Recent Editorial - January 2003

2002 not a great year for Lincoln

January 1, 2003 - It’s not going to be easy to put 2002 behind us.

Our headline in Monday’s Year in Review aptly called it a year of  “The Good, bad and ugly.”

  Underscore the bad and ugly.

Edwards should favor caps on jury awards

January 8, 2003 - As N.C. Sen. John Edwards embarks on his presidential campaign, he should be prepared for criticisms that are certain to arise about his station in life. He has already heard discouraging remarks about his inexperience in office. He can move beyond that, as many have done before him. Edwards will have about the same time in politics as President Bush had when he ran in 2000. In fact, American voters have often shown a tendency to elect someone not of the Washington D.C. political establishment (Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton).

Another great effort by United Way volunteers 

January 15, 2003 - Congratulations to Lincoln County’s United Way for achieving its $400,000 goal during some difficult economic times. It was the second goal achievement for Director Rhonda Sigmon, who became executive director in 2001. In her first year — also sluggish economically — the campaign exceeded its goal by some 16 percent, raising a total of $435,000. It might not do quite that well this year, but is currently $1,000 beyond its goal.

America behaved with restraint since 9-11

A view from London

January 17, 2003 -

Editor’s note: This surprising Sept. 11, 2002 column from the liberal Daily Mirror, a sometimes anti-American newspaper based in London, has been making the e-mail rounds in the Lincoln area.

Sept. 11, 2002, one year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of broadcasting —- the mass murder of thousands, live on television. As a lesson in the pitiless cruelty of the human race, September 11 was up there with Pol Pot’s mountain of skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the Nazi concentration camps. An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so utterly merciless that surely the world could agree on one thing - nobody deserves this fate.

Lincoln’s helping hands

January 22, 2003 - Lincoln’s new health clinic has a great name: Helping Hands. It says a lot about what the clinic does for people in need of healthcare, as well as those providing it.

No-tax pledge may be difficult to keep

January 27, 2003 - It’s an easy promise for any politician to make: No tax increase. It’s also fashionable, particularly among GOP candidates.

Two newly elected commissioners, Carrol Mitchem and James “Buddy” Funderburk, apparently are making that promise. Mitchem has signed a pledge from the watchdog group Citizens for Sound Economy, and Funderburk has indicated that he will also sign.

North High nets some top teachers

January 31, 2003 - The opening of a new high school is a rare and exciting event for Lincoln County. North Lincoln High is just brick and mortar, but what will happen in its classrooms and auditoriums and athletic fields in the years ahead will dwell in the minds and hearts of the thousands of students it will serve. North Lincoln begins serving those students in August of this year.