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Here's applauding the efforts to create an ACC Hall of Champions in Greensboro.
Who wouldn't?
The idea is as natural a fit for this city as the ACC's coveted men's basketball tournament.
Only, I wish the location for the proposed project were downtown, where it would help build critical mass (i.e., foot traffic and potential customers) for more shops, art galleries, restaurants and night spots.
How about the 5-acre site at Friendly and Church street,formerly owned by Duke Power but acquired last March for future development by the Weaver Foundation?
Not that I have any money or any clout or any say in the matter.

I'm looking forward to this Saturday morning's Morehead Men's Breakfast, which is one of the most uplifting annual events in the city.
There is nothing more heartening that seeing so many concerned, active fathers of so many shapes, sizes and colors turn out for a school activity.
Well, actually, there is: The look on each proud youngster's face.

I have a passionate bias against cell phones and the many self-absorbed, inconsiderate people who use them.

Then comes this report from The Charlotte Observer:

Alarmed that his school bus driver is dozing at the wheel, a Charlotte 16-year-old dials 911 on his cell phone and provides a harrowing play-by-play of the driver's erratic behavior. The bus swerves and speeds for more than half an hour before the driver is arrested for driving with alcohol in his system.

As for the boy, turns out he has violated a school system policy that bans cell phones on buses. But what the heck, say Charlotte-Mecklenberg school officials.

The Letters to the Editor blog is doing brisk business.
Readers seem to appreciate a chance for ongoing, almost real-time discussions of the issues.
Boy is this is untilled ground for us, and we're not sure where it will lead. But I'm guessing it will be somewhere good.
Some of you have raised questions and concerns about this new initiative; I'll attempt to answer a few here.

1. Doesn't this new approach cheapen the value of a published letter, which must be verified, edited, etc., before is printed?
I don't think so. If anything, it enhances that value by extending the letter's reach beyond the printed newspaper.
Then it adds the dimension of instant reactions and allows the writer even to respond to the responses.
The printed letter by itself is more static. It appears in the paper. The letters reacting to it may appear days later. End of story.
The writer can't respond to the reactions because he or she is prohibited from having his next letter published for at least another 30 days (that's a space issue more than anything else).

2. Knowing someone could bash them in anonymous comments, will letter writers be more trigger-shy or restrained in expressing their views?
I doubt it. Most of our letter writers relish a debate. And it's kind of a rush to see people buzzing about something you've written.
I wouldn't mind, however, if the instant reactions discourage people who are casual with their facts or who pick up urban legends off the Internet and repeat them as fact.

3. What if someone posts a comment containing objectionable language? We will delete it.

4. Do you worry that the blog will decrease the flow of traditional, print-edition letters?
Not really. Again, I think the blog will extend the reach and vitality of each letter. Or least that's what I'm hoping.
Sure, some people prefer to cloak their opinions in anonymity.
But letters are like little personal columns with bylines. Many of our letter writers prefer having their names attached to their opinions.
And don't forget, many who post comments on blogs choose not to be anonymous.

To all of this I add this disclaimer: These responses are merely hunches. This is a new type of forum and, frankly, we're making some of this up as we go.
Which is to say, I could be wrong. Stay tuned.

Leave it to one of our regular op-ed columnists to twist Martin Luther King Jr's legacy into a half-informed screed against diversity.

In Tuesday's column, Charles Davenport Jr. takes aim at the News & Record's attempts to recruit a staff that (gulp) actually reflects its community.

Davenport -- with whom I get along just fine but with whom I rarely agree -- chastises the paper for requiring that one-third of its newsroom hires be minorities.

"The authentic civil rights activist endorses equal opportunity and rejects preferential treatment," Davenport writes.

So do we. The new hiring initiative will involve only qualified hires, whatever their race or gender. That's a given.

Then Davenport goes on to declare: "There is no evidence that minority issues have been overlooked on these pages because of a lack of staff diversity."

How would he know? He certainly didn't ask us.

If he did, he'd know that the makeup of our staff inevitably affects news judgment, and it has over the years, for better and for worse.

When we've slipped up, it's typically involved errors of omission --well-meaning people just not being aware.

As high as we might aim for fairness and objectivity (and we try hard), each of us makes judgments that are at least in part informed by our life experiences.

Thus, we'd miss some things if our staff were all-male or all-female.
Or if it consisted only of people from other cities.

Or Northerners.

Or white males.

Or even only black folks.

And we're reasonably certain that a lack of younger voices on our staff often hinders our attempts to appeal to younger readers.

This is not to say a white man can't do an excellent job editing or reporting stories about the black community. Or vice versa.

But it helps to have colleagues who bring different skills, interests, backgrounds and cultures to the table. You learn from them. And you grow. And you become a better newspaper.

The irony of all this is that one reason Davenport appears on our op-ed pages is because he brings a diverse perspective.

An update: Davenport column in question now is posted online.

One of Sunday's editorials will take a closer look at the proposed capital fund being studied by the county commissioners. The concept would create a billion-dollar endowment for capital needs such as schools, courthouses and fire stations.

A 5-cent tax addition to the property tax rate over 20 years would finance the fund. What a novel idea: long-range planning and saving for future spending needs.

Also of interest: Democratic Commissioner Paul Gibson isn't the only one who thinks the concept deserves a closer look.

Former County Manager Roger Cotten and former county commissioner and city councilman Chuck Forrester, both Republicans, are avid supporters of the concept.

"I think the majority of the board would be willing to give it a good look," Cotten said Thursday.

My friend, mentor and colleague, Bill Snider, writes his farewell column in this Sunday's News & Record. We'll miss him.

Bill is former editor of the News & Record, a brilliant journalist and author who has stood by his principles with every stroke of his typewriter (he eschews writing on computers although he's becoming a prolific e-mailer to his grandkids).

"Now that I'm in my 85th year -- and in a retirement home to boot -- the time has come for me to give up writing my Sunday column on a regular basis," he wrote in a surprise note to me a few days ago.

It's hard to think of Bill as 85. He's as spry as you or me.

And he has been invaluable for his advice and guidance, which I have sought and appreciated since the day I took this job. Bill also cherishes this newspaper, whose tradition and excellence he helped build.

Bill won't go away that quietly, though. He'll still write an occasional piece for us when the inpiration strikes.

And when he's not out playing tennis.

I should have taken photos at Saturday morning's Morehead Men's Breakfast. But I guess mere words will have to do:
A full house of beaming kids and their daddies.
Rousing performances by the school's talented young African drum and string ensembles.
A shaven-headed little boy grinning in delight as he slapped his drum and bopped to the rhythm.
A caramel-skinned little girl tenderly plucking the strings of her violin.
His proud daughter leaping into the arms of volunteer Bill Vaughan, who won the school's Al McIver Award.
And most amazingly: a room packed with elementary school kids who stayed quiet and attentive for nearly two hours.
There's no better advertisement for the power of a dedicated school staff and an engaged, supportive community.
I'm convinced Morehead isn't the only place we'll find it.

The Morehead Men's Breakfast was another rousing success Saturday.
A full-flavored meal, a full-flavored program and a full house of kids and their daddies reaffirmed the power of a school and its community.

Now that retired District Court Judge William Daisy has admitted that he "hugged, touched and engaged in physical contact" with two women while still serving on the Guilford County bench, what is the appropriate punishment?

As Eric Collins reported in Saturday's News & Record, a lawyer for the Judicial Standards Commission has brokered an agreement with Daisy that he would never serve as a substitute judge in this state, a common practice among retired judges.

Daisy also agreed to accept a censure from the state Supreme Court. The commission, whose decision in Daisy's case won't be known for as long as a month, could go along with that agreement.Or not.It may accept the suggested reprimands. Or it could go a step further and "remove" Daisy, which would erase his retirement benefits.

Then it still won't be over. The Supreme Court in turn could accept or reject the commission's verdict.

The lack of local outrage about all this continues to confound. Here is a man who abused his position of power more than once to make unwanted advances and say untoward things to women. This was common knowledge, say colleagues and court workers.

But many of us still have a hard time accepting sexual harassment in the workplace as all that big a deal ... even in, of all workplaces, the county courthouse.

(Daisy's two accusers deserve praise for stepping forward. So does Chief District Judge Joseph Turner, for notifying the appropriate state officials of their complaints. Too bad some of his Daisy's colleagues on the bench knew of his indiscretions and did not act.)

Here also is a man who had a previous brush with insensitivity when he sent a series of lewd emails that contained racist, sexist and anti-Semitic jokes -- and sexually explicit cartoons -- to friends and colleagues in 2003.

The material was more objectionable than you might imagine. You've only heard the tamest stuff. I still keep the stack of printed emails in my office files. I just can't share some of the worse examples because they are not publishable, on the Internet or anywhere else.

Some of them were more suited for Hustler or Penthouse.

Daisy apologized then and stepped down as chief District Court judge. He apologized again on Friday, at his Judicial Standards Commission hearing. He says he is receiving counseling now, which he obviously needs. One can only wonder if Daisy might have done if he were hearing his own case. One can only wonder if, as the tough but fair judge many praise him for being, Daisy would have given himself the same breaks he's now seeking.

Fool me once, shame on you, I can hear him saying.

While attending a workshop this week in Norfolk, I ran each morning along the shores of the Elizabeth River. If Greensboro could muster a fraction of the condos and townhouses sprouting there like weeds, then we'd be cookin'.

What does Norfolk have that we don't? Well, for one thing, it has water. And a better economy.

But I'm also told it also has a visionary mayor who enjoys strong support from the city council and the business community.

Norfolk voters, incidentally, don't directly elect their mayor; he's chosen by the council. But that system may be about to change.

An article in the current issue of Newsweek ponders the future of the lucrative cable channel BET (Black Entertainment Television).

BET makes cash hands over fist, but I've been put off by its over-reliance on infomercials and thug/hoochie mama videos to earn its living.

That said, a key element to BET's future is its brilliant president and COO, Debra Lee, a former Greensboro resident and Dudley High School alumna. Lee is the highest-ranking African American woman in Viacom, the parent company of BET. She also is line to succeed Charlotte Bobcats owner Robert Johnson as CEO of BET when Johnson's contract expires next January.

Most profiles of Lee describe her as "a Harvard-trained lawyer" but for some reason neglect her distinguished tenure in the Dudley French Honor Society and Junior Jaycettes. The nerve.

Sorry to miss today's blogfest in Chapel Hill. But I'm sure you'll all fill me in.

I'm a recent arrival to the blogosphere precisely because of a similar conference last fall at UNCG. The Grand Potentate of Local Blogging, Ed Cone, ran the show Oprah-style (he has a future as a talk-show host), navigating through the audience, mike in hand, as if he'd known everybody for years.

In reality, some folks he'd never met. At least not in person. But Ed still knew them.There were folks from Charlotte, Chapel Hill, Winston-Salem and beyond. There also was a sense of connectivity that I've rarely seen 'round here in recent years.

In an era in which many people don't know their next-door neighbors, maybe this is the way to get people talking to each other again. Maybe blogging will not only help restore our sense of community but extend it or even reinvent it.

And maybe not.

It's hard to know where all this is going. But I'm sure it'll be somewhere interesting.

The Smothers Place Lofts sold like hotcakes downtown. And nobody seems to mind one iota how close they are to the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks. Hope that subsequent phases of the residential project fare as well.
I'm missing Tavis Smiley's NPR talk show. There was nothing else like it on the radio.
What is it with Donald Trump that he's such a shameless exhibitionist? Aren't beautiful women (he's married again, for now) and gazillions in cash enough?
HBO's superb, salty-tongued "Deadwood" returns March 6. Hallelujah.

A friend and colleague, Hal Sieber, has stepped down as editorial page editor of the city's black weekly, the Carolina Peacemaker.

Hal has won numerous N.C. Press Association awards for short, spicy commentaries that became his trademark and for his editorial alter ego of "Grandma," whose observations often sliced and diced the powers that be with homespun wit.

Hal has a poetic flair that I've long admired. That may be in part because he is a poet in his spare time.

Anyway, at age 74, Hal is moving on.

He has seen his share of controversy. For a while he was editor of the Peacemaker, a role that some questioned since Hal is a white man, the son of a German immigrant.

You'd swear at times that Hal at least thinks he's black. Yet he acknowledged the friction that came with his Peacemaker editorship in a 1989 interview with the News & Record's Tom Steadman, noting, "I can't change the whole history of society."

In 2002. Hal, a Franciscan, won the national Peace Prize of St. Francis.

Previously winners included Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Robert F. Kennedy and two popes.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back outside, News & Record security reports that a potentially rabid red fox is roaming the streets of downtown Greensboro. (I am not making this up.)

I've always expected some occupational hazards in the newspaper business. This isn't one of them.

Maybe I'll eat lunch in today.

The St. James Homes II fiasco brings into focus, again, city leaders' tendency to manage taxpayers' money with all the aplomb of a blindfolded man with holes in both pockets.

We have generally praised the Greensboro City Council as more effective and less prone to wage petty feuds as, say, the Hatfields (Democrats) and McCoys (Republicans) on the almost always entertaining, frequently depressing, Guilford Board of Commissioners.

Generally, the council has been a more constructive, less cantankerous bunch.

That said, they also have been incredibly blissful as questionable spending and lax oversight have wasted thousands upon thousands of taxpayer money.

From the Project Homestead episode (in which some council members actually got in the way when staff wanted to ask tough questions) to the slippery Greensboro Generals deal (in which city leaders essentially were had by a group of businessmen who were supposed to help defray losses) to the St. James mess (in which there is nothing but failure to show for $1 million in city funds), the council has been no less than irresponsible.

Now the city will spend another $400,000 to tear down the 36-unit low-income apartment complex.

They have often blamed the newspaper for having the gall to point out these problems, but few council members have stepped forward and admitted their own culpability.

To its credit, the city did adopt a new process for funding nonprofits, but much later than it should have.

A cover story in the current Time magazine points out how overzealous parents can make a teacher's life sheer hell.

Titled "Parents behaving badly," the piece cites a survey in which "90 percent of new teachers agreed that involving parents in their children's education is a priority at their school but only 25 percent described their experience working with parents as 'very satisfying.'"

The teachers surveyed cited involving parents and communicating with them as their toughest challenge; 73 percent said too many parents relate with schools and teachers as if they're the enemy.

Says one Colorado teacher in the story: "I called the parents on a discipline issue with their daughter. Her father called me a total jerk. Then he said, 'Well, do you want to meet someplace and take care of this man to man?'

My experience as a volunteer in Guilford County sees three sides to this story locally:
1) overbearing, blustery parents who know it all, who consider any teacher guilty before being proven innocent and around whose children the entire universe rotates;

2) supportive, helpful parents who see value not only in working with their own children but with others';

and 3) some school officials who are less than welcoming to parents and other volunteers who can make a difference.

The article also questions whether overreaching parents are hovering so much over their children that their poor kids aren't learning to think for themselves.

Reminds me of a story a couple of years ago about parents who follow their children to college. One mother rented an apartment in Durham to be close to her freshman daughter at Duke.

Puhleeeeeeeeze.

The letters to the editor blog has added a new dimension to reader discussion and interaction.
It also brings new challenges.

As the person who ultimately is in charge of letters, I appreciate and encourage spirited discussion.

But if your goal is merely to shout or call names, please save your voice for talk radio.

That concern arises with a particularly lengthy thread that has taken a decided twist toward meanness.
Noted one plaintive comment from "Chewie" amid all the verbal broadsides:

So this is the public square. It looks an awful lot like what's on my TV, and sounds an awful lot like what's on my radio these days.
If comments were enabled in the print version of the Letters, I would ask JR for my 50 cents back.

Amen. Blogs present a perfect opportunity to defend and challenge ideas and to back arguments with links to factual sources.

That way, we can keep the discussion from devolving into a cyberversion of insulting one another's mamas.

County Commissioner Skip Alston's charges of racism against the city for pulling the plug on the failed St. James II low-income apartments were as outrageous as they were, for him at least, totally predictable.

Alston frequently alleges racism when he wants critics to back off. Lest it be said that he discriminates, Alston has been just as prone to croon that familiar tune whether the target is black or white.

Alston, remember, in 1999 labeled black school board member Keith Green an "Uncle Tom" and a "House Negro."

Problem is, the all-to-frequent invoking of such charges make it all the more difficult for others when legitimate instances of racism surface (and even in 2005, they still do).

Alston is outspoken, politically savvy and smarter than most. He should realize the disservice he performs by yelling fire when there is none.

My good friend and co-worker, News & Record Editor John Robinson, will speak as a part of a panel Saturday morning on diversity in newsroom.

Sponsored by Triad Black Media Professionals, and scheduled for 11 a.m. in the New Classroom Building at N.C. A&T, the panel will address the question: "The Road to Diversity: Are We There Yet?"

To prime the pump for discussion, here's some historical perspective on whether it really matters who shapes and reports the content of newspapers.

First, this excerpt from the Kerner Commission Report of 1968, compiled in the wake of a disturbing wave of racial upheaval:

"The journalistic profession has been shockingly backward in seeking out, hiring, training, and promoting Negroes. Fewer than 5 percent of the people employed by the news business in editorial jobs in the United States today are Negroes. Fewer than 1 percent of editors and supervisors are Negroes, and most of them work for Negro-owned organizations, The lines of various news organizations to the militant blacks are, by admission of the newsmen themselves, almost nonexistent. The plaint is "We can't find qualified Negroes."