News-Record.com

The documentary film “Uncounted” has certainly heightened my concern regarding the way votes are counted in the United States of America. Any lingering hope that the electoral process has improved since the election fraud of 2004 and 2006 has been dispelled with the realization that electronic voting machines can be manipulated and the manipulation never be detected.

It is deplorable in a country that prides itself on being a democracy that registered voters have had their names removed from voter registration files; machines break down, causing people to wait in long lines with many of them having had to return to jobs without ever voting; that a paper trail is nonexistent in many cases, which means that there is no recount of votes if needed.

If the election of 2008 is to be fair and truly democratic, apathy must go. Awareness and involvement must take its place.

Make a difference. Make your vote count.

For more information go to: www.UncountedTheMovie.com or contact Glenna Johnson: (615) 327-0600; glenna@UncountedTheMovie.com

Lyn M. Strickland
Greensboro

I couldn’t let Bob Herbert’s opinions (column, April 16) about some whites not being ready to vote for an African American candidate pass without comment.

Let me say that this white (or do I need to say Irish American) woman would gladly vote for Alan Keyes, J.C. Watts, Condi Rice or any other African American who loves America and believes in conservative principles.

There is a problem when one will not vote for someone because they are black. However, if one votes for someone only because they are black, as some in the media seem to want, this is just as much a problem, or doesn’t this go both ways?

Elizabeth Chandler
Summerfield

If I were an Iraq/Afghanistan veteran, I’d be picketing Fox News trucks, calling them traitors. But I’m a Vietnam veteran and don’t get around much anymore.

William McCarver
Greensboro

The writer joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1967.

Charles W. Ward’s letter, “Criticism of liberal unsupported, unfair” (April 12), exemplified why conservatives can’t dialogue with liberals who have the elitist attitude that liberals “never have to say they are sorry,” for they are never wrong.

For Mr. Ward, “constructive dialogue” obviously is an affirmation of the left’s progressive secularist world view. Anything less is mere “ill-informed ..., poorly articulated drivel ... under the guise of discourse.” Unlike capitalistic America, he sees Sweden as a Marxist mecca with well-fed, -educated and -insured children who enjoy the highest standard of living in the world, with one of the lowest imprisonment rates. Why did he leave out other Eastern European socialist countries, and Russia, China, North Korea, North Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba, Nicaragua, etc.?

Like the liberal media, he could have left out their terrible human rights records, genocide and mass murder, and devastated economies. They are all victims of Marxism’s principle that “the ends justify the means.” Compare these to the great capitalistic economies around the world. I still believe in America.

Allen Bullard
Randleman

In 1957 I won an all-expense-paid trip to West Germany courtesy of the U.S. government. I was a platoon leader with the 1st Armored Cavalry, stationed in a small town near the Fulda Gap.

During my tour of duty, one of my fellow officers married a Swedish girl. The bride’s family had a smorgasbord party for all the junior officers in the battalion. Naturally, the topic of discussion (for those who remained fairly sober) was the groom’s attractive bride, and that socialism would certainly bankrupt Sweden. That was 50 years ago, and Sweden is hardly in decline.

If you listen to the windbags on talk radio, you know that national health care (socialized medicine), Democrats and liberals are all synonymous. All of the modern industrialized economies of the world have some form of universal health care.

If we use Limbaugh’s logic, all of the modern nations on this planet are going to go bankrupt! However, we have nothing to fear because the largest communist country in the world is our No. 1 trading partner.

Uh-oh! Doesn’t China also have universal health care?

Bruce McCreedy
Greensboro

How ironic that you should have printed Eli Oklesh’s request to “filter” Leonard Pitts’ columns on the same day that you printed one of Pitts’ typically insightful essays (“Can ‘we, the people’ still pull together?” April 24).

Oklesh praises Pitts for finally getting past “trivial issues” such as racism, and instead attacking a really important target, the corporate branding of professional sports stadiums.
While I agree with Oklesh and Pitts that such naming of stadiums is to be decried, on a grand scale of triviality that issue has to be near the bottom. I don’t care nearly as much about for whom a stadium is named as I do about the values and behavior of those who sit in it, play in it or pay for its construction and maintenance. They can name it for the family dog, if they wish (which might produce more interesting names).

Pitts is one of the bright lights of editorial journalism. Any careful perusal of a representative run of his columns will show that he is a fierce but fair critic of our society, government and values, regardless of whom this criticism offends. I will gladly continue to read anything he writes.

Eddie Bass
Julian

The following is a Counterpoint:

By David J. Undis

Regarding the editorial about LifeSharers (April 24): You suggest that need should govern who gets transplants. It’s a nice theory, but that’s not how it works in the real world. Organs are allocated based on value judgments that often override need. When the next organ becomes available in the United States, it won’t be given to the person who needs it most.

Instead, it will be given to the person on the waiting list who scores highest on a complex formula that includes things like age, location, race and time spent waiting, as well as need. People who can’t afford to pay for a transplant never even get on the waiting list. So it’s not fair to criticize LifeSharers members for not giving their organs to the people who need them the most.

If you give organs first to registered organ donors, you get more registered organ donors. That saves more lives.

Shouldn’t saving the maximum number of lives be the goal of our transplant system? Anyone who wants to help achieve this goal by donating his or her organs to fellow organ donors is welcome to join LifeSharers at www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88.

You suggest that LifeSharers members not receive organs from non-members. You should apply this logic to the group I call LifeHoarders. Members of this group, which includes half of the U.S. adult population, haven’t agreed to donate their organs when they die. Why not say that LifeHoarders can get organs only from other LifeHoarders?

In other words, why not say that people who haven’t agreed to donate can only get organs from other people who haven’t agreed to donate? It’s actually a great idea. If it was the law of the land, everyone would agree to donate, thousands of lives would be saved every year, and there would be no need for LifeSharers.

By the way, your analogy between blood donation and organ donation is a bad one. There’s no national blood waiting list or blood allocation system, and there aren’t thousands of people dying every year because of blood shortages.

In any event, LifeSharers has never suggested blood be handled the same way as organs.

The writer is executive director, LifeSharers, Nashville, Tenn.

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Gullanar Campbell

The Counterpoint, “Whatever happened to Painter Boulevard?” (April 10), intrigued me. I attended meetings throughout the ’90s concerning the Greensboro outer loop.

I clearly remember how Jefferson Pilot and Guilford College hired the engineering firm Kimberly Horn to get the route selection changed.

I listened to the public comments and heard representatives from the N.C. Department of Transportation, the audience and the News & Record refer to this proposed road as Painter Boulevard.

Unfortunately, we grew complacent over the next several years. At the date of public knowledge, the highway design was not finalized.

The majority of us were led to believe that the beltway was for local traffic and would consist primarily of automobiles. The public hearings on proposed noise-abatement measures were not well publicized.

The NCDOT traffic-noise-abatement policy states, “The opinions of first-row property owners will be requested so that a final determination on abatement measures may be made.”

NCDOT never contacted front-row property owners in our neighborhood or sought out their opinions, and our property abuts the highway right of way.

Over the years, the nature of the project changed. The name Painter Boulevard was evidently dropped.

The local beltway evolved from a road designed for local traffic into an eight-lane behemoth that now serves as a connector for Interstates 40, 73, 74 and 85.

No noise-abatement measures were ever implemented, and now we live in an unrelenting noise hell.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

Regarding Edward Cone’s column, “Is North Carolina ready for its close-up?” (April 27): If you want to increase readership of the News & Record, run a contest over the next few weeks and have readers guess the total number of responses to Cone’s column from people who did not realize or acknowledge that Cone’s column was (1) written in jest, (2) written tongue-in-cheek, or (3) was simply Cone writing as a provocateur. Surely, at least one of those three choices applies.

I have already written down my guess of the number responding, slipped the piece of paper in an old molasses jar, and placed it on the back porch for safekeeping.

Hope the contest prize is a good one!

Joan Dawson Lux
Greensboro

I read with interest your article in Triad Careers, April 13, on a “severe shortage of truck drivers.”

As a person who has spent the last 30 years in the trucking business, your report is not completely accurate.

There are companies that have a shortage of help, but show me a company that has trouble recruiting drivers and I will show you a company with (a) a pay scale below industry average, (b) that treats help like dirt, (c) and/or operates poorly maintained equipment.

The better-paying companies that treat drivers like people and operate a well-maintained fleet don’t have a labor shortage. The attitude of some companies is truck drivers are a dime a dozen.

If a company with a high driver turnover really believes there is a shortage, it would try to keep the drivers it had.

But instead of improving their “severe shortage” problem, their attitude is if you don’t like it, quit because, when it comes to truck drivers, the woods are full of them.

Robert Embler
Thomasville

Charles Davenport Jr.’s column, “Two-legged wolves await death” (News & Record, April 27), is troubling. He says, “No innocent person has been executed since capital punishment was reinstated 32 years ago.” Really? Are we re-examining evidence in ALL cases to verify the person we just executed is really guilty?

In 2002, I was in Houston, Texas (No. 1 in executions every year!), when news broke that the Houston DNA lab had been mishandling evidence. According to a March 2003 New York Times article, the Houston police “turned over 525 case files involving DNA ... including those of seven people on death row.”

In March, the Houston Chronicle stated the DNA lab was shut down again “due to improper handling of evidence.” Seven were on death row with potentially faulty evidence. Is Houston the only place where that happens?

Davenport seems surprisingly confident in our ability to convict and execute the right people. Me? I wish I could be so sure.

Houston changed my mind about administering the death penalty. Not because the wolves don’t deserve it, but because I, for one, am not comfortable condemning even one innocent to die.

Daniel Shirley
Greensboro

TIMCO has nothing to complain about, even if Honda were “pirating” employees. As they are not competitors, what law is broken?

Instead of giving lawyers money, TIMCO should address the two major reasons that valued employees would leave: money and work environment.

If TIMCO needs them so badly, they’ll stay with better pay and a great place to work. That’s human resources 101, Mr. Cawthron.

Philip M. Buscemi
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Mary Beth Errington

I am an avid runner who has been running and racing for more than 15 years. I will run in the United HealthCare North Carolina Marathon today, and I am thrilled that Greensboro is able to host this event. This will be my 25th marathon.

I strongly disagree with Marty Johnson's comments (in the Sports section May 1) about racing with his iPod. He is choosing to use his iPod during today's half-marathon, saying: "I realize others don't need it or want it, but I like it."

Listening to music does give competitive advantage over runners who are not using music. Part of the challenge of running long distances is grappling with the mental and psychological fatigue, as well as the physical.

Music boosts the spirit and gives cadence to the stride. Ask the runners next to and behind Johnson today who are not running with music if they think he has an advantage.

Wearing headphones while running creates safety problems for the runner, the other participants and drivers who are trying to navigate the course.

A runner who is distracted by music is less likely to hear and react quickly to a car, a dog giving chase, a fellow runner calling out, or the instructions of volunteers and race organizers.

Lastly, a runner wearing headphones is in violation of the terms and rules governing the event itself. When did it become acceptable for an athlete to blatantly disregard a rule during an athletic competition? Which other rules are optional?

I neither train nor race with music. I prefer to challenge myself mentally as well as physically. If an athlete chooses to train with music, then I support his or her decision. But to register and participate in an event while planning to break the rules is unfair and disrespectful to the race organizers, sponsors and other participants.

The writer lives in Pleasant Garden.

Regarding the letter "Loop a disappointment" (April 26):

The writer has to understand that loops/beltways are usually constructed to allow through traffic to avoid the traffic congestion generated by development within the municipal limits.

Unfortunately, North Carolina builds loops as a tool for economic growth in urban areas, better known as urban sprawl, and the movement of traffic is never generally a consideration.

The new I-85 loop has reduced traffic congestion in "Death Valley," but it’s only a matter of time before the loop becomes congested with traffic trying to get to the new businesses, shopping centers and residential development.

Give it another 20 years and it will be quicker to go through the center of Greensboro on the old I-85/I-40.

Remember, the object of widening Wendover Avenue was to take traffic off I-40; now a good percentage of the traffic on I-40 is going to Wendover Avenue to shop and eat.

Heart of the Triad is a dream for the business community but a nightmare for current residents.

When North Carolina is buried under asphalt, commercial eyesores, floodlit roads and traffic congestion, may our once proud and beautiful rural areas "rest in peace."

C. Robin Dean
Clemmons

It is a testament to the preternaturally short memories of Americans or to the laughable condition of our educational institutions that presidential candidate B. Hussein Obama is able to use the term “windfall profits penalty” as a positive.

Can no one recall the economic disaster that was the Jimmy Carter presidency? Does “misery index” ring a bell? How about, “Please, say something good about America?” The Killer Rabbit? Anything?

Ben Miles Jr.
McLeansville

George Will has now introduced a religious test for certain presidential candidates. It is clear to most knowledgeable people that the founding fathers wanted no religious test for anyone standing for an elected office.

In his April 29 column (“Rev. Wright is fair game for GOP ads”), Will discusses the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a person of color, and his pastoral relationship with presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, a person of color.

If Will knows that no religious test is required for anyone standing for an elected office and in this column he only takes issue with Rev. Wright, one can only assume Will’s remarks are racist.

James B. Lamar Jr.
Kernersville

Greed does not go unnoticed.

On April 18, a much larger fee than normally charged was a disgusting disappointment in those making that decision. We went to hear and see Joel Osteen at the coliseum and had to pay $10 to park. Needless to say, this was a hardship for seniors and others.

I hope all had a good time with the profits. Greed is at every turn.

Vonda Nichtern
Greensboro

Have you ever wondered why only the theory of Darwinian evolution is taught in schools? This is despite the fact that there is a large and growing group of accredited people, with Ph.D.s, who conclude that new scientific evidence points to the theory of Intelligent Design.

Why, after more than 150 years of searching, have no missing links between any species been discovered and yet evolution is not allowed to be questioned?

Richard Dawkins is a leading atheistic proponent of evolution. Knowing that science dictates that life cannot come from non-life, he has faith in the theory that, get this, aliens from outer space have “seeded” the earth with life.

The documentary, “Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed,” by Ben Stein exposes the stranglehold the scientific elite have on honest inquiry. Stein, an economist, trial lawyer, presidential speechwriter and actor, provides an abundance of evidence of how the foundations of evolution are crumbling.

Also, he documents how the scientific academics conclude they must forbid debate as the only way to keep Intelligent Design from winning.

Anyone who wants to know the truth of the state of the Darwinian faith needs to see “Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed.” Anyone?

Gary Marschall
Greensboro

With regard to the article, “Critical condition: Critics nearly extinct,” by Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times (News & Record, April 24): His final paragraph, wherein he tells us to “pay more attention to the audience,” has it exactly wrong. Critics who pay attention to the audience are pandering.

Critics are not supposed to pander. They can’t be critical if they do so.

Mark D. Gottsegen
Climax

In response to the “Counterpoint” that Charles Ward offered April 12: While there is so much faulty thinking in his rebuttal, I’d like to concentrate on point No. 2 in which he states, “One percent of Americans ‘control’ more than 30 percent of the nation’s wealth.” It is this type of thinking that drives class warfare, which is a staple of liberal political campaigns.

Nobody “controls” wealth. It is not a zero-sum game. Wealth is created.

The money available to be earned is infinite; my success does not restrict yours. Liberals believe that rich people “control” the money, making less of it available to be earned by others.

Bunk.

The college kids who started Yahoo and Google (and Microsoft, Dell, etc.) became multimillionaires. The money they earned was not taken away from anyone else; it was created. That is the promise of America: We all can be successful if we’re willing to work for it.

As for as the Declaration: It does not offer to guarantee happiness; it offers to guarantee the pursuit of happiness.

Tom Dovel
Oak Ridge

It’s been the leading story in major newspapers and TV news programs for weeks. More than 100 million people are being driven deeper into poverty by a “silent tsunami” of rising food prices, according to World Food Program Executive Director Josette Sheeran. A dozen countries have experienced food riots and strikes.

The resulting hunger afflicts nearly 1 billion people, mostly women and children. It kills an astonishing 24,000 per day. It’s not just a problem for strangers in faraway lands. It affects millions of Americans, and some U.S. stores are already rationing food.

The good news is that even a small shift toward a plant-based diet in the U.S. and other developed countries would free up enough land, water and fuel to feed everyone. More than 80 percent of U.S. agricultural land grows animal feed. A plant-based diet requires only 16 percent to 20 percent of the resources of the standard American diet.

Each of us can start abating the scourge of world hunger today by reducing our consumption of meat and other animal products and by supporting food distribution agencies.

Nathan Ross
Greensboro

I admire CEO John R. Cawthron of TIMCO (op-ed, "HondaJet pirating TIMCO employees," April 25) for exposing one of the most blatant concepts within our capitalistic system in this country: competition. What is even more commendable is his admission of evident deficiencies in his company's corporate culture.

He is apparently a very adept businessman to be CEO of such an impressive company. However, a company is only as good as the employees you are able to keep. People stay in organizations that meet their needs.

Cawthron's contributions to GTCC and the Guilford County community are no doubt an asset. If our politicians fold to threats from corporate contributors, the only losers will be the employees. Companies need to learn to strengthen their organizations by empowering employees.

I spent 25 year in the Air Force in aircraft maintenance and I have studied management in corporate America. We are being beaten with the very management process that we developed but failed to update. I would say to Mr. Cawthron, "Examine the leadership culture of your company and don't be afraid of CHANGE."

John P. Fennell
High Point

I don't understand what TIMCO's John Cawthron was hoping to achieve by airing his employee problems to the News & Record and ultimately to the people of Greensboro. If his employees are leaving for another company, then he should be asking himself, Why are they leaving?

People are always looking for the "better deal," and if his employees are leaving for Honda, then they probably found one. Last year I went through the testing and screening for the free A&P training being offered by GTCC and Honda. Unfortunately, I wasn't chosen, but during these several screenings the candidates were informed of what Honda offers and its hiring plans. One of the benefits I liked was that they are one of the few companies that still have pensions in addition to a 401(k). I would leave my current employer for that benefit alone.

According to TIMCO's Web site, it doesn't offer any different benefits from what my employer does. Mr. Cawthron, you and your management team need to take a good look at what TIMCO does and doesn't offer its employees so you can be comparable in your industry and just maybe the "better deal."

Andy Parker
Greensboro

The article, "One doctor breaks free from grip of insurance companies," by Albert Fuchs, M.D. (April 20), raises an issue I've tried to get the presidential candidates to address, without success.

Every candidate's solution to the health care crisis includes insurance companies. No one has even considered a program that eliminates insurance companies as payers. Yet Dr. Fuchs writes, "Insurance doesn't make routine care affordable; it makes it more expensive by adding a middleman." It has been estimated that, in North Carolina alone, insurance companies add more than $100 million to health care costs.

I wrote to every presidential candidate (eight at the time) to generate a discussion on health care without insurance companies. I haven't received a satisfactory answer from any of them. I fear the insurance lobby is very powerful.

For the first time in years, the North Carolina primary will be meaningful. What I couldn't accomplish, the News & Record could easily achieve. A strong editorial on the need to discuss a non-insurance company medical solution would do it. I don't have the solution to the health care crisis, but I'd like to see a non-insurance company solution at least considered.

Earle Bower
Greensboro

I was surprised to learn that only 3 percent of news coverage this year has been about the war in Iraq. This may be because the press repeats the administration's claims that the surge is working, and because the economy is doing so badly at present. But there is an important connection between the war and the economy.

Those worried about the serious recession we are falling into should note the role of the $2 trillion-plus that has been wasted on our devastating and failed efforts in Iraq. The National Priorities Project says we spend $341 million per day. Guilford County alone has paid nearly $800 million already.

Citizens should know that a new funding request is now being considered on Capitol Hill. If they care about their economic futures, they will call or fax their member of Congress and the Democratic leadership (Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Appropriations Chairman John Murtha) to demand that funds only be approved for a fully funded redeployment. We should bring our troops home where we need them and redirect our nation's resources to our real domestic and security needs. Only then can we start the process of stabilizing and rebuilding our economy.

Lee Baker
Greensboro

In his April 27 column, Charles Davenport encourages North Carolina to quickly dispatch two-legged wolves (death row inmates) while acknowledging that since 1976, 40 innocent persons in the United States were put on death row. That's 40 juries who got it completely and horribly wrong. Why the need for speed?

How often has a death row inmate tricked the guards and escaped? Why do we need to join the speedy ranks of China, Iran and Saudi Arabia? The oft-slow machination of justice, called due process, is a small price to pay for our society to take a life. The only two-legged wolves in this controversy are those using any tactic to ambush the American justice system.

Richard W. Wells
Greensboro

In his April 27 column about capital punishment, Charles Davenport Jr. offers as a solution to violent crime more violent crime via execution.

The Kennedy family after the assassinations of John and Robert, Martin Luther King’s wife after her husband’s killing, and Amish parents after the violent deaths of their children all sought an end to the terror by condemning capital punishment.

Davenport condones violence by state action. When North Carolina, like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq, uses violence as a solution, what is the message? When the government takes a life, it makes the act acceptable. This may be the only government act Davenport approves. He argues for a limited role by government, yet he grants it ultimate authority over life.

Davenport would have one accept him as a tough, law-and-order man. He could learn from the Kennedys, Kings and the Amish what it means to be tough. His position on capital punishment is not small-government conservative, or Christian.

Jim Brooks
Archdale

As a former N.C. A&T student, I have a burning question as to why A&T (as well as the Greensboro media) are not acknowledging the death of Derek Hodge II. I am frustrated and disappointed at the lack of attention given Derek.

It totally baffles me how the various universities cope with the deaths of their students. When Eve Carson, a student at UNC-Chapel Hill, died, the students, faculty and neighbors gathered and mourned together. Why is Derek not worthy of this same treatment?

I understand that some members of student government at A&T are holding a vigil in the Student Union in his memory; however, I am baffled by the lack of attention shown not only by the university but by the community as a whole.

Knachelle Butler
Wendell

Editor’s note: A program paying tribute to Derek Hodge II was held on the N.C. A&T campus on April 30.

Well, here he goes again. The resident writer and chief theologian of the Miami Herald has issued an edict of infallibility concerning who is in step with Christianity and who is not (Leonard Pitts column, “Christianity out of step with teachings of Jesus,” April 28). Only those “in step” with his brand of “modern Christianity” can be counted among the faithful.

Pitts’ source of truth is not the Bible but “modern Christianity.” I certainly don’t agree with the Rev. Hayes Wicker that same-sex unions are worse than slavery. But the Bible clearly puts sex outside of marriage, meaning a woman and a man, in the category of sin. Scripture clearly condemns homosexuality.

The issues of morality are not left up to “modern” men who will exchange the truth for a lie. Read Judges and see what happens when people do “what is right in their own eyes.”
Out of step? I’d rather be out of step with the world and “modern Christianity” in order to be in step with God. The Bible says, “Beware of those who call good evil and evil good.”

Tommy J. Brightwell
Mayodan

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Guy Spiher

I read with interest a recent article concerning a fight for engineers between my employer, TIMCO, and HondaJet. As I have also had the privilege of interviewing with HondaJet, I can agree with all sides involved.

None of us at TIMCO below the executive level is locked into a contract. We are allowed to seek other employment or advancement both within and outside the company.

Certainly, with the price of everything going up and the opportunities that a large multinational employer such as Honda offers, the desire to explore other employment options is going to be present.

As a longtime employee of TIMCO, I am well aware of the unfair advantages that overseas MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) facilities enjoy in labor rates, government oversight and operating costs. As such, this limits the ability of a company such as TIMCO to remain competitive in areas we all take for granted, such as starting wages for new hires, pay increases for all of us, engineers included, and, of course, job security.

Certainly, then, the enticements that a large, well-known employer flush with our hard-earned tax dollars in the form of incentives can offer will be hard to pass up. I was there also.

To be fair, I believe that, although TIMCO is a good place to work, it does a poor job of attempting to retain highly paid senior employees. Perhaps, as I mentioned, this stems from the market pressures it is forced to bear or perhaps it is corporate policy.

Nevertheless, HondaJet will be a good fit for the area, and in the spirit of American capitalistic ideals, we, as a community, will all benefit from the proximity of these two great companies.

The writer lives in Winston-Salem.

If you are satisfied with energy prices that are so high many Americans are forced to choose between filling their gas tanks or buying groceries; if you don’t mind courting disaster by being uninsured in a broken medical system; if you want to continue a war in Iraq that is draining us of American lives and billions of dollars, then by all means cast your vote this November to stay the course of the past eight years.

If, on the other hand, you are tired of seeing your wages fall further behind increased expenses; if you have had enough of a war on terror that is doing more to limit your rights and infringe on your privacy than to protect you from terrorists; if you want to re-establish a sane and effective foreign policy that will differentiate between our real friends and imagined enemies; then cast your vote to end the policies of an administration whose philosophy is taking us down the road to nowhere.

Bill Wallace
High Point

I just read the op-ed, “HondaJet pirating TIMCO employees” (April 25), and found it very amusing. Evidently, TIMCO CEO John R. Cawthron does not know business very well. Oh, he may be in charge of a mega-corporation and all that, but has he ever heard of a no-compete agreement?

Several people I know have these, which say that if you leave Company A, you cannot do the same type of work for a determined amount of time for Company B. This would curtail the “raiding” Cawthron perceives. The fact that he does not require a no-compete agreement just means he is not as clever as he thinks.

It also strikes me that people who try to get new jobs are either unhappy or they are not being paid enough, or both!

Joe Talluto
Greensboro

The original GI Bill, signed by President Franklin Roosevelt, helped create the present-day middle class. Its education benefits made it possible for veterans to become doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists and other professions.

The current GI Bill fails to keep up with the expense of education. The average benefit doesn’t cover even half the cost of public college for in-state students.

Sen. John McCain has introduced legislation that would undercut the bipartisan effort to update the GI Bill. McCain’s bill (co-sponsored by Lindsey Graham and Richard Burr) could reduce the college benefit for veterans. It also creates “second-class veterans,” those who serve multiple tours in Iraq or Afghanistan but wouldn’t be eligible for certain benefits available to veterans who serve longer. This says to a veteran who serves two tours and loses his legs during his service that he’s not as valued as a veteran who served for 12 years.

Congress must reject the watered-down McCain bill. Please contact our senators and representatives and ask them instead to support S. 22 — the bipartisan legislation that would restore the promise of a full college education to those who fought for America.

Dave Howerton
Greensboro

Food production can’t meet demand and food prices are rising. Perhaps people will eat less and the U.S. epidemic of obesity and related health issues will subside.

Fossil fuels are scarcer. Gas prices rise. Maybe everyone will limit his or her driving, car pool or take public transportation. The results could be having more time to spend together and contributing fewer pollutants that affect public health and climate change.

As energy costs rise, will people turn off their air conditioning and spend more time outdoors where they can get to know neighbors and become re-engaged with nature?

Is it possible that too much consumption by so many humans is unhealthy? Yet people continue to procreate without concern for the immense strain human population growth puts on our natural resources and the planet’s survival.

Human overpopulation is the central issue that affects every other problem humanity faces. If we are to survive, don’t we need to curb the rabid growth of the one species that consumes so much? What future does a species have that increases without constraint and consumes its own home?

James Chris Webster
Greensboro

Our neighborhood, Sedgefield Trails, was promised a quaint little boulevard would be coming through. We went to public meetings in 1995 and 1996 to hear that this boulevard would not even be noticed and that there would be trees planted along each side and it would blend in with the environment.

On Feb. 21. the I-40 Bypass, I-73 opened up with four lanes each way and the roaring hasn’t stopped yet, day and night.

I called NCDOT to ask what happened to the quaint little Painter Boulevard and they said that they didn’t know where the name “Painter” came from.

Why was this “boulevard” so misrepresented and lied about?

It’s sad when our grandchildren come to our house to play and they put their hands over their ears and the baby cries because it’s so loud.

Ron Frazier
Greensboro

I was delighted that the article by Jennifer Fernandez, “Students take a new look at society” (April 27), covered the innovative course “Reclaiming Democracy.”

However, it neglected to mention the central role of the students and faculty member (Ed Whitfield) from the larger Greensboro community. This community group brought years of experience and activism in Greensboro and wisdom to our discussions. It would have been a different course without them.

The article also omitted mention of the inspiration for our project: a course created by Tim Tyson at Duke University that brought together students from the Durham community and area colleges to study race in the South. Inspired by Tyson’s efforts, a small group of us decided we could do something like that in Greensboro and we did, growing to eight faculty!

Ours has been a momentous collaboration that promises to have an ongoing impact in Greensboro. Students are organizing efforts to address some issues we studied, including a teachers’ support group.

Hollyce (Sherry) Giles
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint column.

In his column “Assessing the public education foolishness” (April 13), Charles Davenport gave us a clue into his unique version of conservatism. Davenport cites as a great influence Albert Jay Nock.

Curious, I went to the Internet to find out more about Nock. Here is what I learned.

First, Nock described himself as an anarchist. Technically, Nock is an architect of an ideology known as anarcho-capitalism. Briefly, this is a philosophy which believes all major decisions that affect on our lives should be made in the boardrooms and back rooms of business firms and corporations, not in public forums like city councils, Congress, state legislatures or town meetings. Nock’s ideology is anti-democratic, since democracy subordinates the interests of corporations to those of society.

Interestingly, Nock was a pacifist. He protested both World Wars and was one of the few pacifists to continue his opposition to fighting fascism throughout World War II. His reasons arose not from Christian ethics but suspicion of America’s motives for intervention. I wonder if Davenport feels the same about intervention in the Middle East.

Finally, Nock was absolutely opposed to public education. His reasons, which Davenport references, grew out of his belief that social elites, the captains of industry, should have free rein to manage society. Educating the working class only provides them with means of challenging these natural elites and impeding them by pesky means, such as collective bargaining or worker safety and environmental laws. To challenge the ruling elite is to impede progress itself.

The trouble with any form of anarchism is that it appeals to romantics, but is a poor basis for a civil society. Anarchism is unworkable in the real world, for it places too much trust in the “natural goodness of the heart.” Real societies depend upon a system of counterbalancing forces and institutions.

The genius of our American Constitution is that it places checks and balances within the political system. The three branches counterbalance one another. Are there mistakes? Of course. But over the long haul the checks and balances prevail more than they fail.

Society also needs checks and balances. Under Nock and Davenport’s system there are no countervailing forces to keep the business sector in its proper role. Corporations would grow so powerful that community interests, the right of people to better themselves, even the health of the planet, would be trampled.

The writer lives in High Point.

For the many people who still oppose capital punishment on moral grounds and favor the alternative of life imprisonment, columnist Charles Davenport Jr. (April 27) has a simple Orwellian solution: Just change the meaning of a word. The people on death row are not really “human” — they are animals. “Two-legged wolves,” he calls them. So killing them is no problem. We kill animals by the millions, mostly for food, and some just for sport.

Sorry, Mr. Davenport. It doesn’t work. They are just as human as you and I. The only important difference between them and us is that they came to believe that certain people should be killed and then acted on that belief. But if we believe that these convicts should be killed, and then, through the agency of our government, go ahead and kill them, the difference between them and us goes away.

Not all punishments are just. If we rob the robber, we become him. If we rape the rapist, we become him. So what happens when we kill the killer? What do we become? A two-legged wolf?

Don Crawford
Greensboro

Allen Johnson’s Sunday column (April 27) inspired me to write this by hand, with pen on yellow legal pad, to honor his nostalgic look back at a time when correspondence was done that way (although not necessarily perfumed like those he got in college on “fragrant pink and blue stationery”) rather than e-mail, as is now the case — with the exception of those few current letter writers who were mentioned in his column and which occasioned this brief effort to revive the lost art of penmanship.

Since I’ve already met the allowed word quota for News & Record letters, please ask your language expert, Mike Clark, to review the above one-sentence paragraph and tell me how to fix it.

No e-mails, please.

Bill Beerman
Greensboro

Regarding a front-page article in the News & Record on April 27: A simple solution for Mark Ozment and the hundreds of other residents trapped in our neighborhood by the increasingly heavy traffic on Horsepen Creek Road is to finally pave and open the short section of Plantation Drive that connects Waynoka Drive to Will Doskey Drive. This relatively inexpensive quick fix would allow us direct access at a traffic light onto New Garden Road.

Lorraine Viguers
Greensboro

Hypocrisy and denial:

President Bush: We must commence drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive Alaska.
Oil companies: Don’t worry — their supertankers are now double-hulled.

Farmers: We must divert our grain crops from the 800 million malnourished to the 800 million cars on our planet.

Sen. John McCain: We must have a fuel tax holiday (that’ll buy several million votes in November).

North Carolina General Assembly: We must replace our gasoline tax with toll roads — the tax is an unfair burden on SUV owners.

Donald Rumsfeld: We must sacrifice soldiers to protect our oil interests in the Middle East.
Congress: We must send out stimulus payments to all taxpayers since oil has driven up prices on everything else.

Consumer: “We must tap the Strategic Oil Reserves now — these high pump prices are an emergency. Besides, I’m doing my part — my hybrid Tahoe gets two additional miles per gallon!”

Eulogy of our oil economy in a 2050 history text: “It was the greatest folly in the American experience. All they had to do was take a cue from Europe: Drive smaller cars, carpool, ride a bike, walk, live closer to work, use mass transit. ...”

John Altizer
Archdale

Everyone enjoys some benefits of current technological advances, but many of us old-timers also fondly recall the good old days.

Our school days featured opportunities, not violence and disrespect — the sweet innocence of young love as opposed to the licentiousness now socially accepted from youth.

Graduation from Duke in 1942 debt-free cost less than $1,000 annually. Today, it’s $40,000, often paid with large student loans.

World War II was dreaded but unavoidable. Yet 16 million of us, with excellent support, won a terrible conflict in 3 3/4 years, and with rationing and sacrifice. Taxes did not greatly aggravate the national debt. Contrast that with the futility, and relative casualties and costs of Vietnam and Iraq.

Then the Greatest Generation came home and returned to work. Entertainment, movies and music were far superior to most of today’s fare, with its scurrilous language, gratuitous violence and little real romance. What passes for music today is unworthy of the name.

Read Gibbons’ “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” and note the parallels. Will “Rise and Fall of the America Dream” soon appear?

Dan W. Maddox
Greensboro

I was delighted that North Carolina finally had a say in the nominating process for president of the United States but disheartened to read that many voters chose not to cast votes in the down contests and bond issues on the ballot. Those contests and bond issues were vitally important for our state, county, and city.

Whether pro or con, voters should have voted their preference. If we choose not to say anything, we then cannot voice an opinion or lodge a complaint. We have a civic duty to educate ourselves and vote. Anyone with access to the Internet can learn about candidates and their positions, as well as what the bond issues would or would not do.

I hope in November those enthusiastic presidential voters will follow through, educate themselves and vote on all items on the ballot.

Margaret E. Mrstik
Greensboro

It is time to demand zero-tolerance for juvenile violence and crime and hold elected officials accountable for providing resources to accomplish this. We are tying the hands of our law-enforcement agencies, prosecutors, the court system and probation departments and insuring failure by not providing resources for people and agencies to do their jobs.

Judges, prosecutors and probation officers who are not protecting the community should be replaced. There should be no suspended sentences or probation for violent acts involving use of a weapon or injuring someone. Carjacking, home invasion, armed robbery, domestic violence, child or elder abuse, shootings, gang violence and murder should never result in suspended sentences.

Juvenile records should be unsealed when offenders reach 18. Adult offenders shouldn’t be considered first-time offenders if they have a violent history as a juvenile.

There should be mandatory criminal background checks for people applying for jobs in schools, as teachers, in hospitals and nursing homes, day cares and probation departments.

We need to think about what candidates for local and state offices say about crime, particularly juvenile crime, and then hold them accountable for action once they are elected.

V. Rosan Hutter
Durham

The 1860 presidential election of the minority Whig Republican candidate, Lincoln, with his platform of increased federal powers and tariffs on Southern imports, triggered the lawful secession of nine Southern states and the subsequent formation of the new nation, the Confederate States of America.

Upon taking office in 1861, President Lincoln seized dictatorial powers and demanded restoration of the Union. Refusing any efforts to negotiate, he ordered a military invasion of the South. He quickly suppressed opposition in the North by imprisoning his enemies and closing critical newspapers.

Four tragic, bloody years ensued with 620,000 military deaths and destruction of the South’s economy and cities. Also perishing were constitutional restraints on powers of the federal government, the results of which are manifest today.

Thus, we pause on this Confederate Memorial Day, May 10, to honor the memory of the brave people, from the noble president, Jefferson Davis, to the most humble private, and to grieving widows and mothers of thousands of soldiers who suffered and perished on so many bloody battlefields.

William K. Oden Jr.
Greensboro

On Saturday, local letter carriers in the Triad and across the country will participate in the National Postal Food Drive, collecting much-needed, nonperishable foods for local food pantries.

With food, fuel and health care costs rising, many vulnerable citizens, including children and the elderly, are at risk of going hungry. Many food banks where they turn for help are reporting critical shortages this time of year.

This is the nation’s largest one-day food drive, and our community has a strong tradition of supporting it. Letter carriers and rural carriers volunteer their services to pick up the food and deliver it to agencies serving needy families.

Items needed include canned meats, soups and stews, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter, canned fruit and canned vegetables. We hope you will help. Please leave nonperishable food items for your letter carrier on Saturday.

Bobby Smith
High Point

The writer is president, United Way of Greater High Point.

The following is a Counterpoint:

By William K. Sparks

I have read with fascination the statements of TIMCO’s CEO John Cawthron and his view of the American free-enterprise system and the employer-employee relationship. Are we to believe TIMCO has never hired employees from other companies? Has Cawthron done an internal examination as to why these employees wanted to leave TIMCO? American employees are not indentured servants.

In my opinion, Cawthron is trying to restrain the right of every American to work for whomever they want, wherever they want.

Companies across our country lose key employees every day to competitive forces. Any company that went into competition with TIMCO should try to hire every TIMCO employee it can get its hands on.

HondaJet put out a “help wanted” sign. Cawthron should have responded by giving his engineers a huge raise. The way you keep great people is to pay them what the market will bear.

TIMCO could try to chain free people to their desks. Evidently the people who left TIMCO did so because they saw the grass as greener at HondaJet. The reaction from TIMCO’s CEO tells me they were smart to leave because they were working for a man who has the bizarre idea that because he invested training dollars in them, they belong to TIMCO like the wrenches their mechanics turn bolts with.

I laugh at TIMCO’s threats to cease expansion in the Triad. I suggest it move with all speed to the nearest communist country and forge a deal with the leaders there that prohibits the free movement of employees to other firms.

Where do you think John Cawthron would be working if HondaJet offered him $100 million a year to run its North American jet business? I cannot stop laughing.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

In Tuesday's election, some black leaders opposed school bonds because of: 1) high suspension rates (vs. whites), 2) high dropout rates (vs. whites), etc. It was implied that somehow all these disproportional rates were linked to racism.

It is somewhat ironic that Bill Cosby is in Greensboro this weekend with the opposite message: Black leaders should stop claiming victimhood and racism as the reasons for serious black community issues such as poverty, crime and education.

Glenn Chavis (column, News & Record, Jan. 13) has written eloquently about life in the black community 50 to 60 years ago. He has written about the pride of the black community, even in subsidized housing areas, where parents and children would gather in yards after work to play and socialize. This was a time of overt institutional and individual white racism. For the most part, those days are gone.

There is nowhere else in the world where blacks have more opportunity than in the United States of America. Take advantage of it. I dare say that the vast majority of the white community of this country, and specifically Greensboro, will support you. Reject victimhood and those who espouse it.

Dick Widenhouse
Greensboro

Everybody has a cross to bear. The cartoon on the April 30 editorial page showed Barack Obama carrying the Rev. Jeremiah Wright shaped as a cross. It could have just as easily portrayed Wright as an anchor stuck in the seaweed of public opinion, or Wright attached to a shackle on Obama's leg. The problem with the message is that it is not accurate.

Obama is not heading to Golgotha to die for a crime he did not commit; he has not been convicted of a crime, and his "disciples" haven't left him. The reverend's comments should have no bearing on this election.

If Barack Obama were the one making these statements, then he would have a cross to bear. The Democratic Party offers one candidate who is a frontrunner with the people, while the other is a frontrunner with the superdelegates and the press. If the superdelegates decide this race, then the people may become disenfranchised with the Democratic Party and may jump ship.

The next political cartoon should show Rev. Wright floating off into space as a hot air balloon. Here comes Billary!

Jon Barsanti Jr.
Greensboro