Publisher's Desk – So glad it's over

Over. Done. Finito. Caput. Called. Counted. Complete. Closing time. Stick a fork in it. Stick a fork in me. Elvis has left the building.

If I never hear the word ALCOHOL again in my life, that will be just fine with me.

As I sit typing this, it’s not quite 7:30 p.m. Tuesday so the polls still have a couple of minutes. I’ve got the scrolling version of the results from the Randolph County Board of Elections playing in the background. I will finish typing this column before I know what the final numbers are so, in the interest of fairness, I will not throw my two cents in about which side I think will be victorious.

From first glance, the numbers tell a horrifying story: more people in the city of Asheboro care whether alcohol can be served, bought or mixed than they do about who runs the largest free country in the world.

That’s something to be ashamed of, I don’t care who you are or which side of the fence you rode during this whole thing.

I’ve heard it said that more people feel like their vote matters when it comes to something like this. Well, if that’s the case, then more people would have voted when the quarter cent sales tax referendum was on the ballot. When the county raises property taxes, don’t go a-moaning about it. My hometown had SPLOST (special purpose local option sales tax) and E-LOST (educational local option sales tax) and two of the cities I have called home over the last 12 years had it. Did I mind paying a few extra cents here and there? Nope. Did I mind that visitors to those fine cities helped fund roads, a civic center, parking deck, an entire school complex, new schools and new government buildings? Nope. Would I have minded if my taxes went up? You’re doggone right I would have. But I’m just a middle class working gal. What do I know?

First, a couple of housekeeping items about this referendum. To set the record straight, The Randolph Guide did not, I repeat, did not endorse the drive for alcohol. A newspaper sells advertising. People pay for advertising. It’s how we make a living.

We did contact the Committee for a Safe and Healthy Asheboro. We did ask them about advertising. We did go to their headquarters. And we were told that the Committee for a Safe and Healthy Asheboro was going to spend more with us they with other news media because those “other media” supported the referendum. In the end, we got $124.20.

Not that I have sour grapes. Not that I would make wine with those sour grapes. I don’t like wine. I don’t like distilled spirits and I don’t know that I will ever be able to drink another beer without this running through my head: Asheboro is the Piedmont Triad’s version of Mayberry.

You know what they say: Bad publicity is better than no publicity at all. And whoever said that didn’t live on the dry end of a cork, either.

I have heard quite a bit about the advertisement that ran at the top of our paper for three weeks. Let me reiterate that it was a PAID advertisement and one that the Committee for a Safe and Healthy Asheboro could have had, too. I have to ask all of you who said we endorsed the alcohol referendum: If we had run ads from the Drys and not the Wets, would be have been accused of endorsing the dry side? And more importantly, would you have taken us to task for it? Probably not. I’ve had a number of people tell me they lost respect for The Randolph Guide because we ran that ad and because of where we ran it. I challenge you with this: If that advertisement had been from the Committee for a Safe and Healthy Asheboro, would you be chastising me or glad-handing me and this newspaper for “supporting” something that you support?

I would be willing to venture that had a CSHA ad appeared in that space, we would have been lauded for taking the right stand, putting our support where it belonged. When in all honesty, we would not be doing any such thing. But people would think we were.

That makes it right, doesn’t it? You know, approving of something because it “fits” with your rhetoric? Does it also make it right to couch your arguments in religion? To even suggest that voting this way or that way means you are or are not a Christian?

Sorry, but the God I know and love and who loves me is the same God who loves you. And my God doesn’t use scare tactics, flimsy arguments or shallow rhetoric to keep me on the road to Heaven.

We are all created in His image and no matter what, we are all sinners. Being a Christian isn’t about voting. It’s not about drinking. Being a Christian is about who you are, how you live your life, how you lead your life in Christ’s image, the choices that you make.

But back to the original point of this column: Being glad this whole thing is over. I’ve read the letters, read the rhetoric and the flimsy arguments both for and against. I’ve been shocked at what some letter writers have said and amused by others. But mostly, confounded at how adults could let something like this bring out the worst in them.

While we were busy writing letters and putting out signs, stealing signs and defacing signs, slinging our rhetoric and not minding who or what it hits, how many children got hooked on drugs? How many kids were molested? How many second-graders tried their first hit of crack cocaine? How many tried meth? How many contemplated suicide? How many did more than contemplate it?

I could go on and on, but what’s the point? If I don’t see an issue exactly as you do, then I am wrong. If I agree with you then, then all is good, right? But what if you don’t agree with me? Should I take you to task on it? Call you a hypocrite? A liar?

Asheboro will live to see another day. But have no fear: Another issue will come up, take hold and fester just like the alcohol referendum.

And when it’s all said and done, remember this: Change is inevitable. Growth, however, is optional.



Patricia M. Edwards is the editor and publisher of The Randolph Guide. She can be reached at (336) 625-5576 or by e-mail at pedwards@randolphguide.com

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