This Week's Editorial Shorts

The past matters

The village of Salem could easily have faded away, just like other historical sites across Forsyth County and the rest of the country, as new construction went up. That fact that it didn't is a proud testament to a group that came together to preserve it 60 years ago this week. Today's preservationists would do well to emulate the spirit that led to the first meeting of the board of trustees for Old Salem on March 30, 1950.

As Mary Giunca noted in a story in Monday's Journal, the village of Salem in 1947 was "a quiet, dilapidated shadow of the formerly bustling 18th-century village carved from a wilderness."

Instead of standing out as the bedrock it is, Salem was in danger of fading into the Winston-Salem landscape. Plans for a supermarket led to the preservation push. Its model was Williamsburg, but it lacked the money of that preservation effort in Virginia. So the group here forged its own plan, one buttressed by a good idea: Leave many of the houses in private ownership and attach historic covenants to them that would guide their restoration.

Old Salem didn't have to undertake the expense of caring for large numbers of older homes. Residents took pride in restoring their own homes, as they do today, and in living in the restored village. There's a sense of living history in Old Salem.

The site still faces challenges. Attendance is down at such historical sites nationwide. Old Salem must work on new strategies to attract visitors. It should be able to further that effort with the help of Richard Geiger, the new head of Visit Winston-Salem, the marketing arm of the county's Tourism Development Authority. Part of the job will be enhancing current exhibits and adding new ones.

But all in all, the 18th-century village that was fizzling in the mid-20th century is in good shape as we enter the second decade of the 21st century. We owe our thanks to that group that gathered 60 years ago.

Crunched

With the economy's recovery still months away and the latest Triad unemployment figure at 12.2 percent, local nonprofit agencies that serve the needy are feeling the crunch. For example, Crisis Control Ministry of Winston-Salem had a 12-percent increase, to more than 9,000, in the number of people it served in the first four months of its fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. Donations aren't keeping pace.

"There have been spikes in demand for services and energy-bill assistance in the past," Margaret Elliott of Crisis Control told the Journal's Richard Craver. "But typically, they've been matched by increased donations. We're struggling to make that happen now."

The cold winter aggravated economic conditions for many residents, driving their heating bills up to the point that many couldn't pay them and were cut off. It didn't happen in a vacuum. For the last two years, Forsyth County has had the lowest median household income and the highest percentage of residents living in poverty of the state's five largest urban counties.

But some of us are doing better than others. If you can spare a few dollars for Crisis Control or your favorite charity that helps the poor, do it.

Hurricane danger

There's another strong reminder of the need for responsible development, including strong building codes, on the North Carolina coast: Forecasters say that weather patterns could produce a busy hurricane season in the Atlantic and Caribbean. One meteorologist told The Associated Press that there will be at least six storms coming ashore this year.

"This year has the chance to be an extreme season," said Joe Bastardi of Pennsylvania-based AccuWeather. He correctly predicted the relatively quiet 2009 hurricane season, as well as the record-setting snowfall along the East Coast.

The reasons most commonly cited for the 2010 forecast are a weakening of El Nino, the condition that creates warmer-than-normal surface water temperatures in the eastern Pacific; water temperatures in the tropical Atlantic warmer than last summer and weaker winds off the west coast of Africa.

Bastardi and other meteorologists predicting a rough hurricane season could be wrong. But this much is certain: Another devastating hurricane will eventually strike the North Carolina coast. It's not a matter of "if," but "when." Strong building codes can limit damage and protect residents from harm.

Organ donating

Finally, an issue that Democrats and Republicans can agree upon -- donating organs. Gov. Bev. Perdue, a Democrat, has joined with state Rep. Dale Folwell of Forsyth County, a Republican, in pushing North Carolinians to have 4 million registered donors by the end of April, which is National Donate Life Month.

Folwell has long championed organ donation. Before he won election to the state House, his son Dalton died after being struck by a car that passed a stopped school bus in his Winston-Salem neighborhood. That was in 1999. His liver went to a Georgia girl who's now in college. Folwell realized such transplants should be saving more people.

His efforts have included getting a bill passed that helped shorten the organ-donation process in North Carolina. Now, he wants more people to register as organ donors on their driver's licenses, either by going by a Division of Motor Vehicles office or going online to donatelifenc.org.

At last, a cause most of us should be able to get behind.