Vote like you mean it
Here’s your chance to be different, to not be just part of the pack. Tuesday is your day to prove you’re a maverick. Come next year, everyone’s going to be headed to the polls. This year, nothing says cutting edge like an “I Voted†sticker.
Seriously, it’s sad that an act that takes almost no waiting in line and only a few moments to complete seems so difficult a thing to do. It’s not exactly the MCAT or the LSAT. (And remember — it’s multiple choice.)
To make it a little easier to sort out your answers, there are plenty of resources, endorsements, websites and brochures to catch you up on the views of the candidates. In this issue, we’ve included the views of Carrboro candidates on who they are and their take on our challenges and the future of the town. Please take some time to learn about the folks who aspire to represent you, then do yourself and Carrboro proud and participate in their selection.
And for those of you mourning the loss of Chapel Hill’s Joe Herzenberg (we’ll be writing some words on his life and work in next week’s issue), remember that, like so many of his era, he put himself on the line to make voting possible for the disenfranchised, and for the rest of his life was a strong advocate for greater participation in the most basic duty of civil society. It is right to mourn his passing, but to celebrate what he stood for there is no greater tribute than a trip to the voting booth.
Heat of competition
No one from this paper was at the East/Chapel Hill High soccer match that ended in a heated dispute between members of the crowd and officials. So what we have passed on is what we’ve learned from people who were there and feel we can confirm.
We’ve learned a little more this week from Chapel Hill High Principal Jacqueline Boyd Ellis, who was at the match. Ellis said she did not hear anyone yelling for the young player from East to be given a “green card†as we reported. If it did happen, she said, it was likely an isolated moment and certainly wasn’t an organized chant. That’s good news, because we’ve heard that in other places it’s a common taunt. And Ellis confirmed that as a heated exchange between a ref and a parent escalated, an angry insinuation against people of Hispanic descent indeed was hurled.
Afterward, the administration of the two schools agreed not to hire the ref in question again (typically, refs are independent contractors, not school employees) — a good start. An even better follow-up happened late last month, when the two schools met again and cards with some tips on sportsmanship were passed out. Being a good sport is never too cool for school.
Correction
In last week’s article on the adoption of buffer requirements that would allow for a re-alignment of the new northern fire station on the site, we incorrectly reported that the board of aldermen had passed a revisement of sidewalk rules as well.
We’d also like to caution folks not to take the headline “Poke salad days†literally. We were being overly clever. You eat poke salad in the spring.