Editorials
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Editorial: Before we go barreling into summer, we remember
Calendars will tell us there are 15 weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the unofficial summer for the vast majority of us. We’re going to fire up some grills this weekend, enjoy three days with family or friends, and a fair number of us are going to get into…
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Editorial: Oh, how wonderful for beloved blueberries
We have arrived at one of Bladen County’s most important seasons. Blueberries! We’re certainly disheartened for our neighbors in Pender County, having canceled the 2020 North Carolina Blueberry Festival due to the coronavirus. The delicious eats, however, will still be with us. The state Agriculture Department reminded us last week…
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Editorial: Mental health concerns need to be addressed during pandemic
White Lake was our original destination for this weekend, way back before the coronavirus flipped the world upside down. There is no Water Festival this weekend; it’s in August, tentatively for now. The residential resort community still isn’t a bad place to go, if you’re one of the fortunate to…
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Editorial: Public health crisis demands transparency from everyone
Seemingly forever, it has remained a favorite of North Carolinians from Murphy to Manteo. “The Andy Griffith Show” was 249 episodes stretching a golden age of television in its black-and-white infancy to reruns in this 21st century on devices Andy, Barney and Floyd could never have imagined. Its appeal remains…
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Editorial: Appreciation of our nurses, and all that they do for us
“I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my…
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Editorial: His credibility was impeccable, a voice booming for the ‘little guy’
Friends and colleagues recalled with smiles and tears the life of Tony Rand throughout the weekend. The former state senator from Fayetteville died Friday while at his home in Blowing Rock. We all should aspire to see his unique way with people and causes play out in whatever we do,…
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Editorial: Time is now in preparation for the Atlantic hurricane season
Today we are one month away from the beginning of the Atlantic Hurricane Season, and Sunday begins Hurricane Preparedness Week. We trust that in Bladen County most everyone has a level of preparation that lasts throughout the year. Though we know the season is June 1 to Nov. 30, it…
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Editorial: Cooper’s decision fails to fit our size, should be revisited
Elizabethtown and all of Bladen County commerce will remain essentially shuttered through Mother’s Day weekend. Gov. Roy Cooper on Friday said his stay at home order is extended to May 8. Whether he allows the first of three phases to begin the next day, a Saturday, is up in the…
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Editorial: Responsible actions needed from everyone during pandemic
Harvard said “No, thanks.” So did Stanford, Princeton and Yale. Regardless of the pressures that either institution faced, or their reasons, they set an example for institutions of higher learning able to receive relief aid in the $2.2 trillion package passed by Congress. Our hope is for everyone to act…
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Editorial: American engine runs strong behind its volunteers
America’s crisis is her opportunity. Amid all the shutdown, the frustration of our “normal” being taken away, and the wonder of what things will be like even a day into the future much less weeks or months, there is a lot of good happening around us. Adversity is challenging, and…
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Editorial: Scammers are lurking; let’s put them out of work
Millions are out of work, thousands have died, and yet even in these worst of times there are individuals who sicken us to no end. Scammers. We first wrote of them connected to the coronavirus about a week after what might be known as “shutdown Thursday,” the March 12 day…
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Editorial: Child abuse prevention responsibility needs all of us
Each time we hear the phrase “children are our future,” we pause to agree and gently remind, “they are now.” We need this proper mindset; if we are not moved to act now as much as we may be later, we will fail them. And that’s something Bladen County is…
