Birth of Constitution Important

Roger Carlton, columnist for Graham Starr newspaper

This week the Constitution of the United States is 232 years old. 

The Constitution is the governing document that establishes the form our federal government takes and the powers and limitations on those powers. The original document was not meant to be rigid and was amended in a 10 Amendment Bill of Rights in 1789 two years after the Constitution was adopted. 

We are still arguing about the meaning of these rights such as limiting freedom of speech, the right to bear arms and the limitation on establishing an official religion. We even tried to ban alcohol in the Eighteenth Amendment and the failure of that approach to create a better world was mercifully repealed thirteen years later in the Twenty-first Amendment. 

Thirty-three amendments have been proposed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification and twenty-seven have passed. Just to show how our Congressional representatives think things need to change, there have been 11,770 proposed amendments during the past 232 years, and thank goodness, less than one-fourth of one percent have passed. Perhaps all these attempted amendments show why we have such busy courts.

Remember that the Declaration of Independence got the ball rolling in 1776 which has come to be known as Independence Day or the Fourth of July. I read that marvelous document in its entirety while writing this column. It is worth 15 minutes of your time to do this as well. 

Here are a few conclusions from my reading.

The bulk of the document is a long list of grievances against British King George II. Perhaps the most important grievance is embodied in the words, "A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people." 

Of equal importance are the words, "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." 

Well, to further prove that the Constitution is a living document, it took a Civil War and the Thirteenth Amendment to end slavery and women were not given the right to vote until the Nineteenth Amendment which was approved by Congress in 1919 (100 years ago} and ratified by the States in 1920.

So, if we declared independence in 1776, won the Revolutionary War in 1783 and adopted the Constitution in 1789, how were we governed during those  years? 

There was an interim document called the Articles of Confederation which established an interim form of government. This document was adopted in 1777 but not ratified by the states until 1781. It is nothing short of a miracle that reasonable people could come to a series of compromises that carried us through the the Revolutionary War and the brief period until the Constitution was written during a long hot Philadelphia summer. There were 55 Framers and 39 were signers. The youngest was Jonathan Dayton (26) and the oldest was Benjamin Franklin (81). The average age was  forty-two.

Please join me in celebrating the birthday of the Constitution of the United States. 

The democracy for which it creates guidelines and the fact that the basic document cannot be changed without an amendment process has kept us together through the Civil War and numerous crises. The Preamble to the Constitution says, "In order to form a more perfect Union." The word "more" says it all. 

If the Framers wanted a static document, they would have left the word "more" out of the document. There were approximately 2.5 million people in the 13 colonies in 1776 and there are 330 million people in the United States today. We have a lot "more" work to do to figure out how to preserve and enhance democracy in today's complex times, but we have the foundation to do that in the Constitution.

PAT ZICK WORKSHOP, THE ROAD TO PUBLISHING, IS SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY, 9/28/19

Saturday, September 28, at Mountain Regional Library in Young Harris, Georgia, Patricia Zick, well-published writer who now lives in Murphy, NC will teach a workshop from 10:15 - 1:15.
NC Writers' Network-West is sponsoring this valuable experience for local writers. We appreciate the Mountain Regional Library hosting this event.

Patricia who writes under the pseudonym of P. C. Zick, will discuss the use of the Internet for self-publishing. 

The Road to Publishing

Author and editor, Patricia Zick, will present The Road to Publishing, a writing workshop on Saturday, September 28, 10:15 - 1:15, at Mountain Regional Library in Young Harris, GA. The library is located at 698 Miller Street

Young Harris, GA  30582. Phone: 706-379-3732

The workshop will explore the different choices for publishing a book, but the main focus will be on the steps involved in self-publishing a work of nonfiction or fiction using Amazon’s publishing platform.  Zick, the author of twenty-five published books in a variety of genres, will demonstrate how to prepare a manuscript, define publishing concepts, and walk through the step-by-step process for uploading a book for both Kindle and paperback publication to the online retail site.

 Zick’s writing career began in 1998 with the publication of her first novel by a small publisher. She used a traditional publisher for her next two novels and worked with an agent for several years. However, when the Independent (Indie) publishing movement began gaining momentum in 2010, she was ready to try something different where she had more control over the process, the work itself, and the payments for that work. Patricia Zick has also worked as a reporter, editor, and publisher of a small newspaper in north Florida. The skills learned in those jobs helped with her venture into the world of an Indie author.

She is a freelance editor who has helped more than a dozen writers go from a rough draft manuscript to a final published author via Amazon.

The three-hour workshop will showcase what it takes to publish independently. It may not be the road for everyone, but at the end of this class, attendees will have a good idea of what route will work for them.
Attendees may bring a sandwich or snack and a drink. We will take a short break near noon. No kitchen facilities are available.

Zick lives in Cherokee County, NC with her husband, Robert, during the spring and summer. They spend the cooler months in Tallahassee, Florida. In both of their homes, they share a love of the outdoors. They kayak, hike, garden, and play golf. While her husband tends the garden, she can be found at her laptop pounding out her next novel or preparing manuscripts for publication.

Published as P.C. Zick, she’s in the process of completing a seven-book series of sweet contemporary romances set in Chicago. Her Smoky Mountain Romances, set in Cherokee County, chronicle the stories of a small community of people who drawn by love, come together, as family. She also edits books for others in her spare time.

Zick is a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West which sponsors this event. To register, send a check or money order for $40.00 to NCWN-West, % Glenda Beall,  581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC 28904. Registration must be made in advance.

Please refrain from wearing perfume, cologne or any scented products. They can make some of us very ill. Thanks for your consideration.

Can I Prompt You to Write?

How many times have you felt you just could not write, could not think of a topic or get motivated to begin?

Well, we all  have those moments, but those of us who are not working on a particular manuscript or subject we want to explore, often come up empty when we have the time and want to write.

I like prompts to help me jog my writing mind. I often just need one line or one suggestion to get the juices flowing and then can't stop until I finish my story or essay or poem. Some of my best poetry is the result of prompts in writing classes. 

Also, I think writing in more than one genre is helpful. I might get an idea that works great in a poem, but would not do well as a fiction piece or personal essay. It is fun and interesting to write a poem and then write a story from the poem. Writing poetry forces the writer to search for the very best words, and helps keep the fiction from running on with too many adverbs and adjectives. 

Writer's Digest has an article filled with a variety of prompts. Check them out and let me know if you found something here that awakes your muse.

https://www.writersdigest.com/prompts

Brian A. Klems is the online editor of Writer’s Digest and author of the popular gift book Oh Boy, You’re Having a Girl: A Dad’s Survival Guide to Raising Daughters.

Tariffs: Terrific or Terrible?

Roger Carlton, columnist for the Graham Star newspaper is sharing another of his articles with us today. We can learn much from Roger's insightful words. As writers, we cannot be fearful of what some readers might oppose. Writers are here to make the world think, to show others what they might have missed. Let us know what you think. 

There is no shortage of hot topics for this column. 

This week Hurricane Dorian has been top of mind as well as a new mass shooting in Texas. Politics and who told the biggest lie or made the biggest gaffe has kept the pundits and talking heads busy as they desperately try to fill 24 hour per day news cycles. Buying Greenland from Denmark was a big story that far exceeded the Louisiana, Alaska and Gadsden purchase coverage many years ago. In my view the story that impacts the most people in Graham County is the trade wars with China.

Let's see if we can agree on some definitions. 
A "tariff" is used to restrict imports by increasing the price of products or services. There are two types of tariffs. The first is product specific like a $1000 tariff on a vehicle made in another country. The second is ad valorem which means that the tariff is a percentage of the price of a product. In either case, the producing country does not pay the cost of the tariff nor does the importing company. The cost is passed on to the consumer eventually. No one in the producing company or the import and distribution chain is in business for charitable purposes. Costs must eventually be passed on to consumers or you go out of business.

"Free trade" means that goods and services flow without limitation between countries and "restricted trade" means that barriers or limitations are placed on the goods. The cons of free trade are that it erodes national sovereignty and encourages a race to the bottom in wages/benefits, worker protections are diminished and product quality erodes. The pros of free trade are that it encourages competition, lowers prices to consumers and forces companies to innovate. The risks of restricted trade are loss of jobs and market share in the country imposing the tariffs, the receiving country will retaliate with their own tariffs and a trade war may ensue. 

A "trade war" is when countries try to damage each other by targeting certain products that are key industries or have political clout which puts  pressure on the elected and appointed decision makers. A trade war began after the Smoot Hawley tariffs were enacted in 1930 to protect Depression era industries from foreign imports. It increased 900 tariffs by an average of 40 to 48 percent. This worsened already terrible economies in Europe and was a contributor to World War II as Hitler and Mussolini appealed to economically stressed people who needed someone to blame for their problems other than their own leaders.

"Intellectual property" is a key issue in the confrontation with China. This basically means that our patents and designs/processes are stolen by Chinese manufacturers. There are many cases of this and the cost to protect designs is so great that some companies find it difficult to compete with foreign manufacturers. "Anti-dumping" regulations means that foreign companies cannot sell in the United States at prices below those in their own country and if they do monies are paid into a fund to help the impacted companies in the United States. 

This is the true reason why the Stanley plant closed because Stanley received nearly $50 million in these dumping payments and only used $9 million to modernize the Robbinsville plant. Stanley lost a lawsuit on this issue and was required to pay back more than $20 million. The company management and directors decided to close the plant rather than pay back the money. The Chinese competition did not cause the plant closing. There is much more to this story but space does not allow a full account.

There is merit to acting tough in this trade war. 
Our negotiators certainly have the Chinese leadership's attention.The problem is that positions seem to change daily and the desired outcomes have not been explained clearly to those American workers and consumers who are impacted in their already skinny wallets and diminishing 401Ks if they are blessed enough to have one. Case in point. Agricultural exports to China were $24 billion in 2014 but will likely be below $3 billion in 2019. We deserve more than tweets and hollow accusations. Patience is wearing thin.


You might like to read other articles by Roger:

Let's Remember Lee Iacocca

Peter Fonda Passes of Lung Cancer at age 79

How can we use Chicago Manuel of Style?

We writers are often confounded by little details that escape us as we write. The Chicago Manuel of Style is where to turn to get our answers.

Today I am sharing with you an example I took from Bobbie Christmas' Network Newsletter. Read the entire page beginning with ellipses, which I always had students ask about in my classes and hardly anyone knows the correct usage.

Bobbie says: This month someone posed the following question to The Chicago Manual of Style Online:

Q. What is the proper way to write the commonly used speech abbreviation “twenty-four seven” (meaning 24 hours a day, 7 days a week)? Would one write “24-7” or “24/7” or something else?

To get the answer to this question and many more based on Chicago style, go to https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chicagomanualofstyle.org%2Fqanda%2Flatest.html&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cf842c04569964642962808d72adf4741%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637025010773988034&sdata=nqP4XvleQIbozXaNYewqHXoGxYlERzhm%2BL6DexLnVEw%3D&reserved=0.

THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE sets the standard in book publishing for issues such as punctuation, capitalization, and much more. If you write fiction or nonfiction books, you will want to know about Chicago style or be sure to use a professional book editor intimately familiar with Chicago style.

Where do you go to find the answers to this type of questions?

Peter Fonda passes of lung cancer at age 79.

Today we have a guest post by Roger Carlton. He writes a column for the Graham Star newspaper. 

Sadly, this column has recently mourned the deaths of Senator John McCain and Lee Iacocca. Senator McCain was a Vietnam War hero and a political conservative with a strong sense of empathy. Lee Iacocca was a business leader who led the development of the iconic Ford Mustang and saved Chrysler from the brink of bankruptcy with the K-cars. You might ask why I would devote the same importance to Peter Fonda and that would be a fair question.

Peter Fonda and his sister Jane Fonda

Peter Fonda's father Henry starred in many great movies but the best was the 1940 movie version of John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath." He played an undesirable ex-convict who had to lead his family from Oklahoma to the promised land in California to escape the economic hardships of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. At the end of this long drive in an old jalopy, they were stopped at the California border because the state could not absorb so many people, natives were afraid of the impacts of the uncontrolled influx and the cost of needed services could not be borne by the taxpayers. These American migrants were forced to stay in a holding camp. Is this starting to sound familiar? 

His sister Jane also made some wonderful movies including "Klute" and "China Syndrome." Her best movie, "On Golden Pond" was made with her father and was really a resolution of the very difficult life she and Peter had with their dad who was cold and aloof to his children and wife who eventually committed suicide. Please get over your distaste for Jane because of her ill-conceived trip to North Vietnam. That country is today one of our great allies and is profiting greatly from the trade war tariffs with China.

Peter's greatest contribution to cinema was 1969's "Easy Rider." The picture was made for $384,000 and earned $60 million at the box office. The cinematography of long scenery shots made you feel like you were riding the Captain America Harley chopper, the "Born to Be Wild" music of Steppenwolf and the first exposure to future super stars Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson all combined to capture the imagination of a generation broken-hearted by assassinations, news reports of hundreds of soldiers dying daily, the civil rights struggle and so much more. Peter took the money, became a recluse on an 80 foot yacht and finally made peace with his father in a wonderful picture called "Ulee's Gold" which was about an unhappy beekeeper who was forced to bring up his grandchildren and how that changed his life.

"Easy Rider" was a game changer for this columnist who was a college senior about to graduate the University of Florida and who was 1A in the draft. I saw the movie with friends. The ending when Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda were killed by some local folks in the swamps east of New Orleans who didn't like how these long haired hippies looked literally blew me away. Couple that last scene when the helicopter filmed shot pulls away as the motorcycles burn with another scene when Jack Nicholson's drunken college ex-football star turned unhappy lawyer character says "You know, this used to be a helluva country," and it is easy to draw a parallel with today's titanic struggles for the soul of America.

Great and memorable motion pictures capture the essence of transitional hard times. People who struggle to survive  fear the future either of their own accord or egged on by someone. This is nothing new and we are experiencing it today on steroids due to social media and 24 hour news shows. Watch the fifty-year- ago "Easy Rider" and join me in mourning the death of Peter Fonda. 

Roger appreciates your comments.

Registration for A Day for Writers is now Closed.

Registration is now closed for A Day for Writers, the one day conference in Sylva, NC on Saturday, August 24.

Thanks to all who have registered and plan to be with us on Saturday. We will have a wonderful day.

Meeting a Poet Laureate unaware

I can’t imagine a writer in North Carolina or a reader who doesn’t know or recognize the name, Fred Chappell. He is 83 now and has come out with a new poetry collection. He read at City Lights Books in Sylva recently. Wish I had known. I might have made the trip over the mountain to see him and hear him speak.

Fred Chappell

When I was new to these mountains, twenty years ago, my husband Barry and I attended a Bookfest in Waynesville, NC. I was thrilled to be in the  room with so very many authors and their books. I stopped at every table and struck up a conversation with the man or woman who sat there. They were real authors who had published books! The energy was contagious and set my mood soaring.

Barry followed behind me, his camera strap around his neck. I remember meeting Vicki Lane, novelist, that day and some other good writers. But the writer who made the biggest impression on me was Fred Chappell. I didn’t know he was Fred Chappell. I had never seen him or even a picture of him.

He was standing with other men in a room off to the side of where the most activity was taking place. Several tables stacked with books by various authors drew me in. I don’t know how he happened to come over to us. Maybe my enthusiasm caught his attention. But he was suddenly beside me and talking with me. He was being humorous and when he asked me my name, I introduced myself and told him I was with Netwest.

He said, “Oh, yes. That’s Nancy Simpson’s group.”

I guess that was what the NC Writers’ Network –West was thought to be – Nancy Simpson’s group. She was the person who was responsible for holding it all together for all those years.

Fred joked and kidded me and I, not realizing he was a celebrity in the literary world, said to Barry, “Take a picture of me with Fred Chappell.”

I didn’t ask if he would make a picture with me, I just assumed he would. I know now that was rude and presumptuous of me. Barry grabbed his Nikon and Fred grabbed me around the neck and had me laughing when Barry took the photo. It was a memorable moment that I treasure. (But I can't find the photo for this blog.)

Some years later I had the opportunity to take a workshop with him and was very impressed with his warmth, his down-to-earth manner. He told all of us in the group that we could send him a poem if we wanted his help.

I did send a poem. The title was About Jack.  I liked the poem because it sent a subtle message about parents who were too busy to give a child the attention he needed. Fred gave me a good critique, but I could tell he did not like the poem and said he really thought I needed a new title for it.

By then, I had heard from Nancy how revered he was in this state, having been  Poet Laureate of North Carolina from 1997 - 2002, and had won all kinds of accolades. But to me he was just a nice man who had a sense of humor and did not let me know how foolish I was being when I first met him.

Later, I submitted the poem About Jack to a literary journal and it was published. In fact, almost every time anyone reads the poem or hears me read it, they say how much they like it.



About Jack
by Glenda C. Beall

Squeaking brakes, Bus 37 drops Jack home.
He races inside to pour out news from third grade
around bites of PB&J and a mug of milk.

Sherry threw up on her reader!
Alex brought some cool,
long worms to school.
Miss Cook hugged me -- twice.
His nubbin nose crinkles.

Grandma sits at the table with him,
wishing she could bottle this moment;
his grape-stained face, the light of the sky
in his eyes, the impassioned voice
proclaiming events that rival the evening news.

She would give the bottle to Jack's mom
who hurries in from a twelve-hour day at the diner,
flings her first words, like flaming arrows, at him.
Turn that damn thing down!

Jack never looks up, engrossed in Power Rangers,
laser noises, death battles on TV.

I was tempted to write Fred Chappell a note and tell him it was published and with that title he hated. But I didn’t. Many years have passed since then and I have not seen him again. I am happy he has a new poetry book, As If It Were, and I certainly will order a copy.

Read more of Fred’s words in this interview done with the Smoky Mountain News recently. https://www.smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/27375-fred-chappell-releases-new-poetry-collection