradicionales de Latinoamérica. Pero nos hacen falta más manos al tra-bajo, así por favor no duden en contactarnos.

La fiesta es una gran oportunidad para promover su negocio u organización con la comunidad hispana y muchas más personas. Si desea participar como patroci-nador, tener una mesa informativa o vender productos, por favor visite a www.evhnc.org para enlaces de los formularios de inscripción. Aunque la Fiesta se acerca pronto, hacemos todo lo posible para su participación. Para mayor información, llame al 919.742.1448 o email info@evhnnc.org.

El Vínculo Hispano fomenta la comprensión inter-cultural, y empodera a los hispanos para que superen los desafíos que enfrentan y realicen sus voces en la comunidad. Este año cumplimos 22 años de servicio en el condado. Esperamos que nos acompañen el 16 de Septiembre cuando celebramos las contribuciones Hispanas a la diversidad de nuestra comunidad.

— Ilana Dubester

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Hispanic Heritage Fiesta in Siler CityA CELEBRATION OF HISPANIC ARTS AND CULTUREThe Hispanic Liaison, in partnership with other local agencies, will host the 5th Annual Hispanic Heritage Fiesta on Saturday, September 16. We invite all to this family friendly event that celebrates Hispanic arts and culture.

Fiesta includes live Latin music, traditional folkloric dances, information booths from businesses and agen-cies, an art exhibit by Renzo Ortega, kids’ activities, raffle, a Health Fair with booths from health service providers, and more. All this will take place from noon until 7 p.m. on N. Chatham Avenue and Second Street, in downtown Siler City. (These streets will be closed to traffic that day.) We’re planning for over 500 diverse participants!

Everyone is welcome and invited to join us for the festivities. We also welcome anyone interested in volun-teering, no Spanish needed. We’re already working with a wonderful group of volunteers from the community and organizations who have planned new activities for this year’s event, including a parade of traditional Latin American costumes. We need more help, so please do not be shy about signing up.

Fiesta is a great opportunity for anyone seeking to promote their business or organization and reaching the Hispanic community and beyond. While the Fiesta is just a few weeks away, we’ll do our best to accom-modate sponsors, vendors, or groups wanting to host a booth. Please visit www.hispanicliaison.org for links to the registration forms. For more information, call 919.742.1448 or email info@evhnc.org.

The Hispanic Liaison fosters intercultural under-standing and empowers Hispanics to overcome the challenges they face and make their voices heard in the community. This year we mark 22 years of service in Chatham County. We hope to see you on September 16 as we join hands and hearts in celebrating Hispanic contributions to Chatham County’s cultural diversity.

— Ilana Dubester