Pagan priestess seeks to clear up misunderstandings
To the Editor:
I'm the high priestess of the Sylvan Hearth Pagan Temple in Sylva. I'd
like to clear up a couple of things to Mr. (Matthew) Newsome, Ms. (Vicki)
Todd and our community, so that I cannot be misquoted or misunderstood
or taken out of context.
We are not interested in converting anyone. We are no threat to anyone's
children. We are parents and teachers too. We are not "devil worshippers."
We do not advocate the use of illegal drugs. We are not anti-police
or anti-government. We are cops and veterans too. Our religion is recognized
by the federal government, and we have a legal church.
I have completed seminary and am legally ordained. We are not asking
anything of anyone. We are nice people, minding our own business. Would
it be too much to ask others to do the same? And if you feel that you
cannot because we are such a "threat" to your way of life,
could you at least explain that to us before you slander us? At least
have enoug courage to talk to us.
Also, Mr. Newsome obviously did not understand what Byron Ballard was
trying to say, and neither did Ms. Todd. Byron does indeed come from
generations of Appalachian mountain folk from this area, and she is
not misinformed. It is a simple fact that her family, like mine, have
never been Christian, and do practice witchcraft. And although there
have always been more Christians than pagans in this area, by far, that
does not mean that we have not been here too. We've always been here.
Ms. Todd is just now aware of it because we are now building a temple
and seminary and have started a pagan student group at WCU. And all
of that, for me, is unimportant anyway. What is important is that we
are here now, and we are your neighbors, and given half a chance, we
would be your friends.
I don't have the space here to correct Mr. Newsome point by point, so
I will just say that he made some huge errors and erroneous assumptions
that I would be happy to correct if he ever decides to actually accept
my invitation to dialogue like he said he would. To date, I have not
heard from him, and, while my number is listed, his is not. I can't
say I'm surprised.
Ms. Todd was mistaken in one other important way as well: Love and peace
can and have been found through faith in all the world's religions and
spiritual traditions, including, of course, hers.
Byron and I have already found them in ours. And if people do choose
to "speak out" against us, or circulate petitions, etc., that
is their right. I respect it. I just hope they realize that it will
not make us go away. And maybe the reason more people have not "spoken
out" against us is because the people of this area are more inclusive
and compassionate than Ms. Todd thinks.
I have a practical suggestion that I believe would be a bit more productive:
Make some effort to learn more about what you don't understand before
you judge, and you will find that we all have more connecting us than
separating us. Let's build bridges and tear down walls. Forgiveness
is important to me, but so is speaking out against intolerance and injustice,
including when they are perpetrated against me.
It saddens me that there are some who fear our presence, but there is
unfortunately not much I can do about that, other than encourage them
to share their concerns with me so we can talk about them. They might
just be relieved to discover that we do not believe or practice half
of what they assume we do.
I will again invite anyone who would like to dialogue with me to call
me directly. You will find me friendly and patient. My number is listed.
But I can only extend my hand in friendship. Someone else will have
to reach out to accept it.
Lianna Costantino-Cardon
Dillsboro
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We need cure, not talk
To the Editor:
Most of the objectors to the Southern Loop bypass have personal reasons
for which they could benefit from having the traffic jam and lousy driving
conditions through Sylva and Dillsboro.
Remember, both these villages were founded in the horse-and-wagon days
and were laid out to fit the available space between two mountains and
the river.
The large sawmill at Dillsboro was washed away in the early 1900s flood,
and Dillsboro was reduced to as much of nothing as it could be. Webster
was nearly abandoned, except for houses, when the county seat was moved
down to the railroad. They still feel important.
Coming up-to-date, we have many critics voicing their opinions about
providing proper traffic movements for a modern town. Sylva has no place
to improve, unless you move at least one mountain. Many other mountains
get in the way in Jackson County, making it a very difficult place to
improve the traffic movements. Very few little towns block half their
traffic through the middle of their business district while they unload
their merchandise coming in via tractor-trailer trucks and block half
the street for many hours. However, the Southern Loop will become a
reality in spite of their lack of foresight. Their delaying tactic will
probably make things much worse before it gets better.
The people who are doing all the objecting should do some thinking and
come up with a good, efficient way to handle this overload of traffic
instead of just griping. We need the cure, not so much talk.
Frank Young
Cullowhee
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Former teacher applauds school board action
To the Editor:
I applaud the Jackson County Board of Education for their decision to
fire former Superintendent Dr. (Mack) McCary. In my opinion, this was
not only well overdue, but it will allow Jackson County Schools to move
forward. As a former teacher in the Jackson County school system, I
was not happy with McCary's handling of the problems at Smokey Mountain
Elementary School. I believe the present administration, which McCary
was in part responsible for unleashing on that school, was never properly
handled by McCary.
On several different occasions, other teachers and myself contacted
McCary about what we felt was the absolute lack of morale and the oppressive
atmosphere that had been created by the unprofessional, demeaning, punitive,
and heavy-handed tactics of Principal Terry Clark and Assistant Principal
Loretta Eatston. He never supported any of us or took any action whatsoever.
Instead, he let Clark and Easton run amuck and run off an incredible
number of highly-qualified teachers.
I am one of those teachers. Although I had the highest reading end-of-grade
test scores of any eighth-grade language arts teacher during the 2001-2002
school year (every single child I taught passed the EOGs that year),
I was never treated with professional courtesy or even the slightest
modicum of respect. Last year, all but two of my students passed the
eighth grade reading EOG test. However, I could not stomach another
year of turmoil and back-biting.
Jackson County lost a highly-motivated, energized, qualified, and dedicated
teacher when they lost me; however, they lost an absolute wealth of
other teachers. The last toll I heard was that 28 people have quit Smokey
Mountain Elementary since 2002. That is an incredible number of staff
and teachers to lose.
Although no exit polls were ever conducted by McCary, every single teacher
I know personally has cited Clark and Eatston as the main reason for
leaving. Indirectly, McCary was responsible because he knew of the huge
problem and chose to do nothing about it.
Since Jackson County is now cleaning house, they need to dig out the
root of the biggest problem in the Jackson County School System: Clark
and Eatston. As long as those two are allowed to terrorize teachers
in Smokey Mountain Elementary, there will be a huge turnover in personnel
in that school.
In my opinion, it is time to replace the administration at the Smokey
Mountain Elementary School and actually give the teachers and the students
some true leadership. That school desperately needs to be healed. My
biggest concern for that school (as it ought to be for any parents and
school personnel) is for the students.
The students are the ones who have suffered. They have lost several
incredible teachers. They will lose more if this problem is not addressed.
The students deserve better than this.
James McNab
Cherokee
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Be more aware of hepatitis A
To the Editor:
I think it's great that some local restaurants are taking the extra
step to provide their employees with the hepatitis A vaccine.
This helps ease my mind when eating at these restaurants, but it should
be a requirement for all restaurant employees.
It's not only in the restaurants that hepatitis A is spread, but also
when food is packaged and shipped. For safety's sake, all people working
in the food industry should be required to the hepatitis A vaccine.
Restaurant owners, food packers and food shippers should provide this
for every employee.
Although we may not have many outbreaks of hepatitis A in the United
States, we import a lot of food from other countries. Therefore, we
should find a way to test the food before shipping it to any restaurant
for consumption.
If we can find a way to prevent contaminated food from reaching our
restaurants and stores then the United States won't have to spend so
much money on the hepatitis A vaccines. We also need to find a way to
purify the contaminated water or decontaminate the shellfish taken from
the contaminated water.
There should be higher sanitary standards and better personal hygiene
for restaurants and food industries. If the standards are higher, then
the lower-rated restaurants and food industries would be shut down,
thus helping our struggle with hepatitis A.
We should make more of an effort to educate people about hepatitis A
and what they should do if they are contaminated. Most people don't
have enough knowledge of hepatitis A and aren't worried about it when
they should be.
Not only should we make standards for the food industries, but also
for health care employees, employees of any shipping industry and anyone
who is in contact with the general public.
Amanda Wallace
Cullowhee
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