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Roadside assistance
To the Editor:
Last week a peculiar thing happened alongside a steep embankment beside U.S. 74/441 (in front of Countryside Log Homes, across from Uncle Bill’s Flea Market). There was a group of four men cleaning the gnarled, untamed underbrush that had sat neglected for an embarrassing amount of time. It turns out that a local business had decided to invest several of its own man hours into beautifying the area in front of its establishment beside the highway. This may be viewed as peculiar by many – that a private enterprise would put forth a concerted effort to make the area esthetically pleasing – but I’m ignoring that anomaly.
Instead of receiving the accolades that these workers and this business deserve, they were halted by an incensed state official racing onto the business’s premises. This state official proceeded to treat these diligent laborers like sophomoric adolescents, threatening a stay in jail if they continued to tamper with state land. The official spoke with the owner of the business letting him know that in order to work on state land, he’d have to pay $200 for a permit. It turns out that all land within 50 feet of the highway is state-owned and state-maintained unless you purchase an authorized permit.
So let me get this straight. I pay the state government every week, via my paycheck, to shell out some cash to the Department of Transportation to care for these grounds adjacent to the highway. Thus, when these state officials neglect this parcel of land and a few tax payers volunteer their services to remedy the eyesore that was created, they are told that they need to pay the government a second time (through the purchase of a permit) to carry on with their cleanup. I don’t know about those of you reading this, but if I was a business owner, and I payed someone to paint my office, I’d be pretty upset if they didn’t. I’d be livid if the painter returned to my business asking for a second payment of $200 so that I could go and paint it myself. I’d be telling him to go places that just aren’t comfortable.
I will politely disregard the inappropriate approach that the state official took when speaking to the laborers who were just doing what they had been told. With the onslaught of lawlessness assaulting our state through drunken drivers, meth labs, domestic violence, etc., I’d think that a small business looking out for its presentablility to the public could be recognized for its effort instead of being punished for its altruism. On top of that, this business is assisting DOT in completing its objectives. Lending a helping hand needs to be praised, not punished.
Justin Giovagnoli
Bryson City
Friends of the Library provide needed support
To the Editor:
During the heated and often protracted controversy over a new Jackson County library, one organization continued to work diligently for improving the library, no matter where it was located. Six days a week, volunteers process and file books and other materials, arrange shelves, and greet and assist customers at the Friends of the Jackson County Library Used Bookstore on Main Street in Sylva.
The quiet and important work of the Friends of the Jackson County Library is a source of pride. In the five years I have lived here, I have watched the Friends’ bookstore move from the Hooper House to Mill Street and now Main Street, continually growing, improving and providing a wonderful place to acquire used books, from classics to mystery and medicine and biography. Over the years, thousands of dollars have been made available to the library to purchase books, computers, audio material and more.
The Friends of the Library is a national organization whose purpose is to support community, academic and school libraries. This June, for example, the American Library Association will hold its annual meeting, and Friends of Libraries USA will be a vital part of that meeting. Environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., author and National Public Radio commentator Andrei Codrescu and author Patricia Gaffney will be keynote speakers for FOLUSA. In recent times of budget deficits and spending cuts, Friends has been vital in sustaining community libraries in particular. Not only do Friends organizations raise money, they also marshal support for libraries through fund-raisers that draw attention to the importance of learning and information. Presently, the national organization is promoting “Books for Babies” to encourage parents to read to their infants. To date, 50,000 books have been delivered to newborns and their mothers.
But no Friends organization can be successful without the support of citizens. Donations of books and other information materials have assured the success of our Used Bookstore. As a volunteer for the Friends, I thank those who have donated for their generosity. For those who have yet to visit our bookstore, located across from The Sylva Herald, I invite you to do so. Perhaps you would like to join the Friends or think of the library when you clean out that closet or bookshelf.
Remember, when you hold a book in your hand, you are holding the entire world; you enter the world of Swift’s Lilliputians, Grisham’s courtroom, Shakespeare’s England, Stephen King’s Jerusalem’s Lot, the history of another country, or the travels of Marco Polo. Don’t throw those books away; pass them on. The Friends will put them on their shelves, someone will buy them, the money will go to the Jackson County Library for other books that other youngsters will read, and so on, and so on. Knowledge goes full-circle.
I am proud to be a Friend.
Linda Young
Sylva
Lumbee Indians deserve full federal recognition
To the Editor:
Tanake (“Hello” in the native language of the Lumbee Indians).
I am writing in regard to testimony made in April by Michell Hicks, the chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, before a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives considering H.R. 898, a bill that would give federal recognition to the Lumbee.
Chief Hicks and the current administration of the Eastern Band oppose federal legislative recognition of the Lumbee even though the Eastern Band obtained recognition through the congressional route. The 1956 Lumbee Act recognized our tribe as Lumbee but denied us federal benefits. Rep. Charles Taylor and the Eastern Band’s bill would strike the 1956 act and require us to go through the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ process for recognition. How would the Eastern Band like it if they went unrecognized by the legislature?
The BIA process is flawed in many ways. The General Accounting Office states that the current process could take 15 years and an untold number of years to fix and streamline. Ranking Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., who favors Lumbee federal recognition, called it a process fraught with smoke, trick mirrors and trap doors.
The Lumbee have attempted to obtain federal recognition for more than 110 years and each time BIA has visited Lumbee land over the last three-plus years, the agency concluded that we are a legitimate tribe. However, we don’t need a congressman, government agency or senator to tell us who we are. We Lumbee know who we are, but isn’t it an interesting fact that more than half of the U.S. House of Representatives’ 236 members have cosponsored the Lumbee Federal Recognition bill, which passed the Senate committee 14-1? These individuals have no political stake in Lumbee recognition but view it as the right thing to do.
We Lumbee are made up of predominantly Eastern Siouan linguistic family tribes including the Lumbee (that’s right, lombe is Siouan for “dark river”), Cheraw and Kayauwee. Lawson called these peoples the Piedmont tribes because their cultures and languages were so similar (Arnett, 1975). We have strong traditional communities and a vital native healing tradition.
Even though Chief Hicks and the Eastern Band list several concocted reasons why they oppose Lumbee federal recognition, the real reason behind this opposition is casino and federal funding worries.
Federal recognition for our tribe would mean access to affordable health care, greater educational opportunities, enrichment for our elders and our youth and adequate housing. Even if our tribe wanted a casino, it would be subject to a veto by the governor and state legislature.
Please support full federal recognition of the Lumbee. Thank you for listening.
Yanire kida ya (“See you down the road” in Lumbee).
Arvis Boughman
Dillsboro
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