By Dr. Allan Zacher, M.D.

Flu season is here. You and your family and friends have not gotten it yet, but if you look at Google Flu Trends (http://www.google.org/flutrends/) you will see that we are on the early part of a significant upswing in cases that happens every year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a branch of the U.S. government, about 36,000 people die per year and 200,000 are hospitalized with flu. This does not include the perhaps 1 million people who will be incapacitated for days to weeks but aren’t sick enough to go to the hospital.

About 36,000 people actually die of the flu each year, almost the number of people in the United States who die in automobile accidents. And like automobile accidents, the flu is largely preventable.

First, let’s identify what “Flu” really is (and is not). There are many diseases caused (usually) by viruses that people call the flu, but many are not actually THE flu. The medical definition is a disease which is caused by the influenza virus. This has a set of typical symptoms which generally start with a sore throat, body aches, fever and a “bad” feeling which is called malaises by your doctor. The symptoms which start in the throat may progress down the airway to the lungs resulting in wheezing, cough, “heaviness” in the chest. It is the effects on the lungs which can lead to very serious medical complications, hospitalization and even death.

Unfortunately, complicating the picture are perhaps dozens of viruses which cause “flu like symptoms” of sore throat, runny nose, headache. Many of these are “cold viruses” (unfortunately another complicated disease, because “colds” may actually be caused by any one of about a half dozen viruses). There is also the “stomach flu” which is not flu at all, but rather a gastro-intestinal upse, caused by yet other viruses or bacteria or even food poisoning.

What can you do to prevent flu? There are actually a number of things which are helpful. Try to stay away from people who are sick and appear to be sick. Wash your hands frequently and especially if you have your hands near your face (the influenza virus really likes the soft wet tissue at the back of the nose and mouth — this is where it usually gets its start). If you are sick, either stay home or wear a mask when out. As funny as this looks, it will help prevent the spread of the virus. Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze.

The flu vaccine (flu shot) is very helpful. There is what I call an old wives tale of people getting the flu because of the vaccine. This is not possible and not what happened. First, the vaccine takes about two weeks to build up your immunity. So if you had been exposed to flu and it was starting to grow but you did not have symptoms yet, you could come down with the disease immediately after bring vaccinated. Also, the flu vaccine covers only three strains of flu virus, two “A” strains and one “B” strain. The specific strains are selected early in the year as those thought to be the most prevalent. If you get the vaccination and are unlucky enough to get a strain not covered by this year’s vaccination you will still get flu.

The vaccine (shot or nasal spray) will not protect you from other diseases — and here’s why the old wives tale is so prevalent — like colds and other flu like illnesses. There will be no protection from these other illnesses. This is probably what you or your friend got when they said they got “the worst case of flu after the flu shot”.

But importantly it will protect you from the most prevalent and dangerous true flu illnesses. The CDC estimates that many of the thousands of deaths and hospitalizations would be eliminated if everyone for whom it is recommended got the flu vaccination (or nasal spray).

To find out more information, please see the CDC Web site which is an excellent source of information (http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/vaccine/index.htm). Get the flu vaccine, wash your hands frequently, avoid touching your face if your hands may have been contaminated, and stay home if you get sick.

(Dr. Allan Zacher, MD, is the medical director and owner of Interventional Pain Services of Western North Carolina, located in Clyde.)

By Jim Janke

Editor’s note: This is a regular feature on gardening by the Haywood County master gardeners. Look for it every other week.

Does cold weather cause gardening catalogs to stuff my mailbox? Or does the arrival of so much recyclable paper cause the cold weather?

Whatever the cause, gardeners pore through these publications, looking for new flowers and vegetables, and confirming that old favorites are still available. I enjoy the planning process for next year’s garden almost as much as putting the plants in the ground, so these catalogs add to the joy of my holiday season. But I’m an engineer, so that figures.

If your mailbox doesn’t get filled automatically, here are my favorite seed and plant sources, arranged alphabetically. Use these websites to order directly, or to request a catalog via snail-mail. Other gardening friends use many other vendors and are quite happy with them, so this list is far from exhaustive.

Seeds

Burpee www.burpee.com

Cooks www.cooksgarden.com

Jung www.jungseed.com

Park www.parkseed.com

Stokes www.stokeseeds.com

Territorial www.territorialseed.com

Vermont Bean www.vermontbean.com

Plants

(I buy most of my perennials,

shrubs and trees locally):

Bluestone Perennials www.bluestoneperennials.com

Jackson Perkins www.jacksonandperkins.com

Musser Forests www.musserforests.com

While you are in a planning frame of mind, do a couple of things now to make next year’s garden the best it can be. Develop a system of recording what was good, and what wasn’t so good each year. Note the seed type and variety; where and when purchased; seed starting conditions and germination rate; and a summary of its performance. Likewise record how your purchased annual and vegetable plants performed.

These notes will help you improve your garden each year. The note-taking system might as simple as a couple of written pages, or as complex as a full blown relational database on your computer. Or use one of the excellent multi-year garden journals that are available. The key is to record what you did, how well you liked the result, and be able to refer to those notes.

Then make scale diagrams of each of your annual and vegetable beds, and photocopy these original diagrams for use in planning where each plant will go. This is essential for intensive gardening, and to best use the available garden space throughout the season. These diagrams help you to avoid over-ordering either seeds or plants, because you can quickly see how much will fit in each garden area. Keep these diagrams with each year’s notes as a record of what was planted in each area.

Diagrams of the other areas of your landscape are also useful, showing the perennials, shrubs, and trees you’ve planted, and how long they’ve been in the ground. Looking at each landscaped area with the diagram in hand gives you a feel for what is working or not; the diagram is also a good place for notes.

For me the jury is still out: do I enjoy PLANNING or PLANTING more? I’m not sure.

Jim Janke is a Master Gardener Volunteer in Haywood County. For more information call the Haywood County Extension Center at 828.456.3575.

By Chris Cooper

It’s in the phrasing; the careful sculpting of each and every note. It’s something about the intent, the message conveyed with each musical statement. The way Jeff Beck grabs a guitar string and twists, bends, swoops and otherwise manipulates it with the sheer force of his will is one of the most magical things in music, and has been for the last forty odd years.

While the names Hendrix, Clapton, Page and Santana easily conjure up visions of six-string greatness in almost anyone’s mind, Beck belongs at the top of that heap while inexplicably remaining woefully unrecognized and underappreciated outside of musician’s circles. Here’s a guy that slipped tasty and forward thinking raga inspired ideas and radically fuzzed out tones into his work with the Yardbirds in the 60’s, fused the complexities of the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s work with his “from the hip” guitar style in the 70’s (and with a broader sense of melody and accessibility) with the classic albums Wired and Blow By Blow, and appeared on pop tunes in the 80’s that everybody heard. And still, even still, most people couldn’t name one of his songs. I mean, Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel was largely based on Jeff Beck, right down to the scene where he’s thumbing through a hot rod magazine in the airport. It’s a mystery for the ages, I tell you.

With the release of Live At Ronnie Scott’s, the most fascinating things about Beck are fully and beautifully displayed. The set is culled from a five-night stand that touches on the best of his catalog, and I shouldn’t even try to point out the highlights. Not only is the guitarist fearless and in the finest of form, his band is completely up to the task as well. When your drummer has the last name Colaiuta, things can’t really go wrong. Twenty-one-year-old bass phenom Tal Wilkenfeld is nearly as bold as the bandleader himself; her solo early in the set on Stevie Wonder’s “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers,” let alone her relentless pocket throughout the album is the glue that makes these musical conversations work. Listen to a track like “Angel (Footsteps)” and try to think of a bassist that can make a groove like this move in such a sensual way. Only a few should come to mind, and those would likely be some of the best in the business. And Beck’s exploration of the world of melodic possibilities contained within such a groove is the reason I’m writing this — the man has a set of golden ears, a sense of harmony that did not come from this planet.

People talk about how certain musicians have reached the point of having their chosen instrument become almost another limb, a part of their body. With Beck, this is painfully true. Not to get too technical, but his use of the whammy (or tremolo) bar on the Fender Stratocaster is the epitome of taste and control. His sense of pitch and control, his ability to scoop one note into another is simply beyond compare. The guitarist’s sense of timing and phrasing has been compared to the best of vocalists, whether it’s Billy Holiday or the Bulgarian choir singers that have inspired him over the years. And while he can interpret songs by almost anyone with equal aplomb (be it Mingus or McCartney), his irrepressible personality always shines through. If you’ve heard Beck once, you’ll know him every single time, and eventually you’ll recognize his influence on just about every reigning “guitar god” worth mentioning over the last — well, ever since there was such a term as “guitar god,” to be completely honest.

But if you absolutely need me to do a “song by song” thing, here we go: “Scatterbrain” is a furious reading that at least doubles the tempo of the original version- and if you know that version at all, this is a fairly scary proposition. “Nadia” shows off Beck’s otherworldly phrasing in an almost drum’n’bass context, and the seamless fusing of “Blast From The East” into “Led Boots” lets drummer Vinnie Colaiuta stretch his legs (and arms, and everything else) to great effect. That Beck’s guitar one moment resembles the tonality of a harmonica, a bagpipe, then a penny whistle, then some kind of tortured violin, then an “air raid siren dipped in honey” (not mine, but a most fitting description) is merely icing on the proverbial cake. Once the band hits the Beatles’ “A Day In The Life,” at least one thing’s clear; this isn’t just another instrumental guitar album from “just another” instrumental guitar guy — it’s a courageous musical statement from one of the finest musicians on the planet.

Live At Ronnie Scott’s is one of the rarest of listening opportunities. There have been plenty of fantastic guitar-oriented, mostly instrumental releases over the years, but this one in particular will likely be held in the highest regard. Why is that? Because for the longest time, Jeff Beck has been able to transcend his instrument to the point of purely and simply making music- yes, he can blow you away with sheer technique, his tone is impeccable, and it seems he can play anything in the world and make it sound magical. But what stands out over all of that is that he colors every musical moment with a different, often unexpected hue. He’s not afraid to be ugly and abrasive, because the next note will be as smooth and sexy as can be. He’ll slap you in the face and turn around and whisper in your ear, and accomplish it all with something as inherently barbaric as a plank of wood with some wires strapped to it. This is one of those “must have” recordings. That’s all I really have to say.

(Chris Cooper can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

By Christi Marsico • Staff Writer

Wearing white sneakers with a buzz haircut, Tighe Wachacha enters the Burger King in Waynesville followed by his cardigan-clad cohort Matthew Yates.

Wachacha, 28, is married with one child and Yates, 27, is engaged.

The friendship these two men found in making films has set ablaze their ambitions as they launch their video production company, Twin Paths Productions, LLC.

Yates, who grew up in Kernersville, N.C., always knew he wanted to make films.

After living in Colorado and attending a few schools, Yates moved back to North Carolina determined to go to film school. Specifically looking for a two-year program, he came across Haywood Community College’s Film and Video Production courses online and applied.

Wachacha grew up in Cherokee and began his college pursuits in media arts at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan. When Wachacha moved back to his home state, he began looking for a film program as well. Upon picking up an application at HCC, Wachacha felt he had found the right place.

Wachacha met Yates the first day of class, and they became fast friends as they both progressed in their film studies.

“We got to do everything from day one like handling the camera,” Wachacha said.

“HCC saved me. It was the best thing that could have happened to me.”

They gained real world experience during the making of biotechnology training films where they were expected to take on the producer roles during the project.

The film series focused on “everything from bio-fuels to genetically modified foods,” according to Yates.

Yates and Wachacha are still in touch with their professors from HCC, referring to them as “more like friends than professors.”

Wheels

Through Time

Since graduating HCC in 2007, the film fellows have been working at the Wheels Through Time, a motorcycle museum in Maggie Valley. The duo has produced about 75 percent of the videos on the Wheels Through Time’s Web site.

Wachacha and Yates work 35 to 40 hours a week at the museum on a variety of projects from filming human-interest pieces, technology shows, to traveling for the museum filming various events.

The work has allowed the filmmakers to cut their teeth on multiple tasks while taking away valuable lessons.

“We’ve learned how to adapt ourselves in different situations and think on our feet,” Yates said.

“In school, it was a controlled environment, and at Wheels we push ourselves to see how much we can get out of ourselves with little preparation,” Wachacha added.

Feeling grateful from all they have learned and continue to learn at the museum, the filmmakers are preparing for future endeavors.

Their own biz

The film friends began serious discussions about a production company their second year at HCC.

“The name of our company reflects those paths from the first day we met,” Wachacha said. “We came the long way around on getting on track to what we needed to do.”

Yates describes Wachacha as a “go getter” and more “vocal” than he is, pushing him out of his comfort zones.

“Tighe’s good at everything that I’m not,” Yates said.

Wachacha feels his partner can be summed up on one word — “planner.”

“Matt uses his head more than I do,” Wachacha said.

The Web site for Twin Path Productions is not the only project in the works as the film partners are writing a screenplay, editing a music video for the Asheville band The Davids, and researching a documentary.

“The documentary is our baby,” Wachacha said.

The film will document five Cherokee “beloved women” while exploring the roles of women in Cherokee and European culture.

“It will recognize efforts of a lot of women and what they’ve done for the tribe throughout its history from education to preserving language,” Wachacha said.

Since June, their company has been crafting videos for the Cherokee Preservation Foundation.

“We have been shooting and gathering footage explaining what the Preservation Foundation does for the tribe,” Yates said.

Looking into the future with so much on their plates in the present, the filmmakers have two ultimate goals for their production company: pay their bills and make a feature film. They are also determined that Twin Path Productions will succeed in the film business and remain based in Western North Carolina.

“You don’t have to live in Wilmington or Hollywood to make movies,” Yates said.

“You could put us into any situation, and we’ll make it work,” Wachacha said.

“I am 100 percent confident we could shoot anything anybody asked us to.”

Preserving stories one project at time as well as loving what they do is what has given Twin Path Productions the confidence to strive for more.

“We’ve come this far and at the start it was determination, and now we have the equipment and the skills,” Wachacha said.

For more information on Twin Path Productions, call 828.399.1385 or 828.582.2406 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

It wasn’t until the late 1970s that my wife, Elizabeth, and I first started birding in a systematic fashion. That is, we began learning to distinguish species by their calls and songs as well as by their distinctive markings. For a while, it seemed to be an almost impossible task.

Little by little, however, we began to sort out the easier visual and auditory cues. We already knew some of the more common resident birds — cardinals, tufted titmice, pileated woodpeckers, robins, blue jays, white-breasted nuthatches, song sparrows, phoebes, etc. — by sight and sound. To these we quickly added indigo buntings, Arcadian flycatchers, blue-gray gnatcatchers, red-eyed and white-eyed vireos, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and other distinctive species that migrate north from the Gulf Coast or Central and South America into the southern Appalachians to breed.

After several seasons, we’d reached the point where we felt comfortable with identifying most of the species that appear in Western North Carolina on a permanent, summer breeding, or winter resident basis, as well as (to a lesser extent) those that only migrate through in the spring and fall.

But well into the 1980s, we remained somewhat intimidated by the wood warblers. To be truthful, we still have problems with warbler identification during the fall season when almost all of them have ceased singing and have assumed similar drab colorations.

Thirty-seven of the 40 or so warbler species listed in the field guide for the eastern United States have been reported from our region; and, of these, more than 30 can be expected on a regular basis.

Warblers are often described as “the butterflies of the bird world.” They don’t hold still. All you usually get is a fleeting second to try to catch their vocalizations and markings before they’re long gone. And they’re all pretty much the same size with songs and field marks that can be similar.

The first warbler we got a firm handle on was the yellow-rumped. One December morning we spotted a flock of them feeding in the river birches that line the Tuckasegee River here in Bryson City. We knew they were warblers. And we knew that only a few warbler species over-winter in WNC. And then — bingo! — we spotted their bright yellow rumps.

Few warblers winter in the Smokies region. The yellow-rumped is by far the most common one that does so.

Formerly considered two species — the myrtle warbler in the East (which displays a white throat) and the Audubon’s warbler in West (which displays a yellow throat) — the yellow-rumped warbler was reclassified as a single species when it was established that the myrtle and Audubon’s sub-types hybridized where their ranges overlap. It is one of the most common warblers in all of North America, with a breeding range that extends from Alaska south to Guatemala and east to the northeastern United States.

As might be anticipated, this species is one of the most ecologically generalized. Individuals forage in a broad range of microhabitats and employ a variety of foraging techniques, from fly-catching to foliage-gleaning for insects. During the winter, it can be observed in almost any habitat, expanding its diet to include a substantial amount of fruit. Its ability to digest the waxes in bayberries allows some yellow-rumped populations to winter in coastal areas as far north as Nova Scotia.

The designation “yellow-rumped” is apt because this warbler displays that signature rump color even in non-breeding plumage.

Back in the early 1990s, I was birding with ornithologist Paul Kerlinger on Horn Island in the Gulf Islands off the Mississippi coast. Scanning some nearby shrubs through his binoculars, Paul sighed and said, ‘It’s just another damned ‘butter-butt.’”

Not knowing what he was talking about I took a look through my binoculars. It was a yellow-rumped warbler. Paul’s description was perfect.

See for yourself. The “butter-butts” are just now arriving back in the Smokies region from their northern breeding grounds.

George Ellison wrote the biographical introductions for the reissues of two Appalachian classics: Horace Kephart’s Our Southern Highlanders and James Mooney’s History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees. In June 2005, a selection of his Back Then columns was published by The History Press in Charleston as Mountain Passages: Natural and Cultural History of Western North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains. Readers can contact him at P.O. Box 1262, Bryson City, N.C., 28713, or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

“’Official meeting’ means a meeting, assembly, or gathering together at any time or place ... of a majority of the members of a public body for the purpose of conducting hearings, participating in deliberations, or voting upon or otherwise transacting the public business within the jurisdiction, real or apparent, of the public body. However, a social meeting or other informal assembly or gathering together of the members of a public body does not constitute an official meeting unless called or held to evade the spirit and purposes of this Article.”

GS 143-318.10-d

Newspapers make a big deal out of open meetings and open government. We believe it is our duty to make waves when some entity is either purposely or out of ignorance not taking the right steps to make sure the public’s business is done in the open. Open government is each American’s birthright, so we speak up when we think there’s a problem.

Last week we wrote two stories about the state’s Open Meetings Law (quoted above) and potential problems in two communities here in Western North Carolina. Here’s what’s going on.

In Macon County, commissioners have gotten into the troubling habit of recessing their meetings instead of ending them and then holding a new meeting. If a meeting is recessed, the public body is under no obligation to re-publicize the continued meeting. That makes it too easy to exclude the public, whether that’s the intent ornot.

Recessing some meetings makes life for commissioners a lot easier, and we certainly understand that it is sometimes necessary. However, in Macon County 15 were recessed in the first nine months of the year. In Jackson County the number was three and in Haywood the number is one.

As Commissioner Jim Davis told this newspaper, “... we’re not doing anything illegal.”

He’s right, and we’re not suggesting they are.

However, it’s just not a good way to do the public’s business. Commissioners should go out of their way to keep their bosses — the taxpayers — informed of what they are doing and how they can participate. It’s called good government. As an attorney for the N.C. Press Association said, “Just because it’s legal doesn’t make it right.”

If they have so much business to cover, then hold two regularly scheduled meetings a month. Most similar-sized counties do. But don’t take steps that by their very nature confuse the public.

Over in Jackson County, the state Department of Transportation official probably thought they were just being polite by inviting elected officials to a private meeting to discuss a road project. Unfortunately, the state officials conducting the meeting are putting county commissioners and other elected officials in a precarious place.

The DOT plans to meet with elected officials from 2 to 3 p.m. on Dec. 4, and then hold a public meeting from 4 to 7 p.m. The meetings are to discuss the controversial Southern Loop, a proposed highway that could bisect Jackson County and has been the subject of heated discussion over the past few years.

Again, the DOT may not be intentionally trying to abuse the state’s open meeting laws. However, getting a majority of any elected board together to discuss anything that’s that elected entity’s business is a clear violation of the law.

In truth, even getting less than a majority together with the clear intent to avoid the majority mandate is a violation of the spirit of the state Open Meetings Law.

This one is also easy to fix. Meet with town and county administrators and board chairmen, and have them update their colleagues. Or just hold the meeting and invite the public.

By Avram Friedman • Executive Director, Canary Coalition

Getting “off the grid” is more and more appealing to many of us as the cost of energy goes up and our awareness about the health and environmental impacts of coal and nuclear power grows. Expense is the major obstacle to taking your home off the grid, though it always makes economic sense in the long run.

Going 100 percent solar wind, geothermal or micro-hydro can seem impossible when considering the up-front costs of these systems. However, by approaching the problem in reasonable stages, establishing priorities, and figuring costs, you can take a simplified approach to being more energy-independent — the only personal investment you’ll make with a guaranteed payback.

Most often in residential applications, the first step is to install solar water heaters. Electric or gas water heaters account for up to 60 percent of residential energy use in the Southeast — installing a solar water heater can reduce your energy bill by nearly $25 per month. A handy person can build an adequate, functional solar water heater for a few hundred dollars, or one can purchase a pre-manufactured system for a little more. I recommend the “batch-type” heaters for simplicity and reliability; ground mounting, rather than roof mounting, is preferable if possible. For good instructions on how to build or install a solar hot water heater, visit www.builditsolar.com.

The next priority might be to provide electrical power for water pumping, refrigeration, lighting, computers, or sound system. Decide what your priorities are and what’s most important to you and begin to build a modular generating system that can be expanded at your pace. You can use solar, micro-hydro, or wind, depending on the availability of your resources. For micro-hydro, you’ll need a year-round creek on your property within a few hundred feet of your house. Wind is generally feasible only at elevations above 3,000 feet with a 500-foot radius unobstructed by tall trees or buildings.

The solar option, however, is almost universally available. While photovoltaic systems can be expensive, the cost can be minimized by investing in highly efficient electrical appliances like slow pumps for your well, LED lighting, solid-state refrigeration, or a laptop computer. This reduces the size and cost of your solar array and battery storage systems. Start with one 12-volt circuit in your house, and add on to the system as your budget allows. You can even check online for surplus or used solar electric panels — there are many available to save you money.

Lastly, in many states, homeowners can take advantage of net-metering laws that allow easy use of utility-company energy as a back-up for home-based systems. This removes the need for battery storage and makes it easier to become energy-independent. You can let your legislators know of your interest in home-based renewable energy systems and advocate to them for a more inclusive net-metering law in North Carolina.

By Zack Dean • Smoky Mtn. High School

I had to work late on Nov. 4, so upon coming home that night I didn’t know what to expect.

I walked into the living room to find a group of my mother’s friends glued to the couch, entranced by Barack Obama’s historical victory speech. As I joined them on the couch, I found myself curious as to what my peers thought of the election results, or if they even cared. My answer was clear the next day at school.

Sporting an Obama shirt, I received numerous high fives and pats on the back, a few snide comments but mostly apathy. Only a small number of my senior class was able to vote, and supporters of the newly elected president were scattered throughout the halls; some students were more interested in the results than others. Even with the few students interested in the previous night’s announcement, it was hard to differentiate the students who had a genuine opinion and those who were just wrapped up in the excitement.

I began to casually bring up the election in my conversations that day in school, resulting in a plethora of responses.

“(I’m) not 100 percent happy, but America chose” confessed Smoky Mountain High School Senior Ronnie Mau. “The election didn’t unite America like people thought it would.”

Senior Seth Kuehn agreed with Ronnie’s view on the election: “The change that Obama promises isn’t the kind of change we actually need.”

This kind of response was widespread, but pro-Obama comments were also sprinkled throughout. Fellow classmate Keller Berry confidently stated that, “With the outcome of this election, America has let out a sigh of relief, America needs a change, and Obama can bring it”.

I was excited to see some of my peers as enthusiastic and interested in this historical change of power as I was. But this excitement lost its sweetness as I heard an overwhelming amount of “I don’t knows” and “who cares?”

As young adults it is hard to make a decision based solely on what we know and believe. For the most part we lack the life experience needed to make an informed decision on which party to support. At this age our view on politics is heavily influenced by our family. It is rare to witness a student whose political beliefs differ from their parents.

But this isn’t bad. As fledgling leaders it is important for us to have a world view, no matter how biased. Without this early perspective, we are at the mercy of pop culture and side chatter that skews our opinions. I consider myself — and my generation — supremely lucky to live in a time where young people have such interest, and in some cases influence, on the politics of our nation.

After all, as I am sure you know, an overwhelming number of young Americans turned out to support President-elect Barack Obama. It was encouraging that day, to see some of my peers so energetic about the election of our new leader. All in all the youth of America is capable of enormous influence on our nation, and it is of great importance that we realize that power.

(Zack Dean attends Smoky Mountain High School in Sylva and has been following a reporter at The Smoky Mountain News as part of his senior project.)

For two weeks every summer, the Folkmoot Center is a popping nightspot. Well after midnight, little crowds cluster around the exit doors, tiny clouds of smoke rising around them. Inside, in what was once the Hazelwood Elementary School Cafeteria, a bunch of Canadians — who do Chinese dances — are holding strings while other dancers jump through them to the beat of Gary Glitter’s Rock N Roll Part 2.

The manager for the Italian team, a short and dapper older gentleman, is giving a tween Guadelupean a run for his money in the leaping-over-strings department. The Finnish, though, are killing everybody.

“Oh, Finland’s got some ups,” says a Canadian in a Dr. Seuss hat, commentating the game over the loudspeaker, as a tall, blond guy leaps over the final string.

Never mind that 50 percent of the people in the room may or may not know what ‘ups’ means. Or who Gary Glitter is. Or what the person across the table from them is really saying.

At Folkmoot, the universality of creativity transcends the many and varied language barriers between the performers and musicians who gather for the annual folk festival.

This year, there are six languages and seven countries, which sometimes makes communication a challenge.

A few groups share some common languages. The Americans and Canadians have little problem communicating, the group from Guadeloupe, a Francophone island, share that language with Burundi, where French and Swahili compete for dominance.

And technology helps.

In the hallway after performances have ended, Idris, a young Guadeloupean, is trying to get his point across to Doug Garrett, a former guide who is now a volunteer and guide coordinator.

“J’ai besoin d’un badge?”

“No,” says Garrett, who speaks no French. “Spanish, but not French.”

But there is a computer, and with the helpful assistance of Google Translate, the problem is solved.

Oh right. You’ve lost your badge? asks Garrett.

Oui, replies Idris.

OK, come back in an hour and we’ll have one ready.

Such exchanges force the conversants to be linguistically innovative.

In one overheard exchange, the simple question ‘what’s the weather like in your country?’ was broached. It becomes less simple, however, when one party doesn’t know the word ‘weather.’ So what’s another way to express the concept of weather?

But backstage at the performances and in downtime around the Folkmoot Friendship Center, the common languages — dance and music — engender camaraderie.

Under the awnings behind The Stompin’ Ground in Maggie Valley, the Finns and Canadians exchanged steps while awaiting their turn with the crowd inside.

Later that night, the Croatians shared their moves with everyone as the crowd pivoted haltingly around the room, the Croatian women practicing their signature keening shout, something akin to an extremely high-pitched war cry.

Flora Gammon said it has always been this way. Leader of the International Band and long-time Folkmoot volunteer, she says dance bringing everyone together has been a long-running theme with the festival.

“Once we had a group from Spain, the Basques, that were here, and they were the most standoffish group I’ve ever seen in my life,” says Gammon. “So we were all saying ‘Let's teach each other dances.’ And it came my turn to teach an American dance, and I said, well, I'll teach you the hokey pokey. I don’t know what it is about the hokey pokey that in the Basque language seems to make them all happy, but they were smiling and communicating with everybody and having a great time.”

This year, there are no standoffish groups. From Italy to Canada and every group in between, they may not speak the same language, but they seem to understand each other just fine.

Dogs performing aerial tricks and other extreme stunts will come to Cherokee for the Carolina Dock Dogs exhibition Aug. 5 through 7.

There is also an open division for anyone 7 years or older and any dog 6 months or older.

Practice sessions are held Friday. The first wave of competitions will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday and last into the evening. Contests gear back up Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. with finals at 2 p.m. Main contests include Outdoor Big Air, Extreme Vertical and Speed Retrieve.

Registration fees for DockDogs at www.carolinadockdogs.com/Cherokee.html

Kids ages 3 to 11 will swarm the river bank at Oconaluftee Island Park in Cherokee for the 10th annual Talking Trees Children’s Trout Derby on August 6.

Fishing poles and gear are provided, as well as instruction from experienced fishermen, allowing kids who have never fished before a chance to try their hand. Cherokee Fish and Game will stock 15,000 trout  prior to the event.

Registration is mandatory and slots go fast. Registration must be done in person the day before the event on Friday, Aug. 5, at the Cherokee Fairgrounds from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Festivities during registration day include exhibits, food booths, Native American dancers and live music.

For any slots that are left, registration the day of the event will begin at 6 a.m.

Kids get free breakfast and lunch, with lots of prizes to go around. Fishing is held between 8 a.m. and noon.

Owners of the region’s largest fly shops and fishing outfitters will share insight on local waters at the next meeting of the Plateau Fly Fishing Club, held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9, at the Cashiers library.

Joe Street and Chris Anderson, owners of River’s Edge Outfitters in Cherokee and Spruce Pine, will focus on strategies to use when fishing the Little Tennessee, Raven’s Fork and South Holston rivers. Maps to those locations will be provided free of charge.

Following the presentation, a raffle will be held featuring a Brookings two-person float trip on the Tuckaseegee River and a day on the Raven Fork Trophy Water, donated by River’s Edge.  

828.885.7130.

Swain’s newest 4-H Club, the Outdoor Adventurers, hiked Clingmans Dome to the observation tower and participated in two Junior Ranger Programs in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Students learned how to pack for a day hike, hiking basics, and outdoor exploration techniques. They studied numerous plant species, trees, birds, lichens, rock formations, cloud condensation and saw a very large buck.

The focus of Outdoor Adventurers 4-H is exploring the outdoors and gardening. It is open to youth county wide, K-12, and meets at  the Marianna Black Library Gardens Tuesday afternoons from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. 828.488.3848 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

North Carolina’s land trusts, including the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee and Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, have for a second time received federal funds to conserve land and protect views from 20 of the state’s scenic byways, including the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Federal Highway Administration’s National Scenic Byways Program recently awarded $2.7 million to a collection of 10 land trusts and the Conservation Trust for North Carolina.

Land trusts will use the new grant funding to build on a 2006 Scenic Byways grant, which helped land trusts develop conservation plans along 25 Scenic Byways in North Carolina. The 2011 grant will pay to implement elements of those plans, such as outreach to landowners regarding conservation efforts and acquiring property and conservation easements.

Scenic drives to receive conservation funding include the Cherohala Skyway, Waterfall Byway and Nantahala Byway in the western most counties.

Conservation planning funds have been awarded for the Forest Heritage in Haywood and Transylvania counties and Whitewater Way spanning in Jackson and Transylvania counties.

“North Carolina is renowned for its scenic drives, from the Outer Banks Scenic Byway to the Sandhills Drive and Pottery Road in the Piedmont to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which by itself welcomes 16 million to 17 million visitors a year. We must protect the breathtaking natural landscapes that bring people to these regions,” said Acting Executive Director Margaret Newbold of Conservation Trust for North Carolina.

Learn to put a little hop in your brew on a tour of Hop’n Blueberry Farm and Pisgah Brewing Company.

The dual hop tour takes place Saturday, Aug. 6. Tickets are $8 per person and include two beer samples. 

Pisgah Brewing Company has been producing a “wet hop” beer with fresh hops grown at Hop’n Blueberry Farm for the last three years. This unique beer only happens once per year when hops are picked and added to the brewing process at the brewery within hours after leaving the farm.

The tour begins at the farm where owner Van Burnette will share information about growing hops from the ground up.

www.hopnblueberryfarm.com or www.pisgahbrewing.com

Appalachian crafters, old-timey demonstrations, Cherokee culture and mountain music will be celebrated during a special event at the Waterrock Knob Visitor Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 6.

“Blue Ridge Parkway: Celebrating Heritage and Communities” will feature craft demonstrations, Cherokee dancers, Appalachian story tellers, old-time and bluegrass bands and clogging.

Entertainment includes The Ross Brothers at 10 a.m., the J Creek Cloggers at 11 a.m.; The Cherokee Friends Dancers at 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.; Ammon Sisters Mountain Storytelling at noon; and The Boys from Tuckaseegee at 2 p.m. National Park Service Rangers will be giving short interpretive talks between performers.

Crafts displays will include pottery, woodcarving, spinning, knitting, chair caning and more. Participating authors include: Bob Plott of Strike and Stay, David and Anne M. Whisnant of When the Parkway Came and Super Scenic Motorway. Food will be available for purchase from Big Mountain BBQ.

Waterrock Knob is at mile marker 451 on the Parkway between Waynesville and Maggie Valley. 828.456.9530 ext. 3.

Learn how to be safe in the woods while hunting through a series of Hunter Safety courses at Haywood Community College.

Haywood Community College’s Natural Resources Division and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will offer Hunter Safety courses Aug. 15 through Aug. 17 from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on the HCC campus. Participants must attend three consecutive evenings to receive their certification.

Additional Hunter Safety courses will be offered Sept. 6 through Sept. 8; Oct. 10 through Oct. 12; and Nov. 7 through Nov. 9.

Pre-registration required. Anyone interested in taking a hunter safety course must register online in order to attend any session at www.ncwildlife.org.

N.C. land trusts win $2.7 million grant to protect scenic byways

Young campers from the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center in Waynesville were given a hands-on lesson about water quality in rivers at the Oconaluftee Islands Park in Cherokee. Haywood Waterways Association partnered with the Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River (WATR) to teach the kids how to catch aquatic creatures.

Kids identified insects in the trays, cups, and buckets and learned how each insects indicated something significant about the water quality.

“When the kids learn about water, it adds another holistic academic component to our summer programming, which ups its value to the students,” said Lin Forney, director of the Pigeon Development Center. “After learning how pollution affects water quality and how important it is to use this resource wisely, the campers had a better idea of why we need to preserve and protect our water sources.”

For more information on the Kids in the Creek or to organize water quality education programs for your group, call 828.631.2823 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The new 2011 edition of the Haywood County farm map and brochure has been released.

The new publication lists more than 40 locations to buy locally grown plants, produce, Christmas trees, and more. The featured sites include farm stands, plant nurseries, tailgate markets, trout farms, and places where you can ride horses or go on a llama trek. A calendar of farm-related events is also included in the brochure.

“The map and brochure has something for everyone,” said George Ivey, who coordinates the Buy Haywood project, which promotes local, high-quality farm products to community-minded consumers. The brochure is available at the Haywood County visitor centers in Balsam, Canton, and Waynesville; the Haywood County and Maggie Valley Chambers of Commerce; and Haywood County Cooperative Extension. You can also view and print a copy online at www.buyhaywood.com/farmmap.

An opportunity to learn about the trees in downtown Sylva and surrounding areas takes place Thursday, Aug. 11, with a walking tour of the town’s “Tree Walk.”

Peggy Hurt, member and past president of the Sylva Garden Club, will lead the walk. Those who want to participate should meet in the atrium of the Jackson County Public Library complex at 10 a.m. The tour should last approximately 90 minutes.

The Sylva Garden Club compiled and published a booklet titled “The Sylva Tree Walk” in 1981, and updated the material in 2008. The booklet includes a brief description of each of the trees featured in the walk. Also, in 2008 each of the trees was relabeled for easy identification. “The Sylva Tree Walk” booklets are available for purchase at the Friends of the Library Used Book Store on Main Street in Sylva and at the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce.

828.586.2016.

Local author Louise K. Nelson will be at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 30.

Nelson has written several books, mainly on Haywood County’s early history. Nelson was born in Haywood County 85 years ago, but her family settled in Haywood County in 1802, while her husband, Floyd Nelson’s family settled in 1785. Between the long history of their two families and the history that Nelson herself has lived through, the history in her books is written with firsthand experience.

For more information or to reserve one of Nelson’s books, call 828.456.6000.

Historians Reed Henson and David and Debbie Patterson will hearken back to the Confederacy at 7 p.m. on July 28 at the Macon County Library with their collection of arms, clothing, flags and equipment that would have been used at the time. They’ll also talk about Western North Carolina’s part in the War Between the States.

For more information call 828.524.3600 or visit fontanalib.org.

Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Center will host and sponsor a free performance of “The Liars Bench” Southern Appalachian variety show at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4.

“The Liars Bench” was founded by Sylva writer and storyteller Gary Carden in June 2010, and the show’s cast presented monthly programs at City Lights bookstore in Sylva during its first year. The ensemble gave its first performance in the Mountain Heritage Center auditorium in July to a standing-room-only crowd.

“Cherokee in a Changing World” will be the theme for the upcoming performance at the museum. Cherokee storyteller Lloyd Arneach will speak about the myth of the Nunnihi, Carden will deliver a tale titled “When the Tourist Came,” and Barbara McRae will give a presentation on the Nikwasi Mound.

Robert Conley, WCU’s Sequoyah Distinguished Professor in Cherokee Studies, will also discuss major issues facing the Cherokee people today, as well as present some theories about an ancient Cherokee ritual known as the “Booger Dance.” Barbara Duncan, a musician and poet from the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, and Liars Bench regular Paul Iarussi, a claw-hammer guitarist, also will perform.

For more information about the show call the Mountain Heritage Center at 828.227.7129.

The Marianna Black Library in Bryson City has been celebrating “One World, Many Stories” during its annual summer reading program all summer long.  Community children have had a chance to bring their own hand-crafted passports to Australia, Egypt, England, China, Mexico and Brazil.

Family Night will be held at 6 p.m. on Friday, July 29, in the library auditorium. This celebration will include a song that the children have been working on all summer and a slide show. Pizzas will be provided by Bryson City Pizza Hut.

For more information about the summer reading program schedule and times, call 828.488.3030 or visit www.fontanalib.org/brysoncity.

Dine at Lakeside Restaurant on Wednesday, July 27, and help The Bascom Visual Arts Center. Lakeside will donate 15 percent of the gross sales from the evening’s supporters to the art center.

When making your reservation, be sure to mention you are dining to support The Bascom. To make a reservation call 828.526.9419.

Local artist Silvia Cabrera Williams will lead a teaching session on from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 6, at Leapin’ Frog Gallery in Waynesville’s Historic Frog Level.

Some basic instruction about paints, values, shapes and color placement will be given as well as how to do transfers onto paper or canvas.  Rubbing alcohol, cheesecloth and aluminum foil will also be used in the creation of a piece of abstract art.

Williams has been an artist for many years and loves the experimentation process.  Her work is currently on exhibit at Gallery 86 on Main Street, Waynesville, and Gallery 262 in Frog Level.  

Cost for the workshop is $50. Call 828.456.8441 to register and get a supply list.

The Haywood County Arts Council will host an exhibition titled, “Main Street Moments in Time,” celebrating 25 years of the Downtown Waynesville Association and featuring photographs from the DWA’s archives, the Historical Society’s SnapShot project, and photographs of the downtown district by local photographers.  

The show opens Wednesday, Aug. 3, and runs through Saturday, Aug. 20. The artists’ reception will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 5, at Gallery 86 in conjunction with Waynesville’s Art After Dark.

For more information visit the Arts Council’s call 828.452.0593 or visit www.haywoodarts.org.

In March, a group of interested local leaders met to discuss the formation of an affiliate program of the regional the Junior Appalachian Musicians Program.

The meeting set the wheels in motion for the implementation of an after-school program for Jackson County in the fall of 2011, providing instruction and performance opportunities for youth in traditional Appalachian and bluegrass string instruments. Upfront funding was granted by the Jackson County Arts Council, with other grant applications in the works.

Individual contributions of money or instruments are needed. Instrument contributions are coordinated by Ray Menze at 828.293.3407.

Contributions should be sent to Heather Gordon, Jackson County 4-H, 538 Scotts Creek Rd, Suite 205, Sylva, N.C., 28779.  

For more information contact Ray Menze at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Pam Dengler at 828.506.8802 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

As part of a Summer Music Series, the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City will host acoustic country musicians Ron and Julia Thompson at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 28. The program will be presented on the front porch of the library, and snacks and refreshments will be provided by the Friends of the Marianna Black Library.

Ron and Julia have been playing music together for 20 years, and Julia has been singing the country melodies of singers like Loretta Lynn since she was a little girl. In the years that they have been playing together, they’ve performed in most of the Southern states, as well as many local venues.

For more information call 828.488.3030 or visit www.fontanalib.org/brysoncity.

Groovin’ on the Green, Cashiers’ summer concert series, continues at 6:30 p.m. on Friday evenings through September at the Cashiers Commons.

July into September featured bands are Velvet Truckstop on July 29; Les Freres Michot on Aug. 12; The Fishsticks on Aug. 26; Angela Reign and Band on Sept. 2 and The Carol Strickland Band on Sept. 16.

Food is available for purchase from a featured local restaurant at every concert or concertgoers may bring their own picnic-fare, beverages and snacks along with blankets or chairs.

Emiko Suzuki will conduct a workshop in origami at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 4, at the Jackson County Public Library. Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding which began in the 17th century.  

In addition to being accomplished in origami, Suzuki is experienced in the tradition of ikebana, Japanese flower arranging. She taught ikebana or 13 years in Japan before coming to Western North Carolina in 2007. In addition, she is a master in the art of the tea ceremony which represents the essence of Japanese culture. Suzuki taught the tea ceremony in Japan for two years.

Suzuki graduated from Western Carolina University with a Masters of Visual Art Teacher in May, 2011. She worked as a Japan Outreach Coordinator at Western Carolina University from 2007 until 2009.

This workshop is limited to 15 participants.  Reservations are required. Call 828.586.2016 or sign up at the reference desk at the library.

Nan Smith, a local beading artist, will lead a program on jewelry beading at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 28, at the Jackson County Library. During her workshop she will teach the group how to make seed bead and crystal earrings.

Smith has been a Dogwood Crafter in Dillsboro for about six years. She has won numerous award ribbons with the Extension Service Club and at the Mountain State Fair, including two Best in Show for beadwork.

After enlightening the audience about the history of beading, she will show various pieces of jewelry and tell how they are produced with patterns. Smith will teach the group how to make a simple pair of crystal and seed bead earrings.

828.586.2016.

The Creative Thought Center in Waynesville invites the public to its Colossal Rummage Sale from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 30.

The sale will be held indoors and cover 6,000 square feet and will include a diverse range of items from clothing and books to furniture and kitchen accessories.

A major portion of the offered items have been donated by Persnickety’s in Waynesville. For more information call 828.246.2794.

The annual Junaluska Woman’s Club Fashion Show Scholarship Luncheon will be held at 12 p.m. on Aug. 2 at the Foundation for Evangelism at Lake Junaluska. Fashions provided by Krismart in Sylva will be modeled by club members, with commentary by Margaret McCleskey. Proceeds from the event support scholarships for Lake Junaluska summer employees.  

For more information call 662.312.7603.

The Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts will host an evening of American music with superstars Lee Greenwood and Louise Mandrell at 7:30 p.m. on July 30.

Along with his patriotic hit “God Bless the USA,” Greenwood has won numerous accolades including two Male Vocalist of the Year awards from the Country Music Association and the CMA Song of the Year honor in 1985 for “God Bless the USA.”

Greenwood is accompanied by country music legend Louise Mandrell, a master of multiple instruments, including the drums, accordion, fiddle, and bass guitar. Mandrell has been performing for nearly four decades, working with Merle Haggard, as a back-up vocalist and as a performer on the weekly variety program, Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters.

Tickets are $45. Call 866.273.461 or visit greatmountainmusic.com.

I remember both my grandfathers very well.  Both served in the military during WWI, and their grandfathers fought in the American Civil War. With that perspective, one can readily comprehend how quickly time moves along.

Nowadays, at age 59, I see things at flea markets that are touted as antiques, yet I may have used some of those things early in life. And all the nostalgic stories of yesteryear are easily sliced to ribbons by memories of having been there. I mention it here in regard to my mother, who died on July 15.

Jean Muirhead was elected to serve in the Mississippi Legislature in 1968, having only recently been also admitted to the state bar. At the time there were only seven women in the Magnolia state who were licensed to practice law. But it was the 60’s, and things were changing fast.

One of her first legislative attention-getters was to break with tradition in regard to the school-age kids who served as assistants in the House and the Senate. They were, they are still, called pages. But in the halcyon days of Deep South thinking, before “the nigras” began howling to be recognized as people, before Yankee television reporters could invade at any moment and send live, color images of the truth back to their anchors’ desks in New York City, life in my home state was vastly different than it is today.

It was a time of male domination. There were only seven female lawyers? Today there are hundreds! And although it never really felt like it to me at the time, as a kid growing up in the late 50’s and 60’s, repression was everywhere. (I’m not about to attempt to explain life through the eyes of a black Mississippian. I am white; but I’ve got my own stories.)

I well remember as a teenager the nagging sensation of living inside an inescapable falseness. Things were not as they seemed. On Sunday mornings I would attend Sunday school and “big church” with my family. And before “big church” began, outside the sanctuary the deacons smoked cigarettes at the front door. Sometimes the preacher would walk through the crowd and cloud of blue smoke, nodding with tight lips at his coterie of ordained sinners. He would never smoke; nor would he condemn those who did, at least not one on one. He would wait until he stood in sanctuary of his pulpit, there to harangue the entire congregation on the evils of tobacco. The deacons on the front row would then clear their throats, cough, and nod in agreement.

Women were seen only in the pews or the choir loft. They had no place on the dais. God’s word was men’s word, and females were not considered astute enough to preach and teach on the complexities of Western religion. Their place was in the home, cooking pot roast, rearing the children, pleasing their husbands.

In those days, drug stores had entrances around back labeled “Colored.” The few public restrooms available were similarly identified. If you are under the age of 30 and are reading this, you probably find it difficult to understand. But repression and segregation were the orders of the day. The world was controlled by white men, no matter how ignorant and brutish they happened to be. Boys wore flat-top haircuts, and girls wore skirts, not pants. Individualism was an arcane and unholy route, and those who took it faced universal condemnation.

In the movie “Patton,” G.C. Scott portrays the mercurial WWII general, George S. Patton. In one scene enemy airplanes begin strafing his headquarters in N. Africa. The planes make a couple of passes over the village until finally a direct hit is made on the building wherein Patton is watching the action from a window. Suddenly plaster and debris is raining down on his head. Grabbing at his revolver in its holster Patton growls, “All right now, by God, THAT’S ENOUGH!” He jumps through an open window onto the top of a truck, and then down to the ground where he stands in the street and fires relentlessly at the planes with his handheld revolver, cursing with every shot.

Well, I doubt my mother did much cursing on the Senate floor, but one day she did realize, “by God, THAT’S ENOUGH!” In glaring, shocking revolt, she appointed a female page to serve her, even though it was not girl’s week. Boys could serve as pages throughout the legislative session; but girls got the opportunity during only one of those weeks, until, that is, Jean Muirhead came to town.

Later she would disrupt the ol’ boys club even more. A bill had come to the floor that had to do with state court procedures. My mother scribbled out an amendment to the bill and took it forward to the secretary of the senate. For other reasons the bill was apparently important to the entrenched powers, the men who wanted the bill passed right then. The secretary read the amendment, which struck the word “male” from the text. If you have never been present when our lawmakers are working, you may not grasp how chaotic it sometimes is. Half the time it appears no one is paying any attention. (The other half they are not.)

So, amid the usual confusion, when the secretary called for the vote, the bill passed. It then was moved directly to the House, where, owing to the momentum of the thing, it passed there too. The Ol’ Boys realized they’d been snookered, but to resist would have been embarrassing, and probably futile. There was a chink in the armor, and because of the passage of that bill, women could at last serve on state court juries. It may seem a trifle today, but at the time it was yet another indication that in the homeland of Confederate President Jefferson Finis Davis, a new day was dawning.

(Scott Muirhead lives in Maggie Valley and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

To The Editor:

Before Shirley Ches graced us with her commentary on the state of the universe in her recent letter to a local paper, most of us didn’t know we had a spokesperson for USA Earthlings right here in Franklin.

Mz. Ches evidently presumes to speak for all liberals in her tirade against us who “mouth our pledge, sing our national anthem and wave our flag.” She says that reports show that the “trickle down” theory had been disproved. She says conservative economics has sent jobs overseas. I say outrageous wages demanded by labor unions forced business overseas in order to compete. I say that our egregious corporate tax rates have forced business overseas.

Mz. Ches’ sense of timing, or lack of it, challenges only her lack of understanding in the ways of the world she claims as hers.  With our government tied in knots trying to save our economy from the destructive liberal policies of the current administration, Mz. Chez says that conservatives would deny care to the ill, elderly, children, jobless, etc., by trying to save the future of the country she claims to speak for.

Mz. Ches maintains that our bloated government is the way to go, just like Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal have gone in the past and are now, or soon will feel the pain of their liberal past. That’s working out well, don’t you think? She says our concerns of important issues are skewed. She says that those who pay taxes are robbing “her” people by not paying more.

Mz. Ches says that me and my kind, who exhibit religious zeal, are hypocrites.  Fortunately, Mz. Ches is not the ultimate judge she seems to think she is. Her crowd of Earthlings has created havoc in this country and will soon be taken down by the vast majority of the voting public who resent her scorn and thoughts of superiority.

Don Swanson

Franklin

To the Editor:

Bob Scott, alderman, town of Franklin, wrote a pointed letter to the editor titled, “Rate increase should be met with salary cuts.” Scott has done solid research in to the hefty salaries of Duke energy’s top executives. Their pay is certainly a slap in the face to thousands of their customers who have lost jobs and unemployment benefits.

In the same July 7 issue of the Macon County News, Duke says “Get the facts: Why is Duke Energy asking to increase electric rates?” In the next-to-last paragraph the reader is told, “In exchange (for rates approved by the North Carolina Utilities Commission), the company )Duke) is allowed the opportunity to earn a fair return for investors who bear the financial risk of capital investment.

At the rest of over-simplifying the facts that exist for Duke customers, this is what I see. On one hand, Duke is still a utility company charged with the legal task of providing electric service for the customers in their area. When they want more money, they request help from the NCUC.

On the other hand, Duke is a company that sells stocks and makes every effort to provide financial rewards for investors. Now, if Duke operates as efficiently as possible, how can they justify paying investors profit. Their investors’ wealth is increased at the expense of all rate payers.

So is Duke really a utility? Or are they really a Fortune 500 company? It certainly does not appear that way. Duke is a hybrid company, a dual entity business/utility. In other words, they enjoy the profits of a successful corporation with the security of a utility.

This dual entity reminded me to re-read the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. It states, in part, “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person the equal protection of the laws.” That begs the question — if you do not own stock in Duke but pay for electricity, is it fair and just for your money to be shifted into the wealth of a stockholder?

Duke’s stockholders must very well like this business/utility arrangement. My friends basically tell me that nothing will ever be done without it. That may be true, but I still believe that as citizens of the United States we need to pay attention to laws that deprive us of our property. As one person there may not be anything I can do about the injustice. But, can you imagine how that could be affected by a united front of Duke customers?

Mr. Scott suggested one way to provide a little monetary relief to all Duke Energy users. This letter will, hopefully, show another. What will Duke do?

Think about it.

Dave Waldrop

Webster

Needed school supplies for students attending Central Elementary School is the focus of the fifth-annual “Vineival,” on Saturday, July 30, at Vine of the Mountains in Frog Level.

Besides providing backpacks filled with the required free school supplies for Central Elementary students, the Vineival features a variety of games and booths to entertain kids of all ages.

Hot dogs, drinks and other snacks will be served. And, in celebration of the fifth anniversary, everyone who attends will be eligible to win door prizes.

828.452.2771, # 5.

Buying school supplies for children is becoming increasingly expensive, and some local groups want to help cash-strapped families.

Altrusa International of Waynesville and the Haywood Rotary club will be spearheading a drive to collect school supplies for needy children in Haywood County. The drive will take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, August 6, with Altrusa members available at Wal-Mart in Waynesville to accept donations of new school supplies.  

This is a tax-free weekend for school-supply shopping.

Haywood Rotary Club members also will be on hand the same day at Wal-Mart to receive donations. Cash donations of any size are welcome to help purchase additional supplies for the children. All supplies and funds collected will be distributed by the Haywood County Schools Foundation to students in need by the start of the school year.  

“We are excited to help students in Haywood County begin the new school year with the necessary school supplies to be successful,” said Sarah Wenzel, committee chairman. “Any time that civic organizations and the school system can partner to provide opportunities for children, we need to participate in any way possible.” 

The staff at Haywood County Schools specifically requested the following supplies:

• Single-subject notebooks, black/white (marble) bound composition notebooks.

• Backpacks for all ages (not just elementary).

• One inch, three-ring notebooks that are white with clear view pocket on outside.

• Three inch, three-ring notebooks, folders with clasps, glue sticks (not Elmer’s Glue).

• Notebook paper, pencils, black pens, red pens, folders with pockets, round-tip scissors, kindergarten mats, highlighters, colored pencils, pencil pouches, cap/big erasers.

Before or after Aug. 6, donations may be sent or delivered directly to the Haywood County Schools Foundation, (c/o Altrusa/Rotary School Supply Drive) at: 1230 North Main Street, Waynesville NC 28786.  

www.waynesvillealtrusa.org/schoolsupplies.aspx

The town of Waynesville is dusting off the drafting table, ready to launch a community planning initiative to shape the future look and feel of South Main Street.

The area has been primed for growth by the recent addition of Waynesville Commons, where Best Buy and Super Wal-Mart are located, and Belk’s is soon to move. Plans for upgrading the roads dated appearance and reconfiguring it to handle more traffic have been in the works for several years.

The town has now received a grant to launch a plan for the corridor from the French Broad River Metropolitan Organization.

A public interest meeting will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, July 28, at the Town of Waynesville satellite office on Brown Avenue in Hazelwood.

The town has hired a consulting team to develop a corridor plan that will forecast future travel demand and to propose a roadway design.

Final designs could include extra lanes, intersection redesigns to accommodate existing and projected traffic, sidewalks or landscaped medians.

When the topic was debated two years ago and a feasibility study was done by the DOT, three options were proffered as solutions for the road.

One would keep the same two-lane structure, another would add a middle turn lane and the most drastic would create a four-lane, boulevard-type affair, with a raised median, street trees and bike lanes. This last option would call for a 120-foot right-of-way, essentially razing the buildings on either side of the street.

At the time, public opinion was split on the issue. Since the feasibility study was completed, no major steps have been taken on the corridor plan.

In addition to being a professional study of travel demand and facility design, the planning process is expected to engage stakeholders including the property owners and business owners, representatives of NCDOT and the community as a whole in a the future design of the area.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation draft feasibility study is available at the Town of Waynesville’s Website, www.townofwaynesville.org.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is continuing to target bear pits on the Cherokee Indian Reservation, this time with a billboard on Interstate 26.

The new billboard shows a little girl with a bloody bandage around her hand. It reads, “Warning: Children Bitten at Bear Pits. Bear Prisons: Dangerous for Children.”

PETA is highlighting an incident in which a 9-year-old was bitten on the hand at a bear park in Cherokee. The billboards are designed to discourage people from patronizing the bear zoos in an attempt to put them out of business. PETA protectors were threatened with being kicked off the reservation if they continued to picket.

About 30 bears are kept in what PETA characterizes as roadside zoos “in cramped, barren enclosures with no opportunity to express natural behavior.”

PETA has been after the tribe to shut down the bear zoos, even bringing in heavy-hitter Bob Barker, animal rights advocate and long-time host of The Price Is Right, to chastise the tribe for what it deems inhumane living conditions for the bears. But tribal leaders have supported the right of free enterprise and the tourist draw the captive bears provide.

Alcohol has historically been slow to come to the mountains — much slower than the rest of the state.

Only two counties in Western North Carolina allow alcohol sales outside town limits.

Statewide, 60 counties allow some form of alcohol sales, even if just beer and wine, throughout the county. Of those, most date back to 1933 — the year prohibition ended. Across the state, dozens of counties and towns held votes in April 1933 to usher in alcohol.

In the mountains, Buncombe County, along with Asheville and Black Mountain, jumped on the post-prohibition bandwagon, as did Hickory.

But the rest of rural WNC stayed dry. Decades would pass before towns warmed up to the idea, voters here and there voting in beer and wine, then later ABC stores, and eventually, in recent years, liquor drinks at bars and restaurants.

Counties, however, remained steadfast. Politics at the county level still bent to the agrarian voting block, likely more conservative and traditional in their ways, compared to more liberal town dwellers. And the business lobby was absent, satisfied with alcohol at the town level where the stores and restaurants were all located anyway.

With one exception: a rash of alcohol votes after WWII. In the late 1940s and early ‘50s, a dozen or more mountain counties — Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain among them — held alcohol referendums. All failed and have not been revisited since.

Some towns, driven by business interests, were formed with alcohol as their goal, such as ski resort towns like Seven Devils, Sugar Mountain and Beech Mountain. Maggie Valley’s push to become a town in the late 1970s was inextricably wrapped up in wanting alcohol for its tourist trade. Town limits were narrowly drawn to take in the roadside strip of restaurants and motels, paving the way for alcohol for its commercial district.

Graham remains the only totally dry county — not even the town of Robbinsville has legalized alcohol sales. Yancey was in the same boat until last year, when Burnsville voted in alcohol sales.

Clay County, another tiny county with only one town to speak of, broke the mold in 2009. The county leapfrogged past the still-dry county seat of Hayesville and voted in alcohol at the county level.

It’s the only mountain county besides Buncombe to have alcohol, and the only one in WNC to have a successful alcohol referendum since 1933.

Jackson isn’t alone in its foray toward an alcohol vote. Henderson County commissioners just last week decided to put alcohol to a vote of the people there next year during the May primary.

Whether you’re a college student in Cullowhee or a socialite in Cashiers, stocking up on beer, wine and spirits requires a trip into town — a trip most would apparently rather not make.

A majority of Jackson County residents support countywide alcohol sales, according to a telephone poll of 600 registered voters.

The alcohol question was one of 20 on local politics and issues posed to a random sample of Jackson County’s voting public last summer in a joint public affairs project by the WCU Public Policy Institute and The Smoky Mountain News.

The poll showed 56 percent of voters in Jackson County support alcohol sales countywide compared to 39 percent against it.

Only 5 percent of those polled were undecided, a very small number compared to most other questions.

The poll revealed some trends about who favors countywide alcohol sales the most.

• Cashiers residents are more likely to support it than Sylva residents.

• Those with a college degree are more likely to support it. Among those with college degrees, 66 percent were in favor compared to 47 percent of those with less than a college degree.

• Men are stronger supporters of countywide alcohol, with 65 percent of men compared to 54 percent of women supporting the measure.

• Liberals were more supportive, with 72 percent of self-described liberals in favor of countywide alcohol compared to 50 percent among self-described conservatives.

• Younger people support the idea more.

The answer is no, according to a recent study by the state Program Evaluation Oversight Committee. Here’s what they found:

• While North Carolina’s 58 community colleges were established to meet community needs, their independence challenges administrative efficiency. Colleges vary widely in size. They lack common policies, procedures and administrative structures.

• Small colleges have higher administrative costs than larger ones. Estimated administrative costs at the 58 colleges ranged from $447 to $1,679 per student. Analysis revealed colleges with fewer than 3,000 students were significantly more costly to administer.

• Merging colleges could reduce costs and increase administrative efficiency.

• North Carolina’s community colleges have failed to take full advantage of their purchasing power. Colleges are missing out on opportunities to use their combined power to get better pricing from existing vendors.

• Merging 15 colleges with fewer than 3,000 students could save up to $5.1 million in administrative costs annually and up to $3.5 million in additional savings.

• A purchasing consortiums for community colleges could save another $1.8 million could be realized over seven years.

So what’s the solution?

Here’s the committee’s recommendations on how to solve community college effiency:

1) Reduce the number of small colleges by merging colleges with fewer than 3,000 students with another nearby college.  

2) Establish a unit to develop and maintain purchasing consortiums for community colleges.

Total savings over seven years: $26.2 million.

How would it work?

Based on a review of community college structures in other states, a joint state legislative committee on governmental efficiency identified three merger options that could improve the efficiency of community college administration without affecting student access:

• Reduce the number of community colleges by creating multi-campus colleges.

• Create a regional system of community colleges.

• Centralize all community colleges in North Carolina.

Smoky Mountain Living prominently features images from across the southern Appalachians in each edition. Photo essays adhere to the issue’s overall theme.

Our October/November issue will be SML’s “Mountain Men” issue. Submit your photographic interpretations of this theme for possible inclusion in our photo essay by August 8. Think multiple generations of men in the family, fathers and sons, brothers, male animals and their owner men, displays of manly feats, etc.

Reader submitted photos are unpaid but  those selected are rewarded with publication in our nationally distributed magazine. SML covers the southern Appalachians and  celebrates the area’s environmental riches, its people, culture, music, arts, history, and special places. Each issue brings the Appalachians to life. Published six times each year, SML is a magazine for those who want to learn more about where they live and those who want to stay in touch with where they love.

Submissions should be hi-resolution digital images and include information about  where  and when the photos were taken and by whom. All submissions  should be  emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

A 5K and 10K race will be held in conjunction with the 75th anniversary events for Joyce Kilmer on Saturday, July 30.

The races start at 8 a.m. from the Avey Branch Boat Launch A one-mile fun run will be held at 8:30 a.m. The race is sponsored by Partners of the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness.

Registration for the 5k race is $30 and the 10k race is $35. Students under 19 it is $15. The fun run is free.

Awards will be presented to the top finishers in the Overall Male and Female category and the top three male and female finishers in all age divisions for each race. www.joycekilmerslickrock.org/Race.html or 828.257.4215.

The Franklin Blue Planet 5K for Clean Water, a charity run, will be kick off at 9 a.m. August 6 in Franklin.

The run is hosted by the Franklin High School Interact Club. All proceeds will go to the Blue Planet Network to provide access to clean water for people around the world who desperately need it.

The race starts at the Tassee Shelter on the Little Tennessee Greenway.

Early registration is $20 and race day registration is $25.  A light post-race brunch will be provided by Riverblaze Bakery and Jer’s Kitchen. The first 100 registered participants get a premium, eco-friendly T-shirt made in America from 100 percent recycled materials.

www.franklin5kforcleanwater.com. 828.342.5999 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The annual Folkmoot 5K Walk/Run and Kids’ Fun Run, held in conjunction with the Folkmoot Dance and Music festival, will kick off at 8 a.m. on Saturday, July 23, in Waynesville. A kid’s fun run will be held at 9 a.m.

The race starts in front of the Folkmoot Center and follows a nearly flat route on neighborhood streets in the Hazelwood section of Waynesville.

The race has an international flair, given its connection with Folkmoot, which brings 300 international performers from a dozen countries to the mountains for two weeks of performances.

Cost is $20 for advance registration or $25 on the day-of. The Kids’ Fun Run is $8 or $10 on race day.

828.724.6478 or 828.452.2997.

The Haywood County Master Gardener Volunteer Association is offering grants for research or education in the areas of environment, gardening or horticulture in Haywood County.

The organization raises money through plant sales, as well as sales of its gardening almanac.

Examples of past projects include the demonstration gardens at Hazelwood, Junaluska, and Riverbend elementary schools, a school greenhouse at Bethel Middle School and a drip irrigation system for the bio-technology program at Waynesville Middle.

Applications for grants of $200 or more should be accompanied by a detailed budget and timeline. Deadline is August 31. 828.456.3576.