Famed Asheville forager Alan Muskat will answer all your burning questions about forest foods during the next installment of the Village Nature Series at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 24, at the Village Green Commons in Cashiers, with a private foraging tour to follow on June 25 at Skylight Farm near Cashiers. 

To the Editor:

I am writing this letter for the sakes of my fellow creationists and any questioning minds who may be concerned about an argument, by Neil deGrasse Tyson, mentioned in the last edition of “The Naturalist’s Corner.” I should note that I have great respect for Tyson’s work in the field of science, and I do not profess to have anywhere near his degree of knowledge and experience in this field. However, when presented with a direct attack on my views, for which I have a reasonable response, I believe I have a responsibility to make that response known.

The argument in question is stated as follows in the article:

“According to Tyson as narrator: ‘… But if the universe were only 6,500 years old, how could we see the light from anything more distant than the Crab Nebula? We couldn’t. There wouldn’t have been enough time for the light to get to Earth from anywhere farther away than 6,500 light-years in any direction. That’s just enough time for light to travel through a tiny portion of our Milky Way galaxy.

‘To believe in a universe as young as 6 or 7,000 years old is to extinguish the light from most of the galaxy. Not to mention the light from all the hundred billion other galaxies in the observable universe.’”

This argument supposedly proves creation impossible because it shows that the earth must be older than the time it would take for light to reach the farthest visible star. This may seem to be a daunting argument to young-earth creationists particularly, but there is a simply elegant answer which can be found by carefully reading the creation story as recorded in the Bible.

On the first day of the six days of creation, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen. 1:3). However, it was not until the fourth day of creation on which “God made two great lights — the greater light [the sun] to govern the day and the lesser light [the moon] to govern the night. He also made the stars.” (Gen. 1:16) Here we see that God made the light waves, the visible energy by which we see, before He made the physical light sources of the sun, moon and stars. Thus, it would take no time at all for the light from stars even billions of light years from earth to be seen on earth because it was already there, before the stars ever existed.

I cannot feign to answer all the questions science may raise. Although I trust in and rely on science daily, I am willing to admit that science is an invention of flawed mankind to help him discover the truth of God’s creation. Scientific views and principles change and alter, but God is truth, whether or not you believe in Him. It is my hope and prayer that all would come to know the glorious and loving God of creation.

Joshua Snead

Waynesville

To the Editor:

This is in response to Mitchell E. Powell’s letter to the editor, “‘Group is hurting Haywood GOP,” in the June 4 edition of The Smoky Mountain News.

Powell attended only a few meetings in his short stint with the Haywood County Republican Party. While campaigning for vice chair he said he was against any new taxes, yet in his short time in office he was the only executive committee member to vote during straw polls in favor of two proposed tax increases. Many believe this action placed him far left of the mainstream Republicans.

I don’t recall anyone making him the spokesman for all the citizens of Haywood County or the Republican Party, as he would have you to believe in his letter.

Most people I have talked to in our county want to see liberties preserved, low taxes, smaller government, less spending and low debt. I hear this from Democrats, Republicans, Independents and Libertarians from all walks of life. This is mainstream in our county and not a small group.

As for his statements about my wife Debbie and I causing consistent problems at every meeting as well as statements regarding votes, they are flat-out lies from Powell. In all the years I have attended meetings, I have never voted as an executive member. Debbie is an asset to the Republican Party. She has served in many offices in the party, each time winning the seat with unanimous support. She has worked to bring people into the organization. We have gone from a handful to standing room only in many meetings. She knows full well that the precinct chairs are the lifeblood of the party. During executive meetings everyone may not agree on every issue, but discussion where the issues are debated is healthy and helpful to organizations.

The Republican Party has many people who will work hard to make this a better county. I hope our party will grow in strength, unity, and number over the next few months.

Denny King

Canton

Haywood Pathways Center, the working title for the trio of Christian ministries working to make the old prison in Hazelwood into a center for restoration, has made it to the top of the pack in an online contest to win $50,000 and the help of celebrity house-flipper Ty Pennington to complete the project. The Haywood project garnered the most votes in the first round of Guaranteed Rate’s Give Back Challenge, which drew 300 entries from 49 states. Voting has just opened for round two, which includes the top 50 projects. 

Now, the project has three weeks to make it into the top six for the final round of voting. Each top-six project will win at least $10,000 toward its goal, but the grand prize is $50,000 and the help of Pennington and his crew from the TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” 

Haywood Pathways Center’s vision is to turn the abandoned low-security state prison that sits next to the new Haywood County Sheriff’s Office and county jail into a hub offering a soup kitchen, homeless shelter and halfway house for people recently released from jail, with all services using a Christ-centered approach. The group expects the price tag to convert the facility to run about $300,000. They’re hoping to raise the money and open the facility by Nov. 1. 

To see the project description, video and to vote, click the link on the group’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/haywoodpathwayscenter. Voting is open through July 8.

A new candidate has joined the field of potentials for the Swain County sheriff’s race. In addition to Republican Sheriff Curtis Cochran and Democratic challenger Chuck McMahan, the November ballot will also feature unaffiliated candidate Odell Chastain.

“I’m running on the values of the Constitution, to support and defend the Constitution,” Chastain said of his candidacy. 

Chastain secured his unaffiliated slot on the ballot by gathering the required 412 petition signatures. The candidate presented the Swain County elections office with the signatures on June 9, more than two weeks ahead of the June 27 deadline. 

Chastain is a retired law enforcement officer. For 18 years he served as a deputy in Lincoln, Gaston and Swain counties. For 10 years he served with the Bryson City Police. The candidate also spent eight Vietnam-era years in the Army and, more recently, worked for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

“If I’m hired by the people to be sheriff, I will protect our guns and our rights,” Chastain said, contending that his opponents have not made such a promise to voters. “No one’s ever said they would protect our guns.”

In November, the unaffiliated candidate will go up against Swain’s incumbent sheriff — Cochran, who had no primary challengers — and McMahan, who beat three other Democratic candidates during the May primary. 

— Jeremy Morrison, News Editor

Folkmoot USA will host an Open House from 4:30 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 26, to celebrate Haywood County’s generous donation of the historic Hazelwood School to the cultural organization.

On June 16, the Haywood County Board of Commissioners approved the donation of the historic Hazelwood School facilities to Folkmoot USA. According to county tax records, the facility is worth approximately $1.3 million. This marks the first time that Folkmoot USA has had a permanent home in its 31-year history of offering its annual summer festival and other events celebrating international culture.

 “We have operated as tenants in this facility for more than a decade,” explained Karen Babcock, Executive Director of Folkmoot USA. “Ownership opens the door to both new responsibilities and exciting opportunities.”

By fixing the roof, renovating the auditorium and making other facility changes, Folkmoot USA can achieve its goals of offering events year-round and operating a center that brings the local, regional and international communities together. Some of the possibilities include hosting guests and creating venues for community and international events and performances. Folkmoot USA has already secured $167,000 in cash support to help initiate these changes.

 “We are very grateful to Haywood County for providing the largest donation in Folkmoot USA’s history,” said Rose Johnson, president of the board of Folkmoot USA. “The open house is an opportunity to celebrate this amazing gift and also start the conversation about the future. We are thoroughly committed to utilizing this historic school facility to serve the community. We’re eager for people to come see the center and offer their ideas.”

Folkmoot USA supporters, former teachers and students at the historic Hazelwood School, Hazelwood neighbors, and the general public are all welcome to attend the open house. This free event will include light refreshments.

Nominations for new Folkmoot USA board members are also now being accepted. Terms will begin in September 2014. Forms may be picked up during the open house or requested via phone or email.

For more information about the open house or board member nominations, call 828.452.2997 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

A benefit for Head Start of Haywood and Jackson counties, PlottFest will be held June 21-22 at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds. Gates open at 9 a.m. Saturday and at noon on Sunday.

“Oklahoma!,” the first musical written by the dynamic duo Rodgers and Hammerstein, will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. June 27- 28 and July 5 and at 4 p.m. June 29, July 4 and 6 at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

Singer-songwriter James Hammel will present a cabaret story through song in “Celebrating a Collage of Life — a Journey Through Some of Life’s More Poignant Moments” at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 21, at The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville.

Haywood Community College’s Appalachian Music Program will be offering a handful of classes funded by a generous grant from the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area. 

As Haywood struggles with the best use of room tax money collected from tourists to fund tourism promotion, one area that raises the most ire is the amount given out as grants for festivals. Tourism authorities around Western North Carolina fund festivals with room tax dollars to varying degrees.

The Haywood County Tourism Development Authority is split over a budget for the coming fiscal year that would reduce funding for festivals and local chambers of commerce and instead put the money toward a marketing plan.

By Bruce Hare • Guest Columnist

In response to your article (“Tug of War over the Chattooga River,” May 31 Smoky Mountain News), I would like to thank you for reporting on an issue that is important to me and I think your coverage was balanced and fair.

By Ed Kelley

The burning sensation on the back of my heels made me wish I had packed some moleskin. Blisters are adversary number one for the hiker. Luckily, I haven’t had them in years, but friction, moisture, heat, and four miles of constant uphill hiking on the Newton Bald Trail conspired to separate epidermis from dermis. Blisters are preventable and I was irritated (pun intended) that in planning for this hike, I hadn’t given them a second thought. Now pain was forcing them into my consciousness.

By Michael Beadle

There’s a heavy heat inside Mountainside Theatre’s rehearsal studio even with fans blowing and the lights turned off. The dancers, sweaty but still smiling, have been practicing all afternoon, fine-tuning the finale for “Unto These Hills.”

By Chris Cooper

Claiming influences as far apart stylistically as Iron Maiden and Ravi Shankar, Mother Vinegar lean further toward the rocking side of the jam ethic than the majority of their tie-dyed brethren. Off kilter lyrics (understatement?) and a blatant disregard for genre boundaries are the name of the game for these guys, and thankfully their overall instrumental prowess allows them to play musical hopscotch with a minimum of skinned knees.

Records

As in old school phonograph records, not world records or dental records. After collecting thousands of CDs over the last 15 years, I have fallen in love with records again. Whenever I get a chance to listen to the stereo these days, I spend about 90 percent of my listening time playing them.

By Michael Beadle

Luke Allsbrook has a voice as soothing as his paintings.

He explains his craft with the calm of someone who has spent hours in solitary reflection, emerging from nature with gifted insights. Whether it’s a vast stretch of beach, a mountain pasture or glowing houselights in a suburban home, there’s an invisible breeze hushing peripheral noise as you enter his world of oil paintings.

By Michael Beadle

It’s a story 10,000 years in the making. And now Cherokees and Native Americans from all over the United States will tell it.

When “Unto These Hills” opens June 8 for its latest outdoor season, audiences will find a whole new show — a new script, new cast, new stage, new Surround Sound speakers, new costumes and outfits, new songs and dances, and a new kind of energy that the drama’s management says has been missing for years.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

June through October is known as festival season in the mountains, and its no wonder why. During the five-month stretch there’s at least one festival every weekend somewhere in the region.

By Michael Beadle

Waynesville art gallery owners don’t just want to sell art. They want people to ask lots of questions about art, see how it is actually made and how all ages can create art.

It’s all about the experience of discovering art.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Folkmoot USA, the annual international dance festival with performances held throughout Western North Carolina, always is marked by riotous colors, intriguing costumes and smiling faces, making it a photographer’s paradise.

By Chris Cooper

The best rock album of the year is about to be released. No kidding.

My first encounter with Roman Candle was sometime in 2002. I was slinging beer in a little venue in Charlotte, and the band I was playing with was offered a slot opening for these guys. Of course there was a scheduling conflict, the opening gig fell through, and I wound up bartending the show.

Charles Bukowski

So, you don’t like poetry? Well, maybe Charles W. Bukowski will ring your chimes. Talk about ugly? This guy was so ugly, people actually cringed when they met him. As a teenager, his acne-ravaged face had to be “retouched” for class photos.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Western North Carolina boasts more people of Scottish descent than Scotland itself — and for that Franklin hosts its annual Taste of Scotland this weekend, June 16 and 17.

Craig Buchner and his father didn’t say much during their weekends in upstate New York checking spigots on sugar maples, chopping wood and boiling sap to make syrup, but the Western Carolina University student found comfort just spending time with his dad.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

N.C. Geological Survey staff hopes to finish its survey of Macon County’s landslide prone areas by the end of this month and present its research to county commissioners.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s public hearing regarding the recently released draft environmental assessment of Duke Power’s hydroelectric projects on the Tuckasegee and Oconaluftee rivers held last Thursday (June 8) began quietly enough.

The Blue Ridge National Heritage Area has announced its 2006 Heritage Grants Program, which will provide and leverage funding for innovative projects that preserve and promote the heritage of Western North Carolina.

Wade Reece, a member of the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority and a Maggie Valley businessman, was in a motorcycle accident Saturday (June 10). Reece was listed in critical condition at Mission Hospital in the Neurotrauma ICU unit as of press time Tuesday.

By Marshall Frank

Imagine having a fathers of all varieties. Step, biological and adopted? Here’s a story about such a person.

Not everyone’s life is utopia, complete with white picket fence, family barbeques and one set of happy parents. No one knows that better than Russell.

By Eric Larson

Where I grew up, you had to choose sides early: You were either a University of Alabama football fan or you pulled for the Auburn “War Eagles.” I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but some people were actually shot and killed over arguments that arose from this bitter, storied rivalry.

By Stephanie Wampler • Columnist

The dark is a strange creature. It has so many faces.

“Dark” is how we have always described our worst times. Thousands of years ago, the phrase “the valley of the shadow of death” was coined, and it still strikes a deep chord. We can all think of some dark time in our lives.

After last week’s surprising meeting of the Haywood County Council of Governments regarding the tourism board, perhaps there is finally an end in sight to the controversy regarding this board.

Rafting fans have only two more shots this year at a trip down the Cheoah River, a rugged river in Graham County that has just recently been opened to rafting.

By Michael Beadle

As springtime visitors flock to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to see the phenomenon of synchronous fireflies, researchers are hoping to learn more about how and why these beetles produce such amazing light shows.

It may well be the most beautiful mating ritual on the planet.

Nestled in the northern center of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Elkmont was once a thriving logging community that inspired Walt Disney’s screen image of Snow White’s cabin and now serves as a key research site for studying synchronous fireflies.

In a 9-0 vote last week, the Supreme Court upheld the right of states to demand mitigation from hydropower companies for the damming of rivers under the Clean Water Act.

A new cycling tradition begins this summer with the debut of the Tour de Tuck Bike Challenge on Saturday, Aug. 19.

By Chris Cooper

Late Friday night, after the festivities died down and the crickets had begun a serenade for the wee hours, I asked Jason and Karin Kimenker to imagine what they might say 40 years from now about their experience as proprietors of Soul Infusion Tea House. Jason waxed poetic about the whole thing; describing the reciprocal nature of giving and receiving he’s learned from a community he’s grown to love. Karin said she’d just laugh.

By Michael Beadle

Growing up in South Carolina, Robert Lathan remembers how just about everything and everyone was named after Wade Hampton — schools, parks, hotels, towns, and especially children. More than a century after Hampton’s death, this wealthy landowner, Confederate general, governor and senator of South Carolina continues to cast a long shadow on the lands and the people he encountered — including the Cashiers community in Jackson County.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

As a child in Diana Fisher’s music class at Camp Lab School in Cullowhee, I never held the mountain dulcimer in very high regard.

The Pool

There is a lot to be said for going out into the woods, finding a quiet, isolated stream, and taking a refreshing swim in the cold pure water.

On the other hand, a visit to your neighborhood pool can result in just as satisfying an afternoon if you enjoy people watching as much as cooling off on a hot day.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

A month into her new job as Franklin’s Main Street Program Coordinator, Nancy Deeks is just starting to get things organized.

She helped out with the town’s annual Taste of Scotland Festival, held this past weekend. And now, with town aldermen having recently appointed the last remaining board members to which Deeks will answer, Deeks is sorting through the bylaws of eight other Main Street organizations trying to come up with something specifically tailored to Franklin’s needs.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Faced with a $20,000 budget cut, the Downtown Sylva Association is re-examining its plans after Sylva aldermen voted 3 to 2 last Thursday (June 15) not to renew the town’s annual contribution to the group.

By Avram Friedman

In January of 2006, Jim Hansen, a climatologist advising the Bush Administration, said that we have “at most 10 years” to make the drastic cuts in emissions that might head off climatic catastrophe. Hansen was speaking to just one major threat to our existence on earth. Likewise, the continued use of fossil fuels and nuclear technology poses the threat of other disastrous consequences such as acid rain, excess nitrogen deposition, mercury contamination and radioactive materials saturate the environment and endanger public health for generations to come.

Sylva town officials have OK’d a budget for the upcoming fiscal year that has just about eliminated funding for the Downtown Sylva Association (formerly SPIR). That’s a mistake the citizens of Sylva and the downtown business community should not tolerate.

The growing demand from researchers wanting access to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park prompted recent renovations to the Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center with an expansion of accommodations and quarters.

By Chris Cooper

There’s an age-old argument that rears up whenever there are multiple acts on the roster for a show: who goes first? Nobody wants to go first. It’s like being “volunteered” for the chore everybody else skillfully avoided. So what to do when you find your group in this somewhat unenviable position?