Celebrate our Independence Day

The citizens of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, declared their independence from the British throne on May 20, 1775.  Happy Independence Day, everybody!

The call finally came

By call, I mean phone call. Our local government has what I presume is a reverse-911 system, and they are so happy with it that everything seems to qualify as an emergency. From residents who go missing from area nursing homes to escaped jail inmates, if something happens then everybody gets the call. I suppose there’s an argument to be made that each of these cases could be termed an emergency case, but what happens when a firestorm is ravaging the county and the evacuation call gets ignored by most simply because they think it’s just another call about Fannie Mae getting lost from the home again?

Last night the call was the one I’ve been dreading: an official government request to cut water usage by 50%. Fortunately, these requests are still completely voluntary for us. I’ve blogged previously about how responsible local residents have already been in drastically cutting their water usage, even though our local water supply is considerably insulated from the effects of even the current extreme drought. I have little fear that residents will be able to achieve nearly the 50% goal, even if they don’t quite make the full amount.

Happy with just a sprinkle

We’ve had sprinkles of rain throughout the night and this morning. To most people, that isn’t news, but in the parched southeast United States, it’s huge.

A report last night on the Weather Channel really drove home just how severe this drought is: as of this week, almost 38% of North Carolina is classified D4/Exceptional, the most severe rating for drought conditions. You can see a map of what this looks like at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln’s North Carolina State Drought Monitor page. Georgia is lucky, comparatively speaking. Only (only, he says!) 27% of that state suffers from the most severe drought conditions. Now take a look at Alabama. Over 50% rated D4.

Still room left on the bus (but they won’t make you ride in the back)

If you’ve heard of the Jena 6, you may be interested in joining the sentencing vigil in Jena (I’m not calling it a demonstration, since I don’t believe demonstrations can help at this point, but a strong show of public vigilance can help). Charlotte metro residents can apparently still get a seat on buses that will leave on September 19 to arrive in Louisiana early morning on September 20.

You can read more about the Charlotte connection on WCNC.com. Read more about the planned trip, including your cost to join in, at PraisePreview.com.

OK, I’m back and there’s good news

I have a dear, dear friend who I wasn’t able to visit recently because she was traveling to visit friends.  And when she travels, she really travels!  During the weeks of our separation, I apparently didn’t find anything worth blogging about (co-dependent, anyone?), and I even got a call from Friend to ask if I was OK since I hadn’t blogged.

Today I read this article in the Charlotte Observer.  In case the article has expired, I’ll break it down for you:  two-thirds of North Carolina adults favor a smoking ban in enclosed public areas (restaurants, shopping centers, stadiums).  That’s huge.  The number who favor a smoking ban in all North Carolina schools is even bigger:  a whopping 90%!  Of course, the latter figure is quite a bit less important since many N.C. counties have already gone tobacco-free in their schools.  Even so, it’s nice to know there’s support for it.

Among non-smokers, a whopping 81.5% support banning smoking in public enclosed spaces.  I would have thought that figure would be higher, but I suppose that’s the reason for polls in the first place.

It’s important to note that the poll is from the Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation Program at UNC Chapel Hill.  Even the name is obviously biased (their mission:  “to prevent tobacco use, tobacco-related addiction, and exposure to secondhand smoke”), but it happens to be a bias I can support so I’ll accept their figures.  You can read the full report at their website.