Martins Creek School works
We would like to take this opportunity to recognize the extraordinary efforts of Martins Creek Middle School in providing students with a truly exceptional educational experience.
One of the many ways that they achieve this is through the use of field trips. As their culminating activity prior to graduation, students had the opportunity to visit local venues that included the Fields of the Wood and Henn Theatre, along with a visit to local businesses that included the Sweet Tooth (individual purchase) and Parker’s Burgers & Sweets (funding provided by family gift).
Field trips are a valuable tool for the Martins Creek educators who help bring learning to life and provide students with a hands-on, immersive experience that cannot be matched in the classroom. These trips allow students to explore new environments, engage with real-world situations, and gain a deeper understanding of the various subjects they were studying.
The lunch was held at and prepared by Parker’s Burgers & Sweets (by owners Jeff and Diane Parker) located at 5465 W. U.S. 64 in Murphy. While the restaurant may be new to some, opening in September 2022, Jeff and Diane are well known throughout Cherokee County for their great food and catering services.
It was nice of the Parkers to open on one of their only days off to make this a luncheon (and surprise dessert) that the students and chaperones are sure to remember. Thanks for a “job well done.”
So, to all of the Martins Creek educators who are working hard to provide students with an educational experience that is second to none, we say thank you. Your efforts are truly appreciated and are making a positive impact on the lives of all your students.
As the school year comes to a close, it is important to recognize the vast improvement made by our grandson (Daniel A. Taylor), who came to Martins Creek Middle School lagging at least two grade years behind due to Covid-19 and the standards set by his previous school. Daniel’s improvement was due to the dedication, tenacity and commitment of his educators (Mrs. Phillips, Mr. Brooks, Ms. Postell, vice principal Mrs. Lugiewicz and Principal Paul Wilson), who worked tirelessly to ensure he would achieve the grade level necessary to graduate from the eighth grade.
See, we can all learn from a 15-year-old, now a former eighth-grader, when one masters that “In life and school, the important thing is to modify and change one’s ideas and attitudes.”
What a change Daniel has made and we know his entire family will be as proud as we are as well as his Uncle Phil who traveled from Maryland to attend the graduation ceremony.
These and all educators and support staff from Martins Creek Middle School are to be commended for creating an environment that fosters academic excellence and encourages students to reach their full potential. Their individual and collective commitment to providing quality education is reflected in Daniel as well as the success of all the eighth-grade students who graduated on Thursday, June 1, 2023. Congratulations to one and all.
Steve L. and Cynthia J. Butts, Martins Creek
The writers are grandparents of Daniel A. Taylor.
Rebuttal of trans letter
This is a rebuttal to the letter by Dixie Carter. Dixie was “shocked” that I wanted two misleading and harmful “transgender” books removed from our children’s library. Censorship … how dare I?
Dixie, what if there were books in the children’s section called, Tubby Time With Uncle Joe, Male Bonding, Watching Kiddy Porn With Daddy or How to Become a Teenage Porn Star?” Would those books be acceptable to you?
Dixie was also “shocked and angry” with what she called my “misinformation,” when I stated that Jazz was incapable of having orgasms. Dixie said the National Institute of Health stated that trans women can experience an orgasm.
I went to the NIH’s National Library of Medicine site. It stated in a Nov. 8, 2020, article that trans women had “sexual arousal without orgasm.” When I emailed my letter I included numerous videos, providing evidence for my statements.
Dixie said, “We can choose a path of love.” It’s not loving to chop off a young girl’s breasts or splitting a boy’s penis and castrating him. This is mutilation.
Dixie stated that we should be “embracing our differences.” Embracing means to accept enthusiastically. No, I’m not going to celebrate the irreversible mutilation of children’s genitals.
Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele mutilated numerous Jewish children, all in the name of medical science. It was horrifying then, and trans surgery is horrifying now.
A diagnosis for gender dysphoria is included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a manual published by the American Psychiatric Association. Gender dysphoria is a mental disorder.
These identity confused and hurting children need to hear the truth with compassion and not vacuous concepts. They shouldn’t be encouraged to have destructive genital surgery, which is irreversible, to be butchered by money hungry surgeons and enslaved to pharmaceutical companies.
Mary Mason, Murphy
To bees or not to bees at home
It was 4:27 a.m. Thursday; I get up to pee, step outdoors. The chicken half a block away hears my noise, and slightly cackles; enough to be heard, if someone’s listening carefully.
I come back to bed, discover little Ginger warm in the middle, not wanting to move over. Big worries? ..... Not!
But big worries we’ve lived with since my birth. It was at the end of the second World War, when Earth’s recently major aggressive enemies appeared: the Russians, the Nazi’s most slaughtered (55 million), were marching west, wanting all of Germany, but got only half,
plus most Eastern European Neighbor-States captured; and suddenly the world had the USSR: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics a perfectly large and quite scary enemy, for sure.
The perfect enemy, whether we wanted one or not; so we/they built tens of thousands of nuclear doomsday missiles and the doomsday clocks have been close to midnight for all my life. Russia was first into space, after we were forced to set off a couple nuclear bombs on Japanese cities.
Suddenly, in the 1980s the Iron Curtain collapsed. Spring came to Poland, and, in Germany, they tore down the wall. Today we’re left with all these thousands of Russian/American missiles on both sides, still sitting in their silos or in submarines, etc.
Apparently the closest the world came to (MAD) Mutually Assured Destruction, was during the 1960s Cuban Missile Crisis, when, in a Russian nuclear submarine approaching Cuba, the captain refused to obey the launching orders.
So, how’s it going? Feeling satisfied with what we’ve done to the world, oiling it up real good?
My little aggressions I’m dealing out to our carpenter bees, who over 5-10 years, have taken over the pollination business around here. I miss the regular bees we had before, who lived in those cute little white boxes on the wood’s edges.
Wiki says many carpenter bees rob nectar by slitting open flowers. They also carry mites. They’re purists, setting up house in only untreated, unpainted wood, by drilling perfectly circular up to 16 mm wide holes, providing homes for their small families. Apparently, there are two types of males: the big-eyed ones, keen on attacking passing females, and the others, hovering, circling, spraying attractive perfumes.
I’m personally torn between leaving these pollinators free to go about their business, or preventing them from rapidly boring tunnels in the most visible architectural features of our house: porch railings, and carport posts, always seeking the most prominent locations.
My two-pronged attack: a tennis racket, forcefully swung, will knock them down; and if I’m wearing shoes, I step on them, before they get turned right-side-up, and fly off.
This season, I upped my game: because they’re purists, I stick the long thin tubes of my twin WD-40 cans way up in their holes, and squirt. They drop out, darker and oilier, staggering, easily stepped on.
It’s enough to make you stain the wood, I tell yas.
Harry Holdorf, Brasstown
Kudos to our newspapers
Just a note to say I enjoy Staff Correspondent Abigail Blythe Batton’s columns. They are always thought provoking and with some humor, in a kind and gracious way.
I have no business or personal relationship to her other than an appreciation of good writing. Saw her in action at the United Way function last month and enjoyed her interactions with the kids.
I enjoy the Cherokee Scout in general and the Clay County Progress for sure.
And I enjoy Dean’s Art & Music in Andrews for vinyl records.
Curt Wheeler, Hayesville
Decoration day needed
Memorial Day has come and gone and like previous years, I have visited our local cemetery to bring flowers and pay my respect to those who came before me. Unlike previous years, I found Moss Cemetery in Marble to be overgrown and unkept. To say I was surprised is an understatement.
I have been attending decoration, as my Mom and family always called it, since I was a child. Until this year, the cemetery was always neat and well kept. I sought information to explain this change in status. It seems that the problem was not only finding someone to do the maintenance, but finding the money to pay for it.
We contacted Andrew and Mary May, who are the current custodians of the cemetery. They are being charged between $350 and $500 for each mowing. The money for this maintenance is derived from donations. The Mays told us donations have dropped off considerably in the past few years.
Since most local families have loved ones interred there, it is our responsibility to help keep the cemetery in good order. If you are like my family, most of my ancestors are there. Any donation to help rectify this ongoing issue will be greatly appreciated.
I would also like to see flags on the graves of our fallen loved ones. It is the very least we can do for those who gave everything so we can live free.
Donations may be mailed to the Mays at P.O. Box 100, Marble, NC 28905 or dropped in the locked box provided on the west side of the cemetery drive.
Please consider helping this most necessary cause.
Brenda Gibby-McGaha, Marble
System has failed us all
The population at the outbreak of the Civil War was about 31 million, of whom more than 60 percent lived in the North, while one-third of the Southern minority were slaves. The West and the North had already received more free-soil immigrants slaves to dig in the earth for ores, coal, etc., and to build railroads, tunnels and to gather crops with cheap labor.
However, the Republican Congress refused to readmit the former states until they accepted the 14th Amendment, which spelled out the civil rights of blacks and other groups.
In March 1867, the Republican Congress passed the Reconstruction Act that instituted martial law throughout the country, and the 15th Amendment ratified in March 1870 gave voting privileges to all male blacks and other groups and sometime later females. In 1921, all females voted.
When the Northern Republicans chose to relax their supervision, the unreconstructed Southern and Northern whites resumed their opposition to blacks, both through the underground Ku Klux Klan and an official Democratic Party. Around this party a political structure know as the “Solid South” was firmly established.
In 1915, the Democratic Party benefited from the split in the Republican Party, and the KKK was established. They marched in Cook County (Chicago), and there was more than 6 million members within the system.
Then and now, they opposed the Constitution, finding it a threat to Virginia’s sovereignty. Virginia obtained a new charter of self-government just like the Catholic Church (Vatican City) in Rome.
Tyranny is a very cruel and unjust use of power or authority by a system of thieves and the good old
boy network. Men and women, the system is no better than you, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
Cotton Allen, Brasstown