#mike begins to feel more emotional though at the price of really huge pains in his chest . he learns to overcome it probably at some point.

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Feb. 1, 2017: Columns

‘Sold...’

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

I don't get out much these days, what with being old, and a sedentary slug and all, but one of the small trips I do make annually is to the North Carolina Association of Agricultural Fair's meeting which is held each year in January in Durham , North Carolina.

 As most of you know who read this piece on a regular basis, I am pleased and proud to be a member of the Rotary Club of North Wilkesboro, and one of our events is to host the Wilkes Agricultural Fair. The club has been sponsoring this fair for nearly 40 years, with its beginning at the North Wilkesboro Speedway, then at the VFW Park off Hwy 115, and, for the past 15 year or so, at the Worth Tomlinson Rotary Park on the 421 A By-Pass (off D Street) in North Wilkesboro.

By virtue of our fair, the Rotary club is a member of the aforementioned association and Mike Staley and I attend each year. It is a fascination group of people. We are the only Rotary Club at the event, as most fairs are run by the county in which they are located, with the occasional American Legion Post or Lions Club thrown in. The fair is centered around a huge ballroom which is divided up for vendors and meetings. The vendor area is worth the trip to Durham. 

There are representatives for nay kind of act you can imagine, many with live performers doing demonstrations. You can literally book a three ring circus for your child's birthday if you have the money, but my favorite was the guy with trained chickens. I mean that. Those chickens performed better than most dog acts.The meeting is Thursday though Saturday and on Thursday evening they have an auction to benefit the scholarship fund the association sponsors. The items for the auction are all donated by the fairs themselves or vendors or business in the areas served by the fair. The bidding can be intense for some items, but it is all is good fun for a good cause. This year's fair auction was no exception. 

The auctioneer was a pro who had the sing-song auction routine down pat with several “ring men” working through the crowd to help identify bids and to encourage bidding.About halfway through the items a big flat screen television was taken up front to be sold. It was donated by the Cape Fear Fair and Expo from Wilmington . As the bidding progressed, I noticed that Skip Watkins who works with the Wilmington group, was bidding on the television. I smiled and thought to myself that he was going to at the least make sure his TV set brought a good price. It was a relatively popular item and the bidding continued for several minutes, with Skip staying with it all the way. 

The next thing I heard was a loud “SOLD, to Number...” and I looked up in time to see Skip Watkins holding up his bid card. I, of course, assumed that he had gotten caught trying to run up the bid on his item.Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. Skip smilingly strode up to the auction stand and picked up the big box containing the television.

 As he walked back toward his table, he turned to his left and made his way to another groups table, stopped and sat the box on the floor next to one of the women at the table. She stood up, first smiling and then crying as he hugged her and she thanked him for what was a huge surprise gift.I was completely puzzled by the turn of events, until it was explained to me by one of the other attendees. It seems as though the lady in question was from Robeson County and had recently lost virtually everything she owned by the flooding associated with Hurricane Matthew this past October. 

Those who have known Skip Watkins for a time were not at all surprised by his gesture, and the auction continued with everyone in the place feeling a little bit better about the world we live in.  

What is you emotional quotient

By LAURA WELBORN

It is so humiliating to take an Emotional Quotient test and score badly, or rather your score states “You can turn your challenges into strengths”.   My son was telling me his score from a recent leadership class he was taking and sent me the book “Emotional Quotient 2” which had a test in it. I scored pretty good- not as good as him but good.  Then I recently received an email that said I was due for a 6 month review.  In my usual naiveté manner I took the test, thinking I was going to improve with time and would blow the test out of the water. To my dismay I scored significantly lower, so I traced back where I was in my life 6 months ago… and realized it was when things were going well and before I was about to take another hit to my fragile (but stable at the time) ego.  Maybe I was just more honest, or delusional in my assessment of emotional functioning the first time, either way I feel the recommendations are worth sharing:

 “Breathe deeply:  Your brain demands a full 20 percent of your body's oxygen supply, which it needs to control basic functions like breathing and sight and complex functions like thinking and managing your mood. Your brain dedicates oxygen first to the basic functions, because they keep you alive. Whatever oxygen remains is used for the complex functions, which keep you alert, focused, and calm. Shallow breaths deprive your brain of oxygen, which can lead to poor concentration, forgetfulness, mood swings, restlessness, depressed and anxious thoughts, and a lack of energy. Shallow breathing handicaps your ability to self-manage.

 Self Talk:  Research suggests the average person has about 50,000 thoughts every day.  Every time one of those 50,000 thoughts takes place, chemicals are produced in your brain that can trigger reactions felt throughout your body. There is a strong relationship between what you think and how you feel, both physically and emotionally. Because you are always thinking (much like breathing), you tend to forget that you are doing it.   What follow are the most common types of negative self-talk with the keys to taking control of them and turning them around:

1. Turn I always or I never into just this time or sometimes. Your actions are unique to the situation in front of you, no matter how often you think you mess up. When you start treating each situation as its own animal and stop beating yourself up over every mistake, you'll stop making your problems bigger than they really are.

2. Replace judgmental statements like I'm an idiot with factual ones like I made a mistake.

Thoughts that attach a permanent label to you leave no room for improvement. Factual statements are objective, situational, and help you to focus on what you can change.

3. Accept responsibility for your actions and no one else's. The blame game and negative self-talk go hand in hand. If you are someone who often thinks either it's all my fault or it's all their fault you are wrong most the time. It is commendable to accept responsibility for your actions, but not when you carry someone else's burden. Likewise, if you're always blaming others, it's time to take responsibility for your part.

 In the timeless classic, War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy wrote that the two strongest warriors are time and patience.  The power of these warriors comes from their ability to transform situations, ease pain, and provide clarity.  Sometimes situations that require our patience can feel so uncomfortable, dissatisfying, and rife with anxiety that we jump to action just to alleviate the internal turmoil. But more often than not, giving yourself that extra day, week, or month to digest the situation before moving forward is all you need to stay in control. And sometimes, while you're waiting, things may surface that make your decision that much easier to make.  Time helps you to self-manage because it brings clarity and perspective to the thousands of thoughts that go swimming through your head when something is important. Time also helps you to gain control of emotions that you know would lead you in the wrong direction if you were to let them drive.”  

From the Emotional Intelligence 2.0 book -take the emotional intelligence appraisal…. Just don’t rub it in if your score is in the “you are doing great” area and remember it can go down with experience.  I just wish age would make us more emotionally intelligent naturally.

An Unintended but Pleasant Surprise for Israel

By EARL COX

Special to The Record

Although Barak Hussein Obama’s tenure as President of the United States has ended and John Kerry is no longer the U.S. Secretary of State, Israel’s woes on the world’s stage are not over. However, under the new Trump administration, Israel will hopefully once again find they have a true and loyal friend in the United States.

Obama and Kerry worked hard in their final hours of power to make Israel’s battle at the United Nations and elsewhere an even tougher challenge for the Jewish state. The biased United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution passed on December 23rd was quietly in the works for a long time.  Among many other anti-Israel provisions, the document condemns Israeli settlements as “illegal and dangerously imperiling the viability of the two-state solution.” It also states that Israel does not own the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, any part of the West Bank and not a square inch of East Jerusalem. Furthermore, the resolution called on states that do business with Israel “to distinguish between the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967” which paves the way for renewed Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns against Israel. The United States broke with precedent by failing to veto the resolution which it has historically done whenever a proposed resolution was determined to be unfairly slanted against Israel. Obama’s failure to exercise his veto gave Israel’s enemies hope that the Paris conference would have relevance and it did but, surprisingly, it was in favor of Israel. All were taken by surprise when Britain broke ranks with Europe by refusing to join the 70 other nations in attendance at the Paris conference which signed a statement preserving the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Australia also refused to sign.      

The French-sponsored talks on the two-state solution were designed to send a message to now President Donald Trump that only a two-state solution will solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict … just in case Team Trump should get the idea to pursue a different approach.  Clearly globalist anti-Israel strategists were hard at work pushing their agendas. While some feared, others were hopeful, that the Paris conference would produce a document to be brought to the Security Council for an immediate vote; a document that would establish parameters for future talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

But that’s not all the anti-Israel strategists had been planning. Sweden and its virulently anti-Israel Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, bribed their way to a two-year nonpermanent seat on the Security Council perfectly timed to happen prior to Obama leaving office. This is no coincidence.

For months, Sweden worked assiduously behind the scenes, inviting U.N. ambassadors from poor and developing African countries to Stockholm. Sweden wooed the ambassadors with luxury to the tune of 27 million SEK (nearly $3 million), while wheeling, dealing and lobbying for their U.N. votes. The money was siphoned from its public budget for aid to poor and undeveloped countries.  According to Swedish press reports, Sweden also sent representatives to Africa to speak with Ethiopia’s prime minister, who promised to support Sweden’s candidacy for the Security Council seat in return for Sweden’s vote for him as director general of UNESCO this year.

“It was a cover operation for what this is really about, namely to buy votes,” a source told a Swedish human rights publication. “The real aim and scope of the operation was kept secret, and the different steps of the campaign were not recorded.”

Sweden supports limiting the use of the veto by permanent Security Council members—such as the United States—“in situations where mass atrocity crimes have been, or risk being committed.”  

The French Connection

Considering France’s record of anti-Semitism and its BDS-tainted labeling of goods produced in Israeli settlements, it should be no surprise that in December, France sent a security delegation to the United States for counterterrorism training by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). If you blinked, I understand. The Department of Homeland Security Community Engagement Office in Tampa, and the Obama State Department arranged for CAIR’s Florida chapter to train the French police and counter-terrorism personnel.

The program blatantly conflicts with the FBI policy of noncooperation with CAIR (except for criminal investigations) due to evidence linking its executives to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, the thrust of the Tampa training was to discourage counterterror activities within Muslim communities, which CAIR claims undermine Muslims’ civil liberties.

Barbarians at the Gates

You may wonder why democratic France, whose citizens have suffered a string of devastating terror attacks by Muslim extremists in the past two years, would seek security and counter-terrorism training from a Muslim group with proven terrorist ties. Why not call on Israel, which stood in solidarity with France after the attacks, and which offers counter-terrorism expertise?  France and the EU face barbarians not only at the gates, but also in the palais, marketplace, sports arena and workplace. By embracing or failing to acknowledge groups with terrorist ties and suspect agendas, the EU could be courting disaster. There’s more to this than naiveté.

CAIR officials enjoyed close relations with the Obama Administration, and DHS/State Department coordination with CAIR is not new. According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, DHS has funneled anti-terrorism funds allocated by Congress to the group, including a 2015 DHS sub-grant. That same year, the State Department discussed with CAIR officials “the need … to challenge [alleged] aggressive Israeli actions targeting the Al Aqsa mosque compound, one of the holiest sites in Islam.” Reports also have surfaced of DHS training procedures that would single out U.S. Jews and Christians as “domestic terrorists” in the event of martial law.

For America and Israel to maintain free, democratic societies, threats to derail our democracies and way of life must be exposed and confronted. As Donald Trump begins his service as President of the United States, it would be prudent for those who value freedom and democracy to encourage him as well as the U.S. Congress to set fresh foreign policy initiatives that support America’s ally Israel and investigate DHS and State Department ties to Muslim extremists.  While it appears the United States is off to a good start with an Israel-friendly administration in Washington D.C., there are many holes in this dike and the more eyes watching the better.

 A Banjo, A Saxophone and a Man on the move  

By Carl White

Life in the Carolinas

It was a week of sensory delights!  I had the opportunity to enjoy the music of the Kruger Brothers and The Trailblazer at a benefit for the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame and then, later, the legendary group Chairman of the Board.

The Kruger Brothers are a trio who play what I can best describe as a stylistic America folk music with a world influence. The sounds open even more when you close your eyes and take in the masterfully-arranged emotionally charged sounds. It’s quite extraordinary and best enjoyed when you are not rushed.

Jens plays the banjo, Uwe plays the guitar, and Joel Landsberg, the bass. Jens and Uwe Kruger were born and raised in Europe and Joel, in New  York City.  They all now live in the foothills of North  Carolina. They tour the world, sharing their unique and captivating style of music and delight in calling the Carolinas home.

The Trailblazers is a young group, just finding their voice in the world of Bluegrass music. They seem to get better every time I hear them. Out of Wilkesboro, NC, Jonah Horton plays mandolin, Daniel Thrailkill strums guitar, Will Thrailkill plays base, and Alex Edwards picks the banjo. At the benefit, they performed several covers and a few of Daniel’s original songs. Ivy Phillips--from Nashville--another up and coming star, sat[CW1]  in with the show playing the fiddle. It was a refreshing performance; one that I would gladly see again.

While working on a story about Ken Knox and Chairman of the Board, we attended one of their scheduled performances at Charley’s Restaurant and Entertainment Club in Gastonia. It would be at this stop that I would get a bonus story. I had been working on the Ken Knox story for some time; however I did not know anything about the venue or about Charley Gunn, it’s owner. Ken was the one who told me about Charley and how important he had been to the Carolina bands over the years. As it turns out, Charley, now in his mid-80’s, has been in the entertainment business for over 40 years and he has the following to prove it.

We arrived around 5:00 pm to set up and capture video of the Chairman of the Board, as well as a collection of interviews to layer the segment on Ken and the group. I spoke with Charley for a few moments; he said he had to take a quick shower and would be back in 45 minutes. We went about our business of setting up and getting ready. We were documenting the behind the scenes work that goes into putting on a road show and getting comments from fans and band members. We had a full night ahead of us. Before long I noticed Charley was back and on the move.

There seemed to be plenty of help to run things but as I would observe, Charley likes to be involved.  The show started at 9 pm, and at 10 pm the legendary Chairman of the Board took the stage. The audience knew who they had come to hear and were prepared for a great show; from everything we could see and hear, the people were not disappointed. When Ken Knox introduced Carolina Girl, which has been a favorite song in the Carolinas since its release in 1980, the level of excitement exploaded! The entire show was full of energy. The band was tight, and the entertainment and showmanship were excellent.

I asked Charley what he thought, when the show as over. He said, ”Well, the people love Chairman of the Board and Ken is one heck of a Saxophone player.”  I also asked Charley if he had any plans of retiring to which he replied with a smile, “NO.”

I agree with Charley.

 Carl White is the executive producer and host of the award-winning syndicated TV show Carl White’s Life In the Carolinas. The weekly show is now in its eighth year of syndication and can be seen in the Charlotte viewing market on WJZY Fox 46 Saturday’s at 12:00 noon. For more on the show, visit  www.lifeinthecarolinas.com, You can email Carl White at Carl@lifeinthecarolinas.com.    

Copyright 2017 Carl White