Throughout its journey from concept to reality to regional treasure, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has drawn the support of millions — but the Great Smoky Mountains Association has created a list naming the top 100 most influential people in the park’s history. 

The best blooms and greenery in Haywood County will be on display with this year’s Haywood County Garden Tour Saturday, June 18. Tickets go on sale at The Whole Bloomin’ Thing festival in Waynesville’ Frog Level Historic District Saturday, May 7. 

Newbies to Tsali Recreation Area in Graham County will have an easier time navigating the 37-mile trail network thanks to the installation of 18 new color trail maps along the area’s four multi-use trails. 

To the Editor:

As a founding member of the Franklin Appalachian Trail Community Council, I offer for readers the following information: 

• Franklin Mayor Bob Scott was one of four people that promoted Franklin to seek designation as an Appalachian Trail Community.

• The Franklin Appalachian Trail Community Council (by its bylaws) has two representatives from the Town of Franklin, an alderman and a town employee.

• Since the Council’s formation in 2009, until elected mayor, Bob Scott served as the town alderman representative.

• When elected mayor, Pattie Able replaced Bob Scott as the alderman representative. 

• Mayor Scott remained on the council until his recent resignation (by its bylaws the council has a flexible membership).

In my opinion, Mayor Scott left the Council in strong hands. His love of Macon County’s surrounding natural beauty and his support to Franklin as a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts is unquestionable. At this time, his leadership, managerial ability and political capital need to focus on other issues facing Franklin. Franklin’s position as an A.T. Community is secure in no small part to his early vision and eight years on the Council.

Bill Van Horn 

Franklin

To the Editor:

They’re baaaaaaaaack. Yes, your N.C. Legislature is back in session and talking tax cuts. Hold on to your wallets. These are the people who have systematically increased your taxes since 2010. While your paycheck may look a bit better since then, your wallet and bank account have taken some serious hits.

Beginning in 2010, Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, and his colleagues began eliminating many tax deductions that many of you depend upon. Things like child-care expenses, your educational expenses, the deduction for your college savings plan and a host of other items are no longer deductible when you file your taxes every year In 2012, they eliminated a major deduction for small businesses. Your income tax bill may actually have gone up after losing all of these deductions gone.

Then, in 2014, they went directly into your wallet. Sales taxes were imposed on things that you do and use routinely. While I don’t go to a lot of movies and concerts, those of you who do now pay sales tax on that entertainment. Service contracts on appliances are taxed, as are the electricity and gas that you use to run them. On the education side, meal plans at your college or university are taxed and the sales tax holiday used to purchase supplies for the new school year is gone. There’s more, and it’s a long list.

Hopefully, you did not buy or plan to buy a mobile home. The tax on those is now the standard sales tax of 4.75 percent (up from 2 percent) and the $300 maximum on tax is now gone. The same thing happened with the increasingly popular modular homes.

Since April 1 of this year, you now pay sales tax on the labor for repairs to your car — or anything else you need to have repaired or serviced.

There were, in fact, income tax cuts, but the benefits were not shared universally. Early analyses of this strategy indicated that with the income tax cuts, the loss of deductions and increases in sales taxes, the break-even point was above $70,000. If you made more, you won. If you made less, you lost. Keep in mind that only half of the households in Macon County make more than about  $37,000. You probably lost.

Call Sen. Jim Davis and tell him to just raise teacher pay. Then he should come home before he does any more damage to your wallet.

John Gladden

Franklin

By Kristen Hammett • Guest Columnist

As a pet owner, there are many things we do to keep our fur babies safe, healthy, and happy. Vaccinating is one that is very important. Vaccines can save a dog’s or cat’s life.

The Haywood Healthcare Foundation managed to generate enough funding to have a major impact on the health needs of Haywood County during 2015 and their goal is to surpass last year’s donations.

The 19th annual Mountain Youth Talent Contest was held at the Greening Up the Mountains Festival in Sylva on Saturday, April 23.

The Canton Library Visual Arts Exhibit is currently featuring work by Denise McCullough, a 94-year-old acrylic artist.

One of the reasons we waste food is that we buy duplicates of items we already have at home or we buy food and then fail to use it before it begins to spoil. 

The Nantahala Racing Club has landed nearly $45,000 in grants for the 2016 season, encouraging the Swain County nonprofit in its quest to introduce youth and families to whitewater recreation.

Bear hunters can now use unprocessed food as bait for a larger part of the hunting season, according to temporary rules recently approved by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

A lottery to see the synchronous fireflies light up the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will open at noon Friday, April 29, and close at 8 p.m. Monday, May 2.

Fire danger is high in North Carolina, with low humidity and lack of rain over the past few weeks resulting in a spate of wildfires across the region recently.

Nature knocked an item off the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s to-do list when a fire sparked a structure in the Elkmont area of the park.

It’s ozone season in North Carolina again, that time of year when warm weather and pollution can combine to result in air quality warnings.

Elizabeth Vickery, a senior at Western Carolina University, peers into a dip net along with Cullowhee Valley Elementary School student Landon Spangler, to see what they’ve nabbed from Cullowhee Creek.

A Swain County fishing guide has left his rod behind to embark on an Appalachian Trail thru-hike, aiming to raise money and awareness for the Big Brother/Big Sister Program of Western North Carolina.

A pair of Waynesville men are home after a third-place finish in the harrowing Alcan 5000 motor vehicle race across Alaska.

To the Editor:

Gary Carden, in his book review in the April 6 issue (www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/17428), claims that the McCarthy hearings had something to do with the “UnAmerican Activities Committee (sic)” and took place in 1950.

HUAC was a House of Representative committee. McCarthy was a senator and had nothing to do with HUAC. HUAC was created in 1938 and opened an investigation into Communist infiltration of the movie industry in 1947. McCarthy began service in the Senate in 1947 but did not come into prominence until 1950 with his Wheeling, West Virginia, speech in which he claimed to have the names of 205 Communist Party members who were working in the State Department, not 200 and not the military, as Mr. Carden erroneously claims. 

Nor did McCarthy “eventually widen his search to include Hollywood” —  probably because the Hollywood 10 had been blacklisted by the movie studios (not the government, as many believe) via the Waldorf Statement years earlier and had already served their prison sentences.

Mr. Carden’s description of the 1954 televised hearings is off-target as the recent movie, “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Mr. Carden claims, “McCarthy gave a list of accused; a list in which hundreds of Hollywood’s actors and writers had been branded ‘communists’.”

It would have been impossible for McCarthy to have done that. First of all, he served in the Senate, not in the House, which investigated Hollywood. Secondly, the Hollywood investigations took place in 1947, not 1954. Thirdly, the 1954 televised hearings were not chaired by McCarthy, nor did he sit on the committee because it was not an investigation into Communist sympathizers, Hollywood or otherwise. 

It was, in fact, an investigation into whether McCarthy and his legal counsel had pressured the Army into giving favorable treatment to Gerard David Schine. I find it difficult to understand how Mr. Carden could possibly believe these hearings had anything to do with Hollywood when they are so well known as the “Army-McCarthy” hearings. It is difficult to imagine that anyone would confuse actors with soldiers, especially when he states that he was in college doing a play which was written a year before the hearings he claims the play was based on occurred. 

Mr. Carden expresses sympathy for the “hundreds of Hollywood actors and writers” that were branded ‘communists, and for the “Many [who] were imprisoned and/or lost their jobs.” They were imprisoned for contempt of Congress (not so low a bar as it would be today) and perhaps it is well they lost their jobs. They were not “branded” as Communists; they were Communists. 

On April 25, 1951, Edward Dmytryk, one of the original Hollywood 10, reappeared before the House of Un-American Activities Committee. This time he answered all their questions including the naming of 26 former members of left-wing groups.

Dmytryk testified that fellow Hollywood 10 members John Howard Lawson, Adrian Scott and Albert Maltz had pressured him to make sure his films expressed the views of the Communist Party to which they belonged. 

Producer-director Sam Wood also named many writers and other creative people as Communists saying, “If I have a doubt, then I haven’t any mind. These Communists beat their chests and call themselves liberals. But if you drop their rompers you’ll find a hammer and sickle on their rear ends.” 

Screenwriter Lester Cole stated that all of the Hollywood 10 had in fact been Communist Party USA members. Walt Disney testified that the threat of Communists in the film industry was a serious one. Actor Adolphe Menjou might have had a different take on Miller’s play, “The Crucible:” “I am a witch hunter if the witches are Communists. I am a Red-baiter. I would like to see them all back in Russia.”

Whittaker Chambers states in his autobiographical book Witness that there was a calculated move by Communist agents in the 1920s and 1930s to infiltrate three key areas of the United States: education, media and non-elected government positions. You can’t say we weren’t forewarned.

Blacklisted By History by M. Stanton Evans describes how many of the communist sympathizers of this period infiltrated the U.S government through the State Department and the OSS during WWII.

The Venona Papers have given conclusive proof that many of those accused by McCarthy were guilty despite Mr. Carden’s sympathy for them.

The Mitrokhin Archive shows some of the extent of the harm they caused, including that more than half of all Soviet weapons systems were based on designs that had been stolen from the United States, often by spies who had infiltrated America’s leading defense contractors. The papers further revealed that the KGB had tapped the telephones of high-ranking American officials, infiltrated the government and planned large-scale sabotage operations against the United States and Canada. Had McCarthy not been smeared and the investigations been allowed to go forward, perhaps some of these espionage activities might have been averted.

This head-in-the-sand type of thinking explains the elevation of politicians like Bernie Sanders and the misplaced sympathies of bleeding heart liberals. This type of politically correct reasoning has led to recent and not so recent terrorist acts. Self-preservative measures such as “See Something, Say Something,” data mining and other observational tools make us less vulnerable. They are not going to lead into Panopticism.

Mr. Carden states that the Hollywood 10 resorted to “accusing each other in a desperate attempt to save themselves ... in much the same manner as the people of Salem did in 1692.” Not even close. Equating the witch trials with the very real threats that McCarthy addressed does a disservice to Mr. Carden’s readers.

If anyone should know the difference between fact and fiction, Mr. Carden should. The accusations of witchcraft were fictitious. Those against the Hollywood 10 were fact.

Timothy Van Eck

Whittier

To the Editor:

To this day, I have no doubt that the Lake Junluska and the City of  Waynesville annexation issue will eventually be resolved in favor of annexation. However, in the interim, the consequences of the political decision to prevent even a supporting House floor vote and then a majority vote of the registered voters in both Waynesville and Lake Junaluska are becoming clearer.  

My understanding is that this October (2016) the governing bodies at Lake Junaluska will have to decide how to proceed. The matter of the engineering reports that laid out a necessary $10 million estimate of overall infrastructure/equipment costs over 10 years did not go away. The issue of Lake Junaluska’s structural sustainability did not go away and the ability to meet the financial obligations inherent with keeping the infrastructure sustainable is unresolved at this time.

Here is the approaching financial dilemma for Lake Junaluska as I see it.  With current revenue collected by the Public Works Department of approximately $400,000 per year, a 10-year projection (with no fee increases) would be $4 million in revenue brought in, or $6 million underfunded at the end of 10 years based on the engineering study figures.

The homeowner fees for Lake Junaluska property owners of the monthly charge for water and sewer generates approximately $250,000 per year.  That equates (with no fee increases) to a 30-year period to reach the $7.5 million, 10-year timeline in the engineering study to update/replace the patchwork of the existing water/sewer system which dates back, in part, to over a hundred years and requires continual maintenance. The annual service charge to homeowners generates approximately $150,000. This money covers such items as repairing and paving the roads, equipment repair and replacement, and tools. At the current rate of the annual service charge, it will take 17 years to generate the funding the engineering study indicates should be covered in their 10-year timeline.  

In any case, it is very likely, in my opinion, that the governing bodies at Lake Junaluska will have no choice but to address water/sewer monthly fee increases and an increase to the annual service fee to allow the community’s infrastructure to remain sustainable. If those bodies choose to address the issue head-on and adhere to the 10-year timeline in the engineering study, it will cost (based on my figures) an approximate increase of 100 percent in the monthly water/sewer fees and a 55 percent increase in the annual service fee beginning in January of 2017.  

However, the governing bodies will likely enact fee increases more incrementally — maybe extending the timeline to 15 or even 20 years — while being keenly aware that the incremental increases will necessarily have to be adjusted higher to cover the effect of inflation over and above the 10-year timeline initially planned. In other words, it will no longer be a $6 million dollar deficit, but a substantially higher figure. And the water and sewer infrastructure will become an increasing liability to maintain and repair.

If annexation had been approved, the current fees paid by Lake Junaluska’s homeowners would have remained almost exactly equal to what they are paying now. Then, as time moved forward, fee increases would be much smaller than what I projected above (without annexation) due to economies of scale from joining the city of Waynesville and their ability, if needed, to tap into outside funding such as bonds. And, those increases would be the same as those being imposed on the citizens of Waynesville. No surcharges that I am aware of for Lake Junaluska.

The consequences of not yet approving annexation are quite real. Lake Junaluska homeowners now must realize that to stay unincorporated with the current fee structure is unsustainable. The monthly charge for water and sewage and the annual fee will both have to be raised. How much and how quickly that will happen is an intriguing question, but one that will require a well thought out and possibly very painful answer.

James Ryer, 

Lake Junaluska

Here is a list of pet adoption and advocacy groups — and veterinarians — in the four western counties of Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain and the Cherokee reservation.

A foot chase by a Waynesville Police officer through downtown Hazelwood just before dawn last week ended with police nabbing suspects wanted for botched break-ins at two local pharmacies and under investigation for a string of larcenies in other towns, as well.

Cullowhee Mountain Arts invites artists and writers to come to a special five-day retreat for art-making, writing, resting and exploring the natural world from May 9-14 at Lake Logan in Canton.

Who’s the biggest culprit when it comes to wasted food?  Restaurants? Farmers? Schools? Hospitals?  Supermarkets?

To the Editor:

So much paranoia about socialism. We can talk about socialism in theory, in practice, as mixed with other economic or political models to varying degrees, but what is this really about?

It’s about power, who has it, who doesn’t, and to what effect.

Capitalism, in its purest form, is anti-democratic. Rather than all adults having an equal voice through voting, the owners (or their managers) make all decisions within an organization in order to maximize profit for the owners, not necessarily for the benefit of the community.

Socialism, in its purest form, is a truer democracy. All adults in the community would vote for representatives who would decide on the price of food, gas, etc. Some key industries may be owned, run, or subsidized by the government for the good of the nation, ensuring, for example, that we are not dependent on foreign nations for our food, energy, transportation, or weapons.

Yet we know from history that neither pure capitalism nor extreme socialism (communism) work. The failures of communism are legendary, as there is little incentive for an individual to work hard, and one-party rule usually accompanies this, and that party controls the press (lack of transparency and therefore accountability) and becomes dictatorial.

As for pure capitalism, its excesses created conditions so bad that communism actually sounded better to some. Without appropriate government socialist intervention, child labor would still be allowed, workers could be forced to work seven days a week, there would be no overtime, no safety regulations, no minimum wage, no Social Security, no public parks, libraries, or roads, no clean air, water, food or drug standards, no police, fire or military force to protect us.

Today we see the results of too much corporate control of the government: lower taxes paid by the wealthy and corporations, therefore a larger tax burden for the working folks, leading to historically high income inequality, and government services being cut for the folks who need them the most.   

Making socialism into a dirty word prevents serious conversations about the appropriate balance between capitalism and socialism.

Dan Kowal

Franklin

To the Editor:

As members of the Reconciling Conversation Group of First United Methodist Church of Waynesville, we are striving to bring healing and reconciliation to our church family and the wider community by exhibiting love and acceptance for all persons regardless of sexual orientation and gender identities. The spirit of Jesus commands no less.

Thus, we are deeply concerned that:

• The recently passed law known as HB2 has deeply hurt and offended our LGBTQ members who are our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.

• HB2 exhibits a total lack of medical knowledge and scientific understanding as to what it means to be a transgender person in today’s society. Without adequate investigation of the facts about transgender persons, it inflames our fear and mistrust of others.

• HB2 is a denial of basic human rights.

• HB2 ignores the precedent set by 19 states, the District of Columbia, and over 200 cities and countries that have passed laws, without incident, prohibiting discrimination against transgender persons in public facilities. We know of no cases of transgressions or offensive behavior occurring because of these laws.

• HB2 denies legal recourse to all persons who have experienced discrimination of any sort.

We need to construct laws that enable all of us to live together in mutual understanding, trust and respect. HB2 stands in the way of this need. As followers of Jesus Christ who showed unconditional love to all persons, we strongly urge that this law be repealed.

For the group: Betsy Hardin, Kenneth Johnson, Douglas Wingeier, William Everett, Jim Hoyt

To the Editor:

The motivation for HB2 has nothing to do with bathroom safety. The motivation was to slap down a local government that tried to assert itself. HB2 was a warning to all local governments that they have no power and need to abide by the General Assembly’s desires. It was also an opportunity to further oppress the citizens of North Carolina on topics totally unrelated to bathrooms.

If HB2 was about bathrooms, then why does a provision in the law limit minimum wages that local governments might require of contractors? What do minimum wage requirements have to do with sex and bathrooms?

Another provision of HB2 is that you cannot sue for age, race, or other discrimination in state court. Instead you would have to go to federal courts with greater expenses if you experience discrimination on the basis of anything not related to gender. What has not being able to use the North Carolina courts to do with bathrooms?

The answer is that the Republicans are trying to play North Carolinians for fools. They want people to talk about bathrooms and transgender people instead of the fact that our taxes and fees have gone up. The Republicans have raised DMV fees an average of 30 percent in 2016. This translates into $150,000,000 more that we will have to pay for registering our vehicles and other fees. Keep us talking about LBGT issues and maybe we will not notice that we are paying for the tax cuts given to the wealthy.

The same tactic was used with the infamous North Carolina Constitutional Amendment 1 on gay marriage. That got people all riled up on gay marriage so they would not notice that our education funding had been slashed. The Republicans use smoke and mirrors to claim they are funding education, but the fact is that every school district has had to lay off teachers, teacher’s aids, and other school personnel because they have less money to work with.

The motivation for HB2 is not bathrooms. It is a diversion and misdirection so we don’t talk about the real issues facing North Carolinians. We are paying more taxes so the rich can pay less. Our children are being shortchanged by reduced education funding. Our economy is the casualty of HB2. The Republicans are all about exerting their power not governing for the people.

Norman G. Hoffmann

Waynesville

To the Editor: 

A recent research project with 200 students at University of California at Berkley explored the  effects of wealth by randomly pairing them in a game of Monopoly. 

One would be “rich,” the other “poor.” The rich got twice the starting money, double the amount when passing GO, and the chance to roll two dice while the poor player got only one. All played for 15 minutes while being recorded on video. 

Results were consistent. At first, the pair would show puzzlement, noting the weirdness of the situation. But as the game proceeded, the rich persons began acting more physically dominant, pounding their piece while counting the spaces, and jubilantly raising arms in the air with each success. The rich person started talking about how they had “earned” so much more, claiming personal merit and achievement while ignoring the facts about the game’s original  rigging. 

The study concluded: “As privilege increases, compassion and empathy decrease and a sense of entitlement and favor become rampant. A moral code is invented to justify the privilege.”

As in the game, so in our economy. Could this be what Bernie Sanders is talking about?

Doug Wingeier

Waynesville

A slate of monthly litter cleanups in Sylva will kick off at noon Saturday, April 30, at Bryson Park on Chipper Curve Road.

With nuisance species steadily invading North Carolina waters, state officials have approved a plan designed to curb their onward march. 

Western Carolina University students show off the bags that they will soon fill with trash from the Tuckaseigee River during the 32nd annual Tuck River Cleanup on Saturday (April 16).

After more than 20 years in the Carolina mountains, The Eagle Lady — also known as Doris Mager — is preparing to give her last birds of prey educational program before moving across the country to Washington. The one-hour presentation will be held 10 a.m. Saturday, April 23, at the Waynesville Public Library’s auditorium.

Films created by Western Carolina University students will be screened at the eighth annual Controlled Chaos Film Festival at 7 p.m. Friday, April 29, at the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center in Cullowhee.

Western Carolina University is accepting nominations for the Mountain Heritage Award, an honor bestowed annually on one individual and one organization playing a prominent role in researching, preserving and/or interpreting Southern Appalachian history, culture and issues.

The “Man In The Mirror” production will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 30, at Harrah’s Cherokee.

In some of our Western NC Ingles stores you can find sorghum syrup from Harrell Farms in Bakersville, North Carolina.  Many people who grew up in the South refer to this syrup as “molasses” and use it in baking instead of honey, maple syrup,  molasses, corn syrup or sugar. Sorghum syrp can be spread on biscuits or toast or drizzled on pancakes or ice cream.

To the Editor:

I would like to request of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission that you stop referring to the hunting of bears as a “harvest” and call it what it is, the slaughter of these magnificent creatures.

David L. Snell 

Franklin

To the Editor:

With recent news stories of elk doing damage to farms and the surprising number of bear living in Asheville, why, with millions of acres of national forest land, is wildlife not living in the woods? Over the past 20 to 30 years, wildlife has largely been forgotten in favor of tourism and environmental interests. Almost all timber harvests and controlled burns have been eliminated. Yes, the views are beautiful, but otherwise a wasteland for many species of wildlife.

Ideally, our forest would be managed to have everything from early successional habitat to old growth with maintained food plots scattered throughout the forest and at all elevations. If this was how our forests were managed, it would benefit everything — monarch butterflies, songbirds and all kinds of other wildlife.

Some environmental groups are now pushing for more and more of our forests to be placed in wilderness or national recreational areas where no land management for wildlife is allowed. Having lived beside the Shining Rock Wilderness all my life, I remember what it was like before it was placed into wilderness compared to what it is now — trails that have eroded waist- deep and parking lots that look like Wal-Mart on Black Friday. Do we really need more of that?

If we want to have large animals like elk and bear, we must change the way the forests are being managed now or these animals will become even more of a nuisance in the future due to lack of food sources in our national forests. We must educate the public that harvesting timber, using controlled burns, and planting food plots helps all wildlife. After all, I like wildlife in my views. 

Mark B. Rogers 

Canton

To the Editor:

I read your article on the hiring of a new town manager with some amusement and dismay. Amused at the idea of any professional wanting the job after the town’s lack of support for the previous manager and dismayed at the thought of time and cost of recruiting.

If you are going to let the employees run the show, then why bother with a manager? You cannot have your cake and eat it. Do we want to move ahead in Waynesville or do want to appease the “we’ve always done it this way” employees?

I would have thought it easier to replace the monkeys than the organ grinder. I hate to think of the money wasted ... again!

Leon Vinson

Waynesville

By Martin Dyckman • Guest Columnist

There are two major strains of conservatism in American politics, economic and social, and the former takes hideous advantage of the latter.

A case in point: North Carolina’s House Bill 2.

By Stephanie Wampler • Guest Columnist

As a North Carolina woman who may or may not have a vagina (NOYB), I have several concerns about our new law requiring transgender individuals to use bathrooms different than those of their gender identity.

First, I am concerned about basic respect and human dignity. Urination (such a formal word — how about peeing?) seems a somewhat private act, and any legislator or governor dictating where I can pee seems problematic.

A week of guided hikes and educational programs will celebrate all that’s great about hiking with Spring Hike Week April 17-21 at Fontana Village Resort. Here’s a look at what’s happening:

A crash course in outdoor photography will give shutterbugs an excuse to explore the Smokies’ beauty in a four-week program beginning April 19.

Those wanting to get a peek at the famous synchronous fireflies in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will have to enter a lottery this year for a chance at tickets.

A 6x12-foot interpretive art mural showcasing the cultural heritage of the “Shindig on the Green” at Pack Square Park will be added to the Western North Carolina Mountain Heritage Mural Trail with an unveiling ceremony at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 21, at Pack’s Tavern adjacent to the park in downtown Asheville.

The Tuscola High School Summit Choir will present the 34th annual Country Western Show at 7 p.m. April 15-16 and 2:30 p.m. April 17 at the Tuscola High School Auditorium in Waynesville.