Two problems, one decision
Our city and the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System have a unique opportunity to collaborate on one decision that can solve two problems.
Problem One: It is important that R.J. Reynolds High School have a nearby football stadium and multi-sport practice fields, but visibly intruding on Hanes Park is an untenable sacrifice of green multi-use public park space.
Problem Two: Neighbors and alumni are distressed that historic Griffith High School buildings are scheduled for demolition.
The Solution: Build a state-of-the-art high-rise Reynolds High School on Clemmonsville Road in the complex with Deaton-Thompson Stadium, Griffith Elementary School and Georgia Taylor Recreation Center. Integrate the 1926 Griffith façade and cornerstone into R.J. Reynolds, and respectfully keep the Griffith name on that wing.
An additional payoff: Reynolds Auditorium and Hanes Park — along with the re-purposing of the Reynolds classroom buildings — would become a destination, a city jewel. Offer concerts, drama and other big events in the auditorium; education of all kinds (for all ages) in former classrooms, labs, studios and gyms; with nature and ecology study and hobbies in Hanes Park — along with existing outdoor team and informal recreation.
Why not?
ELLEN S. YARBOROUGH
Winston-Salem
Conscientious description
The writer of the Nov. 24 letter “Get It right” refers to the “inaccurate portrayal” of the proposed Reynolds High School stadium site. The group “Save Hanes Park” has been conscientious in its description of the site as being located on school property next to Hanes Park. The fact that the stadium would be located on school property does not mean it has no impact on Hanes Park.
If a landfill were proposed next to the letter writer's home, he would be the first say “save my home.”
HENRY LAFFERTY
Winston-Salem
Change the date
The 12 days of Christmas has morphed into the 12 weeks of Christmas, eclipsing Thanksgiving and even Halloween, somewhat. I think it would make much more sense for the United States to join Canada in celebrating Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October every year.
MARTHA ROWE
Clemmons
Finish the Thought
Saturday, we asked readers to complete the sentence: “We’ll know the fiscal cliff is real if …”
“… Wile E. Coyote falls over the edge and survives. Because he’s real, right?”
GUY NEAL WILLIAMS
“… when we see the Pied Piper.”
REGINA BRADSHAW
“... the GOP says ‘No deal,’ resulting in a gridlock on taxation in Congress. However, I agree with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that no deal is better than a bad deal.”
BOON T. LEE
“… ‘At this point in time’ I would like to say ‘with all due respect’ that ‘at the end of the day’ the nation will find it is not facing a ‘fiscal cliff’ so much as a ‘fiscal slope.’
“Will Congress solve the problem? Hah! ‘At the end of the day’ it will surely ‘kick the can down the road’ again, as so often before. Yes. And let me add with much ‘gravitas’ and again ‘with all due respect’ that when someone finally picks it up ‘at the end of the day,’ he or she will find it hardly looks like a can at all, only as something that has been ‘kicked down the road’ once too often.”
HUNTER JAMES
“… the House and Senate work together for the good of our country instead of their party, and House Speaker John Boehner can persuade the tea-party members to start acting like grown men instead of children who are not going to play anymore because they lost their ball game.”
NAOMI J. DAVIS
“... Santa brings you a sack full of non-backed US currency.”
JAN HUGOSSON
“ … not. Even if Congress and the president do nothing by Jan. 1, they could always do something later.
“There is no cliff. It is just another ‘crisis’ manufactured by the Republicans in Congress to gut all social programs and continue tax cuts for the filthy rich and they're using a debt-deficit scare to do it.
“Do tax cuts for the rich sound like a way to reduce the debt-deficit if debt-deficit reduction is what it's all about?”
KAM BENFIELD
“… Congress, Democrats and Republicans, work together.”
ED GAYLOR
“The fiscal cliff is real and we will believe it when, not if, it affects us. This is because it is merely a symptom of a larger fiscal problem that can't be postponed for a few months.
“You will take home less pay. You or your friends will be laid off. Insurance costs will go up.
“We spend more than we take in. Taxes for everyone will increase. Entitlements will drop.
“There is no painless fix and still the politicians can't tell us the truth because they fear they may get kicked off the gravy train.
“Every person who served in Congress or as president from LBJ is at fault. We gave them too much power and money to play with.
“Here comes the bill.”
KEN HOGLUND
OAKLAND (KCBS) – Burglaries are up a startling 43 percent in Oakland this year compared to last, part of an ever-growing crime problem in the city.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the latest numbers from the Oakland Police Department, more than 11,000 homes, cars or businesses have been broken into so far this year – translating to about 33 burglaries a day. The most popular targets have been cars with more than 5,700 burglarized so far this year.
____________
The City of Oakland is controlled by a Democrat, Mayor Jean Quan. There are five women and two men on the city council.
Hee Hee....you gotta love it.
33 burglaries a DAY!
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/
I won't be traveling to Oakland anytime soon. I may drop by People's Park up in Berkeley though. I always enjoy watching people peeing in public up there.
Delete___________
All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey
I've been for a walk on a winters day
I'd be save and warm if I was in LA
California dreaming on such a winters day!
Stepped into a church I passed along the way well, I got down on my knees andI pretended to pray you know the preacher likes the cold he knows I'm gonna stay
California dreaming on such a winters day!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-aK6JnyFmk
I guess the stadium issue will be around for a while.
ReplyDeleteIs the LTE re putting RJR HS on Clemmonsville Rd supposed to tongue-in-cheek?
DeleteI wondered about that too.
Delete“... the GOP says ‘No deal,’ resulting in a gridlock on taxation in Congress. However, I agree with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that no deal is better than a bad deal". For once Boon wrote something sensible. I like Bernie Sanders and thoroughly agree with his statement. Bernie is an honest Democrat.
ReplyDeleteHmm...
DeleteIn one of my old textbooks I found a section on "paradox". It gave some examples of forbidden conjunctions of words, for instance:
"Never us the words 'common' and 'sense' in the same sentence.
Never use the words 'military' and 'justice' in the same sentence.
Never use the words 'honest' and 'Democrat' in the same sentence."
I suppose that it is in the realm of possibility that a Democrat could be honest, but I seriously doubt that it has in fact ever happened.
Huh? Who are you, and what have you done with the real OT?
DeleteYeah, an imposter has pinched his sign on name. Summon the posse.
DeleteCalm down, guys:
DeleteI suppose that it is in the realm of possibility that a Republican could be honest, but I seriously doubt that it has in fact ever happened.
I suppose that it is in the realm of possibility that a Libertarian could be honest, but I seriously doubt that it has in fact ever happened.
I suppose that it is in the realm of possibility that a Whig could be honest, but I seriously doubt that it has in fact ever happened.
I suppose that it is in the realm of possibility that a homo sapiens could be honest, but I seriously doubt that it has in fact ever happened.
Hmm, standards may yet drop to the point where even I can run for office. I would relish telling some truths on a big stage. My distant cousin, one of them, is Howard Coble. If he should resign for health reasons, maybe he could wedge me into the rest of his term.
DeleteI missed this one: “... Santa brings you a sack full of non-backed US currency.”
ReplyDeleteJAN HUGOSSON
Jan said some serious truth in a light hearted way. Good job.
Good afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: Why not? Well, for one thing it would cost a heck of a lot more money than just the stadium itself and it would put RJR in a locale already served by Parkland. Perhaps, Ms. Yarborough is suggesting closing down RJR and Parkland then combining the 2 schools at the site? Sorry, but ain't gonna happen.
LTE 2: More stadium
LTE 3: Well, the Canadian harvest takes place a month before the US harvest due to the earlier onset of cold weather, so not sure that it would make much sense to make Thanksgiving fall on the same day. Stores would simply start their Christmas advertising in September.
Finish the thought: the US enters a recession due to smaller take home pay as well as a higher UR from the loss of jobs tied to govt spending. Enjoyed Mr. James's recognition of all the cliches that have been attached. He really "took the bull by the horn" and "gave it all he got".
My long time friend Hunter James has, for over 50 years, been one of the best writers in the South. At various times he has written editorials for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Baltimore Sun and the Richmond Post-Dispatch. He shared the 1971 Pulitzer awarded to the Winston-Salem Journal for public service writing through a series of articles that "saved" the New River from becoming a giant hydroelectric project. The New is now a National Wild and Scenic River.
DeleteI cannot remember how many books he has written, but you can find out at his website. Some of them are still available through Amazon and other sources and are worth every penny being asked. Among my favorites is Smile Pretty and Say Jesus: The Last Great Days of PTL.
An excerpt from his account of how the Ponder Boys took Bloody Madison County, NC:
In Bloody Madison, however, they were a special breed of Democrat. "Sweetheart Democrats," Zeno calls them, men who ran the county with the connivance of the Republican majority. It was then, as the new party chairman, that Zeno faced his first real test of strength, defying custom and skirting the edge of the law by throwing out a slate of precinct officals approved by the sweetheart Democrats and putting in his own people.
"Wouldn't have been surprised to see bloodshed at half a dozen spots around the county that year."
Came election day and Zeno strapped on his holster and went out to look around. At one precinct he found himself outnumbered by four armed Republicans. He was fond of telling the story of how he strode into the place and got the drop on them.
"I told 'em, 'Don’t wanta kill nobody, but I'm prepared to do it. I got six bullets in here and I can can get all four of you before you can get your guns outa your pockets.'" It was a bit of a bluff. Just then the Democratic poll watcher, one of Zeno's own men, a 76-year-old who had also come armed and ready for trouble, got out of his chair and, as the "boss" remembers it, said: "Zeno, you take them three over there. I'll get the first one on the left."
___Hunter James