Henderson itself doesn’t appear to have an official fireworks show or celebration for July 4th. Although Vance County Tourism is sponsoring the Kerr Lake fireworks which will be on Saturday, July 7th evening. http://www.kerrlake-nc.com/gcalendarDetail.cfm?p=487
Instead, for a July 4th show you should check out nearby Franklinton, NC. In the old high school football field will be music, vendors, food, games, presentations, and a helicopter for display and getting inside, then a show off take off of that helicopter before dark. Fireworks start after dark. Admission to the football field where the main activities are are $1.00 per adult, kids free. Gates open at 6pm. http://www.facebook.com/events/465095383501850/
The One Franklinton Committee is sponsoring the SUFA event for the 2012 year. Some 5 years ago, The American Legion Post 52 initiated the event and sponsored it for the past five years. Post 52 could not do so this year due to financial and manpower constraints. But the One Franklinton Committee did not want the event to be lost to the community. Post 52 is helping the committee plan the event and assisting in any way we can. The SUFA will continue to have our Post name associated with it. Post 52 will sell food stuffs from a booth at the event and the Auxiliary will have a booth. Both the legion and the auxiliary need member support to execute the event. The One Franklinton Committee welcomes all citizens to help with the event.
Also you could check out nearby Wise, NC, where they start with a parade at 10:00AM. Entertainment this year is Steve Owens and Summertime. Lot’s of Food and Vendors plus a Car Show. Sorry, but I can’t find any note about there being any fireworks, if you know of any in Wise for their celebration please confirm. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wise-NC-Independence-Day-Celebration/126003334147874
If I missed any local things going on for holiday please update us all in the comments below.
Remember, most banks, government offices, and some businesses will be closed for the holiday as well.
Several people have sent me the same email with the subject line Pass It On. You may have also received this email. The topic of the email is a proposal to change the Constitution with an amendment that Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.”
This Pass It On email includes a picture of a US Marine in full dress uniform displaying the Navy Cross as he shakes hands with a “politician”. At least the implication of the picture is simple the man risked his life and limbs so politicians could live in safety.
As we go into this long weekend celebrating our National Independence Day with Chinese made fireworks, an orchestral piece commemorating the Russia defeat of the French invasion in 1812, popping the top on a Belgian-Brazilian made Bud, munching on nachos and salsa or maybe a Kosher hotdog with a dash of Dijon mustard, all topped off with a slice of seedless watermelon, we should give some thought to the idea that the laws congress imposes on the governed should also apply to congress in whole without exceptions. As the Roman’s might have said quid pro quo.
Until next week let us all enjoy our independence from tyrannical rules and rulers in a land where we have the freedom to express our opinions and views even though those opinions and views might be an affront to the opinions and views of another.
We declared our Independence from England but stepped right into our own form of elite rulership. I’m not in any way a politically savvy person but it seems pretty clear to me that there are the serfs and the lords, with the lords SUPPOSEDLY seeing to the prosperity and safety of their people. It seems the lords believe they are more privileged and feast while the people ration. Those people are the ones who do the labor to provide the feast; then they go into debt trying to serve their own families a feast. Where IS the balance? We all know life does not come with guarantees but the ones at the top somehow get guarantees the rest of us can’t.
Always confused by Mr Bobbitt’s posts. Here he talks about independence from tyrannical rules and rulers in the land of freedom but his July 4th letter to the editor in the Dispatch harps on evil corporate profits abridging Constitutional freedoms. Profit is not a dirty word. Profit is whatever amount a business has left over after paying all the expenses associated with running that business by providing a service or selling a product (wages, rent, taxes, inventory, equipment, ect). When a business makes a profit, that business will usually plow that profit back into the company to grow and expand it. I strongly suggest reading a book, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It will help you understand what happens when the hard working businessman is villified and the government is left to satisfy everyone’s needs. The government can not produce any money. It can only take from those that produce and give it to someone else. It is an immoral principle. Just like a stranger turning up at your door at dinner time after you have worked alll day and demanding that you leave so he can eat and sleep in your bed. Only government has that power. Business has no such power. Stick your nose in Shrugged instead of the liberal blogs trying to convince you that business is evil and govt authority is good and altruistic, you have it exactly backwards. Our Constitutional freedoms are not being infringed on by corporations, it is being infringed on by politicians and judges that have no respect for that Constitution.
The difference is the stranger knocking on your door is not offering to do any work in exchange for your money. The government asking for your tax dollars provides lots of services for you. The government, unlike a corporation, will provide those services to you whether you have money to buy them or not.
But the government’s requirements for my money are insatiable and the services provided are wildly beyond what the Constitution said the government had the authority to tax me for. It is more than roads, police and national defense. People are paid not to work and have illegitimate children, leading to the bulk of our crime and social problems. We pay huge pensions and salaries to govt workers, who are union members, so they use our tax dollars to elect politicians that will keep that largesse flowing. (Salaries and pensions a private corp could never offer themselves or employees because they aren’t accountable for what they spend, they just demand more tax payer dollars to cover these liabilities.)
Local and state govt are superceded by giant federal beaurocracies like the EPA, Dep of Education and Dept of Commerce. Now the federal govt is going to take over the health care system in America. Who believes that the govt will be able to provide health care better, let alone cheaper, than a private industry or Doctor can? Instead of solving problems like those who can’t get coverage, their answer was to put us all on a public plan, that the Congressmen who voted it in will not be required to be a part of.
The government spends many times over what it collects, with no remorse. They borrow more from hostile nations or worse just print the money out of thin air, devaluing our dollar. In your household, if you owe way more than you can make, do you solve it by raising the limit on your credit card so you can make the problem worse or by curbing your spending and paying down your debt. It is common sense and the American people have been led to believe that we can go on forever like this and never have any repercussions and it is all normal and hunky dorey.
It is time for a reality check. Socialism breeds misery, poverty and despair, even death, every where and every time it has been tried. Capatilism breeds individual freedom and satisfaction. Everyone will never be entirely equal, we all have different motivations and desires. But America provides us all with an equal playing field to achieve what we want. The govt needs to get out of the private sector’s way so we can be free to generate the tax revenue to get us out of this financial mess. Business pays for everything. Government only sucks the money out of the economy.
Absolutely spot on Dagny!
Ms. Dagny Taggart,
Thank you for reading my letter to the editor published in paper on July 2. My I call you Ms. Taggart or do you prefer I use of the first name Dagny. I had to refresh my memory of Ayn Ryan’s writings. Her works were not required reading for the Texas business school program back in the day. I did encounter her work in a political science course.
Why do you reject the point of my letter that our Constitutional freedom of speech (i.e. newspapers) is being infringed on by corporations? The reason that false by-lines were used was to simply make the reader think the local news stories were locally written, in other words to lie to the reader. The reason the local news stories were written in the Philippines was to reduce wage cost. As you pointed out lower wage cost could mean higher profit. The big difference between a bona fide news publication that obtains higher profits by lying about the author and a bank obtaining a higher profit by cheating with the LIBOR interest rates is the Constitution.
Don’t just refresh your memory, get the book and read it. I only had a brief stint in college but it did not require a college degree to read and enjoy the book. Many of us find Dagny as compelling a heroine as John Galt was a hero in Atlas Shrugged.
Are fake by-lines a threat to freedom of speach? Sounds more like a threat to the papers staying in business. Integrity should be at the heart of the news media but they are destroying themselves every day with their outragiously biased reporting, especially in the political arena. That is the beauty of the free market, if you don’t like that practice, don’t buy that paper or listen to that TV network and they will go out of business. Newspapers have a tough challenge today with immediate access to news, columnists, the weather, sports…… with internet access. Is that a bad thing? Yes, for the newspapers – no for consumers. Like the horse and wagon being replaced by the car, the internet is an evolution in the way people get their information.
Why does any business source their production out of this country? Because of excessive govt. taxes and regulations in the USA that make it impractical to operate here. When the Stimulus was passed, it infuriated true conservatives and was condoned by the RINO GOP (a battle raging today within the party). Why should one business or industry get a gift of money from the tax payers over another? Many chose to boycott those businesses. Many banks were forced to take the funds or lose the ability to charge the prime lending rate and the govt got prime stock in return until the bank paid back the unwanted “stimulus”. But those industries, banks and businesses did not take the money from us, the govt had to intervene and take the money from us and give it to them. So the anger was misplaced at business when it should have been directed at the govt for coming up with the evil plan. Like being mad at Section 8 landlords, misplaced anger at the landlords instead of the govt that hatched the plan and actually takes your money to give to the landlords.
Like so many folks today, there is also a misplaced anger at the poor businessman/woman when that anger should be directed at the govt agencies that breed the financial and societal problems we face today. Look at the hypocracy of the Occupy movement, a bunch that has obviously never had a civics or history lesson, as they communicated with their Ipads. The coming election is being framed as a battle between Romney, the evil businessman and Obama the just govt organizer and I sense in MB’s posts attempts to fuel that fire with the constant referances to evil profit and corporations and I feel it is my duty to counter those assertions.
Thank goodness for this forum and our country where we can all have a pleasant and hopefully informative dialogue.
Ms. Dagny Taggart,
The book you are referencing is a work of fantasy fiction. Fiction is make-believe. The author of a work of fiction creates a story, the characters, and the objective of the story. My reading strongly tends towards non-fiction. Non-fiction can introduce the kernel of probability upon which fiction is based.
You left out a key word in your question so I will re-phrase your question. ‘Are fake newspaper by-lines a threat to freedom of speech?’ For the past 236 years US newspapers have served the public as the source for factual (non-fiction) news reports. Newspaper publishers and editors are judicious verifiers of facts before printing. Before the editor agreed to print my letter, he confirmed that the news story I had heard on NPR was factually correct; that false by-lines had been used intentionally.
I believe that our right to free and true speech tromps corporate profits.
Michael, So there have been no great works of fiction, in your opinion? No worries, Atlas Shrugged would scare the wits out of you, you might start worrying that there are people like that everywhere around you. Better to stick with the “truth” as you like it over at NPR.
I still can’t logically get to this matter being a case of infringement of freedom of speach by corporations seeking evil profit. A corporation did not fake the by lines, an individual did and this case deals another blow to the credibility of an already struggling newspaper industry. Maybe you would like to see some kind of new blanket Federal law enacted and the corporation heavily fined over this, rather than the free market of individuals doling out the punishment in the form of not reading those newspapers or posts with a Journatic byline.
Thanks for the response but it so sad to me that a college educated man, especially one with some kind of business degree, could find Capitalism so abhorrent, to the point that consistant postings about evil corporate greed seem to be the only fire in your belly.
May I ask a question of you, answer honestly, if you can:
What system should replace corporations in search of profit in America?
Thanks for the response, as always. And just for grins, lower your standards and read that work of fiction, just so you will know what all the fuss is about, more readers now than at its publication 50 years ago – that’s why I read Rules for Radicals. Good day!
Ms. Dagny Taggart, (I am using this respectfully) I have read some good fiction; it is just not top of my reading list. I do not live my life in fear of what some fiction writer predicts is the future. If I did I would use the prophecies of Nostrumadamus as my guide. At least 400 years after the translation and publication of those cryptic prophecies there are those who are predicting the future based on that work of fiction. It is not the fictional people around me that concern me. What concerns me are the likes of a Jeff Skilling, Bernie Ebbers, Allen Stanford, to name just a few big names. All admit no wrong in their schemes for wealth and power.
As I understand the intent of the first amendment is to prevent the government from abridging (blocking or preventing) my right to read a news story written by someone. What the corporation Journatic did was block (deceive) me from reading a news article written by someone who I wanted to read. Journatic admitted they deceived the public for the expressed purpose of maximizing profits. Does this help?
I realize this is a fine point and one not easy to articulate. As I said before, I believe that our right to free and true speech tromps corporate profits
Hello again Michael, Thanks for the response but still no answer to my specific question – I have seen several posts where you complain about corporate profits as though they were the root of the countries financial problems – not an over spending massive government. Is there a system that would be more beneficial or “fairer” for American society than Capitalism (or corporations that make a profit)? No ducking or dodging!
Fair to who?
Each and every individual citizen.
Dagny, I will attempt an answer your question. Although it is difficult to top your own answer, the answer you gave to anon3’s question. Anon3 asked fair to who; and you replied “[to] each and every individual citizen”. This has been my exact point all along in this dialog that started with my letter to the editor about loss of free speech to maximize a corporate profit. It is my view that when a corporation or business or individual uses deception, lies, coercion, fraud, thievery, etc to maximize profits they are not being fair to every individual citizen.
Michael Bobbitt, Thanks, but you’re ducking when the answer is so easy and obvious. I’ll still counter your response. What if a business earns a profit by providing a quality service or product to a consumer at a mutually agreeable price? Or are all businesses morally bankrupt and incapable of making a profit unless by some kind of fraud or deceit?
Your quote,”It is my view that when a corporation or business or individual uses deception, lies, coercion, fraud, thievery, etc to maximize profits they are not being fair to every individual citizen.” Agreed, and when a business does that, the free market will not patronize that business and they go out of business. What could be more fair?
So the question remains – Is there a system that would be more beneficial or “fairer” for American society, meaning each and every individual, than Capitalism (or corporations that make a profit)?
Dagny, I have no clue what answer you are seeking. You said you agreed with my answer so how is that ducking the question?
You keep asking if there is a more beneficial or fairer system than America’s version of capitalism. A truthful answer to that question is it depends. About six years ago, I was very fortunate to be assigned to perform Sarbanes – Oxley Compliance reviews at two German based and one Swiss based manufacturers; all subsidiaries of a large US based conglomerate. I was on the assignment in Germany for 90 plus days and Switzerland for a month. While working there I learned a little about the German & Swiss versions of capitalism.
Here are a few attributes of their version that I recall and experienced. There grocery and clothing stores, and shop where open from 8 am – 8 pm, except Sundays and holidays when the stores are closed. There restaurant staff, hotel staff, grocery store clerks are all paid a living wage not a minimum wage. In Germany wages are set by the central government for blue and white collar workers and management. While on assignment one manufacture transferred all blue collar jobs to the white collar wage structure increasing their wages. In Germany and Switzerland everyone pays into a national health insurance program. Your individual costs for medical care was paid by the national health insurance and an income based sliding scale of your out of pocket cost. In Germany the down payment for a home was 20% – 30% of the home’s cost; ownership of the land may or may not be transferred with the home. In Switzerland to avoid paying tax on the potential rental revenue for your home you never pay off your home loan. Along the Rhine River between Heidelberg and Strasbourg, I saw fields of flue cured tobacco farmed as we do here. The farm laborers were Poles, Russians, and North Africans.
Is America’s version of capitalism more beneficial than the German or Swiss versions? As a good Philadelphia lawyer would says, that all depends.
Michael Bobbitt,
And the answer is – No other system is better or fairer for every individual!
I guess agreeing that the American Capitalist system has brought more peace, prosperity and a higher standard of living for every individual, than any other system at any time in history, would be too difficult. Maybe models like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela or Fidel Castro in Cuba or Lenin and Marx in Russia and the Soviet Union or even Chairman Mao carry more appeal for you and they would be “fairer to everyone” than an evil corporation ever could be?
In January of this year, the head of the Vance Co Democrat party declared on this webpage, “The Republican Philosophy of Adam Smith and the Free Market have been the driving force that has produced the division of 99 and 1. It is not a healthy philosophy and it does not work well for a long future”. Yesterday, our President declared, “If you’ve got a business- you didn’t build that, somebody else made that happen”. The Democrat party is not what it used to be. Now their leaders are unafraid to declare their support for socialist and communist principles and to show off their derision for the businesses and corporations that employ people and generate the revenue that pays for everything.
There will be a clear choice in November and most American people are not going to fall for the accusations that the producers are really heartless devils bent on destroying the country for their own selfish greed in pursuit of profit, when it is only those very businesses that can hire employees and save America from the financial mess our elected officials have gotten us into, by generating the tax revenue to pay off the deficit.
There, now you are off the hook and don’t have to answer that silly but uncomfortable question posed by a lowly business woman with only a high school education that reads fantasy fiction like Atlas Shrugged.
Dagny
I made my last post with out seeing your response, sorry. So a socialist capitalist system, as we have in America today, is the way to go. This may work as long as the economy is strong but the problems we see today are of corporate tax revenues not keeping up with the massive government spending.
Ms Taggart, you should refer to your self as a business women with a high school education who enjoys reading fantasy fiction like Atlas Shrugged. I think that is more positive tone. Just as an aside regardless of birth status, educational achievements, intellectual prowess, wealth most of us put our shoes on one foot at a time.
Personally I do not know that “No other system is better or fairer for every individual!” I have only lived under the American version of capitalism. If that statement were a test question the answer is false because there is no means of testing the absolute every.
I shared with you some of the attributes of the German and Swiss versions of capitalism; I did not say they were better or fairer than the American version. I truly only know the American version. I know little about Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, or Fidel Castro’s Cuba, or the current Chinese or the former Soviet Union’s systems. I have read Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and some works by Karl Marx & Fredrich Engles. Three years ago I read A History of Neo-Liberalism a supplemental book for an economics course at Virginia Tech. My work in Germany or Switzerland or what I read in college or three years ago does not equip me to say the American version is better or fairer for every individual.
You are correct to say it would be too difficult to “[agree] that the American Capitalist system has brought more peace, prosperity and a higher standard of living for every individual, than any other system at any time in history …”. You and I do not know the answer to that statement. We lack the means of knowing all human history and every individual in human history. I would agree that American capitalism contributed to our higher standard of living, prosperity for many, and periods of war and peace. I also agree with the basic premise that capitalism must be controlled for the good whole.
I pass the ball back to you Ms. Taggart, the business women with a high school education who enjoys reading fantasy fiction like Atlas Shrugged.