News-Record.com

As a registered nurse in a broad range of health care services for 40 years, I and innumerable other nurses and patients would be remiss in not expressing our sincere gratitude to someone with the highest professional ethics and expertise in diagnosis and treatment of patients: Dr. Robert Foreman of Eagle Family Medicine at Guilford College. We have learned with much regret that he may be retiring in the near future in consideration of other specialty care.

Upon his arrival in Greensboro in 1973, Dr. Foreman immediately earned respect for his integrity and his innate empathy and quality patient care, improving the health status of each patient in his extremely busy practice. His arrival at our local hospital was the catalyst for improved conditions.

Of special significance is that a patient’s socioeconomic or financial status did not deter the medical care needed. His extraordinary dedication will continue to be reflected in his future assignment of missionary health care.

Dr. Foreman, each member of our family believes the Great Producer selected His best parts, assembled them and sent you as our special gift in medical practice. Thank you for sharing this journey of life; we shall always remember!

Jessie Donathan Howard
Greensboro

I had the most pleasurable experience when I recently flew on Allegiant Air to Florida. The crew, the appearance, the timeliness and the cost were all beyond expectations. All was perfect.

Regarding your reader question about weight restrictions: The airline restricts the seat to 17.8 inches from armrest to armrest. If you are unable to lower the armrest and compromise any adjacent seat, you must purchase a second ticket unless the adjacent seat is occupied by a member of your party who does not mind being encroached upon. This makes a lot of sense.

One reader mentioned doing away with the magazines, and another wants them to stay. I rarely see anyone reading the magazines. If there is a profit to the airline, then let them stay; otherwise they need to go. This is no big loss. Bring a newspaper if you care to read.

The extra charge for checked luggage is only fair to the airline and passengers who pay for a service they never use. There isn’t a charge for carry-ons that fit overhead and a parcel that will fit under the seat.

Keep up the good work, Allegiant, and we wish you success.

Olga Coble
Liberty

I note that our young people (college students in particular) are endorsing Sen. Obama as if he is some newcomer who is the answer to all the world’s problems.

I don’t care what his ethnic background is. I do care about his position on taxes. All of these enthusiastic young people need to talk to their parents about the tax thing.

Consider that the majority of American citizens are depending on investments to help them have a decent lifestyle in their old age. They also depend on them to help pay the tuition and support of those adoring young people. Their grandparents are probably retired and their previous savings and investments are the only thing that makes their living above the poverty level possible.

Contrary to popular belief, most Americans depend now, or will depend in the future, on money invested in some sort of stocks, bonds or mutual funds to maintain a standard of living that would not otherwise be possible. Obama wishes to double the tax rate on these investments. Sure encourages people to save and plan for the future, doesn’t it?

Edgar Phillips
Pleasant Garden

I would like to praise Michelle Singletary for her column, “Boomers, pay off mortgage” (June 22). My husband and I are baby boomers and we just paid off our mortgage in order to be 100 percent debt-free.

Thanks to a course offered by our church five or so years ago by Dave Ramsey (visit www.daveramsey.com), we took to heart his message on the freedom and savings of living debt-free. Now at ages 50 and 54, we can put what was once debt into a SEP IRA and enjoy the savings and earnings during retirement.

We did not throw a party, but we did shred the mortgage book and took our three teenagers out for a nice dinner.

Nancy Hull
Greensboro

As a North Carolina taxpayer, I am appalled by Gov. Easley’s lavish and wasteful use of our tax money on his recent trip to Italy. Easley needs to recognize that his constituents work hard every day to earn a living and pay taxes to support our state government. We deserve value for our money.

Taxpayers should not have to shell out $3,600 per day for a chauffeured limousine, more than $500 for dinner, $700 for lunch for a party of eight, and more than $500 a room per night for hotels. Almost none of us can afford luxuries like that, even during a vacation.

We should be able to recruit businesses and tourism without that extravagance.

Patricia R. Shumard
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Andy Ellen

I read with interest the editorial, “Smaller trucks, safer roads” (June 19), which seeks to tarnish the N.C. Senate’s unanimous 47-0 vote on Senate Bill 1695 to allow the industry standard 53-foot trailers on more North Carolina roads.

The N.C. Senate should be commended for recognizing that without SB 1695, rural North Carolina will continue to be locked out of economic prosperity because 70 percent of goods move via trucks.

Under current law, there are some North Carolina counties that do not have a single road that the 53-foot trailer is permitted to use. Groceries do not magically appear on the shelves in rural areas, and no company is going to locate a manufacturing facility or a distribution center in an area of North Carolina where they cannot transport their products.

As I read the News & Record’s viewpoint, I wondered if any member of the editorial staff had actually read the language of SB 1695. The authority to determine which roads should not be used by the 53-foot trailer does not rest with a legislative committee as the News & Record has inaccurately stated, but rather only requires that the Department of Transportation consult with a committee. In other words, the final authority resides with DOT, which will certainly consult with the Highway Patrol.

Proponents of SB 1695 have acknowledged, since the bill was introduced, that there are some mountain roads that will need to be restricted, and yet the News & Record seems to ignore this point. What the News & Record also continues to ignore is that not every North Carolinian lives within three miles of an interstate. SB 1695 is good for consumers, good for rural North Carolina and good for the environment.

The writer is general counsel, North Carolina Retail Merchants Association in Raleigh.

Your paper reported in “Audit: Doctors owe taxes for free drugs” that free medicine samples are “office supplies,” considered “personal property” of a medical practice and, therefore, subject to taxation by the Guilford County tax office. Talk about the far-reaching arm of the law!

I don’t see Eagle Physicians’ doctors handing out tongue depressors, paper clips, toner cartridges, clipboards, etc. These are office supplies. Even in the category of personal property, the county’s claim is bogus.

These drugs are passed by pharmaceutical reps to doctors with the intent that they be passed on to needy patients. What is personal about this for the doctor or his practice? This is simply a professional courtesy to patients and a much-needed relief to people who struggle to pay for the medications they need. Free samples provide a much-needed service in a health-care system that few people can really afford, especially with rising prices and record job losses.

Guilford County Tax Director Francis Kinlaw has exhibited poor judgment, insensitivity and greed. Anyone who has ever depended on and appreciated a free sample should contact the county manager, the county commissioners, the tax office and your legislators. Take a stand or we’ll be the ones to really pay.

Carlton Ward
Carthage

At last! Guilford Tax Director Francis Kinlaw and his diligent staff, which vows to stick to “the letter of the law” and not the “spirit,” have figured out how to balance the county’s budget without raising taxes again. I venture to say that the current budget will be reduced by half in less than five years by following “the letter of the law.”

Of course, I refer to taxes owed by Eagle Physicians and Associates for the free samples disbursed to patients. Kinlaw should add to his audit agenda visits to Costco to savor free food samples or Ben and Jerry’s for a free spoonful of the ice cream, flavor of his choice, or Macy’s perfume counter for a free aromatic spritz. Oh, and how about those tasty free mints at many of Greensboro’s restaurant counters, or why not go after professors who receive free textbook samples?

So many transgressions, so little time. Surely, Kinlaw’s contribution to balancing the county’s budget will be laudable for years to come!

If, Kinlaw’s view that “we’re responsible for conducting ourselves under the law” is equally enforced, Guilford citizens should be receiving no tax bills and a modest economic incentive check by 2012.

Joe Benson
Greensboro

The Guilford commissioners may yet conclude that a quarter-loaf is better than no loaf at all, even if the bakery that was closed on May 6 is even more likely to be closed on Nov. 4 (“Sales tax plan might appear on ballot in fall,” June 21). Your editorial about Billy Yow’s souped-up sales tax (May 22) contained two true statements:

1. “Commissioners can’t legally guarantee that a new sales tax would be applied as Yow suggests (to offset the property tax). ...”

2. “The real issue is the sales tax itself.”

What sales-tax boosters find so seductive —millions in moolah, but a low profile at the grocery store — is what makes a sales tax, any sales tax, so treacherous. The windfall accelerates spending, and accelerates it painlessly.

But because the new revenue stream is hostage to the vicissitudes of retail activity, the fiscal infusion creates expectations it cannot sustain. Then the only way to make up the difference is to tap the only ever-dependable source of cash: the property tax.

A higher sales tax means a higher property tax. It’s counterintuitive (to borrow a word from Allen Johnson), but true.

Barney Hill
Thomasville

Well, here we go again. The leaders of this city have finally shown their true colors, and it looks a lot like green. With foreclosures at a record pace, gasoline at $4 a gallon, food skyrocketing, property taxes going through the roof and the economy down, Robbie Perkins, Goldie Wells and T. Dianne Bellamy-Small are whining about their pay. I thought I read somewhere that all Bellamy-Small wanted to do (when she was facing a recall election) was to just serve the people. Looks like serving the people is getting just too expensive.

Meanwhile, Goldie Wells says she is embarrassed to tell others how little she makes for her “service.” The people of those districts should be embarrassed that their leaders are bellyaching about their pay. I thought the reason one wanted to become a council member was to serve the people of this city, not to see how much they could get out of it.

Do like the rest of the citizens of this city and county: Tighten up your belt and do your job!

Ernie Andrews
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Lynn Long

As the parent of a middle schooler, I take great offense with Doug Clark’s June 18 column. My son Andrew is a rising seventh-grader at Kernodle Middle School. He is a bright, kind, giving boy growing into a young man. He is active in our church, sports at the Spears YMCA and Boy Scout Troop 109.

He is not “hostile and abusive,” as Clark called all middle schoolers in his column. He and his classmates are not “in an adversarial relationship against a lone teacher.”

The middle school children I know are wonderful kids. They want to learn. They want to please teachers, coaches, scout leaders and parents. They are doing this in a world that does not always respect them.

Each day they are bombarded with the good and bad of this world. For Clark to dump all middle schoolers into a lump of worthless, stupid, uncaring, disrespectful and violent human beings is unfair.

Each of us should be doing all we can do to uplift all children to help them become the leaders of tomorrow. I do not know the teacher Clark referred to, nor do I know the specifics of her case. I am sorry that her job “drove her crazy.” My son was taught by six of the most educated and dedicated teachers. Yes, they were ready for the year to end, as we all are ready for things to end. This does not mean that they were “desperately clinging to sanity until summer vacation finally” arrived.

Many teachers will spend this summer learning new material to become better teachers. Like children, they will spend time relaxing and preparing for a new school year and new adventures.

No, my son is not perfect and wonderful all the time. He drives me, his father, his teachers and his coaches crazy sometimes. He is silly and irresponsible sometimes. This is what a middle schooler is.

Mr. Clark, I invite you to meet the middle schoolers I know. You will be impressed by the children you meet.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

The Counterpoint by Philip Porter (June 25) makes a good case for adding a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

He notes our national debt of $7 trillion is “an unsecured loan to the government not backed by anything that can be seen or touched; it covered current expense, not capital.”

What’s happening in our economy today is a reflection of poor fiscal management that Congress could but won’t fix. The tax-and-spend juggernaut rolls on despite all the sweet rhetoric about “change.”

Unfortunately, in too many cases our corporate culture follows the same pattern of government excess. Responsibility and common sense seem in short supply.

Our nation and its citizens are the victims.

Bill Beerman
Greensboro

I was reading the letters on June 21. It amazes me that people like Dave Derence blame this country’s problems on Democrats.

If I remember correctly, George Bush and his cohorts have been in office the past eight years. His so-called experience in office before he was elected has done nothing but get this country in a worse mess than the last Republican president. Bush has created more terrorism.

It’s going to take someone like Barack Obama, who at least wants to try to make change, to get us out the mess this nation has been facing for the past eight years. Bush will go down in history with the worst approval rating ever. What was Bush’s military experience? George Bush has put this country in danger.

While Clinton was in office, we had jobs and reasonable gas prices. Homes were not being foreclosed by the thousands, and everyone was, for the most part, happy.

I am one of the thousands of Americans who have lost their jobs and health insurance. So if you want five more years of war, no jobs, high food prices and gas, go ahead and vote for John McCain.

I have a conscience. Do you?

If you think it’s bad now, vote for McCain. You get what you vote for.

S.D. McClelland
Greensboro

Barack Obama has claimed that he does not take donations from special-interest groups or lobbyists. True, but he has accepted donations from their spouses, relatives and friends (source: Fox News).

Obama has no respect for the Second Amendment. He has voiced support or voted to ban all handguns, ban the right to carry in every state, and to ban firearms in the home, even for self-protection.

Obama’s attitude toward armed, violent criminals has been one of benign neglect at best. When the Illinois Senate wanted to try gang-bangers as adults when they fired a gun on or near a school ground (1999) or when they committed murder to help their gang, and when the Senate wanted to make them eligible for the death penalty (2001), Obama voted no in both cases.
Obama said he believed federal mandatory-sentencing laws used to put armed and violent predators behind bars should be abolished (source: Chicago Tribune).

When Illinois lawmakers introduced a bill that would exonerate citizens for violating local gun bans if they used a gun to defend themselves in their homes, Obama voted no. Obama would disarm the public and allow the criminals to run free.

Anthony Belli
Greensboro

Strap in! The GOP slime machine is cranked up and ready to go. Prepare for Elizabeth Dole, George Bush, John McCain and others to tell us how Sen. Kay Hagan will take away our guns, have tea with terrorists, blast open our southern border and let gay people marry!

In a nutshell, it is the same stuff that put Bush in office. Fear! Fear! Fear! That’s all they have to peddle after the past eight years.

“Giddy” Dole has been nothing short of a lap dog for George Bush, showing up in North Carolina just months before the election, after being totally absent for over five-and-a-half years! Her ads are slick, but she can’t pull the wool over this state twice. She is a pitiful excuse for a senator.
Kay Hagan, my family stands with you!

John Graham
Greensboro

I have been disturbed by the amount of disrespect that friends and family show at high school graduations by shouting and making loud noises when names of graduates are called.

Recently I attended a high school graduation in Spartanburg, S.C., and, before the names were called, an announcement was made that if anyone clapped, shouted or made noises of any kind while names were called, the police would escort them out. A few were.

Guilford County Schools administrators should take notice, and before graduation in 2009 this issue should be addressed.

I am sure most parents would enjoy a graduation that is handled with respect. (GCS administrators should read an article in the June 11 News & Record, Section B, “Seven arrested after cheers disrupt graduation.”)

Elizabeth East
Whitsett

The following is a Counterpoint.

By Kim Leipham-Freedman

Kathleen Parker (column, June 21) makes a valid point: Women probably have a gender bias that accounts for their desire to stay home and care for their newborns. But when she goes on to agree with Stephen Rhoades’ conclusion that “women simply like child care more than men,” Parker puts herself on a slippery slope. Those of us in the trenches know that child care is only part of parenthood.

Life with children can be wonderful, but it is also is filled with endless, mindless, monotonous tasks. Show me a modern mom who “likes” filling out 42 permission slips and 18 sports waivers or “enjoys” juggling visits to the pediatrician, guitar teacher and orthodontist and I’ll show you a woman who is spiking her organic tea.

Parker tells us that even the folks at Harvard have determined that our rut of domestic inequality probably goes back to our hunter-gatherer forebears, and that some things “just are.” She speaks about men and women having “different” parenting standards, implying that men are somehow not as good in the parenting department. Rubbish.

I’m less inclined to blame genetics for my husband’s inability to handle the ins and outs of camp registration. (His incompetence is in fact delivered with a particular genius.) But his parenting is in no way worse than mine. On any given day we both can be fairly incompetent.
Getting the insufferable jobs done isn’t about genetics or gender. Truth be told, the division of labor in families is never fair, and until the kids can list their own medical histories complete with group insurance numbers and emergency contact information, it never will be.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

OK, Democrats. Stop complaining about high gas prices. You and your environmentalist wacko friends are responsible for this mess. For 30-plus years, you have prevented new drilling in the United States and the building of new refineries.

You say we “can’t” drill our way to energy independence. “Can’t” shouldn’t be in the American vocabulary. Imagine Jack Kennedy saying in 1961 we “can’t” go to the moon!

Your once great party has decided to nominate another Jimmy Carter for president. I remember the “malaise” days the Georgia peanut farmer brought us and have no desire for a replay.

Oh, I forgot. The media has anointed Barack Obama as our new “messiah.” Maybe Obama can “change” water into gasoline and diesel fuel. After all, he is the candidate of “change.”

Jeffery Smith
Greensboro

According to meteorologists, our area is again in drought conditions. Under normal conditions it takes water for things to grow. However, that didn’t prevent Greensboro from growing on July 1.

Neither Greensboro City Council nor our state legislature has had the presence-of-mind to limit out-of-control growth. All City Council sees are the dollar signs in tax revenues. But will citizens see the associated services? Probably not.

The Greensboro Police Department is unable to meet its desired response time to calls as it stands. Why extend boundaries when the services are not provided at the current level?

City Manager Mitchell Johnson wants to add 29 officers to service the newly annexed areas. They will not even meet current needs. This is unsatisfactory for current and new residents, as well as for the understaffed police officers.

All of these issues would appear to be a matter of common sense, but then whoever would expect politicians on any level to either possess or use any of that?

Garret Canter
Greensboro

The residents of Aldersgate Apartments on Merritt Drive wish to thank the Greensboro Police Department for its kindness and community involvement.

Dewey Smith and other officers installed anti-theft bolts to residents’ license plates free of charge.

The department and officers are to be commended for their concern for the safety and well-being of older adults and the physically challenged.

Faye Yaskiewicz
Archdale

The writer’s mother is a resident of Aldersgate Apartments.

With the 2008 presidential election quickly approaching, it is easy to put other important races on the back burner. Even some of the most political savvy individuals will be well versed in the platforms of each presidential candidate but will simply vote for the member of his or her party for U.S. Senate.

Although party loyalty is important, sometimes a full appreciation for a candidate can’t be understood without doing research as to why he or she deserves to be in office.

Elizabeth Dole, serving five U.S. presidents, is second to no candidate in political experience. Senator Dole has spent her entire career as a servant to the people, and her re-election will allow her to continue to do great things while serving North Carolina.

On election day, I implore you to not vote just for the Republican or the Democrat, but to choose the right candidate: Elizabeth Dole.

Daniel Rowe
Reidsville

This past week the Senate voted not to stop the 10.6 percent cut to Medicare providers beginning July 1, and a subsequent 5.4 percent cut in January. The laughable title of Bill HR 6331 is “Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008.” Senator Burr (R-NC) voted to allow the cuts.

The bill failed by one vote and will come up for a final vote after the July 4 recess. If the cuts go into effect, it will be even more difficult for Medicare patients to find physicians to care for them.
For several years, doctors got a mere one percent increase in reimbursements. The cost of practicing medicine has gone up far more than that. The formula on which the cuts were based was not only seriously flawed, it was stupid.

I urge any patient receiving Medicare benefits to call Senator Burr and urge him to change his vote. Write him now or call him later when you can’t find a physician to care for you. Maybe he will get up in the middle of the night to take out your gallbladder. Contact him at http://burr.senate.gov

Stuart Glassman, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Hendersonville

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Charles Flink

An editorial on June 22 suggests that the Downtown Greenway be separated from the transportation bond referendum because it is not a “conventional street” and therefore is assumed not to be a transportation solution.

The U.S. DOT, the Federal Highway Administration, N.C. DOT and the Greensboro DOT jointly recognize the tremendous value that a project like the Greenway has on the timely, safe and efficient travel of people. Section 1202 of the Transportation Equity Act recommends that all transportation projects incorporate bicycling and walking into conventional project development.

A 1999 FHWA memorandum to engineers across the nation “reaffirms our commitment to improving conditions for bicycling and walking,” and states “non-motorized modes are an integral part of the mission and critical element of local, regional and national transportation systems.”

A 2000 policy of the N.C. Board of Transportation “strongly reaffirms (our) commitment to improving conditions for bicycling and walking” and encourages North Carolina cities to make bicycling and walking an integral part of transportation systems. Greensboro adopted a Bicycle, Pedestrian and Greenway Master Plan in which the Downtown Greenway was defined as a high-priority project and important for addressing residents’ unmet transportation needs.

The Downtown Greenway is an essential component of transportation infrastructure. As it is developed, it will offer non-motorized, nonpolluting, healthy and affordable transportation for thousands of residents. It will become as valuable as any given street in the city.

With high gas prices, Greensboro voters deserve the opportunity to vote for an “unconventional” transportation solution that provides a fair choice in commuting among popular destinations.
The Greenway is a valued element of the transportation bond and is much needed at a time when our conventional “pay at the pump” alternative is rapidly escalating beyond the reasonable financial means of community residents.

Charles Flink is president of Greenways, Inc., in Durham, which helped develop the Downtown Greenway plan.

Last week, the world, except us, commemorated the World Day against Torture. On the same day, we held congressional hearings on what constituted torture and debated to what degree punishing physically and mentally another human was allowed legally!

Yet our local news paid no attention in editorial positions. Not print, not radio, not television. The public was mostly silent. The “family virtues” crowd was not heard from.

The two principal proponents of torture have no record of service in the armed forces. These same defenders of inhumane treatment (as long as it does not damage an organ!) are the proponents of protecting national values!

There were no sermons about inhumane treatment of fellow humans.

There was no outrage that, in the 21st century, we have allowed our country to be less than the best.

No member of Congress elected from North Carolina protested the outrage.

There is no outrage that we have allowed bad leadership to suggest the destruction of interrogators’ notes before court cases.

There is no outrage that our standing as the leader in advocating and protecting human rights is tarnished and suspect.

Where is the outrage?

David P. Haxton
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Lawrence L. Shornack

In a recent column, Doug Clark wrote: “Anyone familiar with middle schoolers could attest to their hostile and abusive nature. Gather two dozen of them in a classroom and match them in an adversarial relationship against a lone teacher, and there’s no contest.” Actually, it was only intrusive decisions by “progressive” Supreme Court justices that “liberated” many students from restraints on their inclinations to antisocial behavior.

In Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), the court ruled that in punishing students for wearing black arm bands to protest the Vietnam War, the school had infringed on the students’ free-speech rights. Dissenting, Justice Hugo Black contended that the court’s decision had “surrender(ed) control of the American public school system to public school students. Once a society that generally respected the authority of teachers, deferred to their judgment, and trusted them to act in the best interests of school children, we now accept defiance, disrespect and disorder … in our public schools.”

Goss v. Lopez (1975) concerned a principal who suspended students whom he had witnessed fighting in the school lunchroom. The court ruled that he had violated the students’ due-process rights because he had not held a hearing with witnesses before issuing the punishment. Such rulings created the adversarial climate in the public schools.

Professor Richard Arum of the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University examined every court case in which schools have had to defend their disciplinary procedures. Before 1965, there was only a handful of such legal challenges; between 1965 and 1992, there were more than 1,500. “Clearly,” he said, “just the threat of lawsuits restrains teachers and administrators from taking charge in their classrooms and schools.”

Research has shown that disadvantaged inner-city students perform significantly better academically in Catholic schools, at less cost than public schools; discipline, safety and traditional curriculum evidently make the difference. And American students in general usually score just average on international tests.

If you are dissatisfied with the state of the public schools (or crime or poverty or child rape) — or if you fear for realms where judges have not yet imposed their progressive ideology — note that a Democratic president will almost certainly be able to ensure a progressive Supreme Court majority for decades to come.

The writer lives in Madison.

A few weeks ago, Sens. Clinton, McCain and Obama made a joint statement condemning the genocide in Darfur and saying the United States should do more to end the violence. This was the first time since World War II that all major presidential candidates had come together on a foreign policy issue.

Although the United States officially called the violence in Darfur genocide long ago, we continue to talk instead of putting real pressure on the Sudanese government and its supporter, China, to end it. In July 2007 the United Nations promised 17,000 additional peacekeepers for Darfur, and one year later only 2,100 have been deployed.

President Bush needs to hear that the United States must put pressure on the Sudanese government or we will be guilty of not doing enough to end one of the greatest tragedies of modern times. This from a country that claims to be a moral leader in the world.

With the presidential election, it will be hard to keep Darfur in the news, but the genocide will not pause until after the election. To find out more about Darfur and what you can do to help, go to www.savedarfur.org.

Sue Jezorek
Greensboro

Hey Mike:

You forgot your manners.

I didn’t receive my personal thank-you note or, at the very least, a postcard from Italy with the standard “weather’s great; the Italian scenery is magnificent; the food, sumptuous; hotels are first-class; and I can’t say enough about our rental car! Wish you were here. ...”
Me, too, Mike, me too!

Patricia McCormack
Greensboro

Instead of addressing the real issues behind the achievement gap between the races — the breakdown of the family structure in the black community, “the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white,” ill-prepared teachers and the “soft bigotry of low expectations” by those teachers and administration — we begin a cavalcade of excuses and rhetoric.

I’m sure you have heard the excuses:

1. Standardized tests are biased toward whites (which does not explain why Asian Americans and other immigrant students still perform well on them).

2. Standardized tests are over-emphasized. Eliminating standardized tests in this instance will only reinforce the stereotype that blacks just can’t meet the mark academically. This type of “soft thinking” will not prepare our kids for the global economy in which our country competes.

There has to be a “cultural overhaul” within the black community. We must reinstate family values and remove the disdain for education that permeates our culture. We must stop looking for the school board or taxpayers to provide answers for our children.

A fusion of stronger parenting and a focus on academic success will help nullify the dropout rate, crime rate and, subsequently, the achievement gap.

David Wynn
Greensboro

Point: Tax bills come out in July for Guilford County and its incorporated communities, the newest being the Cardinal.

Point: You can appeal your tax-assessed value, based most recently on the required 2004 revaluation. But, why?

Point: If you’re concerned about your tax bill, the Tax Department is not your target. Because the tax burden is increased by us, not them. Hello?

Point: The most recent tax increases — county and city — were a demand to your commissioners and council members, because you/we voted that increase into place. They are legally bound, as is the county manager, the city manager, the Board of Commissioners and the City Council, to implement what we, the voters, have agreed to and demanded that they implement.

Point: Property values are falling. Property taxes are rising. Forty-three percent of the county’s citizens own real estate. Fifty-seven percent do not. The recent multimillion-dollar bond vote won by 55 percent. Do the math. Why not vote in more “gimmes” if you don’t have to pay for them?

When the tax bills come out, don’t call the Tax Department. Don’t call your commissioner or council person. Call your neighbor … and talk about how we did this to ourselves. Point taken?

Lonnie Groendes
Greensboro

Regarding Roberta Spillane’s letter (June 23): If she is truly interested in voting for a candidate who has raised the minimum wage to help working families make ends meet, taken care of our veterans and laid out a plan to lower gas prices, she should take a look at Kay Hagan.

Kay has shown real courage by voting to increase the state minimum wage. She has shown true dedication to our brave men and women in the armed forces by pledging her support for better benefits and a new GI Bill. And she has shown real leadership with her comprehensive energy plan that will lower prices for consumers while reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

Spillane is correct: North Carolina does need a strong voice in the Senate. We need Kay Hagan’s clear and consistent voice to fight for us in Washington.

Nicole Dougherty
Kernersville

Cal Thomas has peeled back a layer of Barack Obama, revealing a “false prophet” (June 14). You can’t deny the basic tenets of the Christian faith and be a Christian. How Obama achieves his salvation is between him and his maker. He’s just selected a difficult path.

But it really sounds as if he has absorbed more than his share after 20 years of listening to the vituperative, vitriolic venom in Jeremiah Wright’s Emporium of Pernicious Prevarications.

Like most of his positions, which are based on ignorance and inexperience, this is but one more example. He is like a shiny red Ferrari with nothing under the hood. Just another empty suit.

Thanks, Cal, for telling it like it is.

Bob Guertin
Jamestown

Regarding the letter on Sen. Elizabeth Dole: She is not “caving in” to big oil companies concerning her reconsideration of offshore drilling on the North Carolina coast. She is “caving in” to the thousands of residents of North Carolina who have written to her requesting relief and alternatives to our dependency on foreign oil. She listens to us and is not concerned with biased liberal newspaper opinion such as the Associated Press.

I am glad she shares my concerns and acts on my request as a resident of the U.S.A. She works hard in the Senate for the people and best interests of North Carolina. We need to keep her there.

Beverly Grenier
Greensboro

I understand Sen. Richard Burr voted no on the Save Medicare Act of 2008, which would reverse the proposed 10.6 percent cut in Medicare/TRICARE payments to doctors and replace it with a 1.8 percent payment increase.

As a ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, he should know that military beneficiaries would be affected even more severely by these cuts, because rates for military health insurance, TRICARE, are based on Medicare rates and in many cases are below those of Medicare.

More cuts in payments to doctors would devastate seniors’ and all military beneficiaries’ access to health care by encouraging even more doctors to stop seeing Medicare and TRICARE patients.

This issue is a particular problem for retirees who don’t live near military installations. In those areas, such as Greensboro, many doctors already refuse to see new TRICARE or Medicare patients. With these cuts, even more doctors likely will be forced to take this step. As a senior, and a veteran, I have a vested interest in this legislation. As one of his constituents, I must ask how Burr, a professed supporter of veterans, can justify voting against this vital veterans’ health legislation.

Portia R. McCracken
Greensboro

The writer is a lieutenant colonel, U.S. Air Force (retired).

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Michael Mattingly, M.D.

Wow! Taxing medication samples that are given to patients for free. It’s hard to believe the N.C. Department of Revenue has stooped to this.

Let’s think about this for a minute. Free samples are provided to doctors’ offices by pharmaceutical companies that already have paid a tax on the medications. Doctors then distribute those medications for free to patients for a number of reasons.

Frequently, they are used when starting a patient on a new medication to see if he will tolerate it before he spends a small fortune on it. At other times, doctors use them as the only source of medication for patients who cannot afford them. In these situations, sample medications can truly be lifesaving (a lot of my dialysis patients rely on them exclusively).

Doctors’ offices are faced with decreased reimbursement from Medicare, Medicaid and insurance companies while at the same time overhead expenses are increasing by near double-digit levels on a yearly basis. And now, a tax on free medications for patients.

If this truly happens, doctors’ offices will no longer accept free samples and, therefore, will be unable to provide them to patients whose lives sometimes depend on them.

So, in the end, who loses? The patients (and residents) of North Carolina and Guilford County.
Does that make sense to anyone?

What’s next, Department of Revenue? A tax on doctors for all the free care they provide on the basis of “phantom income”? Are you really thinking this through?

I’ve got a medication that may make you think more clearly but, unfortunately, I no longer have any samples to give you.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

I am shocked at the number of so-called employment opportunities out there that require YOU to pay to work for them.

Recently, a friend responded to a job he found listed and was contacted for an interview. He went, and there was a group of 30 other people. There was a well-dressed gentleman and an erase-board presentation without brochures and with very little information about the company other than lip service. They were to come in the next day for a one-day training session and bring $395 cash or money order for this company to set up a Web site and 800 number.

People, please consider that most companies pay you to work for them and please do your homework as my friend did. Go to scamreports.com and the Better Business Bureau to find any complaints. These scam artists are there to take your very last dollar and offer you no support whatsoever.

Our friend had his friend from Texas actually go to the office of this person and it was nothing like he had described. So, please, do your homework first!

Kay Sigmon
Greensboro

Regarding Harvey Herman’s letter (June 27), I take John McCain’s statement about not loving America until he was deprived of it to mean: “Even though I am from a military family, graduated from the Naval Academy and served in the Navy, I took my country for granted until my five-year stay in the Hanoi Hilton.”

How many of us take people, places or things for granted until they are gone? I think Sen. McCain meant exactly what he said, and I salute him for saying it.

Jane Lewis
Burlington

In her “Your Weekend” column (News & Record, June 26), Carolyn Booth laments, “Many people have never felt the pull of a fish at the end of a line.”

But what is that pull, so beloved by fishermen? Is it not an animal fighting for its life? Doesn’t that animal want to live as badly as I do?

We have so many positive associations with fishing — happy days with Granddad; Andy and Opie at Myers Lake. It seems so wholesome, almost perfectly opposite of a gun in your daughter’s classroom, crack dealers and teen pregnancy pacts.

But hurting living things is not wholesome, and it should not be fun. Plato, in his “Apology,” tells us that Socrates said that the life that is unexamined is not worth living. I have no doubt that Socrates was referring to the things that are really tough to examine: ideas long cherished but with disturbing contradictions lurking beneath the dark waters of our comfortable notions.

Many people were long comfortable with the idea of Indians and slaves and Chinamen being subhuman and unable to suffer.

Larry Surber
Stoneville

I thought it surprising that this newspaper saw fit to publish Tom Imbus’ incoherent tirade relating to Mike Easley’s views on offshore oil drilling (June 30).

The question Imbus first purports to address is the workability of offshore drilling as a solution to the present energy crisis. He then drops the issue entirely, presumably because Easley, by and large, is correct: Using up the little we’ve got offshore will not solve the persistent problem of our oil addiction.

Imbus then attacks Easley’s consumption habits to justify his insupportable position through tu quoque finger-pointing. The figures he cites are not relevant; though costing taxpayers thousands, the amenities and lodging Easley enjoyed on his trip did little to sap oil reserves: “How much fuel was depleted when $51,000 of our money was spent on a chauffeured Mercedes to transport you and your wife?” Well, none, to be precise.

I am just as much offended by our government’s waste as anyone. But please, pick a complaint and stick with it! And don’t drag in topics where they have no place. The energy crisis is serious business. It oughtn’t be used as ammunition for partisan mudslinging.

Jonathan Storch
Greensboro

Maureen Parker writes (June 28): “Why do we suffer ... I have no idea.”

Physical suffering has never come as a detriment to our soul’s growth. Our truest suffering is mental and spiritual — touching our soul. God gives us a “lens” to measure this by: It is a lens through which the light of God’s divine love shines. It is a lens that can suit the needs of all — regardless of religious or other claims — in that it weighs those things that cause us to be ill at ease against what illuminates us to inner peace, bliss and eternal happiness. Beyond all suffering, there’s a citadel for our soul.

Ray Hylton
Greensboro

Once again, Jim Schlosser has written a great article about a great bunch of guys. I am referring to the article about Style & Cut on the front page June 30. I have been having my hair cut there for more than 30 years. My wife will only let Ron cut her hair.

Once when I had neck surgery and could not shave due to being in a hard brace, I had Ron shave me. Boy, did I feel better. We lived in Wake Forest for three years and always drove to Greensboro to have our haircuts done at Style & Cut.

I have found that when you leave Style & Cut, besides looking better, you always feel a little better.

Woody Grady
High Point

As I watch the news on TV and read the papers, I have seen or heard seven dangerous mistakes many people make.

Here they are:
1. Trying to be happy through owning something.
2. Trying to despise people because they do not agree with you.
3. Trying to dispose of our troubles by worrying over them.
4. Trying to change the world to suit our pet theory.
5. Trying to silence people who do not think as we think.
6. Trying to make sins beautiful by giving them beautiful names.
7. Trying to satisfy God with fine words instead of fine living.

Nick Nicholson
McLeansville

The News & Record is to be commended for helping to bring our ethnically diverse community closer together and for helping us get to know some minorities who we would not normally take time out of our busy lives to meet.

Once a week now, in a special article, I can always see at least one or two pictures of black or Hispanic youth whom I otherwise might never have known. The article also gives me a nice little bio of the young person, including where they are from and some of their recent activities. The article also states that its publication has been responsible for many of these young folks stepping forward and agreeing to become even more involved in community service. I feel enriched and enlightened by this piece.

However, I would like to suggest one enhancement. In order that outsiders do not get the wrong impression of the Triad area, you should call the article something other than “Guilford County’s Most Wanted.”

John Roberts
Reidsville

The following is a Counterpoint.

By Tony Watts

As California goes?

While many North Carolinians applaud the legalization of gay marriage in California, they don’t seem to realize the impetus behind the decision and the impact it could have nationwide. It reflects not only a shift in law, but how law is determined in our postmodern age. Rather than reflecting the moral absolutes provided by the traditional Judeo-Christian worldview, the ruling reflected a philosophy in which the existence of God is denied and relative moral guidelines shrewdly mask the oppressive power(s) that be.

That is exactly what we see in California as the powerful gay lobby forces not only its view of morality on the rest of us, but, more seriously, its view of God — namely, his nonexistence.
So, knowingly or not, the California Supreme Court ruled in perfect step with atheist Michael Onfray’s book in which he noted his disdain for the same Judeo-Christian worldview upon which our entire legal system actually stands.

Citing the disallowance of “religious symbols” in French courthouses, Onfray expressed his disdain for the fact that modern “law” still hinges on a biblical worldview. “The absence of a cross in the courtroom,” he says, “does not guarantee a judiciary that is independent with respect to the dominant religion,” and here he means Christianity. “For the very foundations of judicial logic proceed from chapter 3 of Genesis …” (from “Atheist Manifesto”).

His point is that no matter how much we claim to have eliminated religion from the public sector, almost everything in society is still foundationally Christian.

That is the real issue with the California Supreme Court’s decision. Defining marriage between a man and woman would have reflected the same Judeo-Christian mind-set against which Onfray and supporters of the modern gay movement so adamantly militate. So, apparently, in compliance with the new godless philosophy, California’s high court did its best to stay as far away from that biblical standard as possible. This gay marriage “license,” then, only distances our nation, its laws and marriage from a biblical influence. It’s a move that atheistic thinkers everywhere applaud.

Let it never be said that North Carolinians possess a Californian-like disdain for the God of the Bible from which traditional morality and marriage emerged in the first place. Instead, I really hope that North Carolinians and their legislators see the vital link between God, morality and law. If not, as California went, we may soon follow.

Tony Watts is a freelance writer in Thomasville.

After reading the paper one day recently, I headed out for my walk. I decided to do the longer route, and in reverse, tackling the hill on Garden Lake Drive early in the routine. What a shock! I thought the development on the corner of New Garden Road and Garden Lake Drive affected only the entrance to that neighborhood. The trees have started to come down and the devastation goes back at least three houses on both sides of Garden Lake Drive.

I was never able to attend the City Council meetings concerning this development. I did e-mail members of the City Council that I was opposed to any more development along New Garden Road, and I am sure I am not alone in feeling that council members couldn’t care less what I want.

I live in a small neighborhood off New Garden, and the only thing that separates one edge of our neighborhood from New Garden is a small undeveloped lot. I hope the owner never sells it!
In fact, maybe the owner would like to set up an outside museum on that lot of all the trees, flora and fauna that have been removed from New Garden Road.

Georgie Leventhal
Greensboro

I need not enumerate the failures, scandals and greed we have endured under neoconservative “leardership.” More than 70 percent of Americans think we’re going down the wrong road economically and in the Iraqi quagmire.

Here are some facts to consider before voting for McCain:
• Once considered a “maverick,” McCain has flip-flopped on almost every issue. He voted against tax breaks for the wealthy; now he wants to make “trickle down” permanent.
• He was against torture until he voted for it.
• He called the religious right “agents of intolerance” until he needed their votes and cash.
• His campaign is run by corporate lobbyists including Charlie Black (Google him).
• He thinks the Supreme Court was wrong to uphold habeas corpus for military detainees.
• He has made it clear that he wants to attack Iran and considers diplomacy useless (wait till you see how much gas costs after that!).
• He thinks that Americans losing their homes should “get a second job and forgo vacations” and that the “free market” will bring affordable health insurance to all (right!).

Old, out of touch, and a George Bush clone — that’s bomb-bomb-bomb-bomb-bomb-Iran McCain!

Michael Northuis
Greensboro

I suspect City Council members “Tricky” Mike Barber and “Bow-wow” Trudy Wade may have recently conspired to give Councilman Robbie Perkins a “hard time!”

A news story (June 26) points to “Tricky” Mike writing a memo to City Manager Mitch Johnson stating: “It appears a council member factored incentives into a land deal, went directly to staff..., lobbied other council members...,” etc.!

Apparently, one of the “others” allegedly lobbied is none other than “Bow-wow” Trudy.
Well, Robbie says he did no such thing.

And Mitch says Mr. Perkins followed the council’s standard procedures in line with North Carolina conflict-of-interest law.

And Mayor Yvonne Johnson says, “I don’t think Mr. Perkins is someone who would be doing something illegally or underhandedly.”

So I suggest that “Tricky” and “Bow-wow” take a vacation “break” from the stress of public service and raw politicking. Perhaps they could go — separately, of course — to public beaches and play with sea shells for awhile.

Bill Burnett
Greensboro

I suspect City Council members “Tricky” Mike Barber and “Bow-wow” Trudy Wade may have recently conspired to give Councilman Robbie Perkins a “hard time!”

A news story (June 26) points to “Tricky” Mike writing a memo to City Manager Mitch Johnson stating: “It appears a council member factored incentives into a land deal, went directly to staff..., lobbied other council members...,” etc.!

Apparently, one of the “others” allegedly lobbied is none other than “Bow-wow” Trudy.

Well, Robbie says he did no such thing.

And Mitch says Mr. Perkins followed the council’s standard procedures in line with North Carolina conflict-of-interest law.

And Mayor Yvonne Johnson says, “I don’t think Mr. Perkins is someone who would be doing something illegally or underhandedly.”

So I suggest that “Tricky” and “Bow-wow” take a vacation “break” from the stress of public service and raw politicking. Perhaps they could go — separately, of course — to public beaches and play with sea shells for awhile.

Bill Burnett
Greensboro

After listening to Gov. Mike Easley stutter and stammer through a laughable explanation of two costly “jaunts” taken by him and his wife at the taxpayers’ expense, I have this to say: Easley should apologize to the public, take out his personal checkbook and donate $279,000 (the total of the two trips) to any of the following worthy recipients:

• the struggling North Carolina homeowners facing foreclosure;

• any food bank in the state;

• Habitat for Humanity;

• the North Carolina state budget.

The last choice might be the best since Gov. Easley has announced “a small downturn in revenue” regarding the state’s coffers.

If the elected officials of North Carolina routinely abuse the state’s treasury in the manner that Gov. Easley has, it would explain the present shortfall of funds.

In the times that we are now living, no one has the right to waste 1 cent of taxpayers’ money. I repeat, no one!

Eileen Thiery
Stokesdale