Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Monday was Memorial Day. Here’s what WLOSers deemed important:
WLOSers covered Memorial Day ceremonies in Henderson, Rutherford and Buncombe Coutnies. They went around and asked people what Memorial Day means, and people said it means thanking veterans and being grateful for what they’ve sacrificed. Mike “Cuervo” Cuevas wore his flag tie.
The big Memorial Day news, which WLOSer Holly Headache covered with a live stand-up from Trinity Baptists Church, was a ceremony where families of dead soldiers got a specially made North Carolina state flag. This has apparently never happened before. It took state Rep. Ray Rapp and the governor to make this happen.
This simplistic coverage stood in stark contrast to most other news coverage of Memorial Day we saw, where news outlets actually explained the impact of war on people and showed the impact in heart-rending fashion.
In Rutherford County, there was a specific service for a local Marine who was killed in Iraq. One relative said she didn’t really like the war or see our purpose there, but people have to keep dying in Iraq so that all the dying won’t be in vain. She didn’t explain what victory in Iraq would look like. And end to all the dying?
Pull over, boat!
Pat “Simple” Simon said there’s a new state law that requires boats to “move over” if they come within 100 feet of a police boat with its blue light on. It’s like the move over law that applies to roadways.
It’s dry out there
Cuevas told us that we’re almost 3.5 inches short on rainfall for May, and we’re down about 7 inches for the year. It’s really dry out there. But it will rain by the weekend, he said.
Jeremy Butterfield, all growed up
What are they feeding Butterfield down there in Rutherford County? Whatever it is, Butterfield is putting it to good use. He looks like he’s grown a solid two inches since the last time we saw him. And we swear there’s a little peach fuzz on that upper lip of his.
A bright spot
Jon “Punnyman” Le had a touching story about Michael Thomas, a kid in Madison County with a rare condition – juvenile Huntington’s disease. The story was that Michael got to ride in an airplane which flew over WNC. Specifically, the place flew over the boy’s school, Brush Creek elementary, where they stood in the shape of a heart that could be seen from boy’s bird’s eye view. The plane also flew over Mars Hill Elementary, where the kids stood in the shape of a smiley face.
Le treated the subject with respect and told the story in straight-forward fashion. Too bad Simple Simon ruined it by saying at the end, “If you dont have a tear in your eye after that story, you should.” We don’t need a dry-eyed Simon telling us when to cry.
In other news…
There have been a lot of bear sightings in and around Asheville and Megan McCauley in Haw Creek said she’s seen a bear almost every night last week… There was a folk music festival at the Carl Sandburg homeplace in Henderson County and Eliza Lynn played some music there… Fat white people sat on the “beach” at Lake Lure… Simple Simon pulled out the old “eggsactly, eggsactly” line in a story about kids learning to farm and mess with chickens.
As a veteran, it always makes my blood boil that people do not know the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
There, now I said it.
Flame on.
Rant off.