The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1958-06-20

down from Raleigh, after having
been collected from the weather.
counties of the state.
Without the money contributed
from the larger counties, we would
have had no schools to brag about.
We sometimes argue that this
community or that community has
more than another; that the
amount of money one community
pays for taxes is not spent for the
benefit Of that community. Some
people complain that other, and
smaller communities are getting
the money their children ought to
get.
This sort of thing comes with
mighty poor grace from any of us.
We ought to be ashamed ever of
being so stupid. Had this rule been
applied, the children of the Coast
land would never have known the
advantages of high school. Had
all the strong counties of the state
kept all their money at home, we
would have been out of luck indeed.
But often we find communities
who have been helped so lavishiy
at the expense of other communi-
ties, complaining most selfishly
that they should have had more.
We see people now and then in
S m e communities complaining
that they have contributed so much
through community organizations
to their schools, while other COM
munities get more of the benefits
of tax money. Now it doesn't seem
that a Christian should complain
because he is living a christian
life, it doesn't seem that a person
who gives charity should complain
that he has done so. 1t doesn't APP
pear seemly at all that one who
has through public spirit, and some
sacrifice of his time, helped a wor-
thy cause, then turn table and be
bitter over the incident of his hav-
ing been a community-minded per-
son.
Sometimes through mis-manage-
ment, or lack of ability to manage.
public funds do not get equitably
divided. We know of an instance
where one community, out of a de-
sire of officials to give that
community break, built for
lit a modern high school, the
best in the area. 1t was built
entirely with state funds, far
away and beyond the share that
would have been given had the
funds been split on the basis OF
population. No taxes were raised
no one who enjoyed it's benefits
had to contribute a cent. 1t was
all for free.
There are no doubt some people
who are grateful for the spirit and
circumstance which got them their
school without special taxes. Other
communities in the area, are now
having to tax themselves heavily
to obtain comparable schools for
their own communities. They are
taxing themselves also to provide
better schools for children of a
few communities which pay no
special taxes but share fully in the
benefits provided by their neigh
bors.
No one in this coastland has any
right to brag about what he has
paid for schools nor to belliache
about what his community is not
getting. There isn't a community
that isn't receiving many times
over the entire tax contribution of
that community. And better still,
in most of the communities, over
half the tax money comes out of
the pockets of people who don't
even reside here, and who have no
children to get the benefit of the
school money we pay.
We are never going to make
progress in this coastland, nor to
get the value we ought to get from
out schools, until we stop sense
less belliaching about what one
gets and doesn't get. Every person
owes it to himself to sit down and
fully analyze the situation, to not
speak before thinking, and to not
allow uniformed agitators to stir
him or her into reckless or foolish
claims about what we have done
for our children.
We have done so darn little when
we boil it all down, we should be