4A The Mountain Messenger, Tuesday, January 9, 1990
i
"Sound bites" -- I first heard of them on a shortwave broadcast
from The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in London. Then, a
few days later, National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" did
a short piece on them.
What are sound bites (or is it bytes)? According to the BBC,
sound bites are the recorded comments of persons interviewed by
the electronic media and then these comments are woven into the
broadcast news story. What is interesting about sound bites is their
length. A Harvard College study, just completed, shows that the
average length of an electronic news media sound bite today is
nine seconds -- that's about nine or ten words. In 1968 the aver-
age length of a sound bite was 42 seconds.
The BBC commentator drew the conclusion from these statistics
that viewers today have less information and less knowledge about
more subjects than ever before. Whaduhyathink?
Have you ever heard the word "silviculture"? Our Department of
Natural Resources (DNR), in their December 26 news release,
used the term. A Close substitute for "silviculture" is '1orestry" -- ad-
mittedly more commonly understood. The DNR are the same ones
who refer to the killing of deer and bear in West Virginia as "har-
Vesting". For strip mining they are saying "resource extraction"! This
is the same organization which said they couldn't let "little things"
like flood plain elevations and cracks in safety devices stand in the
way of granting permits to hazardous industry. "If we let little things
like that influence us, we'd never grant a permit," one DNR em-
ployee eloquently stated.
Words are wonderful little things which can be carefully chosen
and carefully used to fine-tune exactly what you wish to communi-
cate. In this "computer age" the manipulation of words through
"processing" is becoming more and more mechanical and less and
less literate. For instance, if I should happen to misspell a word the
computer can catch me up smartly. It will even "suggest" a correot
spelling. Some of the suggestions are ludicrous. Ill make you a list
sometime.
To a computer there is no such thing as context. It just merrily
hums along and doesn't worry about differences between their and
there, here and hear, bee and be, see and sea, die and dye, for
and four, grate and great, by and buy, way and weigh, turn and
tern, meet and meat, no and know, bow and bough.
Hear we are, busy as we can bee buy the see. It is grate to meat
you and to no we have computers to help us along weigh. It's
your tern to take a bough.
--Chas. A. Goddard
STAFF I
Chas. A. Goddard, Editor I
Dottic Brackenrich, Office Manager
Troy Forren, Advertising Sales
Tcrri Boone, Advertising Sales
Debbie McClung, Ad Design
Betty Morgan, Ad Design
Jonathml Wright, Staff Writer
Lou Bu=oughs, Typesetting
l.ora Smith, Production
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Students (9 mos.) $10.00
All at town halls, 'unless noted otherwise
Alderson Second Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
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[Lewlsburg Planning Commission: First Thurs., 7:30 p.m.]
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First Monday, 7:30 p.m.
First Monday, 7 p.m.
Second and fourth Mondays, 7 p.m.
First Monday, 7 p.m., Mt. Hermon United
Methodist Church
First Tuesday, 7 p.m.
Second Thursday, 7 p.m.,
First Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Second Monday, 7:30 p.m.
NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS
--- 1990
My first thought on making a list
of 1990 New Year Resolutions was
not to bother, as we soon forget
them or break them. Here in our
Fairlea apartment January 1, 1990, I
have my pen moving and my brain
saying "Go ahead and make a list.
You might keep at least one resolu-
tion, especially if its one you like!"
1. Count my blessings, prayer-
fully, as I awake each morning. Er-
win Sharp, a°newscaster, says each
morning, "You have a billion of
them!" More appreciation and
greater understanding!
2. Blessings in the form of resolu-
tions:
a. I can still see with both
eyes •
b. I can still write!
c. I can get out of bed.
d. I can walk.
e. I can think.
f. I can read and love it.
g. I can eat but must cut out
sugar and fats.
h. I can take showers.
i. I can comb and brush my
hair.
j. I can file my fingernails.
3. I must get into an organized
routine.
4. I must continue tocompliment
folk who say 'thank you" -- Mary
Irvine --- Pauline Coffman.
5. I must try to con~ol my emo-
tions.
6. Eliminate stress by organizing
my time.
7. Keep eating cholesterol free
foods, "for instance, sugar free foods
and fats.
8. Save steps and time
9. Put God first -- number one.
10. Write thank you notes right
By Roberta Patton Rod
away.
11. Remember my most
Christmas gift. May I share
you folks?
My oldest living sister,
Hughart, has been attacked
heimers' Disease. She is 88
old. I cannot do much to help
called to wish her a
mas. "What did you say?"
tioned. I repeated, "Merry
to you." "Who did you say you
she asked. "Your sister
said.
Conversation: "Where are
"My apartment," --"No, our
ment over the store." This
conversation continued for
minutes ---"Merry Chris1
Nuna." "Oh," she said, "Merry
mas to you. "This is the
best gift I could get -- just
my family is around me is
gift!" "Thank you, Nuna,"
my lips, swallowing emotion~
wiping a tear. This is my
too! Resolutions to be
my health. To keep those
know who have
other illnesses in my
Darnell -- Fairlea. Sam Bell
wisburg. Oretha Craft --
These folks are among
forget as quickly as they
Prayers for those families
suffering along with them,
for nurses and doctors who
the challenges of learning
about diseases. Being
understanding.
Thanks again to Vara and
Hatfield, Lewisburg and for
ful folk, Mary Irvine and
Coffman, Virginia Crawford of
son, arld Mrs Bill Sibold of
and so many more. j of West
The continual beauty ¢}s. st
Christmas Poinsettia goes to ,indon|~
of you !
*
. I I .Inl
Dear Editor:
"Oh, the West Virginia hills! How
majestic and how grand: With their
summits bathed in glory, Like Our
Prince Immanuel's land!" We West
Virginians love to sing of the natural
beauties of our State. "Is it any won-
der then, That my heart with rapture
thrills, As I stand once more with
loved ones On those West Virginia
hills?"
But should we, our children and
our grandchildren, want to s=ng of
West Virginia's future? Will our hills
remain bathed in glory or will they
be buried beneath mountains of
trash, our owr7 and trash shipped
into West Virginia from other states?
Will our streams and groundwater
be maintained at just their current
mildly polluted levels or will rivers
like the Greenbrier River be turned
into industrial sewers polluted with
carcinogenic and mutagenic com-
pounds such as chromated copper
arsenate?
West Virgi~ians, w~e must
awaken to the fact that our state is
under attack by out-of-state compa-
nies who want to rr~ake it a national
dumping ground for vast quantities
of trash, medical and hazardous
wastes which they are not permitted
to dispose of in their own states.
Other compan,es, some owned and
L oDerated by West Virginians, want
tO be allowed to pollute our streams.
:rivers and groundwater with chemi-
dais so toxic that a teaspoon in 25
million gallons of water causes can-
cer in human beings. Many of our
own citizens have rushed to partici-
pate in such schemes, no matter
how damaging the consequences.
for a chance to make a few dollars.
The Department of Natural Re-
sources (DNR) inept and uncon-
scionable granting of an operating
permit for a wood treatment plant on
a recently flooded, poorly-drained
site near an area where well water is
the only source of drinking water
has amply demonstrated that West
Virginians cannot depend on their
own state government to protect
them. Neither the DNR Director nor
his staff have any grasp of what
they put at risk by routinely granting
these permits. They have no envi-
ronmental sense of values.
There is an old West Virginia
saying. "If we don't change our di-
rection we may get where we are
heading." The pollution of our
groundwater, which over 60 per cent
of us use for our only source of
drinking water, would be an irrevers-
ible calamity. Trading a few low-pay-
ing jobs for perpetually contami-
nated drinking water would be an
extr~ety poor trade.
We would be fools to allow this to
happen.
j'O the hills, Beautiful hills, How
love those West Virginia hills."
Yes, we West Virginians love to
sing of the beauties of our state. But
will we fight to defend them? In past
wars West Virginians were first
among all of the states to volunteer
to defend Europe, Asia, and our
own country. Will we now dedicate
our lives and our resources to sav-
ing those homes of which we sing?"
"If o'er sea or land I roam Still I'll
think of happy home, And the
friends among the West Virginia
hills."
Many West Virgmians, like the
Concerned Citizens of Alderson/
Glen Ray, have already been on the
environmental battlefields: before
public hearings, county commis-
sions, city councils, appeals boards
- and in the courts; They are spending
their resources, fighting as best they
can for a West Virginia you and I,
our children and our grandchildren
can continue to sing about.
Won't you join us by sending a
contribution to the* Concerned Citi-
zens of Alderson/Glen Ray, or other
local group, and by insisting that the
next session of the state legislature
enact a strong groundwater protec-
tion bill that will force our state gov-
ernment to protect us?
Stephen P. Bailey
Deborah E. Bailey
Charleston
Dear Editor:
May I make some more remarks
about renaming Foster Street, Ger-
man Street?
I want the good citizens of
Greenbrier Valley, who carry Ger-
man names, to stop laughing at my
situation. Also, stop asking me who
was responsible for it not being re-
named. It wouldn't do you any good
to know. So many people w~o ob-
jected so strongly know nothing of
our history, period.
Now German street carried that
name from 1782 until January 2,
1940 when a man of German de-
scent appeared before the city
council. His proposition to change
carried without any objections at all.
Pray, tell me what objections
could there be to placing a sign right
under the Foster Street sigh, stating
--"Formerly German Street" 1782
to 1940 -- ?
I don't want anyone getting lost
between Foster Street and the Post
Office.
By the way, The Sons of the
American Revolution agreed to
changing the name at our last meet-
ing. The Lewisburg Foundation ,s in
favor of the change. The Historical
Society and the Daughters of the
American Revolution are the two
mare hold outs. What is so ,ronic ,s
that these last two named organiza-
tions are made up of citizens who
carry more German blood in their
veins than any other group in the
Valley.
I want to apologize to all for fum-
bling the ball on the one yard line at
the first go round.
Paul R. Lilly
Dear Editor, Lewisburg
Today a friend gave me a copy of
The Battle of Lewisburg, published
by the Lewisburg Visitor Center. The
brochure is informative and well
done but contains one fraudulent
myth. The same myth is immortal-
ized in Lewisburg on a commemora-
tive plaque near the Confederate
Cemetery. The myth that I refer to is
the one that General George Cook
captured the Apache Shaman of
War, Gokhalayeh, better known to
us as Geronimo.
According to the book Watch For
Me On the Mountain, by Forest Car-
ter and corroborated by Nine Co-
chise in his autobiography, Geron-
imo willingly surrendered to the
United States Cavalry commanded
by General Cook in order to save
the lives of the last remnant of the
free Apache nation that he had hid-
den deep in a valley of the Sierra
Madre mountains. So keen were the
governments of Mexico and the
United States to take Geronimo's
scalp that two massive armies were
readying to enter the Sierra Madre
from the north and the south with
orders to leave no canyon un-
searched or stone unturned until he
was captured or murdered.
Fearing the discovery of his hid-
den village and the obliteration of
his people, the Apache chief ar-
ranged through the Indian scout,
Tom Horn, to send a message to
the General of his intent to surren-
der. On September 4, 1886 Geron-
imo walked calmly out of the foothills
of the Sierra Madre -- unarmed and
holding the hands of his young son
and young daughter. By this date he
had been made a widower three
times by either the Mexican Army or
the U.S. Cavalry and had lost seven
of his nine children.
Unlike the infamous General
Sherman who advocated that "exter-
mination is the only answer," Gen-
eral Cook was an honorable soldier
and a conscientious administrator of
his jurisdiction. He dealt fairly and
tried to end the corruption in the
U.S. Government agencies that had
turned Apache Reservations into
concentration camps of starvation,
disease and death.
Despite his military experience,
General Cook was no match for
Geronimo in warfare. The Apaches
had been fighting the Spanish for
over three hundred years before the
United States Cavalry blundered
onto the scene. Geronimo was a
superb leader and, among his
people, a man of great spiritual
strength and accomplishment. To
the Apache he was a holy man. The
claim that he was run-to-ground af-
ter a savage battle, as military dis-
patches of the time declared, is not
only untrue and dishonorable, it is
laughable. His surrender was one
selfless act in a life devoted to the
welfare, the sovereignty and preser-
vation of his nation.
The "capture" of Geronimo, '1he
tiger of the West," made good yellow
newspaper copy, advanced medi-
ocre military careers, looked good
in history books and whitewashed
the sordid, brutal and heartbreaking
truth of the history of the Apache
and the "last warrior."
Desmond O'Brien
Dear Editor: Lewisburg
How could Jonathan Wright do
it? He apparently interviewed city of-
ficials from Ronceverte, Rupert,
White Sulphur, Alderson, Lewisburg,
Union and Marlinton, but completely
missed Renick and Rainelle. Admit-
tedly, Rainelle is way out there in
the west end, but golly, it isn't as far
off the beaten path as Union or
Alderson. Rainalle, after all, is an
important historical and economic
population center and is most cer-
tainly a part of the Greenbrier Val-
ley.
And how about Renick? If one is
to report on the Valley's municipali-
ties then he should report on all of
them. I am sure Mr Wright knows
where Renick is. He spent a great
part of the last couple of years
there. Could it be that he worked in
that community all that time and
didn't know it was incorporated? He
could have at least called Mayor
Betty Yates and asked about the
city's plans and accomplishments. It
wouldn't even be a toll call from Le-
wisburg.
Since Jonathan didn't, I will take
it upon myself to give (The) Messen-
ger-readers a run-down on Renick.
Sorry, I can't help him with Rainelle.
The City of Falling Springs (Ren-
ick) applied significant resoumes to
maintaining and improving the aes-
thetic quality of the town during
1989. Many miles of grass were
kept trimmed, and encroaching
vegetation cut back from public thor-
oughfares. On-going efforts to ob-
tain a street paving grant were re-
newed, and the city building was
moved to a new Io~ation downtown.
Renovation of the old commercial
district was completed with the re-
moval of the last remaining empty
store and the debris cleaned up.
Clean up of the unauthorized refuse
dump on Third Street was 80 per
cent completed at the beginning of
inclement weather and the Town
expects to finish the job in the
spring. The Town's snow removal
equipment was repaired and refur-
bished during the summer and Mr
Donald Vandervort engaged as op-
erator.
All-in-all, it t~as not been a bad
year for this river community and Ms
Yates and the Town Council are to
be commended for their efforts and
community spirit.
Bob Harvey
Renick
Dear Editor:
We picked up a copy of the
Mountain Messenger at the airport
when we were there in October and
thoroughly enjoyed reading it. We
lived in Lewisburg many years ago
and own some land on Spring Creek
mountain.
I have enclosed a check for a
year's subscription and request you
mail it as seth as' possible.
We spend the summer at Cass
and usually visit Lewisburg a few
times. ~"
We'll be watching for the Moun-
tain Messenger weeky. Thank you.
Mildred D. Wolfe
Burkburnett, Texas
Dear Editor:
The Legislature should roll back
part of the 1989 tax increases on
food and gasoline, and substitute
instead a tax on large landholders.
Taxpayers on fixed incomes are re-
ally mad that they have to bear the
heavy burden of tax increases on
necessities, while the big corporate
landholders -- many from out-of-
state -- get away with minimal tax
payments on their huge holdings.
Kanawha County Senator James
Humphreys, who sponsored an ex-
cess acreage tax in 1988, is inter-
ested in this new proposal, as are
Speaker Chambers and Mingo
County Delegate James Reid and
other members of both the House
and Senate. Past efforts even to
study the problem have been sty-
mied by furious lobbying, but the
atmosphere is far different in 1990
because the people are rising up to
demand greater fairness in the way
they are taxed. Ability to pay has
been shoved into the background in
the desperate efforts to balance the
state's budget. The time has come
to lift these onerous burdens from
those least able to pay, and to help
tong-term economic development at
the same time.
The corporations division
collects a one-time fee of 5i
per acre upon the incor
any company owning over 1(
acres. This is sort of like a licefl
a very low rate and it doesn't
to approach the fairness
tax system should have. We
ought tb realize that~most
southern West Virginia
where big railroad, coal,
land companies own huge
have sufferedthe sharpest
population in recent years.
tragic fact is that the best and
est of West Virginia's young
are leaving these southern
where the big landholders
contributing their fair share to
schools, health clinics and
public services.
Since the increased ~asol
is dedicated to the repair
ways and bridges, there is
son why an increased
tax couldn't be devoted to the
things. A lot of critics have i
constitutional issues against
posal, but I am advised by
expert constitutional law,
legislation can be drafted to
come these objections. I also
plan to forestall evasions of
tax by lawyers who
schemes to split up the big
ers into parcels
dummy corporations.
The only way for this plan
ceed is for the people of
ginia to stand up and insist
their government, and the
demand it be run in the
all the people.
Ken
Secretary ofi
NOW YOU SEE IT'
NOW YOU DON'
Udun~ wni
and wa~r~b
Mountain Messen
