Local To Open Brewery

Tanglewood Branch Beer Co.

He’s been talking about it for a while, and it looks like the dream is rapidly becoming a reality.

J.T. Wampler — Wamp for those who read our “Beer O’ The Week” feature — is on the verge of opening his own beer brewery in south Fayetteville. If all goes according to plan, by late fall/early winter, area folk can be sipping on the nectar offered at the Tanglewood Branch Beer Co.

Having been lucky enough to sample some of his home-brewed fare, including his version of a wee heavy, and India pale ale and some others, there’s no doubt Wampler will be successful in delighting the taste buds of local beer enthusiasts. The man just flat out knows good beer. Everything I’ve tasted was a full 5 caps on our rating system, though I’m glad I turned down the offer for him to dress as a scantily clad concubine to get 6 caps (I kid! I kid!)

Then, I imagine it’s only a matter of time until he starts packaging the beer for shipment and the legend of Tanglewood starts growing elsewhere.

Less Than 100 Years

Less than a century. Women have had the right to vote in this country for less than a century.

That fact has always amazed me. But with the anniversary of the Aug. 18, 1920, ratification date of the 19th Amendment — which barred any U.S. citizen being denied the right to vote based on sex — we’ll have just 91 years of women’s suffrage under our belts.
And it was a long fight to get there. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Caddy Stanton introduced the amendment in 1878, but it took more than four decades to achieve a successful vote in Congress.

Even then, though, the fight wasn’t over. In 1922, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Leser v. Garnett, which sought to challenge the constitutionality of the 19th Amendment.

It’s important to remember this country didn’t start with all the liberties it enjoys today. People have fought for rights throughout the years, not just on the battlefield, but in the streets, in the courts, in legislatures to uphold to the fullest the notion all men were created equal and that there should be liberty and justice for all. It’s also just as important to remember, there have always been people who’ve fought against expanding rights, and in some cases, who’ve initiated action to curtail liberties.

In reviewing challenges involving the First Amendment — cases where people people sought to broaden its powers and others where some sought to restrict freedom of speech, of the press, etc. — one of my journalism professors made an often repeated observation on the battle to retain rights. “Dragons never die. They’re only sleeping.”