Mainspring Conservation Trust will benefit from a collaboration with Lazy Hiker Brewing Company to create Needmore Ale, which will be released at 5:30 p.m. on July 28 at the brewery.

The Small Business Center at Haywood Community College in partnership with The Support Center and the Western Women’s Business Center will offer a free Hispanic Latino Business Start Up series in August.

By Christopher Holt • Special to SMN

When my plane touched down at Havana International Airport to loud applause from the passengers on board, I knew there was going to be something different about this trip.

SEE ALSO: WNC artist visits Cuba in search of its political and cultural meaning in the 21st century

You can get answers to that question and more first-hand information about the island nation during a symposium and art show about Cuba that will take place at 7 p.m. on Aug 4 at The Strand at 38 Main in downtown Waynesville.

The Mountain Layers Brewing Company has begun construction on a seven-barrel craft microbrewery and taproom located on Everett Street in downtown Bryson City.

The annual Folkmoot USA The "Official" North Carolina International Folk Festival once again has touched down in Western North Carolina.

Ingles Markets • Thursday, July 28th | 3-6pm

Ingles Markets in Weaverville, NC on Weaver Blvd. 

Meet some of our local farmers & suppliers for Ingles Markets and sample!

By David Teague • Guest Columnist

Possibly the best perspective I’ve ever read about the importance of open government, and the public records and open meetings laws related to it, came from a speech made by a North Carolina public official. Here’s an excerpt from the speech:

Students and teachers from communities around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are starting six weeks of hands-on learning and exploring alongside park rangers.

Jackson County will be displayed on national television this week with the airing of Anglers & Appetites, a show that aims to discover the best of fishing and eating in the United States.

Ongoing coverage of the 33rd year of Folkmoot — an international folk dance festival based in Waynesville. 

• Folkmoot 2016 looks at more than just the tip of the iceberg
• New music director takes over at Folkmoot
• Meet ‘Mr. Folkmoot’
• Meet this year’s performing groups
• Schedule
• GALLERY: "Wanderlust" Gala
• Ugandan group changes lives through performance
• Folkmoot dance party at Asheville’s Orange Peel gives a peek below the cultural waterline
• Sam Love Queen and the values of Folkmoot
• Folkmoot moments

The Evergreen Foundation has provided $507,995 in funding to 13 agencies providing programs and services for individuals with behavioral health, substance use and intellectual/developmental disabilities.

Inspired by the popular Haywood County Quilt Trail and the “Adopt Me” quilt block located at the Waynesville Animal Hospital, the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority is now offering smaller, single replicas of the blocks for purchase. 

The documentary “The Sad & Beautiful World of Sparklehorse” will be shown at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 28, at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.

The J. Creek Cloggers picked up wins at the Appalachian Clogging Classic at Haywood Community College and ShinDig In The Valley in Maggie Valley, placing first in both for four-or-more ‘Couple Open Hoe Down.’

The new Nutrition Facts panel will go into effect in a little over a year (July 2018).  

For the first time the Nutrition Facts will feature a line for grams of added sugar.  Foods like plain milk, whole fruits, and canned or dried beans have naturally occurring sugars, but added sugar is "...sugar or syrup that is added to foods when they are processed or prepared." 

To the Editor:

Reading two letter writers in the June 29 issue, I immediately remembered Ronald Reagan’s famous campaign retort, “There you go again.” Both letters are based on disgruntlement and emotionality rather than facts and logic.

The first writer extols Trump as a “breath of fresh air” — a blast of hot air would be a better description. The writer attacks Smoky Mountain News Editor Scott McLeod for telling the truth about “The Donald.” The writer called the truth “misguided beliefs.” 

The fact is that Trump is a liar as confirmed by the impartial organizations that document the truth or falsehoods of statements. He has more “pants on fire” comments than anyone, including Hillary. His business “success” consists of bankruptcies leaving someone else holding the bag and lawsuits averaging two a week often involving avoiding commitments.

Trump’s most recent outlandish statement was praising Saddam Hussein. That should have come as a shock for the families of the solders killed fighting his army in Iraq. You can’t really blame Trump for ridiculous statements because he does not seem to know the difference between fact and nonsense.

The second writer is all gloom and doom because we have lost our “natural rights” — cue dog whistle for old white men are not in charge. He does not list a single “right” that we have lost because there are no lost rights other than the “right” to suppress people who don’t look like us.

He goes on to assert that Rome fell because it “lost its virtues.” He should have watched the “Rise of the Barbarians” on the History channel. Rome fell because of its brutal suppression of all those who were not Roman. This is not a virtue. They used extreme reprisals for any slight, which made every people outside of and under their immediate control hate them. When their territory got too big to defend, the forces outside the empire were able to bring them down.

The reality is that America is not the gloom and doom place the Bush administration left us with in 2009 — the worst recession since the crash of 1929. More people are working and stocks are back up. It’s true the middle class has not had the same benefits as the rich because wages have been suppressed and the tax burden has been shifted from the rich to us. Nobody has taken away anyone’s gun. Not perfect, but getting better.

Norman Hoffmann

Waynesville

To the Editor:

North Carolinians know about the immediate economic fallout from HB2 — the so-called bathroom bill — as performers, businesses and governments have ruled out coming here. As a small business owner, I want to tell you how much worse the damage really is ... for all of us.

Right up until the passage of HB2 my arts-related business had been growing steadily; first quarter sales of my ceramics were up over 40 percent from last year. I planned to hire a second employee and had begun building a new studio. That came to a screeching halt in late March with the bill’s passage.

Sales for the next three months fell by 30 percent. My own state government did what a major recession, two presidential election cycles and road construction outside my shop failed to do: make me lose money. Most of my fellow small business owners report similar drop-offs.

If you don’t own a tourist- or arts-related business you may think this situation doesn’t touch you, but it does. Not only are my tax payments to North Carolina falling sharply, but my own spending is way down. I won’t be adding an employee and may curtail the second studio. I must put off buying new truck tires, will postpone dental work and have to stop dining out as much. Those businesses get hurt too. The ripple effects are catastrophic.

Gov. Pat McCrory and other state lawmakers have had many opportunities to substantially change or eliminate HB2 and they repeatedly declined. Now it’s time to put North Carolina back in business by changing our state leadership.

Michael Hofman

Hofman Studios

Asheville

Native Americans will soon be allowed to gather plants on national park land for traditional purposes following the National Park Service’s decision to modify its regulations. 

The lottery is open for permits to harvest one of Western North Carolina’s most valuable plants. 

Nature-inspired LEGO creations will add an extra incentive to hit up the N.C. Arboretum the next few months, with the exhibit — called “Nature Connects: Art with LEGO Bricks” — featuring more than 370,000 bricks’ worth of creativity. 

A Sylva teen is preparing to prove himself on the national stage of fly-fishing after qualifying for the U.S. Youth Fly Fishing Team National Championship in State College, Pennsylvania. 

Clingmans Dome Observation Tower will get a makeover thanks to a $250,000 grant that supporters of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park landed through participation in an online voting contest. 

The Dogwood Crafters Cooperative will be celebrating 40 years of creating space for local crafters at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 16, in Dillsboro. The event will be a “Meet and Greet” informal gathering with refreshments. 

The lack of high-speed internet in Western North Carolina has been more than just an annoyance to Netflix binge-watchers — it’s also seen as one of the region’s largest economic development challenges.

Drivers who use a section of U.S. 74 in Haywood County will be taking a slightly different route starting on Monday, July 11.

An N.C. Department of Transportation contractor will close the exit ramp off U.S. 74 East at mile marker 104 as well as on the on-ramp from Business 19/23 in order to improve the area.

What would you say to people who think that dairy farmers give their cows antibiotics all the time or that antibiotics are in conventional milk?  

Bart Ramsey: I'd say they don't understand dairy farming.

To the Editor:

I recall some 65 years ago when citizens were often complaining about their governments, primarily about their inabilities to furnish all the desired benefits to these citizens. So here we are 65 years later and the complaints, it seems, have gotten more and more about more and more (benefits or goodies). With misnamed “government benefits” from one of the three governmental entities — county, state or federal — on our wish lists, the matter is simple but unappreciated. There are too many riding on the wagon and too few (taxpayers) pushing said wagon.

My observations are that our commissioners and legislators do a great job with the dollars that they have to fill the holes in the state’s dike. Neither Haywood nor the state has the monetary assets to solve each problem that wanders through the minds of our voters. It might be wise for any group seeking a substantial amount of aid for any project to be required to develop a comprehensive plan for the availability of the requested funds. 

There is no free lunch, and if you have some suggestions for resolving these issues please submit them in writing or email to our elected representatives. Or even better, sign up to run for office so that we don’t have to wait for your suggestions to wind through the system. 

How about me? I don’t think that I can get the votes after this letter, and I’m too old to put up with foolishness from the uninformed. If the shoe fits, wear it; if not, try the socialist program of tight everything, including shoes. Look around you: there are more regulations, statutes, directives, etc., than a show dog can jump over just to tell us how to brush our teeth or pull them out.

What I want to say is that things can get worse very soon, and what is complained about now will be minute compared to what’s on the way. Let’s talk about the Armed Forces; they’ve been gutted by political bungling at the highest level, as many good troops have opted out of a force that is not permitted to win without apologies. The women are now on the front lines (if there are any), and I’m confident will fight as hard as anyone to prevail. However, we’ve not witnessed body bags filled with parts of a female yet, but it’s coming.

You know, of course, that a body bag should be renamed “a body part bag.” Rough but true. After a number of years of mendacity by the Armed Forces and their civilian bosses, truth might seem a bit callous. But this country needs some truth, and a thought among many is that it’s coming.

Let’s give our elected officials our appreciation for their efforts to try to make two dollars out of one; and try to plug the holes created to a large degree by regulatory authority, without — you guessed it — the necessary financing for the mandated items.

Let’s all push the wagon. We can’t support those who can push but desire to ride. Get off and help us.

KG Watson

Maggie Valley

Visitation to Jackson County for the 2015-2016 fiscal year was the highest recorded in the four-year history of the Jackson County Tourism Development Authority, with occupancy tax seeing a record 9.6-percent increase for this fiscal year. 

What do dairy cows feed on?  

Bart Ramsey: They graze on grasses that we grow like ryegrass, bluegrass and fescue. In dry weather and from October to April that's not enough to provide them with the nutrients they need - they'd starve and not produce any milk if all they did was graze. We also feed them corn silage.  

Fifteen new tent sites could go in along the Appalachian Trail on its route through the Standing Indian Basin in Macon County, pending public input to the U.S. Forest Service. 

A croquet group has formed in Waynesville, meeting 10 a.m. to noon Wednesdays at Vance Street Park.

A tiny insect is being blamed for declining health in eastern white pine trees in six North Carolina counties including Haywood, Swain, Madison and Transylvania. The N.C. Forest Service is asking Western North Carolina landowners to look out for signs of damage.

For the first time since September, severe drought is affecting North Carolina — including portions of Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Transylvania counties. 

A new bridge allowing access to the Jackson County greenway’s terminus at Locust Creek is now open to pedestrians, marking the end of a years-long project.

The Cold Mountain Game Lands in Haywood County will likely get larger following a 162-acre purchase by the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.

To the Editor:

I read with interest the editor’s op piece (Even today, our republic is on shaky ground, www.smokymountainnews.com/opinion/item/17903). It seems that he has almost admitted what his senses are telling him. Almost.

Over the last two administrations I have noted more of our natural rights have come under attack by enemies of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. All of these natural rights have essentially fallen or have been neutralized. All except for the Second Amendment.

We’ve seen the child-like representatives in D.C. (district of criminals) staging a sit-in on the House floor, hypocritically ordering in Chick-fil-A and attempting to neutralize due process, our natural right of self-defense and perhaps even habeas corpus by their “cry bully” tactics. Their behavior smacks of the mentally disordered. If the country’s representatives behave unsoundly and irrationally over our natural right to protect our loved ones and ourselves and are applauded by the mob, what does that say of those who voted them into those offices?

A student of history can easily show you exactly where the American Experiment went wrong. Look at Lincoln’s first administration. Only a tyrant suspends habeas corpus for citizens (over 10,000) of these United States. The alleged exigencies of a never-declared war weren’t then and are never an excuse to override the contract between the citizens and their representatives. The ends do not justify the means. There was an insurrection in 1863 because of this tyrannical behavior involving thousands of militia (Democrats) in Indiana that only failed because someone talked.

“Historically, a government that can, without due process, throw a citizen into a dungeon or summarily execute him is considered to be a tyranny, not a democracy. By any historical definition, the United States today is a tyranny. (www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-27/does-united-states-still-exist).

Thomas Jefferson wrote about American virtues; the virtues of justice, benevolence, industry, moderation, patience, self-reliance, vigilance and spirited participation, wisdom, friendship, piety, charity, toleration and hope.

All are disappearing or gone.

When Rome lost its virtues, Rome fell. As we have lost/discarded our American virtues, so has our star diminished.

Soon now, that “time and place where wise people ... those who value reason, are well read, those who treasure human connections and are not always trying to be witty or bombastic,” their wisdom will be totally devalued. Men and women will deride what was once called wisdom and value the momentary and the mindless. 

Panem et circenses, bread and circuses, was a calculated political strategy used by the Roman emperors and their allies to control and rule the mob. It worked quite well until the oligarchs could no longer pay for the grain grown in Egypt and shipped to Rome. The empire could no longer pay its armies, the government collapsed and the first of several barbarian invasions occurred.

With over $19 trillion of debt, some say that time is rapidly approaching for America.

Since the editor of SMN wasn’t quite ready to make an admission in last week’s op piece of the actual state of things I will.

The republic is dead.

The rule of law is dead.

We are in the interregnum.

A political agenda/ideology won’t save you.

A man on a white horse won’t save you.

Only you can save yourself and establish a second republic, freer and better than the first and with those Jeffersonian virtues.

 The only thing that matters now is what do we intend to do about it?

Benjamin Franklin said “Join or die.”

Carl Iobst

Cullowhee

To the Editor:

I was reading Scott McLeod’s piece last week (www.smokymountainnews.com/opinion/item/17903) with interest when suddenly I felt like I was hit by the literary equivalent of a brick. You start with “This is not a political column, but …” and then proceed to trash Donald Trump, accusing him of everything from being a liar to being an uninformed, uneducated idiot, stating “… he doesn’t know history or foreign policy, isn’t well read….”

Shame on you for making these biased, unfounded statements. Donald Trump graduated from one of the finest colleges (Wharton School of Business) at one of the finest universities in the country (University of Pennsylvania, which, by the way, is in the Ivy League). You don’t know what he reads or knows. You just want to sway your readers against him because of your own misguided beliefs.

As an attorney who has lived six decades now, I’ve seen enough of the political process in this country and the results thereof to know that Mr. Trump is nothing short of a breath of fresh air. He has not only forced a discussion of issues that our so-called leaders prefer to keep under the rug, but he has also offered us a chance to regain control of our great country from forces that simply don’t care about our prosperity or that of our allies. 

President Obama has blatantly snubbed our allies (i.e., Mubarak in Egypt, Israel) and embraced our enemies (i.e. Iran, Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt). The fallout has only begun. If we don’t dramatically change course ASAP, I fear for the future of this nation. And you should, too.

Aimee Fried

Waynesville

Haywood County Sheriff’s deputies are looking for an armed and dangerous suspect involved in a June 26 shooting incident in Canton.

CULLOWHEE – Chili’s Grill and Bar, a popular national chain restaurant, will be open for business on the campus of Western Carolina University this fall as the full-service dining establishment is the latest tenant announced for Noble Hall, the mixed-use facility being constructed on the site of structures damaged by fire in 2013.

To the Editor:

I’d like to thank the community of Western North Carolina for so cooperatively hosting the historic Moral Monday gathering in Sylva last Monday, June 13, held in the aftermath of the horrific mass shooting in Orlando, Florida. 

This event was hosted by the newest and farthest west branch of the North Carolina conference of the NAACP, in Jackson County. Dr. Enrique Gomez is the first Hispanic president of an NAACP Branch. The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II delivered an inspiring and motivating keynote address in his first trip west of Asheville to a large crowd of hundreds in this small rural town. Other citizens who have been impacted hard by actions of the N.C. General Assembly and the governor also stood up to speak in a way that was very moving to all who witnessed.

The Smoky Mountain News covered the event thoroughly and fairly, even devoting its front page to the announcement the week before.

The Town of Sylva cooperated fully with the preparation of Bridge Park. The Sylva Police and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department were very professional and fully cooperative in providing security for the event and for Dr. Barber, personally. Jackson County Transit provided a paid shuttle service between the Justice Center parking lot and Bridge Park.

Sylva Mayor Lynda Sossamon was welcoming to all those who came to our community to participate in this event.

I am proud to be living in this community.

Avram Friedman

Sylva

Executive Director of the Canary Coalition 

To The Editor:

Chris Cox’s opinion column concerning “trying to make sense of Orlando” in the June 15 edition of this paper (www.smokymountainnews.com/opinion/item/17857) was a sham to promote his own political views. Not a bad read until the Donald Trump bashing began and snide remarks aimed at the NRA, so conveniently noted as the gun lobby. 

Orlando, a tragedy indeed, need not be dragged into the political arena. Plain and simple, a deranged individual who managed to convince the FBI he was a good guy and should be allowed to buy a gun is the guilty party here, not Donald Trump or the NRA or our 4.5 million members. Of course, liberals are screaming for more gun control, which has been a failure from the get-go. Perps do not adhere to the law, so all the gun laws in the world will not stop these incidents from happening. 

Compounding this tragedy, too bad bouncers and bartenders were not armed so this episode of rage and terror could have been contained to a minimum. You can never save the first victim; element of surprise and being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but, wouldn’t it have been great if an armed citizen (not consuming) or employee stepped up to the plate and held this carnage in check. Bottom line, a few dead instead of a staggering 50!

 As for Chris’ attempt at interpreting the 2nd Amendment, it’s pretty clear, very simple: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” It couldn’t be any plainer, a simple statement, as it was intended to be, but one that has been twisted and redefined to promote the agenda of the liberal media whose answer to any act of violence is “ban everything!”

“Gun-free zones” are preying opportunities for miscreants and their ilk, and these so-called safe havens should be eliminated for they are anything but safe. Why? The only guy with a gun is a bad guy because again, bad guys don’t obey the law. 

Amazing how we trust an 18-year-old kid with an M16 as long he is 10,000 miles away, but when that same kid comes home he has to jump through hoops to carry a weapon for self defense because he isn’t 21 years old; old enough to defend his country, but not old enough to defend himself on his own soil. What’s wrong with that picture? 

J. (Duke) De Luca, 

Otto

The Zahner Conservation Lecture Series at the Highlands Nature Center kicks off its initial program on July 7

Volunteers are wanted to help keep Haywood’s streams free of trash by adopting a section to clean once per year. 

A new slide has been installed at the water park at the Waynesville Recreation Center.

The nation holds only seven Bee Campus USA gardens, and now the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville is one of them.