I just stopped down at Aycock Middle School and ran into chorus director extraordinaire Jimmy Cheek and simply asked, "how's it going?" Jimmy has been on the front lines for keeping several of Aycock's more recalcitrant students interested and involved in school and his mission has been harder this year than most.

Jimmy asked if I had heard about his drum line. As I knew he is a choral teacher I assured him that I had not but would love to know what he was up to. He said, "come on", and we started towards his classroom.

He showed me a drum line recruitment poster in the hall that he had made and related how he started the group with 8 boys and told them if they showed up after school two days per week and practiced that he would take them to an A&T football game... they did... and they grew.

I went in the chorus room and there were 24 guys there including two "tough guys" who joined today saying that they "need to belong to the line". Jimmy told me that many of them were considered "problem" kids in school, but they weren't a problem for Jimmy and J.R. (a drummer from N.C. A&T who is instructing them).

The rules for membership: no grades below a "C", no "U'"'s in conduct, all homework must be completed. If any of these are not met the guys can still come to practice on Mondays and Wednesdays but they can't hold a drumstick until they are in compliance. Jimmy says that a couple of kids who had straight "F"'s and all "U"s in the first grading period now have mid term reports that meet all the rules.

The problem is, they have no drums... Hell, most of them don't even have drumsticks but I will take care of that by Wednesday. They are currently beating on the backs of chairs and desktops but they are starting to sound real good. This is all being done on a volunteer basis but they are going to need some help to thrive.

I am going to see if we can raise some money for these guys over the next month or so to get them some proper drums and some t-shirts. I will contact all of my band director and music store contacts to see what I can "drum up" for equipment donations but this is going to take some cash to really be successful.

Jimmy Cheek's Aycock Drum Line is exactly the right prescription at exactly the right time at this inner city middle school. Want to help? All donations will be greatly appreciated by these guys. Reply or call.  336-273-2384

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I am now seriously worried about Mr. Sun.  Every couple of days I expectantly click over to his site and there is nothing going on.

One of the problems with anonymous posting is that if something happens and their posting suddenly stops, we don't know who to be concerned about.

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Jim Capo has been feeling a draft, and I am beginning to listen.

Even before we invaded Iraq there were concerns that we might come up short on military man (woman) power and Sen. Fritz Hollings and Rep. Charles Rangel responded by proposing bicameral bills in Congress back in January that would reinstate the draft.

"Citing the increased and extended number of deployments of the nation's reserve and national guard forces as well as the increased number of operational rotations for our active forces, Sen. Hollings and Rep. Rangel expressed concerns about the military's ability to fight two wars at once, a capability to which the Department of Defense has attested."

They updated their postion in October in a letter to the Dallas Morning News.  The bill has been read twice before the Senate Armed Services Committee and is awaiting executive comment from the Department of Defense.

I have no problem with the draft's reinstatement as long as my children's potential forced enlistment is to truly serve the Nation's undisputed national security interests.  I have spoken to them many times about my views regarding service to country and related my regrets for not having served in the military when I had the chance.  However, with our bungled and confusing foreign policies, I don't see the public buying in on conscription.

I will oppose this legislation until I am convinced that the invasion of Iraq was justified and meant to benefit my family's security and not Halliburton's bottom line.  I don't think the White House has a good enough salesman to convince me but I will continue to listen to the pitch.

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In a letter to the editor of the N&R, Milton Grenfell from Charlotte states the case for why we in Aycock fought so hard for the Bats to stay in War Memorial Stadium more succinctly than anyone has before IMHO:

"...Stripped of its colorful, lively neighborhoods, the Bats' baseball experience will be drained of life and sterilized, while the memorable Memorial Stadium will become in time another forgotten abandoned hulk, slipping inexorably into ruin..."

Full disclosure: Milton was one of the 14 members of the Philip Bess team of architects that the Aycock Neighborhood hired in 2001 to develop our Traditional Neighborhood Master Plan. 

To his "ruin" point, we in the neighborhood are taking steps to ensure the stadium structure's future.  We are planning to petition the City to fold WMS into the Aycock Historic District which would give it protections far in excess on its National Registry status (Registry status was attained through the neighborhood's efforts and without the support of the City). 

The question that is yet to be answered about our idea is: Will the City of Greensboro agree to live by its own Historic District Guidelines (Word file) that would come with such an annexation?

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