Opinion

Plenty of room in the arena I became aware of a Facebook group recently called “Finding Solutions — Waynesville.” On the surface it appeared this group was looking for solutions to the town’s social issues of homelessness and addiction, so I joined in so I could observe and perhaps offer valuable resources to the discussion — after all, The Smoky Mountain News has covered these issues extensively in the last several years.

I quickly realized many members of the group are more determined to dismantle the efforts that have been made to address the problem. There were so many posts and comments from people complaining about how homeless people and those suffering from substance use disorder impact their lives and people wanting Haywood Pathways Center and The Open Door Ministries gone from Waynesville.

Based on the commentary, it’s clear many people in the community still don’t understand the complexity of these social issues — they don’t know how counties are funded for behavioral health or how much funding the state has cut to Medicare and Medicaid providers in Western North Carolina. They can’t grasp how much money it costs county taxpayers to incarcerate people who really just need rehabilitation.

But, what is so disheartening is to read so many comments that show people’s lack of empathy for those experiencing homelessness and or addiction. Many in this Facebook group are determined to bash the nonprofits working diligently to provide resources for our most vulnerable populations. Someone even put “nonprofits” in quotes as if to signify that these hard-working people have ulterior motives.

Being the objective reporter that I aim to be, I offered links to articles, research studies and census data to help people understand and answer their questions, but again I was just met with uneducated opinions that will in no way bring about change and progress. Then the bleeding heart in me became angry at my fellow community members before I remembered wise words from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Well, actually I remembered Brené Brown — Ph.D. research professor at the University of Houston who has written several books on courage, shame, vulnerability, and empathy — using the FDR quote often as she encourages her readers to not heed criticism from those who don’t understand the struggle. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

So yeah, I could use this entire column to complain about the people complaining from the cheap seats, but it would be pointless. I want to speak to those who are in the arena every News Editor Jessi Stone

day marred by dust, sweat and tears as they fall, fail, dust themselves off and get right back up the next day to keep fighting in hopes of rejoicing in another small victory. The work people at Pathways and Open Door as well as our behavioral health and addiction nonprofit providers are doing to make a difference in this county is thankless, exhausting and depressing. But for every failure to reach someone, there’s hope to save someone — that’s what keeps them going. In my reporting I’ve met so many dedicated people working to overcome the devastation drugs have brought to our community. They work to provide education, prevention, mental health resources, diversion programs, jail ministries and peer support — anything they can think of to make a dent in the epidemic. It’s not perfect and we can always do more when resources are available, but until we come to terms with the fact that addiction is only a symptom of larger systemic issues we’re just treading water. Our state has to invest more resources into understanding trauma and how it impacts people’s lives forever if it’s not dealt with properly. We need more school counselors, more mental health funding and more affordable housing options for people. What we don’t need is for this community to stop supporting the organizations that don’t cost taxpayers any money and are funded by private donations.

I don’t want to discourage public discussions regarding these important issues, but I want their opinions to be welleducated. Before you criticize, go cook a meal for people staying at Pathways Center; offer to teach the residents a valuable skill that could help them lift themselves up; keep bottles of water, healthy snacks and hygiene products in your car and give them out when you encounter someone in need.

There are so many ways to be a part of the solution and not the problem. I challenge those up in the cheap seats to make their way down into the arena — there’s plenty of room. (Jessi Stone is news editor of The Smoky Mountain News. jessi@smokymountainnews.com)

No newspapers? No thanks To the Editor:

Imagine a world without your local newspaper. Imagine a world without any newspapers. Where would you get your news about upcoming elections or about what the DOT and county commissioners plan to do with that stretch of road near your house? Would you turn to Facebook? Twitter? Platforms that have been reprimanded repeatedly for allowing the dissemination of false stories meant to manipulate and mislead readers? Speaking of Facebook, founder Mark Zuckerberg made it very clear that he has no intentions of stopping the spread of fake news across his platform. Why should he halt it? He’s making money either way.

A couple of weeks ago McClatchy Publishers, parent company of the Miami Herald and Kansas City Star announced a filing of chapter 11 bankruptcy. The plan, according to McClatchy’s creditors, is to reorganize in order to offload massive debt totaling $700 million across the 30 newspaper titles they own — including our state’s two largest papers, The Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer. Reorganize is a fancy way of saying trimming the fat, which is a colloquial way of saying putting journalists out of work. If you haven’t noticed, this trend of newspapers going belly up, whether shuttering entirely or restructuring at the expense of journalistic integrity, has been a steady occurrence for several years. According to PEN America, 20 percent of all U.S. newspapers have closed since 2004. Dwindling advertising dollars combined with the onslaught of digital takeover by Google and Facebook, has absolutely crushed print media. Today, 225 counties across the U.S. are without a newspaper and of the newspapers still operating, a sizeable number are so broke they can only afford to publish what comes down the wire from the Associated Press. This means no local news for the people living in those communities.

The thought of not having a local newspaper may not strike others as something worth fretting over, but for me, the thought is terrifying. It should be terrifying for anyone who gives it consideration. Newspaper journalists are the eyes and ears of what’s happening in your community. They are the first on the scene and the ones who literally do the legwork, often thanklessly, of gathering facts and information to share. In fact, 90 percent of the commentary you see on television news and read online comes from the labor and work of newspaper reporters. Your favorite talking heads would be silent bobbing heads if it weren’t for the efforts of journalists. Or worse, LETTERS

your talking heads would simply be spokespersons for the biggest spenders in advertising.

So why care? Because news matters. An absence of press and the disappearance of local news outlets is an invitation for the growth of misinformation, misunderstanding and propagation of false narratives. It’s handing over the voice of your community to whichever power has the strongest grip (and deepest wallet). The loss of free press is the unraveling of the foundation of our society. As journalist Richard Kluger once said, “Every time a newspaper dies, even a bad one, the country moves a little closer to authoritarianism; when a great one goes, history itself is denied a devoted witness.”

Amanda Singletary Waynesville

Expand Medicaid without work mandate To the Editor:

At the recent Waynesville Town Board meeting on Feb. 11, there was a motion to support Medicaid expansion under House Bill 655. I appreciated the input of law enforcement, medical professionals, and community members to endorse this expansion. However, I take issue with the work requirements put forth in the bill. I am personally able to afford health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, though by a shoestring. I have a $7,000 deductible and, beyond the cost of my premium, I spend around 200 additional dollars each month for mental health care. It is not a stretch for me to imagine that others in our community struggle to access healthcare at all. Haywood County has a 16.6 percent poverty rate, or almost 10,000 people. The wage gap that prevents our neighbors from accessing healthcare is between $6,000 and $16,000.

Work requirements do not solve the problem of access to healthcare. Sixty percent of those with Medicaid coverage already work, and those who don’t are unable because of disabilities, caregiving, or inability to find fulltime work. They are the ones in need of healthcare, in order to be well enough to work in the first place. Not to mention, work requirements cost taxpayers more money, due to the cost of bureaucratic paperwork to enforce the work requirements.

Haywood County faces a current crisis, linked between the issues of homelessness, mental health, addiction, and poverty. Work requirements will not properly address these issues. I support HB5/SB2 to close the Medicaid coverage gap. I demand that our town council members do the same as we move forward with this issue.

Abigail Ahlberg, DownHomeNC Waynesville

The rubble heap that was our basement

It has been over a week since my son had seven boys stay overnight at our house to celebrate his fifteenth birthday party. We are still sorting through the rubble, fishing through layers of debris for whatever valuables may still be buried there: shoes, missing iPhones, family pets, and so forth.

Of course, we insisted that he had to clean up as a condition of having the party in the first place, but who were we kidding? When I went down on Sunday morning to check on the boys, I could not recognize our own home. There was not a single inch of surface area that was visible. It was hard even to get a headcount.

We may have to hire a professional cleaning crew and pay them a week’s wages to get our downstairs anywhere close to livable condition. But first, we may need to rent a backhoe. I can imagine a professional cleaning crew arriving on the scene, taking one look at our downstairs, and then declining to clean it for any amount of money. I can imagine some people choosing to just burn it all up and starting over, but we do not have that luxury, it being our home and all.

It’s going to be a “family project” to clean it properly, and it’s going to take a while. Maybe Easter. Or Memorial Day. A while. We may have to tackle it one quadrant at a time. Who knows what we may find along the way? The very idea sends waves of dread crashing over me.

Nevertheless, it is a fact that we cherish these birthday parties. It is a fact that we are running out of them. Our daughter is now officially grown. The Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, and Shrekthemed slumber parties that we once hosted on her birthday are long gone. Those awkward, adorable little girls are now busy choosing majors and navigating relationships.

We half-feared our son would deem it too uncool to have a birthday party this Columnist Chris Cox

year, but he went in the utter opposite direction. Not only did he want a party — he wanted it at Chuck E. Cheese, where we’ve celebrated his birthday seemingly every year since he turned three. In retrospect, we should have just bought our own franchise. I think it was supposed to be ironic, or at least some kind of gag that this group of teenage boys, all now old enough to shave and nearly old enough to drive, was going to descend on Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate a birthday. Most of them towered over Chuck E. He danced around some but seemed to be a bit edgy and perhaps going through the motions.

A couple of the teens looked like they could have potentially fathered some of the younger kids running around like hamsters in a cage, pausing only occasionally to play the blinking and colorful arcade games that otherwise served as obstacles to their pursuit of one another, or whatever.

The reserved tables for all of the birthday kids — including our son — were in the back, each one decorated with balloons and streamers and posters that announced the child’s name and age: Henry, age 4: Lucy, age 5: Kayla, age 3: Jack, age 15.

Our son was older than any three of the other kids combined. When it was his turn to get his birthday photo taken with Chuck E. surrounded by all of his friends, they looked like a fledgling motorcycle gang: The Riverbend Rodents, maybe. All they needed were leather jackets to go with their theatrical scowls and they’d be straight out of central casting. Rebels Without a Token.

On the way home, I stopped off to get a few snacks for the “afterparty,” as he had been calling all week.

“Is this a birthday party or the Oscars?” I asked. “Will Leo DiCaprio be stopping by?” “Just get the snacks, dad. Don’t try to be funny. It’s just sad. OK, boomer?”

I ran by Ingles and loaded up my cart with Moon Pies, cookies, two bags of Doritos, two bags of Hot Cheetos, and enough gummies to dam up a good-sized river. I was feeling a little inept as a parent and called them up.

“Do we want to get a fruit or vegetable tray?”

(Sounds of laughter and hurtful remarks in the background. What kind of afterparty are you envisioning here, old man?) The afterparty was a big success. Eventually, we located all the boys the next morning — or they located us. They crawled out of the wreckage one by one in search of cinnamon buns, bacon, and eggs. Next year, some of them will be able to drive themselves to the party. I wonder what Chuck E. will think of that?

(Chris Cox is a writer and teacher who lives in Haywood County. jchriscox@live.com.)

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Laurels at Cataloochee | 3BR, 3BA, 1HB | $1,000,000 | #3554625

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Taste the Mountains is an ever-evolving paid section of places to dine in Western North Carolina. If you would like to be included in the listing please contact our advertising department at 828.452.4251

BLUE ROOSTER SOUTHERN GRILL 207 Paragon Parkway, Clyde, Lakeside Plaza at the old Wal-Mart. 828.456.1997. Open Monday through Friday. Friendly and fun family atmosphere. Local, handmade Southern cuisine. Fresh-cut salads; slowsimmered soups; flame grilled burgers and steaks, and homemade signature desserts. Blue-plates and local fresh vegetables daily. Brown bagging is permitted. Private parties, catering, and take-out available. Call-ahead seating available.

CHEF’S TABLE 30 Church St., Waynesville. 828.452.6210. From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday dinner starting at 5 p.m. “Best of” Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator Magazine. Set in a distinguished atmosphere with an exceptional menu. Extensive selection of wine and beer. Reservations honored.

CITY LIGHTS CAFE Spring Street in downtown Sylva. 828.587.2233. Open Monday-Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tasty, healthy and quick. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, espresso, beer and wine. Come taste the savory and sweet crepes, grilled paninis, fresh, organic salads, soups and more. Outside patio seating. Free WiFi, pet-friendly. Live music and lots of events. Check the web calendar at citylightscafe.com. music every Saturday from 7 to 10 p.m. Open Mon.-Sat. 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

HARMON’S DEN BISTRO 250 Pigeon St., Waynesville 828.456.6322. Harmon’s Den is located in the Fangmeyer Theater at HART. Open 5:30-9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday (Bistro closes at 7:30 p.m. on nights when there is a show in the Fangmeyer Theater) with Sunday brunch at 11 a.m. that includes breakfast and lunch items. Harmon’s Den offers a complete menu with cocktails, wine list, and area beers on tap.

MAD BATTER KITCHEN 617 W. Main St, Downtown Sylva. 828.586.3555. In collaboration with Lazy Hiker Brewing Co. Open 7 days a week; Saturday & Sunday Brunch until 2 p.m. Hand-tossed pizza, local grass-fed beef and rice bowls. Scratch-made and beer inspired menu with lots of vegetarian, vegan & gluten free options. Free live music and movies. Visit madbatterkitchen.net for this week’s events.

MAGGIE VALLEY RESTAURANT 2804 Soco Road, Maggie Valley. 828.926.0425. 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Daily specials including soups, sandwiches and southern dishes along with featured dishes such as fresh fried chicken, rainbow trout, country ham, pork chops and more. Breakfast all day including omelets, pancakes, biscuits & gravy. facebook.com/carversmvr; instagram @carvers_mvr.

SOUTH PHILLY ITALIAN PASTA & SUBS 2768 Asheville Hwy., Canton. 828.593.3580. Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday noon to 6 p.m. Pick-up or carryout only. Call in orders. Pasta and subs. Large portions!

COUNTRY VITTLES: FAMILY STYLE RESTAURANT 3589 Soco Rd, Maggie Valley. 828.926.1820 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; closed Tuesdays. Family Style at Country Vittles is not a buffet. Instead our waitresses will bring your food piping hot from the kitchen right to your table and as many refills as you want. So if you have a big appetite, but sure to ask your waitress about our family style service.

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WATAMI SUSHI AND NOODLES RESTAURANT 33 S. Main Street, Waynesville. 828.231.3476. Open 7 days a week serving lunch and dinner. 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 4:30 p.m.-9 p.m. on Monday-Thursday; 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday. Healthy, fresh, delicious and high-quality Asian food such as Sushi and Sashimi, Hibachi and Teriyaki, Pad Thai, Wok Lo Men and Thai Coconut Noodle Soup. Sushi, Hibachi and Teriyaki lunch specials every day. Gluten free options available. Full sushi bar and new chocolate wine bar. New party room available for weddings, birthdays or special occasions. Live bluegrass Sundays from 6-9 p.m. with Sons of Ralph. Reservations and online ordering available. www.watamisushinoodles.com

WAYNESVILLE PIZZA COMPANY 32 Felmet Street, Waynesville. 828.246.0927. Open Monday through Friday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 10 p.m.; Sunday noon to 9 p.m.; closed Tuesdays. Opened in May 2016, The Waynesville Pizza Company has earned a reputation for having the best hand-tossed pizza in the area. Featuring a custom bar with more than 20 beers and a rustic, family friendly dining room. Menu includes salads, burgers, wraps, hot and cold sandwiches, gourmet pizza, homemade desserts, and a loaded salad bar. The Cuban sandwich is considered by most to be the best in town.

watamisushinoodles.com · 828.246.6888 33 S. Main St. #101 · Waynesville OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK New Party Room Available Book Us for Your Next Event We Accept Reservations & Offer Online Ordering Join us Sundays 6-9PM LIVE MUSIC! Bluegrass: Sons of Ralph Gluten Free Options Available ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mon/Wed/Thurs 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Closed Tuesday

Friday/Saturday 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday 12-9 p.m.

32 Felmet Street (828) 246-0927 Sandwiches • Burgers • Wraps

207 Paragon Parkway, Clyde 828-456-1997 blueroostersoutherngrill.com Monday-Friday Open at 11am

LIVE MUSIC Starts at 7PM Tin Roof Echo Friday, March 6

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MAGGIE VALLEY RESTAURANT Daily Specials: Soups, Sandwiches & Southern Dishes Featured Dishes: Fresh Fried Chicken, Rainbow Trout, Country Ham, Pork-chops & more Breakfast : Omelets, Pancakes, Biscuits & Gravy! Carver ' s

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828.926.0425 • Facebook.com/carversmvr Instagram- @carvers_mvr 2804 SOCO RD. • MAGGIE VALLEY OPEN DAILY 7 A.M. TO 8 P.M. S UNDAY 8 A.M. TO 8 P.M. C LOSED TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY Breakfast served all day!

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Real Local Families, Real Local Farms, Real Local Food March 4-10, 2020