News-Record.com

Barack Obama’s religious allegiances have been a hot topic during this election process. The son of a Muslim father turned atheist and a Christian mother turned agnostic, schooling at a Catholic as well a Muslim school, and attendance at Christian churches and Buddhist temples. It’s hard to know for sure just what he believes.

However, the bigger question is, “What does it matter what Obama believes?” He’s running for president, not pastor at a church.

In what way will his presidency be affected if he prays to God or Allah before he goes to bed at night? Why is it when we look at someone who has chosen to take a different spiritual path, we conclude they can’t possibly hold dear the same things we do?

The sad thing about all of this is how we have treated the Islamic faith as a disease that our Democratic nominee hasn’t been able to rid himself of. I am a Christian, as is Obama, and I am not so arrogant and misinformed to think that my faith has a monopoly on morality.

Jack Bedrosian Jr.
Greensboro

Where in anybody’s right mind is lowering the legal drinking age a good idea? All one has to do is look around and see car wrecks, domestic disputes, robberies and deaths caused by consumption of alcohol. I’ve seen four of my family members die from alcoholism.
How can we say alcohol is a good thing?

I know people like to party and have a good time, but I just can’t see how the buzz from alcohol is worth it. If anything, the drinking age should be raised.

I’m watching my generation (ages 15-30) fall apart from alcohol abuse. Why are we discussing this? We ought to be improving things rather than making them worse.

Matthew Scarborough
Greensboro

I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of politicians’ negative political advertisements. I just saw more Bev Perdue and Kay Hagan negative ads and really want the politicians to tell us what they stand for and what they will do for the citizens.

Producing and airing a negative ad tells us a great deal about the individual. Is this the role model we want for our children? Is this attitude indicative of the approach (blame others) they will adopt if elected? Politicians should be leaders. Leaders lead, they don’t point fingers and print innuendo.

I come from a political family; my father served as a Democrat in the General Assembly for more than 30 years. I never saw negative advertisements or statements used in a campaign. These ads make me want to rethink being a lifelong Democrat.

So, politicians, have some faith in the public. Don’t tell us why your opponent should not be elected. Tell us what you think about issues, why we should support you, and why you should be entrusted to represent us.

Randy Uzzell
Greensboro

In an Aug. 14 column in the News & Record, “Hey Vladimir, you’ve got mail,” Kathleen Parker imagines three letters written to Putin by President Bush, Sen. Barack Obama, and Sen. John McCain. The letters from Bush were foolish and conciliatory; the letter from McCain said only, “Don’t make me come over there.”

Instead of wasting space on silliness, Parker should have raised questions that need answers. Should the people of Ossetia and Abkhazia be forced to be Georgians? One of McCain’s top foreign advisors until recently was a lobbyist for Georgia; Karl Rove has met with the presidents of the Ukraine and Georgia and McCain refers to Mikheil Saakashvili as “my dear friend.”
So, was the Georgian government encouraged to get tough with Ossetia at this time?

If McCain does go “over there,” is he going alone? With our country bankrupt and our military stretched thin, does McCain have anything but bluster to answer Russian aggression?

Pat Johnson
Jamestown

I would like to commend Carole Bruce for her recent Counterpoint, “Tobacco-free schools pay dividends.” As a parent of a student involved in the tobacco-prevention movement in Greensboro, I’d like to echo her statement that teens are really making a difference at the grass-roots level. Because of the work of teens and adults in Guilford County, our school system went tobacco-free in 2001, leading the way for the rest who will implement a policy this fall.

Our students have also advocated for tobacco-free playgrounds, athletic fields, pools and a host of other youth-friendly sites in this county. Thanks to the Tobacco Reality Unfiltered Youth Advisory Board in Guilford County, our teens are able to make a difference in the community by making Guilford a cleaner, safer and healthier place for our young people.

The movement toward tobacco-free schools and tobacco-free college campuses is one important step in ensuring a healthful future for our most precious commodity, our future leaders.

Sharon Genwright
Greensboro

This is in response to the Aug. 25 letter from Svetlana Krylova. She was wondering if she was the only one who found something wrong with the poster of Stalin hanging on an outside wall behind some Georgians playing backgammon in the Aug. 21 edition.

No, she is not. I had to rub my eyes to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. I do not claim to know a lot about the relations between Georgia and the United States, but I sure know a picture of Stalin when I see one.

Here’s to that old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Sheryll Phillips
Liberty

Regarding recent letters to the editor:

It feels like I’m living in a different world. Indeed, I did move back here and now notice the lack of knowledge about our city, county, state and federal governments.

The Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times and many other sources for news are available online. If one does not have a computer, surely a family member or friend could keep you up-to-date on what is going on in the world.

Many well-informed people are moving to the Southeast, which will, I think, balance out the racist, extreme-right residents. For that, I am very glad.

As for drilling off the East Coast, it’s far too close to my backyard for my comfort. Until more information is available, that should be the last resort. Much of the Southwest — including Louisiana — is simply ugly; drilling detracts from the beauty of the tourist attractions. If I spend the money and time traveling, I want to see beauty — not oil rigs.

And “Yes, we can ...” elect a biracial man as president. The South is benefiting from more informed people moving here. Hurray for the well-educated and well-informed. We need many more of them.

Carol Smith
Gibsonville

One of your readers wrote: “I cannot believe that an organization like the Greensboro Rotary Club would vote to fund such a frivolous $2 million project for, of all things, a carousel.” I can.

Before gangs took hold and crime by children was common, some 20 years ago, the late Ervin Brisbon started a program called “Dream Builders” and Ted Mangum started a very effective youth development program called RELAY. But the city and school system worked against both and supported neither.

While Ervin has passed, Ted still gets no respect or support from Mayor Johnson or others “crying for an end to youth violence.” Visit www.americaschildrelay.com and see if you can understand why the residents of this city can find money for rides but not for children/youth development?

The facts, photos and success of former RELAY participants speak for themselves.

Nichole B. Slaughter
Greensboro

Regarding the story “College leaders: Discuss drinking age” (Aug. 19):

Although discussions are needed to combat this problem, lowering the drinking age is not the answer. These young adults need to learn responsibility, and there should be consequences for their actions.

Why not consider some kind of disciplinary action for the students arrested for alcohol offenses? It’s not fair for the students who are in school to learn to have their lives interrupted by drunken drivers, loud parties, etc.

One element that stood out in this article is the Duke rape scandal. The article stated, “The allegations proved to be false, but the alcohol-fueled party was never disputed.” It’s basically saying that these young adults put themselves in this situation, but there were never any consequences for their actions. Maybe they should never have been charged with rape, but they definitely should not have been awarded a large cash settlement.

Educating these young people needs to start long before they enter college. Consuming alcohol seems to be an acceptable practice since “we all did it,” especially with parents and educators who have made the decision to be these young adults’ best friend and stop being their parent or educator.

Joe Sipe
Colfax

I do not understand the argument about whether we, as taxpayers, should fund illegal aliens in our schools. The words “illegal alien” are self-descriptive and written in our laws that are supposed to protect our borders.

You can bet your sweet bippy that no one entered China during the Olympics who did not have a visa. China is getting smarter and we are getting dumber.

The presentation of those Olympics proved that. The rabble-rousers also were shut up and troublemakers were forbidden to come. It was a sporting event for the world and not a bully pulpit for political purposes.

If you object to their way of government, use your buying power to change it. As for here, elect some officials who are willing to uphold our laws. Also, remember, democracies are created by conservatives and used by liberals until they become socialism.

Ken Sawyer
High Point

As a new, forcibly annexed resident of Greensboro, I have received exactly the quality of service I expected.

I live on a dead-end street which has always been a dump site for all types of garbage, from 55-gallon drums of fish carcasses to photo albums from first marriages. Before annexation, when we had such a “drop-off,” I would call N.C. Road Maintenance and they would have it cleaned up within 24 hours (great job, guys).

That was until we were annexed.

We are now part of the city of Greensboro and have access to all of its quality-of-life-enhancing municipal services, one of which is roadside cleanup. I notified Greensboro’s street-cleaning and litter-collecting division the second week of July that the area needed to be cleaned up. I have called three times since. They finally told me two weeks ago that they had a list of dump sites and they would get to it when it came up on the list.

It has been almost six weeks and it is still there, waiting on more.

Thanks Greensboro, for nothing.

R.A. Jessup
Greensboro

Regarding the article about the mural in Eden: This is the 21st century. The people of this day and time had nothing to do with slavery. I so wish people could just stop trying to start trouble about enslavement of the black people.

There is slavery this day and time of young woman, young men and children of all races. So instead of using all of that energy trying to make fun of a painting of long ago that is a beautiful mural and not representing anything about slavery at all, focus on trying to stop the criminal and cruel happenings of people of all races and walks of life in this great country of ours.
The love of people is why slavery was ended long ago. Please try to stop it from happening now!

The future of our people depends on everybody getting along and working together, not against each other. The human trafficking issue is growing. It has got to stop! These “monsters” who are behind all of this should be punished for what they are doing.

Cindy Gossett
Kernersville

I was shocked to read in the Aug. 27 paper the small story entitled “Paperwork for Katrina aid an obstacle for illiterate.” “More than 40 percent of the city’s adults lack the literacy skills to comprehend basic government forms,” the story said.

In the 21st century, when 40 percent of New Orleans’ adults are illiterate, it is a shame and a disgrace and there is no excuse. Evidently the Democratic mayor and Democratic governor were more at fault than FEMA for the terrible consequences of the hurricane. You cannot blame this on President Bush and the Republicans.

Perhaps this is why the state of Louisiana elected a Republican governor during the last election, but New Orleans must be happy with its literacy rate since it re-elected its mayor.

Why has this been kept a secret so long? This should be front-page news. Shame on you and national news outlets for hiding this information all these years.

Now the question is, what are the officials in New Orleans doing about this shameful situation that existed before Katrina and before President Bush took office, and that obviously still exists today?

Phyllis P. Gibbs
Greensboro

Don Mulligan writes about John McCain’s direct answers to questions posed at the Saddleback Church forum. Then he spins Barack Obama’s answers as evasive, because he was more detailed. This kind of thinking is what brought us the catastrophe of the Bush administration. George W. Bush gave short, simple answers during the debates leading up to the elections. Sadly, this appealed to many people.

Questions about religion or morals are not simple and deserve complex answers because there are many different schools of religious thought. In the same vein, questions of public policy require complex answers, for the solutions are not simple.

As we all know, George W. Bush was not a scholar, so it is logical that he gave short, simple answers. McCain, the son and grandson of Navy officers, graduated fifth from the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy. Not being a scholar, he also gave short, simple answers, with military brevity. We’ve had eight disastrous years of a guy who thinks simplistically.

Obama graduated from Harvard Law School with honors and he headed up the Harvard Law Review. He has the intelligence to address the complicated issues of our times.

Danny Glenn
Greensboro

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why George Bush, John McCain and Barack Obama all want to drill offshore for oil. I believe it’s to keep Exxon, Chevron, Texaco and the others in business so they can keep making obscene profits and undermine the development of alternative sources of energy.

As I understand it, it will take at least seven or eight years before any oil reaches the market. By that time we will, no doubt, have developed a usable fuel that autos can run on besides oil. The Japanese have recently developed a hydrogen-powered car. Then there’s corn-based fuel like ethanol. The billionaire T. Boone Pickens is pushing for development of a nationwide power grid using windmills. This is entirely feasible.

So if Exxon, Chevron and Texaco don’t drill for more oil they will be left behind and lose their stranglehold on this country, which, in turn, means a drop in profits. And that’s the bottom line. Take it or leave it.

Charles H. Ott
Greensboro

I have become a little thin-lipped about the way legislators perceive special interests versus the common good: Now boats wider than road lanes can be towed in North Carolina without the bother of permits. Have they no conscience?

Bill Thornton
Mebane

The following is a Counterpoint column.

By C.G. Patton

Referencing your article, “Council amenda policy on chickens,” it gives me great comfort to know that our city council has taken the time to address such an important issue as chickens. I will sleep better tonight knowing that a chicken patrol is out there at 4:30 in the morning listening for maybe two or three roosters crowing. Will they carry a gun or an ax?

Don’t ask Police Chief Tim Bellamy for this chicken patrol when you can’t support the shortage of funds and personnel that already exists.

Since the City Council has now resolved this major issue of chickens, please consider the following issues:

* Pass an ordinance forbidding tractors and tractor trailers in or parked in residential neighborhoods. Many areas on the south side are plagued with these vehicles. On any given day Cypress Park Road has a big rig. Sometimes a trailer is dropped for two or three days.

* At the corner of Cypress Park and Pinecroft roads there is what the city calls a “bog garden.” This low area used to be a lake.

After the development of Lamrocton subdivision it was filled with runoff and became a mosquito-infested swamp. I ask the council to dredge this swamp and return it to a lake.

* Have all dog owners of potentially dangerous breeds register these animals and submit vet medical records for review. If they are unable to do this, their animals should be removed.

* Forbid forever the beggars, crack heads and drunks from standing on our street corners with their signs of distress.

* Lastly, increase the litter fines to $1,000 first offense, $5,000 second offense and jail plus fine for the third offense. I am sick of people littering!

The writer lives in Greensboro.

First of all, congratulations to Sen. John McCain for having something Barack Obama wished he had: the guts to put a woman on the ticket. Gov. Sarah Palin is a great choice and is someone who faces everyday issues like the rest of us.

But you know what really puzzles me?

We have a Democratic president who commits adultery while serving in office, then lies until he realizes his lies have caught up with him.

Next we find out John Edwards, who was at one time seeking the presidency, had an affair while his sick wife was at home fighting a terminal disease. On top of that, we hear tidbits that money from one of his top contributors may have been used to keep this woman quiet. Shame on these men.

But, remember how little time the Edwards story stayed in the news? And the Democrats have the nerve to drag up a DWI that happened to Palin’s husband back in the 1980s!

I understand the Democrats feel threatened. Sen. John McCain did not pick the running mate they felt comfortable with.

But, please, leave all four candidates’ families out.

Jeff Marshall
Greensboro

The nomination of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate is just another example of the Bush-Cheney-McCain contempt for the American people. An unnecessary war in Iraq; big tax cuts for multi-millionaires and corporations that send our jobs overseas; secret, warrantless wiretapping of American citizens; and long-delayed help to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Now Republicans nominate a woman for VP who was a mayor of a small town in Alaska and governor for 18 months and they’re trying to tell us that she’s more qualified than Barack Obama! Who are they trying to kid?

How can they compare Palin’s bachelor’s degree in journalism to Obama graduating at the top of his class from Harvard Law School; her beauty pageants to his working with unemployed steelworkers and other disadvantaged people in Chicago; her being mayor of a town of 6,000 to his being an Illinois state senator and teaching constitutional law?

What happens to our country if McCain is elected and, God forbid, something happens to him?

Apparently McCain is pandering to disaffected Hillary Clinton voters and the far, far right.
I hope Americans don’t let themselves be fooled by “compassionate conservatism” this time.

Joan Sova
Jamestown

The article from Aug. 21 (“Petitioners seek changes in mural of bateau traffic”) mentions a “controversy that has been brewing for months.” Understand that Ms. Elretha Perkins has pretty much single-handedly been the brewer of this dissent.

The attractive, 36-foot mural in Eden, which depicts river business by black entrepreneurs more than a century ago, is being spun politically into something racially divisive. Rather than create a mural of people of color in forced fieldwork or sharecropping, the artists chose a multicultural glimpse of the day. The little-known role of these boatmen could have remained largely unknown if not for the research that went into developing this work. I see not a trace of disrespect toward any race.

Not because I’m white, but because it isn’t there.

“We want the true history told,” Perkins said.

Artist Kitty Williams explained that “learning of blacks’ contributions to the area’s commerce excited and thrilled her.”

True history was, in fact, the basis for this impressive and colorful mural. As an Eden homeowner, I am pleased to see real art where all can enjoy it, and to be able through the art to learn something about local history.

Bret H. Hart
Eden

Your Aug. 23 editorial on high school driver education failed to elaborate on the most important point: Accidents and serious injuries are up primarily because proper training has declined.

Because of attempts to save money, the quality of driver education has diminished. The original course consisted of more than just teaching how to drive from Point A to Point B. Science and technology also were taught.

Up until a few years ago, high school teachers taught the courses and graded the students. The course was downgraded to noncredit status, eventually taken out of the school day and opened to bids by private contractors.

The state gives each school district $300 for each eligible student, whether they complete the course or not. If a private contractor bids less than $300 per student, the schools pocket the balance.

But private contractors don’t use the certified high school teachers. Some of their instructors have only a GED and a DMV certificate.

This saves money and increases profits. But it also lessens the quality of instruction.
If the state and local systems are really committed to upgrading driver education and lowering insurance rates, they will return to the original system.

It was not broken and did not need fixing.

M.H. Dalton
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Dr. Craven Williams

I write this out of a deep sense of heritage and love for the city of Greensboro. It is written to set the record straight and to bring final clarity to Greensboro College’s plans for a new sports park near the historic Warnersville neighborhood.

There are some who have tried to portray our plans there as divisive and intended to diminish the important history of this unique place. Quite to the contrary. Our intent is to build an important component of Greensboro College that also brings new life and new vibrancy to the Warnersville neighborhood. We believe the sports park can contribute to a shared sense of unity and honor in our city. Let me tell you how.

Our plans for the Greensboro College Sports Park include a multi-use facility composed of softball and baseball parks, soccer facility, a cross-country training site, practice fields and various training and locker room facilities. We envision these plans as attractive, low-impact improvements that are in concert with the hopes and expectations of Warnersville residents.

It is important to also allay any concerns about the future of the J.C. Price School, which is such an important icon at the Warnersville site. Our plan is to enhance the school’s legacy in ways that will further illuminate its heritage. As these plans progress, we will share them with area residents and the larger community, seeking advice and vision where we reasonably can.

It is important to understand that Greensboro College, founded in 1838, has been at the forefront of racial and gender equality in Greensboro since its inception. We began as an all-female college and, over the years, we have nurtured a diversity-enlightened, inclusive culture both on- and off-campus.

Currently, 18 percent of our students at Greensboro College are African-American and so, as with other cultures that are part of the rich fabric of life at our college, we are appreciative of the diversity we embrace and foster.

Greensboro College’s intentions for the Warnersville Community are an extension of these core beliefs. We value and respect the historical importance of the Warnersville location and desire, in all ways, to be mindful of this heritage as we go forward with our plans.

In the end, we cannot and will not silence our critics. After all, the Greensboro College campus proudly thrives on honest public debate, academic and otherwise. That is how we learn. That is how we begin to understand. It is how we move forward. And in the case of Warnersville, it is how we come together and heal the divisions of the past.

The writer is president of Greensboro College.

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Robert Flowers

This is in response to the request by Harold Pitts and Rev. Herron for citizens to endorse the Global Poverty Act, S 2433. This bill may sound good, but it is a bad idea.

The bill sets out to meet the United Nations’ Millennium Declaration, which requires nations to contribute 0.7 percent of their GNP to the United Nations. This would place an additional $65 billion per year burden on what the United States already pays.

The United States would be required to sign the World Court Treaty and commit to ban individual small-arms ownership. Further, meeting the declaration would also require the United States to sign the Kyoto Protocol and recognize the United Nations as the “indispensable common house for the human family.” Signing on to the Global Poverty Act will cost the United States $845 billion by 2015. The only realistic way to achieve those funds would be through a fossil-fuel tax, making gas at $4 per gallon look like a bargain.

Americans voluntarily give more to help those in crisis than any other nation. We are the most generous people on earth when it comes to addressing the needs of those affected by natural disasters, famine and diseases, giving freely and often, and doing so without government mandates.

Governments can’t legislate charity, people do. By endorsing the Global Poverty Act, U.S. foreign aid spending would become subservient to the dictates of the United Nations.

Does anyone remember the recent fraud perpetrated in the name of charity by the United Nations and its leadership? Do we not remember the “Food for Oil Program” headed up and managed by the United Nations? U.N. officials looked the other way with their hands out as billions went into personal accounts instead of buying food for those in need. Americans can give our money to those in need with discernment and with a charitable heart. We always have and we always will. Ask your representative to vote against S 2433.

The writer lives in Summerfield.

McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his vice president appears to be a cynical attempt to get angry Hillary voters to change sides and vote for a woman. Any woman.

But what the choice doesn’t consider is that women are not going to vote based simply on gender. Hillary is pro-choice and, in an election year when the next president will likely be called on to appoint two or three Supreme Court justices, this is no small potatoes.

Many of Hillary’s supporters are old enough to remember what life was like before Roe v. Wade and not likely to want to go back. Also, McCain seems to have shot himself in the foot by eliminating the only real line of attack he had on Obama — “lack of experience.” Palin has less experience than Obama, who has eight years in the state legislature and four in the U.S. Senate.

For a man who is 72 and has had cancer as well as other health issues, appointing a candidate who has so little experience seems almost irresponsible.

If McCain wins and then dies, do we really want Palin running the country, dealing with Iran and making decisions that will affect our future for decades?

Jo Boykin
Greensboro

I was deeply saddened by the actions of our mainstream media. On the heels of a historic moment for our nation, the likes of CNN and NBC elected to delve into tabloid journalism. The choice of Gov. Sarah Palin should be a celebrated moment in our nation’s history, as well as the nomination of Sen. Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential nominee.

The choice of the pundits to use a 17-year-old female’s pregnancy as a political point is absolutely disgusting. I applaud Sen. Obama for his rapid response to the issue being raised, and I believe many would be well served to follow his advice.

Sarah Palin’s young daughter should be applauded and celebrated for her choice to have her child. In a time when our culture makes it fashionable to have an abortion, this young woman is making the choice to take on the challenge of raising a child at a very young age. We all should be proud of this young woman for accepting this great responsibility.

Michael Garrett
Greensboro

This is in reference to the story about the cat that was hit on Bryan Boulevard and ended up in the front of the car.

Remind readers if they hit an animal with their vehicle to stop and be sure the animal is not still alive and suffering a painful and terrifying death by the side of the road.

My pets are indoors only, but I would hope that somebody would be kind enough to stop and check on their welfare if they were in this situation. Animals do not always die instantly and can be treated at a veterinary office.

In addition, if the pet has a collar, contact the owners to let them know what happened.

Erin Bentrim-Tapio
Greensboro

The Aug. 26 lead headline on page A2 read, “Clinton’s job today: Unite divided party.”

If Sen. Barack Obama, the great uniter, cannot even unite the Democratic Party, how can he achieve the central tenet of his campaign and unite the country?

If he needs Hillary Clinton to do his uniting and Joe Biden to do his foreign policy, and if Obama has no executive experience of his own, pray tell me what he brings to the party except a nice smile and excellent speaking skills?

Bruce Raynor
Greensboro

Elizabeth Dole has been a U.S. senator representing North Carolina for almost six years and has been a nonproductive entity since being elected in 2002.

Now that the election is close and Sen. Dole is running for her second term, she is all over radio and television telling us of her great achievements for our state since being in office. You can count her representation and achievements for North Carolina on one hand.

Kay Hagan has been an integral part of North Carolina’s progress for many years. She makes her home with her husband in Greensboro, serves with distinction in the state legislature, and is running for office on sound policies and programs. Kay Hagan will be a forceful representative for constituents as a member of the U.S. Senate.

A vote for Kay Hagan is a vote for excellence.

Gloria Fuller
Climax

Harrison (68), Taylor (65), Lincoln (56), Garfield (49), McKinley (58), Harding (57), Roosevelt (63), Kennedy (46). This is a list of the eight U.S. presidents who died in office and their longevity. McCain (72-76). Doesn’t seem impossible.

The paramount qualification of a vice president is to be ready to be president.

Sarah Louise Heath Palin (44 to date) is a rising star: vice presidential candidate; governor, Alaska; chairwoman, Alaska Oil and Gas Commission; mayor, Wasilla, Alaska (two terms); Wasilla City Council (two terms); owner, snowmobile, watercraft and ATV business; sports reporter, two Anchorage television stations; Miss Wasilla 1984.

Sen. McCain asserts that Sen. Obama lacks judgment and experience to be president. Does he promise not to die in office? Does he think Gov. Palin is equipped to hop on Sea-Doo One to rally the troops in Afghanistan or meet with world leaders in Geneva?

Sen. McCain is a courageous American who has served our country with honor. If he is elected, I wish him well. I hope he has nine lives. I hope his health is better than his judgment.
I hope we elect Sens. Obama and Biden.

Walt Gavin
Greensboro

Despite the headline (“Commissioners make honest bid to pay debt”), there is nothing “honest” about your editorial Sept. 3 regarding the county commissioners’ efforts to get voters to approve a sales-tax increase. With a school construction bond smokescreen, you again obscure the fact that the scheme is to use a regressive sales tax rather than additional property tax, which is not regressive.

Not only that, you cast the commissioners who voted against the resolution to “pledge” how to use the funds as “bad guys” when the pledge idea appears to be just a ploy to persuade the voters who previously rejected a sales tax hike by a 3-to-1 margin to change their vote.

As in a previous editorial, the News & Record appears to be promoting the sales tax by claiming it can “broaden the tax base” while it only shifts the burden to those less able to pay. Taxes are serious business, and I believe your editorials should clearly indicate the effects of any tax proposal.

Thomas L. Harmon Jr.
Greensboro

When an oilman and environmentalists agree, you know the momentum for real change is building.

Yet that is just what is happening. In Denver last week, Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens and Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope talked about the Pickens Plan, which calls for huge increases in investment and production of wind power and using American natural gas as a transition.

In a recent ad publicizing the plan, Pickens says the current debate over drilling “misses the point.” As a Sierra Club member, I concur. The current political emphasis on whether or not to open up more of the coastline to drilling is a distraction, a “head fake.” Pickens, who’s made billions from oil, believes the Bush administration is wildly exaggerating how much oil can be found offshore and in Alaska.

The failed policies of the past won’t move us forward.

True economic opportunity for all Americans is in clean energy technologies like wind and solar. Even T. Boone Pickens understands that. The question is when will our leaders in Washington?

Caleb Scott
Greensboro

This November we must focus on the political state of our nation. The election is not about who grew up poor, who needed scholarships to attend college, who has more houses or with whom you would like to drink a beer.

National political choices are about national issues: Which political philosophy will take the country away from its second Gilded Age; which philosophy of government will begin to fix our crumbling infrastructure of roads, railroads, bridges and levees; which would restore the balance of power among the three branches of government; and which would curtail the unbridled and corrupting corporate lobbying influence that is turning our government into a plutocracy.

We need to focus on the philosophies that will guide politicians to address matters neglected during the past eight years: health care, housing, education, sustainable energy and intelligent foreign affairs.

My father, an engineer, told us to “only believe half of what you see.” We should not be conned by the carnival Three Shell Game that demagogues use to divert attention to divisive hot button shells while the real prize of inclusive ideas and policies lies under the third shell.

Gerald W. Meisner
Greensboro

With politics in season, do you wonder why certain questions are never asked?

Obama was against the Iraq war, while Hillary, McCain (and Biden) voted yes. As an Illinois state senator during the build-up and vote, did Obama have access to CIA intelligence?

If the top 50 percent of wage earners pay 96.5 percent of all federal taxes, does Obama want that increased? Does Obama want the top 50 percent to pay some or all of the Social Security taxes for the bottom 50 percent?

If vice president nominee Biden said during the Democratic primaries that Obama was “not qualified” to be president, was he lying? When Biden says that electing McCain would be a Bush third term, is he lying?

If McCain cannot remember how many houses he owns, is that important? If Obama’s brother lives in a shack, without help from his brother, is that important?

If the Obamas earn $3 million to $4 million annually and their percentage to charity is less than the national average, is that important?

If 98 percent of African Americans vote for Obama, is that racism?

If 98 percent of whites vote for McCain, is that racism?

I just wonder!

Bob Goodman
High Point

Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain’s selection to be a heartbeat from the presidency, is a very attractive, accomplished and ambitious lady. As the mother of five children, one an infant with Down syndrome, she and her husband have and will continue to face many challenges in their personal lives. Now we learn that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant.

My question is this: What kind of parent, mother or father, would advance their own personal political ambitions with the full knowledge that doing so would subject their daughter to the intense and often brutal media scrutiny that inevitably comes with this type of revelation? I would have had much more respect for Gov. Palin had she politely declined Sen. McCain’s offer to be his running mate, telling him that this was just not the time for her or her family.

Troy W. Millikan
Greensboro

By John Shaw

I read the article on Gov. Easley signing a bill to eliminate yield-spread premiums (Aug. 19).
I have been in the mortgage loan business for seven years, and this bill will put my company out of business.

Yield spread is one of the main ways that mortgage brokers and the loan officers who work for them get paid. Without this compensation and the laws already in place in North Carolina on what we can and cannot earn, it will be impossible to stay in business.

This law will also eliminate the no-closing-cost mortgage. This is a mortgage in which the lender pays the closing costs through the yield-spread premium.

What Easley has done by signing the bill is to say that mortgage brokers do not have the right to be paid or to exist.

North Carolina already has the strictest laws in the country when it comes to mortgage lending, and brokers are strictly limited in what they can make (the least amount of all states in the United States).

What may have sounded like a good idea in a climate in which everyone is looking to point a finger at someone will actually make economic matters worse here in North Carolina. Right now the problem in the economy is liquidity. Further regulations, which may be needed later, only tighten an already-strangled banking industry and thus creates a worse economic environment.

Mortgage brokers work with many different lenders with many different programs and requirements. This greatly helps individuals from first-time home buyers to people who have had catastrophic family circumstances, such as a death or illness, that have wreaked havoc on their credit.

Local banks just don’t have the resources or the willingness to help people who have gone through hard times.

With the ability to “shop” their circumstances with many different out-of-state lenders, we find ways to help good people who simply need a hand.

Easley’s bill on yield-spread premiums was obviously something over which local banking institutes had lobbied lawmakers because local banks hate competition from out-of-state banks.

The writer lives in Mocksville.

I have been married to a fine man for 65 years. I am a woman who votes.

When I was 44 years old, I had five children. I knew then, and I know now, that my primary job in life was to nurture and raise these children to be good citizens in a healthy family. I had an excellent college education. I was extremely busy because I was also teaching high school science to help with family finances.

If an elderly man who wanted to be president had suggested that I be the vice president of the United States, I would definitely have thought he had very poor judgment about the real needs of this country. Please be serious about voting. It is not a laughing matter, even though it is very odd.

Ruth Maynard
Greensboro

Welcome to the American hypocrisy. If you attend Harvard, become a lawyer and speak eloquently, you can be branded as an elitist. If you profess that you are Christian yet lived outside the country, your faith can be questioned. You might be a closet Muslim. If you question the present administration’s handling of Iraq, you are unpatriotic. If you try to discuss race, you are a racist. If you want to run for president and want to make America better, you are called the “messiah.” If you talk about changing health care, you are a socialist.

This is the Right’s hypocrisy. If you cannot understand something, then label it and make sure your constituents are afraid of it. If Jesus came to earth today, the right wing would surely find fault in his words. Perhaps they really are the Pharisees and Sadducees.

I voted Republican in 2004 but will not do so in 2008.

Barack Obama is a man dedicated to the betterment of all Americans, not just the few. He will get my vote in 2008.

Donald B. Conrad
Greensboro

I want a good life for my children and grandchildren — for everyone’s children. That’s why I’ll vote for Teresa Sue Bratton in November.

Over the years, she’s come to be known as Dr. Bratton, a pediatrician dedicated to keeping Greensboro children healthy. Recently retired from private practice, she continues to use her skills at the allergy/asthma clinic for low-income children at Guilford Child Health.

But she wants to do more. Dr. Bratton understands how the medical system is failing patients who cannot afford care. She is uniquely qualified to advocate for affordable health care for all Americans. She hopes to unseat Howard Coble in the 6th Congressional District so she can do just that.

While Bratton has been working for almost 30 years to improve the lives of children, her opponent, Rep. Howard Coble, has spent almost 30 years in Washington casting votes that put children’s health in jeopardy. Most recently he sided with President Bush not to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which provides a safety net for children of struggling families.

We need more doctors in Congress who can speak up for the concerns of my family and yours. We need to send Teresa Sue Bratton to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Faith Hawes
Greensboro

John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate is galling and shockingly irresponsible. The No. 1 criterion for a vice president has to be readiness to assume the presidency in a literal heartbeat. This is especially true when the presidential candidate is 72 and has a long history of battling cancer. A candidate’s personal story, gender and stance on the issues pale in importance compared to one’s qualifications for the job.

Palin’s background in the PTA, small-town politics and briefly serving as governor in a lightly populated state leaves chasms in her resume. It’s akin to tapping a talented medical student to become chief of surgery at a major hospital.

The fact that Sen. McCain chose Gov. Palin is disturbing and raises serious questions about his judgment. The fact that she accepted raises similar questions about hers.

Electing someone so patently unqualified for the job is a risk we cannot and must not take.

Gary Bradt
Summerfield

Carol Smith in her letter alludes to the fact that area residents are uninformed and have “a lack of knowledge about our city, county, state and federal governments.”

Seems to me it’s not a lack of knowledge but a difference of opinion, and the well-informed people she refers to are simply those who share her views.

Since she recently moved back and feels she is living in a different world, she might take Lewis Grizzard’s comment, “Delta is ready when you are.”

William T. Linton
Greensboro

Is it just me? Am I imagining things? It seems as though the federal government, those dear simpletons of 2005, are continuing their vast improvement of operational abilities in the face of natural catastrophes. We have watched the government in action combating the California wildfires, combating insurmountable flooding, and now implementing near flawless preparation/operation during seasonal hurricanes (and perhaps several more). It seems as though Washington decided not to repeat the debacle that ensued after Hurricane Katrina.

Good for them. Great for the individuals living along the Gulf Coast.

Now if I can just figure out why my tax dollars, and those that will be garnered from my future grandchildren, are being used to destroy a once-sovereign country and then help reconstruct it.

Why are the monies taxed from countless citizens not being utilized to rebuild the Crescent City?

Roderick Brown
Greensboro

The most revealing remark made in Barack Obama’s acceptance speech seems to have been overlooked by the media. Obama said, “They say (the Republicans) you must make it on your own. You want to go to college? You’re on you own. If you are down, pull yourself up by your own boot strings; you’re on your own.”

Let’s think about what is implied here: “We (the Democrats) are here to help you. You should not have to go it alone. Just give us your money (higher taxes) and we will take care of you. We will return to you (through various government programs) what you need, or at least what we decide you should have. God forbid that you should be free and on your own. You have big Daddy on your back, I mean backing you.”

Paul Greene
Greensboro

Left out of the column by Lorraine Ahearn (Aug. 31) regarding the Warnersville community was a very important item about the first black high school established in 1873 by the pastor of Warnersville Methodist Episcopal Church, founded by the Rev. Matthew Alston (known now as St. Matthews United Methodist Church) in 1866. Knowing the church was interested in establishing a school in the Guilford area, the black minister took the lead in offering the church as its site.

On June 18, 1873, the newspaper announced a meeting was to take place at Warnersville Church and “inviting any of the whites who were interested to consider the question of the establishment of colored Normal School or College. The institution will be established under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church North.”

Nearly 70 students enrolled the first year. The school was named Normal School and gained the attention of a wealthy benefactor, Lyman Bennett of Troy, N.Y. His generous donation of $10,000 enabled the struggling school to purchase land for a permanent campus.

A dormitory was added and the institution became known as Bennett Seminary. In 1926, it became a four-year college for women with continued support from the National Women’s Home Missionary Society.

Zepplyn S. Humphrey
Greensboro

I cannot believe that any publisher or editor would stoop so low as to run the editorial cartoon (about teen pregnancy) that ran Sept. 4. This is muckraking in its highest form. Just because garbage comes in on the wire doesn’t mean that the paper has to print it.

It is very obvious which way the News & Record leans in its political opinions.

The cartoonist is putting words into the mouths of Republicans. He or she knows nothing about this young woman. You may not like Sarah Palin or her daughter, but this is totally uncalled for.

There are a couple of sayings that we should all remember: “He who lives in a glass house should not throw rocks,” and, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

Woody Grady
High Point

I am flabbergasted that the police department chose to arrest Lee Meekins. The businesses he manages in downtown Greensboro are a vibrant part of a downtown still working hard to become a destination for shoppers and diners.

If retail and restaurants are to thrive, the city must take a hard look at archaic policies.

Can you imagine Charlotte or any city with an ounce of foresight shutting down sidewalk dining at 10 p.m.?

More importantly, shouldn’t a police department stretched so ridiculously thin be investing their efforts in more important things?

David Starmer
Greensboro

Related story

City Council action

Much to the Democrats’ chagrin, Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention proved her to be a mistress of humorous sarcasm.

Of course, sarcasm always masks a conflicted soul. It took only a few months as a governor struggling against the “good ole boy” network to turn her into a radical feminist. As a conservative, she cut 60 percent of her state’s “wasteful spending” on special-needs children, but only four months after giving birth to a Down syndrome child, she now vows to advocate for more spending on special-needs children. When the issue affects her personally, she usually gets it.

So, Democrats, don’t worry. If the Republicans win and Palin gets her way, they’ll drill the Alaskan northern shelf so there will be the inevitable massive oil spills. The Republicans will continue to neglect the environment, so global warming will increase and the Arctic ice will melt. Then Alaska’s fish will disappear, and Palin’s husband will lose his business. Once that happens, Democrats, perhaps Palin will, at last, have the personal experience she apparently needs to recognize Republican “trickle-down” economics for what it is.

Then perhaps she, too, will become a Democrat.

Stephen Yarbrough
Greensboro

I just wanted to say thank you to Carol Smith (letter, “Residents uninformed”), who has recently returned to our great area, for being one of the “well-educated” and “well-informed” residents who call this beautiful area home. We’re very fortunate to have people like her in our area to guide the rest of us toward her enlightened views. I’m glad educated folks such as Carol can help balance out the rest of the “racist” and “extreme-right” residents who also live here.

Although I choose not to read such obviously biased newspapers as The Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, etc., I do consider myself up-to-date on current events. And I would suggest that, just because many of us in the Triad don’t share her beliefs, don’t automatically assume that we’re racist or uneducated. I know that this might seem incredible to some people, but isn’t it possible that we don’t support Obama simply because we can’t agree with his policies?

Clark Young
Greensboro

Greensboro College President Craven Williams wrote in his Counterpoint that he wanted to “allay any concerns about the future of J.C. Price School. Our plan is to enhance the school’s legacy.”

Notice two critical points. One: He did not write that the school would be preserved.

Furthermore, at the Sept. 2 meeting with concerned citizens he would not promise that the school would not be torn down and refused to sign a document requesting historic preservation status for the school.

Two: He wrote, “Our plan.” In other words, the college, not Warnersville residents, will decide and define the enhancement of the legacy. Once again, a white institution will decide how to portray the history of a black community.

Writing that “we will share them (the plans) with area residents and the larger community seeking advice and vision where we reasonably can” is not incompatible with the college’s getting community input but going ahead with its plans unaltered, perhaps saying the community’s vision is not within what the college can “reasonably” do.

Williams has not described, much less guaranteed, a true partnership of the sort Warnersville residents and supporters were talking about at the end of the Sept. 2 meeting.

Larry Morse
Greensboro

Visualize: President Sarah Palin. It would be laughable if it were not serious and sad.

Of all the possibilities in the GOP, this was John McCain’s pick. If he wanted excitement, he could have chosen Paris Hilton.

The all-important issue is McCain’s lack of understanding and poor judgment. He put party ahead of country.

Imagine, Sarah Palin one heartbeat away from a 72-year-old man who has had multiple bouts with cancer.

Let us ponder this very carefully. Then get out and vote. Please do it for you, for me, for all. God, help us.

Max Roseman
High Point

The following is a Counterpoint column:

By Anthony Belli

Regarding the recent article, “Suicide responsible for most gun deaths” (July 1): In 2005, 31,000 people were killed with a gun; 17,000 were suicides. How many were in excruciating pain from an illness or from a car accident?

I had hope and spent eight years recovering.

The article claims that using a gun to commit suicide is 90 percent terminal as opposed to jumping off a high place, which is only 34 percent terminal. That means 66 percent survived. Can you imagine the condition of a person’s body after jumping from a 10-story building and surviving?

More than 12,000 of the gun deaths were homicides. Do you think the government can keep the flow of illegal guns out of criminals’ hands if they can’t stop the flow of illegal drugs into this country?

People, not guns, kill people. People legally owning guns use them to protect themselves from robbers, rapists and murderers more than 2 million times each year in this country.

If a car accident causes someone’s death, or if a person is murdered with a knife, hammer or scissors, we blame the person, not the object used.

People driving cars have killed more people than have died in all the wars Americans have fought. Each year, U.S. drivers kill 40,000 to 50,000 a year and seriously injure more than 2 million. They also kill more animals than hunters kill each year.

People using guns accidentally kill about 900 people each year in the United States. People driving cars kill about 900 people every week.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

Regarding “Lifesaving needles” (article, Aug. 25), the need for multifaceted strategies to help slow the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C are not exclusive to Washington, D.C.

Right here in the Triad there are at least 5,981 injection drug users who desperately need syringe-exchange programs to help protect them from infectious disease. The reality of disease and drug addiction requires that we implement any and all public health interventions known to be effective.

Drug treatment is only one piece of the puzzle.

Addiction exists, like it or not, and, unfortunately, the No. 1 outcome of drug treatment is relapse, not because professionals are not trying but because addiction is a complex disease.
In a time where we have a failing mental health system and inadequate treatment beds, syringe exchange programs have been proven to slow the spread of infectious diseases.

N.C. Health Director Leah Devlin says, “I believe clean syringe programs could not only work in our state to reduce disease, but would also decrease the use of injectable drugs among drug users. We would be able to refer hard-to-reach drug users into counseling and treatment.”

If the state health director believes in syringe exchange programs, why don’t we?

Louise Vincent
Greensboro

The author is the program director, N.C. Harm Reduction Coalition, which works to reduce blood-borne illnesses in the state.

Carol Smith (letter) seems to have the attitude that all Southeast residents are uninformed, uneducated, extreme right-wing racists. How admirable of her to move here and share her well-informed, well-educated insights and dilute the negative effects of such a sorry lot on the rest of the country.

Oil-drilling rigs may be ugly to her, but she may learn to love them when her car will not run and her home is without heat. Also, for such a well-educated, well-informed person, she should know that Louisiana is not part of the Southwest.

I am OK with voting for a man of any race, but not the most liberal, socialistic member of Congress who is vague on what he will do as president — with the exception of raising taxes and creating social programs and bureaucracy.

By the way, I disagree with Smith concerning the benefits of more people like her moving here.

Clay Barham
Reidsville

I reside in the Keswick townhome community and don’t think I am receiving equal services for the taxes I pay. I pay full city and county taxes; however, I am not provided trash-removal service and road maintenance. These are paid for by the homeowners’ association.

If we are not provided these full services, then our taxes should be prorated accordingly.

Another area that is grossly unfair is the value placed on automobiles for tax purposes. My recent tax statement had a valuation of my car that was more than the Kelly Blue Book value for the car.

I have e-mailed members of the City Council and county commissioners about this, but have not heard a word back from them. I am a senior citizen on a fixed income and unfair taxation is killing us.

Don Edwards
Greensboro

People can successfully manage both career and parenthood, but there are limits. As parents, we must always put the best interests of our children before our own ambitions. That is a hallmark of strong family values.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin clearly doesn’t live by these values. Traveling to Texas just weeks before her due date to participate in an energy conference, flying home while in labor with amniotic fluid leaking, driving to a hospital without a neonatal intensive care unit instead of the nearest hospital, returning to work less than a week after giving birth, pursuing a national political career with a 5-month-old special needs child and callously thrusting her pregnant teenage daughter into the often unkind public eye are all indicators that this woman exercises poor judgment and has an appalling lack of regard for her children.

This is in addition to the question of ethics violations and her husband’s involvement in the Alaska independence movement.

If John McCain knew these things and chose Palin anyway, we must question his judgment. If he was unaware of these things, then we need to ask ourselves if we truly want yet another president who makes important decisions without having all the facts.

Kimberly Young
Greensboro

Thomas Friedman writes wonderful, insightful columns on the Middle East, but loses perspective in Asia when he gushes about the $43 billion spent by the Chinese government on infrastructure associated with the Olympics (Aug. 28 column, “How China, U.S. spent last 7 years”). He applauds the seven years of “national investment, concentrated state power, national mobilization and hard work.”

He may be another who has seen the future and knows it works. I know he thinks Barack Obama has these remedies to America’s perceived ills, but we aren’t sick unless we continue to talk ourselves into it.

He reminds me of the people who 20 years ago said we needed to emulate the Japanese system. Remember them?

I would love to know if he, The New York Times or the Chinese government paid for his tickets. Should he thank the Chinese peasant taxpayers for them?

He would bristle at my wondering what he would have thought of the Berlin Olympics, but Tibetans reading his column might bristle, too.

Jack Glenn
Greensboro

Howdy, Miz Carol Smith. I’m jest so glad y’all moved down here to smarten us up. Golly geez, I can barely cipher. I couldn’t never larn to read them fancy newspapers like The New York Times and such.

Do y’all really thank its best to take up all the money from the folks that works and give it to the gov’ment ter spend?

Now I don’t want y’all ter thank cuz that feller you’re talkin ’bout being biracial bothers me none, cuz it don’t. But me and my youngins perty much thunk that we’d be a-votin’ fer that McCain feller with that purty little woman. They seems to be more ter our likin’. Ya knows they don’t cotton ter killin’ unborn babies and they likes our boys and girls in uniforms and they thanks yer oughter work ter git yer money.

Now I knows that sounds purty stupid to folks lak y’all but lak I said earlier, I can’t hardly cipher and I sure can’t read them fancy papers. If’n y’all decide to load that U-Haul up and move back to where y’all come from, be sure to take all them fancy papers widguh cause we can’t read ’em nohow.

Jerri Smith
Julian

I have read and re-read the letter by Carol Smith of Gibsonville and have decided that it must be a joke or a hoax. The problem is that it is not April 1 and I am not laughing.

This has to be the most arrogant letter to the editor I have ever seen. If Smith is an example of the “well-informed people” moving to the Southeast to save us from our “racist, extreme-right” selves, then God help us.

Perhaps Smith should close the Web sites of her favorite liberal newspapers and Google a map of the United States for a geography lesson. She might realize that ugly old Louisiana is in the Southeast, not the Southwest. Then she may search for information on off-shore drilling and realize that proposals for capturing our own natural resources place rigs well out of sight from the coastline.

Within an hour’s drive from the Triad, there are at least 10 major colleges and universities as well as numerous community colleges. I guess these bastions of higher learning are teaching far-right, racist, redneck curricula for all of us uninformed, uneducated, backward residents of the Southeast.

Hurray. I think we are just fine the way we are.

Michael Paquette
Brown Summit

I hear on the news that Sarah Palin has said the Iraq war was a “task that is from God.”
Apparently, she also thinks that building a gas pipeline from the North Shore is a matter of some divine interest. I think it worthwhile to note a few points from history.

President Bush in the past mentioned that God wanted him to invade Iraq. Virtually every nation involved in World War II assured its soldiers that God was on their sides — even the Soviets did this. The century before that, the United States was absolutely certain that God had provided it with a “manifest destiny” that included genocide against any native population that might stand in its way.

Perhaps America should reconsider this penchant it has of choosing politicians who are certain that God is supporting their every political goal. Maybe, for a change, we ought to try electing people who are primarily concerned with — oh, let’s get wild here — doing what the American people want?

Eric Harrington
Greensboro

The writer is a spokesperson for the Piedmont Freethought Association.

Barack Obama’s candidacy is historic not only because he is the first biracial American to be nominated by a major party, but also because we are at a turning point in our history. The majority of Americans believe our country is going in the wrong direction.

Sens. Obama and McCain both claim to be the candidate for change, but what kind of change does each one offer?

McCain vows to overturn Roe v. Wade.

McCain’s short-sighted energy policy would revoke bans on oil drilling in environmentally sensitive areas without solving the long-term energy crisis.

As his comment that we are all Georgians reveals, McCain prefers to threaten war rather than engage in diplomacy. His foreign policy will be even more belligerent than Bush’s.

Despite the warnings of our most reputable scientists that we may have only 10 years to reverse climate change, McCain has chosen a running mate who denies it is occurring. Can we wait another four years to address this devastating threat to our planet?

At this crucial time in our history, McCain will take us backward while Obama will lead us into the future.

I hope voters won’t risk our future by choosing John McCain.

Denise Baker
Greensboro

I was shocked when I read in the Aug. 31 paper the following statement: “Our nation has a unique place in the world. We are the greatest force for good on earth. We chart history’s course. Yes, we must be involved in the destiny of other nations.”

Did Russian Prime Minister Putin make this statement? No. It was made by John McCain, talking about the United States. How do you feel about this statement? What if the president of Iran said this? Or China? I think that we would be incensed if any leader of another country would take such an egotistical position.

It’s interesting that a statement like this made by an individual would never be tolerated, and yet collectively we give ourselves permission to make this grandiose pronouncement?
McCain says the people of the United States are unique — unique in our goodness? Superior in our goodness? Is this our position?

There is an ancient saying found in Proverbs, 16:18: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” And we wonder why numerous countries in the world don’t like us?

Gloria McClanahan
Asheboro

The Democratic Convention surely validated their motto, “How can we fool ’em today?”

It began with the transformation of the Angela Davis-like Mrs. Obama from someone who was recently proud of her country for the first time, despite her affirmative action Princeton
education, and a six-figure income, and recently told us what a mean country America is, into a “Stepford” wife who loves this country, her children, her husband and even the bitter clingers!

Then we had Joe Biden, who, when running for president attracted 1 percent of the voters, was as likely to use someone else’s speech as his own, and told us that to own a Dunkin’ Donuts, or convenience store required an Indian accent! His role in the primaries was comic relief! He’s been transformed into the product of a conservative upbringing, and is much like the “bitter clingers” that he and Mrs. Obama suddenly love, despite being the third most liberal senator (behind Obama and Kennedy)!

Though having left Pennsylvania 50 years ago, he was called a Pennsylvanian at least five times while being introduced.

Having been in the Senate longer than John McCain makes him part of Obama’s change theme exactly how? “How can we fool ’em today?”

Tony Moschetti
High Point

In the last eight years, the Republican Party has taken our country from being one of the biggest creditor nations on the planet to one of the biggest debtor nations. It has increased the federal deficit. The economic disparity in the United States is at its worst since the 1920s. The top 1 percent wealthiest Americans hold 38 percent of the wealth in this country.

Forty-seven million Americans still have no health insurance. Unemployment is rising, and millions are losing their homes. They took us to war with no real plan for victory at a cost of more than $10 billion a month. Big oil companies report record profits while benefiting from tax breaks from the federal government, and we, the American people, are paying for it all at the pumps. The list goes on.

There is no rational reason why any Republican should be rewarded with a win on Nov. 4. They have not earned it. They continue to prove by their actions (or lack of) that they don’t care one bit about the American people.

Yes, it’s time for a change!

Stanley H. Garber Jr.
Greensboro

The substance of Obama’s political training and skills can be verified at ObamaResume.org on the Internet.

His undergraduate degree from Occidental and Columbia: B.A. in political science with specialization in international relations. His thesis topic: “Soviet Nuclear Disarmament.” His graduate degree: doctor of juris prudence magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Elected president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review.

His opponent graduated fourth from the bottom of his class at The Naval Academy.

Obama taught constitutional law for 11 years at the University of Chicago Law School, also practicing law with a reputable firm. He is more knowledgeable about our Constitution than most in Congress and feels called to restore it after eight years of abuse by Bush/Cheney.

Obama served eight years in the Illinois Senate. He serves in the U.S. Senate on four important committees, Foreign Relations, Health and Education, Homeland Security, and Veterans’ affairs. Twenty of his bills and/or amendments have been passed, with 10 other bills introduced.
Obama’s qualifications and intelligence are confirmed by the Republicans’ asinine attack on his splendid vocabulary, which he is invoking to re-win our friends around the world.

Bill Clinard
Little River, S.C.

Dan Flak’s letter that supposedly exposes “liberal bias” in Congress.org’s congressional power rankings is off. It’s easy to see why the top is heavy on Democrats: They have the majority in Congress. Consequently, most committees are led by Democrats and have more Democrats than Republicans. That translates into more power in Congress.

Congress.org has graphs representing average “power scores” for Republicans and Democrats for 2005, 2006 and 2007.

In 2005 and 2006, when Republicans held the majority, their scores were higher. The situation reversed when Democrats attained power in 2007. The rankings are not liberally biased; they reflect reality.

Sen. Dole currently stands at 93rd overall, 43rd in her party. She trails Sen. Burr (69th in the Senate, 27th in his party), North Carolina’s other senator, despite the fact that he has less time in Washington, less time as a senator, and isn’t married to former Kansas senator and presidential nominee Bob Dole.

Even when Republicans controlled Congress, her highest ranking barely broke the top 50 at 46th. Any way you look at it, Elizabeth Dole sinks to the bottom in power, effectiveness and her ability to work for real North Carolina residents.

Robert Morrison
Raleigh

The writer who stated that Gov. Palin lacks experience for the office of vice president was absolutely right, but I think he was referring to the lack of experience of Sen. Obama, who wishes to become our next president. Ancient saying: “Live in glass house, don’t throw stones.”

Milt Kraus
High Point

The N.C. Department of Transportation and local planners continue to employ the discredited 1950s mentality of building new roads without exploring alternatives. This makes no sense in the 21st century.

North Carolina’s daunting financial challenges, rising fuel costs, and the devastating environmental consequences are compelling reasons to oppose new road projects when it seems there isn’t enough money in the state to fix potholes. Our infrastructure is imploding, and the Triad region is failing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air-quality standards.
The General Assembly’s spending of our tax dollars to preserve forests and cropland is futile unless NC DOT accepts the “No Build Alternative” in environmental-impact statements and adopts a “Fix-It-First” policy. When funds are available, rail service would promote regional connectivity and would indicate the 21st Century Transportation Committee is serious about reform.

Recent reports indicate the committee will recommend that the General Assembly seek voter approval of a $1 billion bond package to address our transportation needs. Providing more funding for NCDOT is not the answer if the same officials continue to operate in the same inefficient and political ways. Decadent use of taxpayer dollars and maniacal consumption and destruction of our natural resources must end.

Cathy M. Poole
Kernersville

The writer is a member of N.C. Alliance for Transportation Reform, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.

If my high school daughter’s civics teacher let it slip that she didn’t really know what the role of U.S. vice president is, I would seriously question her qualifications for the job. Voters should be asking a similar question about the Republican vice presidential nominee. During a televised interview last month, the less-than-half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin asked: “What is it exactly that the VP does every day?” Even the show’s host felt compelled to inform her: “It’s a pretty big job, Madam Governor.”

While Palin is being touted by her supporters as standing up to the Alaskan political establishment, she is currently under state investigation for misuse of power. Since Palin previously tried to assert her elected mayoral position to have the town librarian fired because she refused Palin’s request to ban certain books, voters should also ask if this represents a pattern that would be repeated in the White House.

The choice of running mate is an important litmus test for presidential judgment. In this case, Barack Obama is the clear winner.

Kim Madden
Greensboro

Violence against women is a worldwide problem, not only in other countries but in the United States as well. According to Amnesty International, at least one of every three women throughout the world will be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime.

In response to this crisis, Amnesty International started the Stop Violence Against Women Campaign in 2004, advocating that the right of women to be free of violence and abuse is part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that the hope of human rights for all can never be realized as long as abuse against women continues.

As part of this movement, a bipartisan effort in the U.S. Congress has introduced the International Violence Against Women Act (H.R. 5927, S. 2279), but since introduction in April and October 2007, respectively, no action has been taken. In addition, no senator or representative from North Carolina has signed on to co-sponsor either bill.

The League of Women Voters of the Piedmont Triad urges you to contact Sens. Dole and Burr and your respective representatives to Congress and urge them to support this important piece of legislation. Additional information is available at www.amnestyusa.org/women.

April L. Najjaj
Greensboro

This letter was written on behalf of the League of Women Voters.

Well, the conventions have been held. Why they were held is still a mystery to me. All they did was to confirm the obvious.

Now we will be treated to endless bad commercials with each candidate telling us how bad the other candidate is and not telling us what he is going to do. If they do anything, it would be more than has been done in the past several years. But I don’t see that we are going to be any better off than we have been.

In the upcoming election, I see something good and something bad. The good thing is that 50 percent of the candidates will lose. The bad thing is that 50 percent of the candidates will win. And where does that leave the ordinary person? Stuck in the same old place — at the bottom of the well trying to find a bright spot up above!

Help!

Ron Trogdon
Siler City

We have heard from Gov. Sarah Palin’s political enemies in Alaska. Since 1992, we have heard from Hillary Clinton’s political enemies in Arkansas and elsewhere. But we have never heard from any of Barack Obama’s political enemies in Chicago or Joe Biden’s political enemies in Delaware, or John McCain’s enemies in Arizona. Is this because they are all so new on the political scene that they have no political enemies, or that they are so pristine that they have no enemies?

Or could it possibly be that misogyny is rampant among the men and women of the press?

Flora Memory
Randleman

Two columns on the Sept. 4 Second Opinion page stand out in stark contrast — the column by Maureen Dowd and the one by Thomas Sowell.

I found one paragraph in Sowell’s column to be particularly timely and interesting. He said: “The public’s right to know (a mantra of the drive-by media) is often invoked by the mainstream media, when what they are really talking about is the media’s right to smear those that they disagree with politically.”

Dowd has provided us with a classic example of the accuracy of Sowell’s observation. The bitter vitriol flowing from her poison pen is clearly seen through her use of vicious personal attacks on Gov. Palin. This is not objective political commentary. Rather it is an elitist feminist’s assassination of a woman who dares disagree with Dowd’s views.

Dowd’s column is “... full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” (I deliberately omitted the first part of the quote because to include it would make me guilty of the same sin that I accuse Dowd of committing.)

Robert Quesenbury
Greensboro

Because the News & Record decided Doonesbury belongs on the comics page, I wandered to the editorial page for a few laughs. And I’ve found humor in the many letters from area Democrats writing to complain about Sen. McCain’s choice for vice president.

The endless comparison of Gov. Palin to Sen. Obama in regard to experience is painfully laughable. Are the area Democrats not original thinkers?

As George Will pointed out, “experience is not sufficient to prove a person 'qualified.’ ” Will goes on to point out “character” and “constitutional sense” with “political common sense” are also important attributes.

If comparisons need to be made, then how can Sen. Obama be the agent of change with a Washington fossil like Sen. Biden on his ticket?

I think all the hyphenated-last-name Democrats are hurt because McCain trumped their agent of change by selecting Palin. The concern that President McCain will die in office is equally comical. We can play “what if” until the Democrats have an original thought, but no one knows when someone will die.

Please don’t be discouraged by any of this because I look forward to finding more humor on the editorial page.

Walter J. Moyer
Graham

As a Democrat for more than 35 years, I am ashamed of the sexist treatment of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. The Democratic Party has historically portrayed itself as a progressive voice for the people. However, female candidates are evaluated with a different standard than men. In 2008, it is disheartening that a woman’s professional success is strongly influenced by the judgment of her appearance, family life, and traditional demure feminine characteristics. Male candidates have not had their wardrobe analyzed, parenting skills questioned or assertiveness equated with the “b” word. A 17-year-old girl’s mistake is cruelly exploited to rally votes by those opposing her mother.

Watch closely over time and people’s true values are revealed. A double standard exists that is disrespectful to all women. Repackaging these attitudes by elitists (intellectuals, the media and celebrities) is just as repressive as overt chauvinism despite the new spin. Either the Democratic Party clandestinely endorses this prejudice or leaders are too weak to take an effective stand to make it stop.

My party is not demonstrating the authentic reform necessary to move all people forward. “Talking the talk” is not sufficient — no matter how glitzy.

Ruby McGhee
Jamestown

The following is a Counterpoint column:

By Peter Deane

Reading about a former Aycock Midde School lateral-entry teacher in the Guilford Record reminded me that there isn’t much room for passion and creativity in classrooms. Even “real” teachers are stymied, even if better prepared, but they seem to be born into teaching dynasties, earn actual teaching degrees (not just certificates) and endure a year of student teaching, paying for that privilege rather than getting paid as lateral-entry teachers are. Admittedly, mentor-teachers are far too busy to offer much guidance to those who are considered dilettantes.

Luke Neal wasn’t sufficiently guided toward the courses he needed to successfully complete the requirements for his provisional teaching license. He may have spent too much time with his “iYES’’ program, field trips and weekly meetings with students in order to build their character while tutoring others who needed it. Most likely he should have been teaching them standardized test-taking skills while slavishly adhering to the N.C. Standard Course of Study, despite the fact that no student is “standard.” Standards are how schools are judged and determine whether principals keep their jobs. Are we raising standards, or children?

One of my education professors told me: “The teacher shortage is a myth.” Teaching is a revovling door — there is no shortage of people willing to spin through it. A superintendent once told me it took 15 years to become an “adequate” teacher. I don’t think I will live long enough to become a superior one. I often wonder whether lateral-entry programs were designed to help colleges raise money from people who already hold degrees.

Inexperienced teaches are given the neediest students, since veteran educators get first pick. It can (and should) take about three hours of time to prepare for, teach, then assess each student daily. With about 100 individual lesson plans per day, I’m betting Neal had very little time for life outside the classroom. It is a pity how he was rewarded for so much work.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

As a frequent shopper and “family” member, I want to softly disagree with your editorial (Sept. 6) about the Greensboro Farmers’ Curb Market and expand the perspective.

People do not only shop at the market to buy local foods. We want foods that are healthy, organic, high quality and from people we trust. We do not always buy local because some local growers spray their products with chemicals. However, we would buy local over nonlocal if the product was the same.

Because some vendors sell items that are not local, consider how they impact the market in a positive way: The more items available, the more people come; competition means lower prices; buying nonlocal items expands our opportunities to try foods of other cultures. Maybe if we bought more items from the Amish, then they could grow their community and make their items locally.

Now the City Council is looking at making Memorial Stadium a new hub for the market. Let’s not divide and turn away vendors when things are getting bigger and better. We need to pull together and grow together to succeed. Let’s have a market brand that says we are blessed with all good things.

Randal Scott Romie
Greensboro

Health care reform has been in the news during this presidential campaign. Recent census data list the number of uninsured Americans at approximately 47 million, including more than 8 million children.

One million North Carolinians are without health insurance, and only about 57 percent of businesses in North Carolina offer coverage. Uninsured people are more likely to go to emergency rooms for treatment of chronic conditions, or they are more acutely ill than if they had ongoing care.

Sen. Obama’s health plan would go far toward providing insurance coverage for all. No participating company could discriminate or raise premiums based on health conditions or family histories. Employers could choose to offer insurance on their own or through a newly created National Health Insurance Exchange. The insurance would be portable and include a sliding scale subsidy for individuals with financial difficulty. By expanding the existing Children’s Health Insurance Program, all children would have coverage.

Obama’s plan is comprehensive and affordable. It is time for all North Carolinians and Americans to have health insurance coverage.

Linda Spooner
Southern Pines

We would like to congratulate the Northwest Guilford High School teachers and staff under the direction of Principal Angelo Kidd for obtaining the highest graduation rate in the category of 500-plus students for the state of North Carolina. The graduation rate of 92 percent is quite an achievement.

As a member of the NWGHS Academic Excellence Committee, I recently received a Web link that Kidd sent to the Northwest faculty (www.dallasisd.org/keynote.htm). The young person in the video delivers one of the most inspirational presentations I have ever seen. I hope you will go to this Web site to gain the true meaning of education of our youth.

The Academic Excellence Committee would also invite you to visit our Web site at www.NWHSace.org. We are a small group of parents who help the faculty put on a few programs at the school each year. The culmination of our activities is an Underclassman Awards Ceremony with the school orchestra performing, student art exhibit, and recognition of high-achieving underclassmen.

May each of the faculty and staff in the Guilford County Schools system be blessed and may each parent show his or her support to help achieve great levels of learning for our youth.

Joe Plante
Summerfield

I am a woman and a former Hillary supporter who now strongly supports Obama. The idea that just because I am a woman I would turn my support to McCain and Palin is insulting.

Palin seems to be a nice person, but I totally disagree with her politics. I’m for gun control, choice, and separation of church and state. I believe in global warming and the need for change.

Speaking about her son deploying to Iraq, Palin said: “Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God’s plan.” I find that disturbing.

The God I believe in would say if you want to fight about oil, find a better way. You are shooting off the arms and legs of my children. The really sad part is there was a better way.

If we had spent the money we spent on the war on finding an alternative to oil, we would have it by now. We would have defeated the Middle East in the economic market, and all those children would still be safe.

Diane Manzi
Greensboro

Regarding the letter, “Palin sacrificing family” (Sept. 6):

Troy Millikan criticizes Sarah Palin’s decision to be McCain’s running mate based on the fact that she has exposed her family, in particular her pregnant teenage daughter, to public scrutiny.

I would ask Millikan if he would feel the same way if Palin were a man. Would Millikan have expected Joe Biden to turn down the VP slot if he had a pregnant teenage daughter? (Actually, if that were the case, the news media probably would not have made an issue of it, since Biden is not a woman.)

Millikan also assumes that Palin accepted the VP nomination to “advance (her) own personal political ambitions.” In looking at Palin’s history, it appears that she entered public service primarily because she saw corruption in government and wanted to expose it; saw wasteful spending of taxpayer money and wanted to stop it; saw individuals in office serving their own needs rather than the people they were elected to serve and wanted to change it.

Palin accepted the VP nomination out of a strong sense of duty, patriotism and the desire to serve her country (which does not contradict good parenting).

Anne Daffron
Greensboro

In her acceptance speech, Sarah Palin said, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”

Although her comment was directed at Barack Obama’s early work in Chicago, it was an insult to community organizers working very hard to make their communities and this country a better place. I know people in environmental, civic and social organizations, all of whom take their responsibilities to the people they work for and the causes they believe in very seriously.

Palin should remember that without the sacrifice of many women before her working for women’s suffrage, she would not be running for any office. Many social movements have started with grass-roots organizers. These people work for little or no pay, no staff or political influence but get the job done because of their sense of responsibility to improve the world.

This is not a party issue; in fact, it was the former President Bush who encouraged us to be “1,000 points of light.” It would be appropriate for Palin to apologize to all the community organizers who were insulted by her comment.

Sue Jezorek
Greensboro

From a business article in The London Sunday Times, Aug. 24, 2008 ... a former Middle Eastern Sovereign wealth fund manager sees negativity: “many people in the West are full of fear now. They are not seeing clearly!”

The main factor determining where the credit crunch goes from here is the competence of the American government, he said. He hesitated, then blurted it out: “The U.S. election is the most important thing happening this autumn. A Barack Obama victory would signal a new beginning to the world.”

Harriet K. Folley
Greensboro

Some media outlets, including The Washington Post, incorrectly reported Gov. Sarah Palin’s actions regarding funding for special-needs children in the Alaska budget. That information was repeated in a letter published Tuesday.

Palin actually increased that funding, though she did so at a lower amount than requested.

Some pet owners seem unaware that the pet they purchased or adopted is living, breathing and, believe it or not, does feel pain, hunger and thirst.

I can’t understand how anyone can dump their “pet” on the side of the road, leave them behind when they move, shut them in a storage room with no food or water while on vacation, or take them for a car ride and while they’re shopping, the animal is left in a hot car! Would these folks like trying this themselves?

If you have acquired a pet and realize it isn’t going to work out, take the animal back where you got it; find a family wanting a pet; take it to an animal adoption agency. It may take forethought and a bit of time, but it is your responsibility!

Wake up, folks. Think about what you are doing — or not doing. Do you have a heart, or is this how you treat all other life forms in your home? Take time to think, care and do the humane thing.

Rose Ford
Greensboro

I am a great admirer of Barack Obama. One reason is because after he graduated from Harvard Law School (where he was the editor of the Law Review) and could have chosen to work at any number of big law firms anywhere, he chose instead to use his law degree to help poor people in Chicago.

Watching the Republican National Convention, I cringed in embarrassment as Rudy Giuliani ridiculed and laughed at Sen. Obama for his selfless community work. I became angered watching the crowd as they laughed and cheered Guiliani’s ugly, rude statements. I wondered how many of those people would give a helping hand to those less fortunate.

I understand the wish to blacken Sen. Obama’s reputation, but if the worst they can come up with is that he worked with common people needing his services instead of grabbing the big bucks, then my choice for president is clear.

Linda East
Greensboro

I have watched with interest as many beautification projects have been placed along stretches of highway and streets in our area. I have also watched as trash piles up along these same highways and streets. Wouldn’t some of that money be better spent paying someone to patrol these areas and clean up the trash? We can’t count on Adopt-A-Highway to do it all.

The pretty plants and fancy fences don’t impress visitors from another city, state or country when they have to look at McDonald’s cups, Burger King bags, Coke bottles, beer cans, broken chairs, newspaper ... well, you get the idea. Trash is a blight that we are all responsible for. Take your trash home and throw it away instead of so casually tossing it from your car window, but until we can learn to do the responsible thing, we need to hire people to clean up after us. Contact your state and local government to get a movement going.

Operation Clean Sweep is coming up. Take part. It is a nice gesture, but once a year isn’t enough. We need to stay diligent on not littering and picking up whatever we see, all the time.

Parents, teach your children not to litter. They are our future. Do we want them living in a trash dump?

Geralyn Cox
Greensboro

This is really the best John McCain and the Republican Party could do? McCain performed almost no due diligence before choosing Sarah Palin, raising questions about his management skills. His pick of an unqualified woman is a transparent attempt to bring over Hillary Clinton supporters and appeal to the conservative base of the Republican Party, although in the process he negated his own campaign’s ability to use Obama’s alleged inexperience against him.

Now it seems that with each new day comes a fresh revelation. Time magazine reported that soon after taking office as mayor of Wasilla, Palin attempted to fire a librarian who had said she would not ban books from the public library. It was then revealed that both her husband and oldest child aren’t Republicans but registered Independents. This was followed by the revelation of her daughter’s pregnancy, a fact for which a Democrat would be castigated by the Religious Right but which, in this case, has brought comments like those of Focus On The Family founder James Dobson, who said, “She and her family are human.”

One has to wonder what startling revelations are coming next.

Charles Bryan White
Asheboro

The person who wrote that John McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was a ploy to get Hillary voters was way off base. Sen. McCain chose someone who embodied the way most men and women feel about their nation, someone who can get the job done.

From all the choices he could have made, this strong-willed woman is the one who will be able to take a leadership role for our country if needed.

E-mails and videos have flooded in-boxes across the nation that tell of her no-nonsense reform attitude. Her history and experiences as a small-town council member, mayor and governor of a great state are breaths of fresh air when compared to other candidates.

Now is the time to get away from party rhetoric and look at the candidate who will do the best job. Do we want Palin running the country, dealing with Iran and making decisions that will affect our future for decades? You bet!

Give me a pistol-packing Mama who can fish with a crushed hand, play a championship game with a stress fracture, raise a family and stand up to America’s scrutiny with a joke about lipstick anytime.

Dena Barnes
Summerfield

The way I was raised, if I had spoken with the deceit and disdain that Sarah Palin did recently, my mother would have slapped my face and washed my mouth out with soap.

Her performance at the Republican convention reminded me of a vigilante mob straight from an old western. These are dangerous people who respect neither the laws of man nor God; who hearken only to their own self-interest and are willing to sacrifice both truth and common decency on their altar of power.

What we watched was the transformation of a political party into a lynch mob. A mob with hired guns at the lead — out to rid the range of all those who challenge their twisted, self-serving view of reality.

May God have mercy on them.

David Southworth
Greensboro

Could this paper bury its “coverage” of the protests in St. Paul any deeper? The fact that nearly as many people came to the Twin Cities to protest as came to attend the Republican convention would seem to merit some attention. Ten thousand marched on the first day. Nearly 400 were arrested on the final day, when police barred their path to the convention site.

One would think, given the coverage, that the only storm the Republicans had to worry about was Gustav.

Daniel Malotky
Greensboro

I put a “Family Circus” cartoon by Bill Keane on my refrigerator months ago — with my grandchildren and “advice-to-live-by” in mind. In recent weeks, the cartoon seems more generally appropriate than ever.

The cartoon shows a mom saying to her kids, who are coloring at the kitchen table, “Crayons can teach us a good lesson ... they’re different colors, have strange names, but all learn to live together in the same box.”

Carolyn Harmon
Greensboro

I’ve been volunteering at the Guilford County Animal Shelter (GCAS) for more than two years. The shelter has rarely been so full. It’s full because of what we, the citizens of Guilford County, do — or do not do. The GCAS must take all domestic animals dropped off by Guilford residents, so, with its limited space, it cannot be a “no-kill” facility.

The single most important thing we can do to reduce the number of animals going to the shelter is to ensure that all cats and dogs over four months of age are spayed or neutered.

Sadly, litters of kittens and puppies are dropped off nearly continually at the shelter, especially during summer. Please take every opportunity you can to tell people — friends, co-workers, neighbors, family — that we now have a low-cost spay/neuter facility. The Humane Society of the Piedmont has a clinic near the shelter at 4527 West Wendover.

If you attend a place of worship, please consider asking your clergy to make a brief announcement about spay/neuter. Surely the birth of so many kittens and puppies that will never make it into a home qualifies as a moral aspect of good stewardship that we have the capability to address.

Beverly Levine
Greensboro

This letter is not about Sarah Palin’s personal family situation, which should have remained more private. It is about her political position advocating “abstinence-only” sex education.

In the words of Dr. Phil: “How’s that working for you?” In North Carolina, 20,000 teenage girls get pregnant annually. That’s 20,000 girls who have fully developed reproductive organs, but, according to modern physiological research, are still quite a ways from having fully developed brains. Most would agree that being a mother or father is not just physically producing a child, but in nurturing that child over time. How can these teenage parents nurture healthy, productive children when they, themselves, have not yet had time to mature?

In earlier times when disease, famine and war regularly decimated populations, early and frequent reproduction was a survival necessity. Our hormones are still in those historical periods, but our world is not. In these times, what we ought to be doing is educating teens to wait until they are more mature to produce children, so the tools they then bring to parenthood will be stronger and more likely to produce the healthy, productive children who will strengthen our society. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Gloria W. Thompson
Greensboro

In November, I will vote for Barack Obama for president. He has been exactly as he said he would be and is what I want from a presidential candidate. He is the thinking man opposed to the warrior, as stated by many.

Barack has never strayed from his integrity or said anything that would just bring in the votes. Through this campaign, we have been lucky to see many qualified people. Hillary Clinton showed the world a woman was capable of making tough decisions and being president, but a gun-toting hockey mom is not what I am looking for in my presidential choice.

If we ever have to go to war again, I want a president in office who only chooses it with a very heavy heart, and that person is Barack Obama, not John McCain.

Everything in this time in history points to a need for a thinking person with a little restraint to be in the White House, who is also comfortable with surrounding himself with very informed people, who is not afraid to seek advice from others when needed. Barack Obama is this person.

The young of this country need to feel we are preserving a future for them through our choices of today. Obama is this person for the future.

Jessica Whitehead
Ruffin

Well, I believe Gov. Sarah Palin single-handedly brought life back to the tired and sleepy Republican Party. It’s like she injected a couple of gallons of adrenaline directly into the bloodstreams of those delegates and others who watched and heard her at the Republican convention. If the Democrats were honest, they would admit Gov. Palin was stunning in her delivery, her poise, her command of the moment and particularly the content of her speech.

One would have to be brain dead or an Obama-lovin’ Democrat (excuse the redundancy) to not believe she is the best thing happening on the political scene since Ronald Reagan.

Wow, what an exciting time we have from now until Nov. 4.

Harry Thompson
Morehead City

I find it totally abhorrent that Ruth Maynard, who was a teacher, believes that because she did not consider herself capable of doing something she would deny that others could (letter, Sept. 7).

If she has been married to a fine man for 65 years, she is, unless she married at a very young age, at least in her 80s. John McCain is only 72.

Talk about flawed judgment. Stop judging others by your lack of positive attitude.

Steve McCurdy
Greensboro

This is in response to the story about the church that Sarah Palin went to having a “Pray Away the Gay” service. Are these people too uneducated to know that you can’t pray or wish away “the gay”? If that’s their objective, they need to start praying at the time of conception. Being gay is determined early in the pregnancy; one has no more control over sexual orientation than they have over eye or skin color.

Curtis Hinshaw
Liberty

Are all women who support equal rights supposed to have an identical mind-set as the stereotypical “feminist” represented by Hillary Clinton? I resent the implication that, because Sarah Palin holds the view that an unborn child has the right to survive, she should relinquish her right to the opportunity to become vice president. Why are the rules different for Palin than for Clinton or any other working mom?

I will support Palin, not because she is a woman but because she advocates cleaning up “old boy politics” in Washington, using all possible avenues to deal with the energy crisis and maintaining a strong defense.

As for her experience, Palin has served as a mayor and a governor while Obama has had no experience in the executive branch of government.

Since Rosemary Roberts’ column (Sept. 5) stated that Palin’s experience is insufficient to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, what about Obama, who has had no experience in executive office? Is it just because he has “hope” or is a Democrat or just because he is a “he”?

Caryol M. Forsyth
High Point

These pages are fast filling with “arguments” for and against either McCain or Obama. The writers shouldn’t waste their time, because it won’t matter which candidate wins the presidency in November.

The Democratic and Republican parties have both lost their way. Neither is pretending anymore that this is really about serving the American people. It has become a game of seizing power and control.

What do they do when they gain that power? Nothing but become corrupted by it. The past 16 years have been plenty enough evidence
.
I will say it if no one else can: America is dying. We have lost too much industry, are taxed too much, have exerted our military to the breaking point, have lost control of our borders. And worse, we are no longer an enlightened enough people to possess wisdom and virtue that will stem the stagnation.

This country is on the same path as Rome. We could turn back if we choose. Instead, we are too captivated by the bread and circuses of our modern politics.

Who will win? I don’t care. The timbers are rotted. Why would anyone want to be at the wheel when this ship finally wrecks?

Christopher Knight
Reidsville

In Troy Millikan’s letter, “Palin sacrificing family” (Sept. 6), he asks, “What kind of parent, mother or father would advance their own personal political ambitions with the full knowledge that doing so would subject their daughter to the intense and often brutal media scrutiny that comes with this type of revelation?”

It may be more than advancing political ambitions. John McCain explained this point very clearly in his Sept. 4 speech. It would be “a person who puts country before self.” The light bulb went on for me when I listened. Then I understood what he had sacrificed for our country.

Charles O’Bryant III
Greensboro

For those who want to criticize the choice of Sarah Palin, I suggest they read Cal Thomas’ Sept. 5 column. That should put a stop to putting her down and look at the positive, fresh experience she can bring to the Republican Party.
Charles O’Brien
Greensboro

Our country’s security will be the most important issue in the next four years and John McCain is the most qualified to deal with foreign relations. We do not need radical change or higher taxes. There’s no way all of Obama’s promised “change” can happen anyway — not in four years, not in eight. Congress is where changes are made, not the presidency. Congress does need to be more efficient, but the only way that can happen is to vote new members in, and that takes time. We need a man who is friends with the elite now in power.

The number 40 in the Bible is significant. It means something has come full circle. It was 40 years ago when McCain was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. I believe it is time for him to become president.

Leroy Seawell
Greensboro

Both of the presidential candidates of the two “major parties” say that they will bring change. Really? The Republican Party has helped rule this country for more than 100 years. The Democratic Party has helped rule our country for far longer than that. But now they are ready for change.

No matter which candidate is chosen by the Electoral College, the government will still grow bigger every year. The government debt will still continue to grow. Pork-barrel spending will continue. Congress will still receive automatic pay raises, and we will still have a foreign policy full of double standards. Lobbyists will still subsidize the two parties and help write legislation.

The two-party system isn’t about change. Democrats and Republicans are the status quo.

If John McCain and Barack Obama really believed in change, then they would ask the government to put “none of the above” and write-in lines on all presidential ballots. If they really believed in change, then they would invite the other presidential candidates — Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney, Bob Barr, etc. — to participate in the presidential debates.

There is one thing that won’t change. The next man who becomes president will be a millionaire.

Chuck Mann
Greensboro

To the mainstream media, political pundits and particularly the hard-left zealots of the blogosphere: Please continue your personal attacks against Sarah Palin, particularly the attacks on her motherhood. These attacks are energizing the conservative base and alienating many Americans, especially working mothers.

Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden were wise to ask their supporters not to personally attack Gov. Sarah Palin, perhaps out of common decency or perhaps because they realized the backlash effect it would create.

Tom Imbus
Browns Summit

As a descendent of the late Jerry Donnell of Warnersville, I was somewhat perplexed by the Aug. 31 article about the neighborhood and Greensboro College. As a child in the 1960s, I fondly remember visiting relatives in the neighborhood. Warnersville was a pleasant and booming area during that time.

Fortunately or unfortunately, times have changed. I have family members who still live in the area who are property owners. I feel that Greensboro College should be commended for its proposal for J.C. Price School. This would be a win-win for the neighborhood and the college. What is there to lose?

The story reminded me of an article previously published in your paper about the purchase of Rena Bullock Elementary School in Pleasant Garden, another school with African American roots. Once the purchase of that property was made, people in the community were full of suggestions as to what the owner should do with it.

My only question is, if the residents were sincerely interested in preserving the city or county’s black history, why did they make their concerns known after the fact? Why didn’t they unite and purchase J.C. Price? It seems to me that they are just a day late and a dollar short. Maybe next time foresight will prevail.

F.R. Donnell
Greensboro

In response to Michael Garrett’s letter (Sept. 5) saying that the pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s daughter should be off-limits: The reason it should not be off-limits is that it directly applies to the conservative insistence that all you need to do is teach kids abstinence and they will no longer have sex. This is the crux of why “liberals” call for inclusive sex education, including birth control. Learning about birth control doesn’t cause kids to have sex — being human causes kids to have sex.

As for “fashionable” abortion, I question how many women/girls Garrett has known who have had abortions. I’ve known a few in my 61 years, both before and after Roe v Wade, and I can tell him that they did not make the decision lightly, nor to be “fashionable.” Before Roe v Wade, a female literally took her life in her hands in order to terminate a pregnancy she could not carry. Garrett apparently thinks they did so frivolously.

Now evangelicals are trying to have pharmaceutical birth control (the Pill) classified as “abortion.” Women didn’t become truly free until they could control their reproductive lives. This is what is at stake, not merely a teenage daughter’s unwed pregnancy.

Sandi Campbell
Siler City

Knowledgeable, effective, wise and faithful to the people of North Carolina, these are attributes that describe Kay Hagan. In her 10 years of service in the N.C. Senate, she has offered strong collaborative leadership resulting in fiscal responsibility, more jobs and better educational opportunities.

She is well-grounded, with a sense of place here in North Carolina, and she is well-loved by family, friends and constituents who have watched her rise to every challenge in the political arena, offering commitment to all, rather than to special interests.

Teresa Sue Bratton, running for Congress in the 6th District, also offers North Carolinians new hope for changed economic, educational and environmental policies that will provide for the common good, rather than the good of a few.

As a physician specializing in pediatric allergies, she understands health care issues and the economic challenges confronting working people in North Carolina communities.

I have known both Kay and Teresa through teaching their children and have witnessed their commitment in their work for all children, as well as their own. North Carolina will be fortunate to have Kay Hagan and Teresa Sue Bratton representing our voices in the U.S. Senate and the 6th Congressional District.

Valerie Vickers
Greensboro

Rosemary Roberts’ opinion that Sarah Palin is not qualified to be vice president of the United States ironically brings up the main doubts about Barack Obama being qualified to be president of the United States.

She states: “Besides, women don’t automatically vote for women just because we’re the same gender. We’ve got more brains than that.” More than 95 percent of black voters are going to vote for Obama. What is she insinuating?

Roberts states that Palin’s well-celebrated speech at the Republican National Convention only proves she’s attractive and can give a good speech (written by John McCain’s speechwriters). Duh! What’s the early knock on Obama — that he’s attractive and can give a good speech (written by the same Democratic Party insiders of the last decade).

Remember, there are no teleprompters in town hall meeting debates — in which Obama refuses to participate.

I have no doubt that if Gov. Palin were pro-choice and were somewhat less religious that she would be celebrated as the new feminist icon.

Today’s radical feminism is not about empowering women. It is about empowering radical liberalism.

Dick Widenhouse
Greensboro

Truly I would like to hear why we should vote for a candidate instead of why we shouldn’t vote for the other guy.

I have not heard what any prospective candidate’s plan is once in the Senate. How do the candidates plan on standing up for me and my family, my state?

Washington is broken. I do not want another half-hearted, promise-telling senator joining the ranks and getting sucked in there.

Just because some people don’t approve of President Bush doesn’t mean they are right in their disapproval.

I am thankful Bush was in the White House when terrorists attacked my country instead of someone who lies to the American people about a relationship he said he didn’t have.

To me, voting for North Carolina is doing the right thing, and if that is the same as what Bush would do, then so be it.

Stop attacking a man who isn’t running for any office and who has done us proud in keeping us from another attack.

Stand on your own and tell me why I should use my precious vote on you.

What are you going to do for me? For my state? And ultimately my country?

Karen Ball
Greensboro

In reference to the Sept. 3 article on the sale of Southern Foods, I would like to express my sadness that this family-owned and -operated company has been sold. This company is truly an icon in Greensboro and has done so much for this community. So many foundations and contributions have been created and made by this family-owned business, we would need a calculator to count them all. Greensboro should truly be thankful to the Nussbaums and Southern Foods.

I was an employee of Southern Foods in the late 1970s to late ’80s. I acquired many friendships, but most importantly I acquired some of the values the Nussbaums practiced daily (respect and compassion for co-workers).

I now am the owner of a successful mechanical contracting firm in Greensboro, and I like to try to run my business on the words of my mother: “Son, there are two kinds of people in this world: those who care and those who don’t care. Which are you?”

I always felt that Southern Foods and the Nussbaum family were on the same page as my mother, and from what I hear, I believe the new owners will be, too.

Many thanks to Southern Foods and the Nussbaum family for our 30-year relationship.

Michael W. Hicks
Browns Summit

I am frustrated with ineffective politicians who spend too much time taking care of special interests and lobbyists.

Elizabeth Dole is among the most ineffective. She simply rubber-stamps President Bush 92 percent of the time. We need someone who votes with North Carolina 100 percent of the time.
I’m supporting Kay Hagan because she understands the needs of North Carolinians and will stand up for people like you and me every day in the U.S. Senate.

Kay Hagan has gotten results and solved problems here in North Carolina, and we need her to do that in Washington for North Carolina and for our entire nation.

John A. Koppel
Greensboro

What a ray of hope from the great North Slope.

Sarah Palin will stand up to and poke a finger in the eye of the socialist-left Democrats and their pro-choice (infanticide) candidate.

The born can at least vote and write letters to the editor. The unborn can only kick, squirm and wonder whether Mommy grants them vacuum suction or life. As an ex-fetus, I’d like a “pit bull” on my side. Thank you, Sarah Palin, our next vice president.

Joe Hughes
Oak Ridge

The editorial “Fair outcome to pay-raise caper” (Short Stack, Sept. 15) said it was wiser for the UNC Board of Governors to agree to the special treatment afforded Gov. Mike Easley’s wife by N.C. State than it would have been to disapprove it. The reason given was that not approving the action would have “embarrassed N.C. State leaders and the Easleys.”

Given that the writer agreed it looked like favoritism (no kidding!) and that it violated UNC system rules, I find the idea that it was wiser to ratify this piece of mischief to be appalling.

It seems to me that if I have done something, the common knowledge of which would embarrass me, then I have embarrassed myself by my actions. Is it any wonder that the everyday person gets so fed up with politicians?

My guess is, if we were able to take a good, close look at the interactions between the Easleys and N.C. State, we’d find the real reason for her special treatment. I realize that’s a cynical perspective, but it’s fueled by exactly this kind of use of taxpayer money by those who, like your writer, think it’s OK.

This is one taxpayer who thinks it stinks to high heaven.

Steele Smith
Jamestown

Greensboro Urban Loop time line:

1. DOT opens $122 million western leg of loop taking the bulk of I-40 and I-85 traffic out of Greensboro, making the morning commute through “Death Valley” safer for thousands of residents.

2. Residents along the loop, including many who moved in after completion, complain about the noise.

3. DOT takes noise measurements and verifies noise is below design objectives.

4. DOT caves to pressure and reroutes I-40 traffic through Death Valley, disregarding the safety of motorists.

5. I-73 is completed and loop residents again complain about the noise.

6. DOT caves to pressure and reroutes I-73 traffic to Battleground Avenue.

7. DOT opens world’s largest skate park on the unused highway.

Mark Walker
Greensboro

We seem to have a new star in the political firmament, even possibly eclipsing her running mate. But what do we know about Sarah Palin?

To get to know her better, we can’t ask questions about why an abstinence-only advocate can have a daughter carrying an out-of-wedlock baby. That is a private family matter.

We can’t ask questions about a pregnant mom showing signs of labor and then refusing to go immediately to the nearest hospital. That also is a private family matter.

We can’t seem to ask any questions, private or not, as they are keeping her sequestered from the press.

I, for one, would like to know why she flip-flopped on earmarks, supporting the “Bridge to Nowhere” when she ran for governor and then not, when the project was moot.

Why is she not cooperating with the abuse-of-power investigation by providing a deposition? Why did the campaign say she sold the state jet on eBay at a profit, when it was sold at a loss to a campaign contributor?

I sure hope we get some answers for these questions, and many others, before the election.

Harvey B. Herman
Greensboro

How do Condoleezza Rice and other members of the administration dare to state that “the free world cannot allow the destiny of a small, independent country to be determined by the aggression” of a larger country? Have you forgotten that we invaded Iraq, killed thousands of its citizens, promoted the execution of its president, “engineered” a government that suits us, and, like international bullies, are still there after five long years! Compared to what we did in Iraq the Russian actions in Georgia are peanuts!

Helio Salvador
Greensboro

I thought it was interesting to read Gary Bradt’s letter on Sept. 7 regarding Sarah Palin’s lack of experience per his perception. He states that a vice president could be escalated into the presidency in a literal heartbeat. Therefore, electing someone so patently unqualified for the job of vice president is a risk we cannot and must not take. That is really funny considering so many are willing to take a greater risk in electing someone so patently unqualified for the job of president — that someone being Obama.

Yes, he sounds good, as long as his teleprompter is working. Palin’s teleprompter failed, also, but she wasn’t left floundering for words. That’s the difference when you’re talking your own convictions and not just making a pretty speech.

He promises change and I believe that’s what we were promised at the last election of congressional leaders. They were right. Democrats took several seats and we have had change in the last two years, but it has not been for the better. Learn a lesson and beware. Elect Obama and you’ll get change, but you won’t like it.

And it will be too late then.

Bobbie Hege
Greensboro

Dr. Teresa Bratton, a pediatric allergist, by virtue of her landslide victory in the Democratic primary on May 6, will run against Rep. Howard Coble for his seat in Congress in November. On many issues Dr. Bratton will vote differently from our reactionary representative. Some bills Congressman Coble has opposed (and Dr. Bratton would have favored) include:

1) expansion of the children’s health insurance program (SCHIP) and the subsequent effort to override the presidential veto;

2) using federal purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare recipients;

3) increasing funding to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in many countries;

4) FDA regulation of tobacco

5) increasing the minimum wage;

6) funding for back-up paper ballots if electronic voting systems break down;

7) upgrades for bridge inspection and requirements for states to repair riskiest bridges first.

District 6 needs a new representative. Vote for Teresa Bratton.

Richard J. Rosen, MD
Greensboro

The Sept. 8 letter criticizing the News & Record for printing a cartoon on Sept. 4 speaks volumes about the Republican/conservative agenda to control the media in every form.

Cartoons are not designed to support any one individual’s personal or political ideology. We all know that cartoons are only satire! Even when the satire is hurtful, we do not have the right to ban freedom of speech. Let’s stop political posturing and unite around the pertinent issue: reducing and eliminating teen pregnancy.

We applaud the News & Record for balanced reporting.

Ernestine Taylor
Greensboro

This November your vote for Joe Wilson for Senate District 27 represents a voice for change.

Because this is the most important time in North Carolina politics, your voice and vote have important value. With proposed legislative changes in critical areas, the election is about change, protecting your voice, rights and quality of life.

Joe Wilson’s primary campaign funds are from individual donations. Because Joe Wilson will not take special-interest corporate dollars, this removes him from being under that unbridled corrupting lobbying influence. What this really means is a vote for Joe Wilson puts your voice in Raleigh.

District 27 concerns are about Guilford County issues. Joe Wilson will carry your voice to Raleigh on taxes, economic development, crime and public safety, education reform, property rights and mental heath reform.

He will transcend party lines and help bring an end to the political “party games” in Raleigh. Your voice will be heard in the General Assembly by electing him.

Dave Pearce
Greensboro

Since the far right thinks it’s easy to give simple “yes-no” answers to complex questions, such as those posed by Bob Goodman (letter, Sept. 6), perhaps Goodman would like to answer the following:

If tax cuts are the answer to every economic question, why is the economy in such bad shape after seven-plus years of them?

If deficits don’t matter, why is the dollar so weak against other currencies and what is the impact on inflation?

Can a politician be a “maverick” when he votes with an administration 90 percent of the time?

Can a politician become a expert on foreign affairs by living near another country?

Is a hot temper a good trait for a president to have?

Is military action the answer to every foreign crisis?

If a person is extremely wealthy, views houses as real-estate investments, and does not feel there is any economic problem, can he empathize with a person who has his only residence foreclosed?

Are W. and McCain appeasers now that they have agreed to timelines in Iraq? Shouldn’t McCain know the difference between Sunnis and Shi’a?

Not so easy, is it?

L.F. Rappaport
Greensboro

I am a faculty member in the Social Work Department at UNCG. Based on the comments at the Republican convention, it seems that Republicans do not like community organizers.

Wikipedia defines community organizing as “a process by which disempowered people — most often low- and moderate-income people” — are brought together to act in their common self-interest.

Community organizers act as area-wide coordinators of programs for different agencies in an attempt to meet community needs for health and welfare services. They also facilitate self-help programs initiated by local common-interest groups, for example, by training local leaders to analyze and solve the problems of a community.

How un-American to help poor and moderate-income people solve their own problems! Troublemaking community organizers like Jane Adams and Martin Luther King (both Nobel Peace Prize winners) should never be listened to. We surely would not want a president who had actually come from a low-income family and chose to spend part of his life working with poor and moderate-income people.

I say let’s stick with the oligarchs who have brought us unnecessary war, huge tax benefits for the wealthy, staggering deficits, and a crumbling economy. Only they can protect us from the threat of community organizers!

Daniel R. Beerman
Winston-Salem

Rather than being panicked by Republicans into allowing more oil drilling, we should look carefully at the facts.

First, we consume 25 percent of the world’s oil but have only 2.2 percent of the world’s known reserves, enough from Alaska’s Wildlife Refuge to cover America’s energy needs for just one-and-a- half years and enough from all our seacoasts for another two years.

Secondly, it would take 10 to 20 years for this oil to start flowing to market, thus offering no solution to current gas prices and no alternatives to oil consumption.

Third, oil companies are now drilling in only one-fourth of the fields for which they already have leases. Does that sound like big oil thinks we are in a crisis?

Fourth, and this point is almost always overlooked, the oil drilled in America does not necessarily remain in the United States. Big oil sells its product on the world market to the highest bidder, which would certainly include China and India. Does that sound like a path to energy independence through more drilling?

Clearly the beneficiaries of more drilling would be big oil and not the average Joe or Jane worried about prices at the pump.

Roch Smith
Greensboro

In the spring of 2007, I spent considerable time and energy drafting a legislative proposal that I sent to my congressional representatives.

The City Council of Graham endorsed the proposal. The Burlington Times-News published an article on the subject.

I had responses from and dialogue with Sen. Burr’s staff, and I had a personal conversation with Rep. Howard Coble about the subject. I sent a letter, e-mails and faxes to Sen. Dole’s office but neither she nor any of her staff ever responded. Not one word!

I’m supporting Kay Hagan because she understands the needs of North Carolinians and will stand up for people like me every day in the U.S. Senate.

Zeb E. “Barney” Barnhardt Jr.
Graham

John McCain and Barack Obama promise to shake up Washington and change the way our nation is run. Change is clearly what we all want.

Polls show we believe we are headed in the wrong direction and that Washington simply does not work. We want a different government, and it is good both presidential candidates promise to change things. But we must remember that change means Congress, too. We can’t expect the president to change Washington if he faces the same congressmen who brought us where we are today. We need a new Congress as well as new president.

That’s why we must send someone new to Washington this year. Howard Coble faithfully supported the policies of the Bush administration and will continue to support the same corporate interests he has for years. Teresa Bratton offers a new approach to representing us and a commitment to economic development, health care, education and energy independence.

This year, we must not remain part of the problem by clinging to the failed policies of the past.
This year, we must be part of the solution, part of the change we need and deserve. This year we must elect Teresa Sue Bratton.

Pete Salassi
Greensboro

I cannot believe the Department of Transportation thinks rerouting I-40 back through “Death Valley” will solve the noise issue associated with the new loop around Greensboro. The traffic on the new loop will still be there and the noise will not have been abated. The traffic will continue there because this loop helps us negotiate through Greensboro quicker and with much less difficulty.

Did no one think of erecting a second sound barrier as a noise buffer in the areas of concern? Did anyone consider lowering the speed limit in the areas of concern? Did anyone consider the impact of putting this traffic back through “Death Valley”?

With the new loop, “Death Valley” had finally become safer because the real traffic was using the loop. How about buying out another row of homes and then building a huge ridge where those houses used to be? That would solve the problem, too.

This will not solve the noise problem because we are still going to use the loop as it was intended. It is a great improvement and very much needed by the millions of folks who travel through our area on a daily basis. Rerouting I-40 through “Death Valley” is not the answer.

Cecil Pickler
Greensboro

This presidential election is not about Sarah Palin. John McCain uses her to distract us from the issues.

McCain doesn’t want us to consider his positions. He claims to be a “maverick” but votes with Bush 90 percent of the time. McCain supports the disastrous Iraq war and has no plan to end it.

Sen. McCain will expand the Bush tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals, shifting even more of the burden to the middle class. McCain thinks we can drill our way out of the energy crisis despite overwhelming expert opinion that this is impossible. McCain has no economic policy except continuing the failed policies of the last eight years. And, he has chosen a running mate who is simply unqualified to lead the country.

McCain is a member of the Washington “elite” he disparages. His party has controlled Congress for eight of the last 10 years. The Supreme Court has seven of nine justices who were appointed by Republican administrations. The Bush administration has been in power for the past eight years. Most of us are not better off than we were eight years ago. If you are one of us, think before you vote, and vote to throw out the party that has caused our national decline.

Lawrence Brenowitz
Greensboro

Some thoughts while dozing in the barber’s chair:

Why do so many writers of letters to the editor seem angry? If it’s Obama, McCain, Hillary, Palin, Biden, Bush or whoever pushes your button, handle it.

Obama has a pig that wears lipstick. So?

McCain didn’t really check on Sarah’s background. Now he is surprised at what a strong woman he has.

My candidates have no flaws or closet skeletons. But yours? Please, open the windows!

Thanks to the wit and wisdom of News-Record columnists, I am informed, invigorated and intellectually challenged.

Wow, where am I? Oh yeah, the barber’s shop! Maybe I should ask my doctor if politics is right for me.

Bill Beerman
Greensboro

I am supporting Dr. Teresa Bratton, our Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives from the 6th District.

Having known Teresa for almost 30 years, I am absolutely convinced she will immediately distinguish herself in Congress with her practical, well-conceived contributions toward resolving the crises in health care and the economy.

Teresa opposes funding legislative initiatives through across-the-board taxation. Yet she understands the dangers in requiring the wealthy to bear this burden alone.

Henry G. Carrison
Greensboro

On an episode of the HBO series “The Wire,” drug dealer Stringer Bell found junkies in Baltimore were becoming disenchanted with his product.

Word spread that his once-prized dope was getting a bad name because it wasn’t giving that “high” customers were used to.

So, being a smart businessman, he asked his economics professor what he could do to get people interested in his product even though it was worse than ever.

The professor suggested that Stringer do what major corporations do when their products get a bad name: Keep the product the same, but change the name. Of course, it worked.

Seeing John McCain and Sarah Palin describe themselves as the candidates of “change” makes me realize that Karl Rove has these candidates following the same advice that Stringer Bell followed. And, of course, it’s working.

That’s some good dope.

Dana Hatcher
High Point

While reading the paper this morning I noticed the article “Palin’s church to pray for gays to go straight.” I could not believe what I was reading. “You’ll be encouraged by the power of God’s love and his desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality,” they say.

I am certainly not your typical Southern belle, but I can assure you out of the 9 million people who reside in my home state of North Carolina, there are approximately 900,000 people just like me.

There are many facets which make me who I am. One of those is that I am gay. This fact is just a small part of who I am.

I appreciate your kindness and understand you are only trying to help me. However, my wish is not for you to pray for me “to go straight” but to pray for me. Pray for my well-being. Pray for my health and safety. Pray for my family and my friends. Pray for me as you would your own mother, daughter or neighbor.

This is how I pray for you.

Rodie Ray
Greensboro

I never thought I’d be smarter than more than 100 college presidents who want to debate changing the drinking age to 18.

I hate alcohol for what it does to young people and also older people.

Carolyn Corbett
Climax

It has been fun to watch the frenzy over Sarah Palin. The reaction by the Democrats and their media lapdogs proves what a great pick it was. We have a woman who has actually done what the Chosen One claims to have done.

Leftist ideas and political practices are responsible for the destruction of the black family and the resulting chaos: crime, poverty, drug use and early death.

Things have gone downhill since the War on Poverty was signed into law by LBJ in 1964. Obama’s solution: more of the same, lots more.

I read last week that the murder rate on the Southside of Chicago is double the number of troops we are losing in Iraq. Strange, one would think that all that “community organizing” would have made it a better place to live, not a better place to die.

Perhaps Obama should go back to organizing his neighborhood — to demonstrate that he can get a small task done right before he goes about fixing the world.

Robert Hudson
Pelham

I am a woman, I am a mother, and I’ve raised a son with significant disabilities, so I “get” that much of Sarah Palin’s appeal. But if the women of America want larger leadership roles in a great democracy, let’s begin by demonstrating that we can use our brains to discern that a pit bull with lipstick is not what’s needed in the White House.

I think it’s lovely that Sarah Palin chose to bear a child with Down syndrome; I care as much as anyone about the rights and well-being of people with disabilities.

But what quality of life can any of our children’s children look forward to if we vote to continue the failed policies that will burden them with a globe ravaged by endless resource wars, an unlivable climate and a dearth of clean food, water, air and energy?

Women of America, let’s show the world that we can do better than this.

Jennifer Angyal
Gibsonville

The Guilford County Substance Abuse Coalition is extremely opposed to the ABC Board’s proposal to locate a liquor store next to the SCALE Academy or any school. Schools and their surroundings not only educate but also nurture our youth. They provide models and examples that help shape the ideas of young people. Therefore, the communities that surround schools should reflect positive business and social environments.

Nationally, more than 28 percent of young people between 12 and 20 say they have used alcohol at least once. By age 15, 50 percent say they have had at least one drink! Guilford County is not immune. In Greensboro in 2007, there were more than 500 alcohol-related charges against persons 20 years old or less, the youngest being 13. With these kinds of things happening, we do not need to make alcohol any more accessible or tempting.

Our children are already exposed to many negative influences outside the schools. Making alcohol more accessible or tempting to our young people will not add to the development of good citizens and decision-making. We adamantly oppose building an ABC store next to any school!

George M. Coates
Greensboro

The writer is the executive director of Guilford County Substance Abuse Coalition.

Our daughter and son-in-law have three children. His job often requires him to be gone three nights a week. She gets one child off to middle school, one who is mentally challenged and totally dependent on her for everything off to a school for special-needs students and has an active 3-year-old. She does not have domestic help yet volunteers at both schools and preschool.

I am sure that Sarah Palin, with a supportive spouse and older children to help with the younger siblings, gave a lot of careful thought as to whether her family would suffer if she went from being governor of Alaska to vice president of the United States. Troy Millikan (letter) must think moms of special-needs children stay at home watching soap operas and eating bon-bons!

Portia Munsey
Greensboro

Regarding the article, “2-month-old critical after crash” (Sept. 12), the officer said the infant had been in a car seat but was ejected from the car. He also stated, “If the baby was in the car, I don’t know if they would have gotten to him in time.”

While there may have been a car seat in the car, I doubt the infant was properly harnessed in it. If the car seat and other passengers remained in the car, the infant was either not harnessed in the car seat or the harness was too loose.

Additionally, if the mother had time to get herself and her 3-year-old out of the vehicle, she most likely had time to get her infant out of the car had he not been ejected. When a vehicle enters water, it does not immediately fill with water. Passengers have a few minutes to get out.

I don’t want the public to think car seats don’t work. They do. If this baby had been properly secured, he most likely would have only been treated for minor injuries like his mother and sister.

For more information on car seats and for upcoming car seat checks, visit www.safeguilford.org.

Leigha Shepler
Greensboro

The writer is the injury prevention coordinator for SAFE Guilford, Safe Kids Guilford County.

I just read that Sarah Palin is challenging Barack Obama about earmarks. She, in her short tenure as governor, got 10 times more earmark spending for Alaska than any other state. She campaigned for the bridge to nowhere until it got so much publicity and proved so unpopular she gave it up.

We should all have serious concerns about her truthfulness and ethics. She is already in a legal battle for trying to have her sister’s ex-husband fired. Do you want to elect a person who is already deliberately misleading the American people? Haven’t we had enough of that with George Bush and his WMDs? People, please look past her pretty face. Given McCain’s health and age, she could well find herself as president of the United States. She’s no more ready to be president than I am. But at least I wouldn’t lie to get elected!

Joni Carter
Reidsville

I found much food for thought in Christopher Knight’s letter on Sept. 16 in which he states, “This country is on the same path as Rome.” Perhaps we’ve lived just a little too good for a little too long. Ruling supreme has been our lust for power and greed for material things, and when these have been thwarted — let’s coin a new word — CHAFE, for “cynicisms, hate, anger, falsehoods and envy” has surfaced.

There is good as well as darkness in all of us, and the good comes from the eternal spirit of sacred bliss, inner peace and everlasting happiness. We create the clouds of darkness that keep it from shining on us. We are given free will, and our most important freedom is the spiritual search for what unites us with harmony, order, character and peace. Our worst bondage is within the illusions it creates.

Ray Hylton
Greensboro

Does anyone still think the prevailing government opinion of deregulation and lack of oversight works in our current economic system? Why is there no agency or individual in the U.S. government that concerns itself with the interests of hard-working taxpayers?

When will the citizens of the United States take our government back from the special interests that led us into this horrible mess? I am not sure we can wait until Nov. 4.

Fred Lugar
Kernersville

The following is a Counterpoint column:

By Kathe Latham

Like many other believers in creating a culture of love, generosity and care for life, I was shocked by the tone of the Republican National Convention. I was further astounded by the nasty, mean-spirited, dishonest and bullying tone of all the speeches I heard. The first female vice-presidential candidate for the Republican Party essentially described herself as a pit bull with lipstick.

It’s always been easier to whip people into a frenzy when they are against something, so the Republicans trotted out their old, worn-out diatribe against the so-called liberal media and the liberal elites, who are trying to take away our freedom. Who are these liberal elites these folks encourage us to sneer at and blame? A closer examination of the word liberal, accompanied by slightly more reflective rather than reactive thinking, would expose this fake story for what it really is.

The true “market liberals” are neither Democrats nor Republicans but people who run this country for their own business interests, not the interests of working people. Rather than the liberal establishment we are taught to hate, they are the market fundamentalist establishment who run the country for their own interests.

Our interests are not the same. To the extent that these free-market liberals are free to exploit cheap labor and shut down their companies to move overseas for cheaper labor, we are not more free, but they truly are, and at our expense. It’s not about latte-drinking people who read too much, it’s about the wealthy “market liberals” who want to protect their profits from government intrusion. They aren’t concerned with the freedoms of working people for fair wages, decent housing, food and wellness that make our democracy strong. They’re concerned about their own freedom to rake in record profits while the American people suffer from their brutal greed and neglect.

Come on, good people. Let’s not be fooled by this scam. We have so much more in common than the hate we are asked to direct at each other.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

I am writing to let you know that it has been most refreshing to read about the Youth Missions Program. It is so nice to read good news about our youth and know that they are doing something so positive with their lives.

Please continue with your positive coverage on our local youth.

Becky Burcham
Greensboro

I recently attended the grand opening of the new event space, Studio B at The Broach, in downtown Greensboro. This new space is owned by local philanthropist and South Elm Street pioneer, Allen Broach, and will undoubtedly be a boon for our downtown. It was no surprise that Allen partnered with the nonprofit One Step Further for the grand opening, in which all proceeds benefited this deserving organization.

As a member of the nonprofit community, I’d like to thank Allen for his unyielding support and dedication to many causes that might otherwise go unnoticed. He has been instrumental in the success of many Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender projects and initiatives throughout his successful career as a philanthropist and entrepreneur. Greensboro is lucky to have someone who cares so much about this community in its midst. Allen’s success over the years, philanthropic or otherwise, is due in great part to his benevolent attitude and can-do spirit. Kudos to Allen and his new venture, Studio B!

Cecelia Thompson
Greensboro

The writer is the executive director, Guilford Green Foundation.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. McCain-Palin politics: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Crazy, isn’t it?

Brian K. Cockman
Greensboro

On Nov. 4, voters pick a new president. A fresh start, new directions. The voting citizens of Greensboro also need to implement a citizen-created 20-year master plan for Parks and Recreation.
In that plan, already some 10 to 11 years old, some very important items are overdue:

1. facility investment for Gateway Gardens, Barber Park and Gillespie Golf Course;

2. pools at Lindley, Peeler, Warnersville and Windsor, plus an upgrade at Grimsley;

3. park reinvestment at Smith Senior Center, plus various district neighborhood parks;

4. athletic field development with artificial turf at Hester Park;

5. a regional competitive aquatic center, which covers a vast variety of aquatic activities.

Greensboro is asking all voters of all ages and all parts of the city to turn out and support this overdue phase of the Master Plan. Cost: $20 million.

Paul Brown
Greensboro

Your editorial on the curb market (Sept. 6) displays a lack of understanding about why so many of its customers are upset by recent developments that have eliminated certain nonlocal products.

The family that sells Amish butter and cheese from Ohio, for example, has been doing so for seven years. In addition to these products, they sell locally grown produce and eggs.

Suddenly, they were told that the nonlocal products policy, which had been adopted several years ago without consumer input, was being enforced. Not surprisingly, their customer base was alarmed and more than 500 petitioned for items to be returned to the market.

Consequently, a policy change is being considered to permit consumers to have a say in what can be sold. This issue is about precedent and consumer sovereignty within the context of preserving the market’s vibrancy and “local” character.

Nobody on either side of the issue wants to see the curb market lose its local identity. In this instance, we are talking about products not readily available elsewhere that have established consumer demand. Surely, there is room to grandfather the sale of items such as Amish butter and cheese without compromising the market’s “local” brand.

Brent Kulman
Greensboro

McCain 1, Obama 0

The first important decision each of the presidential nominees had to make was picking a running mate. Barack Obama squandered a chance to clinch his election by picking Hillary Clinton as his vice president. He did not appear to have the courage to pick someone as strong as Clinton to work with him and campaign with him on a daily basis. So he made a conventional, safe pick in going with Biden, a longtime fixture in Washington.

On the other hand, John McCain showed real courage and confidence when he picked the dynamic and energetic Sarah Palin as his running mate. When each nominee came up to bat for the first time, Obama struck out. McCain hit the ball out of the park.

Regardless of how a voter aligns with the policies of the candidates, facts will not matter as much as emotions and perceptions.

I agree with the Democrats on almost every issue. But, unless Obama learns to connect with voters — unless he demonstrates the conviction and the energy that Palin and the Republicans have shown since the convention — he will lose the most important election in decades.

Jim McKenzie
Greensboro

Since John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee, all we’ve heard about is her lack of experience. Someone wrote: “It’s akin to tapping a talented medical student to become chief of surgery at a major hospital.”

Not quite. It’s more like choosing this student to be assistant chief of surgery. So what is better, choosing this same student to be assistant chief of surgery, or chief or surgery?

Considering Barack Obama’s lack of experience, it’s strange one of his supporters would use experience as a reason NOT to vote for McCain!

While we’ve seen negative attack ads from both sides of the campaign (and will certainly see more!) they are different in one respect: Most of the Republican ads talk about Barack Obama. Most of the Democratic ads attack Sarah Palin or George Bush.

I wonder why that is.

Fred Pearlman
Greensboro

We have heard from both the Republican and Democratic parties that Sarah Palin gave a great speech at the Republican National Convention.

Even Joe Biden said, “I think the governor delivered one heck of a political speech.”

I would like to submit to your readers that a necessary requirement for a great speech is that it does not contain a diatribe of lies. Here is just a sampling:

*Palin claimed she fought wasteful spending. However, as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually at taxpayers’ expense to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million.

*Palin claimed she said, “Thanks, but no thanks” to the “Bridge to Nowhere.” In fact, she was a strong supporter of it up until the moment it was ridiculed nationally for being wasteful.

*She claimed that Obama has not authored “a single major law or reform.” As a U.S. senator, he has worked with Republicans to pass national security as well as ethics reform legislation, not to mention the legislation he passed as a state senator.

I am tired of being lied to by our politicians, and applauding them for their lies I find especially repugnant.

David Deasy
Greensboro

As a 16-year-old watching this campaign season from the sidelines, I am growing continuously more concerned about the lack of fiscally responsible policies being advertised.

Both candidates for president are promising to lower taxes for the majority of the population, while ignoring the costs of the projects they are advocating. I have been taught that fiscal responsibility is an important part of becoming a mature adult. I am appalled that our elder statesmen have not been protecting the financial future of this great nation and appear to be making no real effort to change our fiscal policies for the better.

According to the Citizens Against Government Waste 2008 Congressional Pig Book, there has been $17.2 billion of pork-barrel spending in this country this year alone. In the month of February, the government ran a $175.6 billion deficit. Sadly, there isn’t enough pork to cut.

America has to make the leap and get its finances under control. If we don’t, I am worried for our future. Will it be as bright as it could be? I don’t appreciate that today’s politicians have decided to put their purchases on our tab and expect us to foot the bill.

Mark Sowinski
Greensboro

People, use your brains when you vote, please! The rhetoric coming out of the Republican Party lately is downright appalling. They’re giving speeches blaming liberals for the country’s problems when they’ve been running the show for the last eight years.

Newt Gingrich appeared on “The Daily Show” and claimed that Sarah Palin gave executive-level experience to John McCain’s ticket and, in the same interview, said Joe Biden did not bring similar experience to Barack Obama’s ticket.

The Republicans are even bringing out the old earmark chestnut that they tried in 2006. After chiding the Democrats for earmarks, they promptly abandoned the anti-earmark initiative after losing big in the 2006 elections. And, to top it off, the Republicans actually seem to believe that people will vote for a woman on their ticket regardless of that woman’s political stance. The worst part is, it seems to be working.

Voters, Republican politicians are distorting the truth and, in some cases, outright lying to you to get your votes.

I have little to no faith that the Republicans will behave any differently than they have for the last 60 years, and in general, that has been to blatantly favor the rich and big corporations.

John Bursey
Greensboro

One must question John McCain’s judgment for his selection of a running mate:

• He met Sarah Palin once six months ago and spoke with her once on the phone about the position before hiring her. This hardly qualifies him to say that he really knows her on a personal level or knows her political positions.

• Before she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere, it was part of her gubernatorial platform. The chef she supposedly fired was moved to a different position.

• She did not sell the governor’s jet on eBay. It was sold through an aviation broker for a financial loss.

• She hired a lobbying firm to bring pork-barrel projects back to her town to the tune of $27 million, roughly $4,000 per person.

• She made speeches in 2006 and 2008 before the Alaskan Independence Party. Her close relationship with this right-wing extremist group whose primary goal is to vote on secession from the United States does not bode well for her as an American. The Republican slogan is “Country First,” but for Sarah Palin, apparently Alaska is first.

Unfortunately, McCain and his campaign have selected another Dan Quayle.

Chris Malcolm
High Point

The Bible asks, “Who can find a faithful man (or woman)?”

I find faithfulness in Thomas Sowell supporting John McCain rather than Barack Obama even if their skin is dissimilar.

Republicans call John McCain a “maverick” while Democrats perceive the same quality as being “hotheaded.” It’s semantics. You can call someone you like “highly principled.” If you don’t like them, they’re “dogmatic.” Both sides need to stay civil and keep their words kind.

They may come back around.

I find irony in the charge of lack of experience in Sarah Palin and in Barack Obama, depending on whether you’re a Republican or Democrat.

I am proud that Sarah Palin gave birth to her Down syndrome baby and that her daughter won’t abort. Fifty million babies have been aborted since Roe v. Wade. That’s more lives lost than all the wars ever fought by this country.

God bless John McCain and Sarah Palin, and God bless America!

Carol M. Pulliam
Kernersville

It’s hard to know which is more frightening: that Sarah Palin’s interview with Charles Gibson reflected two week’s worth of preparation by the McCain campaign or that the McCain campaign believes that Alaska’s proximity to Russia affords foreign policy experience.

Sarah Palin’s successful handling of a career and family are laudable; her limited knowledge of international and domestic issues and her belief that a president or vice president cannot blink (or think?) are not. After eight years of obstinate “no blink, no think” policies, the country deserves more thoughtful and informed leadership.

Susan Calkins
Greensboro

In all of my years in politics, I have never seen such negative campaign ads. However, I do believe the Liddy Dole ad calling Kay Hagan a “fibber” takes the cake! It goes so far as to say “they” call her a fibber. Who are the “they” referred to in the ad? I have never heard Kay Hagan called that and I worked with her in the General Assembly for years. She was in the Senate and I was member of the House. We handled each other’s bills in our respective chambers and her word was her bond.

This ad is neither clever nor funny and, in my opinion, the ad writer overreached this time.

When one’s opponent resorts to name-calling, it becomes a personal attack rather than an issue-based ad. Moreover, this ad conveys desperation on behalf of the Dole campaign. When this ad comes on, I either change channels or turn off the TV. I hope you will do the same. I can assure you that no one in the Hagan campaign has asked me to write this letter.

Mary L. Jarrell
Colfax

At this point, I am sure we are all tired of the negative political ads and all the lies and corruption we have been living through. I can understand the sentiments expressed in the letter from Christopher Knight in your Sept. 18 paper. I have felt for a long time that we as a country have lost our way and that, as history shows us, without complete changes in our direction, we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.

I love my country and I believe we need to put the American people first in our government. We need to stop the greed, corruption and the quest for power and get on with continuing to make this country the very best it can be. We are so bound to the principles of “money and power” that we can’t get beyond that and return our government to the principles “of the people, by the people and for the people.” Our founding fathers fashioned a government that separated church and state and yet the “church” has become so powerful in running this country. Let’s return to our founding principles.

Unless there is major change, I believe Mr. Knight may be predicting our future.

Elaine Huddy
Jamestown

Although I won’t be voting for him, I believe that we as individuals and the nation as a whole owe a deep appreciation to Barack Obama for what he so masterfully has done for us. He eliminated the Clintons from the national political scene for the next four years. This was a monumental task getting rid of the most unethical and scandalous couple to ever appear in American politics.

Further, about politics, Liddy Dole has been missing in action for years. North Carolina hardly knows it has a senator except for her occasional mailings soliciting funds. She has done nothing for this state and should prepare to pack her bags and leave Washington. Sen. Richard Burr is next on the list of do-nothings — if he doesn’t change, he’ll go also.

On the national scene, Democrats are saying that Gov. Palin could never be president because she has no experience. Have they considered that Obama and Biden don’t even have one day’s executive experience between them while Gov. Palin has tons of experience at most levels? She has them running in circles.

Don’t worry; it will all work out well — especially without Hillary and Bill.

Al Myrick
Greensboro

I am amused lately at many of the letters to the editor concerning the upcoming presidential election, particularly the letters in which the writers are so blinded by their ideology that their chosen candidate is seemingly infallible.

Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Sarah Palin are being painted as God-like beings sent here to save America of all that ails her. If you honestly believe that any of the candidates is truly looking out for you and me, the average American working-class citizen, then your naivete knows no bounds.

As for myself, I will probably vote third party until one of the other two demonstrates real “change.” Color me jaded and cynical if you will. At this point, I have every right to be.

Josh Burnette
Greensboro

Our current financial/mortgage crisis is directly caused by the Democratic Party. The Community Reinvestment Act was broadly expanded under the Clinton administration to encourage more high-risk sub-prime loans.

In 2003, the Bush administration attempted to bring tighter oversight and control over Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the sub-prime market, which was promptly rejected by the Democrats as unnecessary.

“These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,’’ said Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. “The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.” Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., agreed. (The New York Times, Sept. 11, 2003)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has the audacity to state that the Democrats are not responsible for this financial breakdown. What will she do now? My guess is call for recess, go home and blame the Republicans again. After all, this is the usual Democratic Party strategy. Is this the change you want for America?

Ted Bachmann
Greensboro

Ah, the glories of market deregulation! Now the legacy is nearly complete: Dysfunctional airlines, a crashing mortgage industry, failing banks, stumbling insurance companies and rich guys getting richer while the rest of us bail them out.

And the champions of deregulation are coming home to discover that crow is on the menu. But instead of eating it, they say, well, they didn’t really mean it.

The “fundamentals of the economy” that John McCain says are strong, it turns out, are you and me. The rest of it is a mess. Of course, McCain has a solution: Continue cutting the taxes of those poor little rich guys.

So, when you vote in November, remember the name of one of the chief architects of this mess: John McCain.

Vote for the other guy.

Christopher N. Poulos
Greensboro

I am under 45 years old.

I love the outdoors.

I hunt.

I am a Republican reformer.

I have taken on the Republican Party establishment.

I have many children.

I have a spot on the national ticket as vice president with less than two years in the governor’s office.

Did you guess?

I am Teddy Roosevelt in 1900.

F.T. Greene
Greensboro

In the past few weeks, a lot of attention has been paid to Gov. Palin’s pregnant 17-year-old daughter. Unfortunately, situations like this happen all too often. What I find intriguing is that our educational systems spend millions of dollars providing up-to-date information to our children on English, history, technology, mathematics, etc., but they are prohibited by North Carolina policy from educating our children about human sexuality.

People want their children educated about the dangers of drinking, smoking and drugs. Yet, our schools must limit their educational efforts to an abstinence-only program. They can’t tell students the correct information to counteract the “sex education” that is being “taught” in the school bus, behind the bleachers, in the halls, etc. Abstinence programs may work for some students, and that’s great. However, a comprehensive program would provide accurate and thorough information for children. Unwanted pregnancies, STDs and other serious outcomes require a variety of educational approaches; no single approach will do.

Certainly all parents want the best for their children. Parents want their children to make wise decisions and choices. So let’s help them. Encourage and support education in the schools, homes and churches that provides complete information regarding human sexuality.

Dan Fisher
Greensboro

It is simply amazing that Americans, particularly Southerners, will not use their God-given minds when it comes to politics. Instead of learning for ourselves what is true, many of us want someone else to do our thinking for us. We believe every lie and exaggeration we hear on radio and television.

We hear all the praise for Sen. Dole and all that she has done for North Carolina, knowing that she has spent much of her time as a fundraiser for Republicans. She has done very little to benefit this state and has spent little time in the state since she was elected. Learn the truth. Vote with intelligence.

Sen. McCain is an extension of the Bush administration, which is not conservative but has borrowed money from all over the world to support an unnecessary war and tax cuts for the wealthy. Our children and grandchildren are already saddled with an outrageous debt, and we have lost the respect of most of the world.

Sen. Obama may not be the perfect candidate, but he is way ahead of his competition.

I only hope the future of our country is not destroyed by the bigots who will not vote for a black man.

Howard Carter
Reidsville

Voting for president is an easy choice. Forget that you’re a Republican or a Democrat for a minute and remember that, first and foremost, you’re an American.

Leave Sarah Palin out of the equation for just a minute and think only about John McCain. As of Sept. 1, polls indicate George Bush has a 28 percent approval rating. That means that 72 percent of us think the country is a mess and that Bush’s ideas for running it are bad.

The fact that McCain has supported Bush’s policies 90 percent of the time is enough to tell us that voting for him is a bad idea.

Now think about McCain’s intention to keep our country at war in Iraq for years and his desire to take away your right to choose what happens to your body. Think about his votes against increasing the minimum wage, against protecting the environment and against reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

Now, think about McCain’s judgment in choosing Sarah Palin to be second in command. A vote for McCain/Palin is no longer just a bad idea, it’s one that’s laughable, if not downright dangerous. As a thinking person, you must vote for Obama/Biden in November.

Carol G. Williams
Greensboro

The form of democracy in the United States is a republic. We elect people to represent us. Regardless of party affiliation, we must be responsible enough to let our elected officials know how we wish to be represented on issues and thank them when they support issues that are meaningful to us.

I have written to members of Congress for many years. In response, I usually receive a letter stating their opinion on my subject of concern. Imagine my surprise when I received a response from Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s office stating her support for an issue I never addressed and thanking me for writing to her about it!

As a North Carolina senator, Kay Hagan has never waited for her constituents to write her. For the past several years she has asked for e-mail addresses. If you gave it to her office, every Friday she sent a summary of everything on which the General Assembly worked that week. I appreciate a candidate who consistently makes an effort to stay in contact with those she represents. Elizabeth Dole is out of touch with North Carolinians … and that is no “fib.”

Lou Howard
High Point

How many millions of dollars were raised for Barack Obama recently, even though Texas communities were just wiped out? Priorities people!

Let’s dream: “Humble” politician gathers elite of society. Their goal: funds facilitating work, housing, counseling for the poor, unannounced to the press. They respectfully pledge allegiance to our flag in unity.

Issues are covered in a philanthropic manner by top business minds of our age. Millions of dollars are pledged, only with good will, and with no kickbacks given to communities that support them.

Volunteers assist with job training and home maintenance skills. Quietly it begins, with thousands of responsible people moving back into mainstream of society.

There are no more hungry, uncared-for children. Women are no longer battered, with a place to function with protection from the community.

All are caught within waves of compassion and common sense; the political community follows newfound protocols of behavior, earning public trust. Respect is now common and expected, not disdain, greed and fear.

The public finds humble politician’s leadership wrought change with trust and sacrifice, raising him to the appropriate office of our nation, with not one vote bought.

Rapture, joy. Rats, ’tis a dream, isn’t it?

Gin-Nie Tanner Smith
High Point

During the joyous celebration of the newly renovated and historic Aycock Auditorium, one of the stellar moments was the “collage concert” presented last Saturday night by the music department at the university. Kudos to everyone who planned and participated in this fabulous event! Presented in a seamless flow of offerings by undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty members, the evening was a total feast ranging from orchestral, operatic and jazz to instrumental and choral ensembles. The musical enjoyment of the audience was further enhanced by the excellent acoustics, comfortable seating and improved lighting.

Our city is certainly blessed to have such a treasure trove of talent in our midst. Indeed, Greensboro boasts talented folks at each of its outstanding schools, and we should all take advantage of the many concerts and other artistic events offered at each one!

Cindy Joseph
Greensboro

Last week we witnessed some remarkable events: the financial crisis and candidate McCain changing from a financial-sector deregulator to a regulator. What shouldn’t surprise anyone is that, once again, the government is stepping in with more welfare for the rich and corporations. What’s surprising is how quickly our Republican friends change economic positions. If ever there was an indication of how serious the financial crisis is, their colossal flip-flop is it.

What’s most disturbing is how the average taxpayer gets crushed in these transactions. How could the government have played out the crisis differently and still spend $1 trillion? It could wipe out all outstanding student loan debt; issue a $3,600 check for every American man, woman and child; or chop $15,000 off every homeowner’s mortgage. The first item would give this voter an extra $367 a month for 20 years to spend or invest.

The final insult is that the Republicans insist the middle class won’t be taxed if they are elected. Who do they think is going to pay for these bail-outs? Maybe when the oil drilled offshore is sold to the highest bidder, the oil companies will use some of their profits to help bail us out?

Michael Ciriello
Huntersville

This November the citizens of Greensboro will be asked to approve a $20 million bond for parks and recreation in our city. Greensboro has a long tradition of having excellent park facilities and high-quality recreation programs, and it is important we maintain that standard as we continue to grow.

In 1997, the citizens of Greensboro, along with the Parks and Recreation Commission and staff, conducted a 20-year master plan to provide a framework from which we can enhance our parks and recreation system. This plan was updated in 2005 and continues to guide our current and future recreation needs that were requested by our citizens.

The importance of this year’s bond cannot be overlooked. We have many needs within our city, and after careful consideration, this bond package was chosen to help deal with the most important of these needs. To insure continued prosperity in our community, excellent public recreation facilities must be maintained to attract new businesses and special events. Greensboro has a reputation as a great place to live and play. To sustain this mission, we must pass the Parks and Recreation bond on Nov. 4.

Rose Marie Ponton
Greensboro

The writer is chairwoman of the Greensboro Parks & Recreation Commission.

The McCain-Obama rivalry boils down to the common man versus elitism, according to the pundits. Palin backers claim (even as news reports reveal per-diem charges and federal subsidies conflicting severely with the public image of a woman who eschews the perks of public office) that the McCain-Palin ticket is all about the working schmo. Really?

Let’s focus on the would-be first family. According to Vanity Fair, Cindy McCain’s convention outfit prices out as follows:

Oscar de la Renta dress, $3,000;
Chanel J12 white ceramic watch, $4,500;
three-carat diamond earrings, $280,000;
four-strand pearl necklace, $11,000 to $25,000;
shoes, Taryn Rose, $475.
Total: $299,100 to $313,100.

Meanwhile, Cindy McCain, heiress to a fortune, presides over more family homes than her husband can even count.

Forget McCain’s sharp departure from his “maverick” image. Forget his reckless, feckless pick of a running mate. Forget his personal history of divorce and betrayals. If this is a race about the common man, then the common man might ask if he relates to the McCain family realities of wealth and privilege. My working family certainly cannot as we shop clearance sales, pick through thrift store finds and hold our breath that another bank doesn’t fail.

Cynthia Adams
Greensboro

What would happen if there was a tie between Obama and McCain in the Electoral College? Several models show that this could, in fact, happen. The 12th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says that if there is no majority, it is turned over to the House of Representatives to choose the president. Each state delegation is allotted one vote.

What makes the 12th Amendment so interesting is that the Senate selects the vice president. Would it not be ironic if we had an Obama-Palin administration or a McCain-Biden one? This, of course, is a far-fetched scenario, but that’s why American politics is so fascinating.

It behooves us all to read up on the Constitution.

Jane Thomas
Greensboro

Responding to the letter from Dena Barnes (Sept. 14) regarding Sarah Palin’s qualifications to become president of the United States: Where Barnes sees “fresh air,” I see a candidate who has had virtually no appropriate experience and about whom very little is known. Where Barnes sees a “strong-willed woman,” I see a woman who tends to surround herself with old friends and to destroy everybody who disagrees with her. These tendencies in the incumbent have led to the most incompetent government in our history, and I certainly don’t want to see that repeated.

On the front page of the Sept. 14 New York Times we read, “Throughout her career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.”

Her selection by Sen. McCain certainly causes me to question his judgment and indeed his mantra of “country first.” Surely even he cannot seriously believe this woman is qualified to become president of this great country. The possibility that a majority of the voting public could believe such a myth is incredibly alarming.

Richard G. Cox
Greensboro

Sarah Palin says that she is against big government and that more of the work in this country needs to be accomplished by nongovernmental entities. I think she is right. We need nongovernmental leaders within each of our communities to rise and help take ownership of our problems and help us to brainstorm and implement practical and effective solutions. We need these people to be community organizers and lead the way.

Wait a minute — community organizers? Could it be that Palin is saying that we need less big government and more community organizers? How could that be when she believes community organizers are inferior to elected officials, who are the only ones with “actual responsibilities”?

I am confused. No, wait — maybe Palin is. I’d better go check with someone who actually has been a community organizer, leading grass-roots efforts to address the needs of a large and diverse population before taking his experiences to Washington as an elected official. And while I’m at it, I think I’ll vote for him, too.

Melissa Burris
Greensboro

I am nearly 90 years old and am grateful that I have lived through the best century ever, in this wonderful land of opportunity. In spite of wars and depressions, it’s been a rewarding life for many of my generation.

Our children and grandchildren may have even more blessings and opportunities, but there are two problems that threaten our civilization: global warming and overpopulation. These require immediate and serious action.

The Republicans’ chant of “Drill, baby, drill” and their leadership’s opposition to sex education convince me that the GOP is not the party that will give us the changes we most need.

Marianna Edgerton
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint.

By Mark Jewell

In a recent editorial (“Top pay, top teachers?” Sept. 9), the News & Record expressed the opinion that it was time for public education leaders to tie teacher salaries to student success and that salary increases should be greater in a teacher’s early years and smaller as the teacher gains experience. Aside from the point that the writer ignores the critical question of how we should define student success, there are several flawed arguments that cannot go unanswered.

First of all, the editorial cites the work of Duke economist Jacob Vigdor, who advocates dropping salary increases based on the acquisition of advanced degrees and using that money to increase the salaries of beginning teachers. While all of us in the education profession agree that more attractive salaries are needed for people just starting out in the field, we also know that if we are to retain the best teachers, we have to make salaries attractive for more experienced staff. One way both aims could be met is by reducing the number of years it takes teachers in North Carolina to reach maximum salary from 30 to between 12 and 15, as is the case in the rest of the country.

Second, the analogy that the editorial draws between education and professional sports is completely inappropriate. Professional athletes, with rare exception, have completed their careers by their mid-30s. Their earnings lives are severely limited and there are certainly no 30-year point guards or shortstops.

Finally, Vigdor’s assertion that teachers should be paid more in their early years because they grow more rapidly in those years than in later years is particularly baffling. Teaching is an art, an acquired skill. Like all skilled professions, the learning curve for teachers is steeper in the early stages of experience and is followed by a gradual flattening of the curve. Reducing the worth of incremental salary steps as a teacher gains experience amounts to a disincentive to remain in education and devalues that teacher’s knowledge, skills and abilities.

The single-salary schedule is the fairest, best understood, and most widely used approach to teacher compensation recognizing the inherent value of experience and professional development.

The next governor and legislative session should take a bold approach by increasing salaries generally and reducing the number of steps needed to reach the top of the schedule.

The writer is president of the Guilford County Association of Educators.

I’m a registered independent and now I know why. What the media are doing to Sarah Palin is ridiculous.

I’m a town councilwoman, working mother and business owner. I ran for office to make a difference as Sarah Palin did.

I’ve supported John McCain for years because he’s a maverick. Imagine my joy at his brilliant choice of Palin. Finally, a candidate I can relate to. She’s a wife, mother and business woman. She’s facing the issues of the average family. She has a son in Iraq, a pregnant teenage daughter and a disabled child. She’s normal. She’s the perfect candidate and a brave woman.

Barack Obama is inexperienced. He’s offended me because of his denial of his full heritage. He’s 50 percent African American and 50 percent Caucasian. I’ve yet to hear him embrace his Caucasian background. I feel that he’s ashamed of his entire heritage, and, as a Caucasian (not a racist), I am deeply offended. He isn’t embracing everyone. I cannot relate to him and the attacks on Sarah Palin confirm that I made the correct choice in becoming an independent. I want no part of the partisan travesty that has made Sarah Palin its victim.

Lisa M. Shumake-Wright
Mayodan

In August I returned to Greensboro from seven months in Mexico. While there, I was surprised to find my workers had enrolled in a popular new insurance program provided by the Mexican government that guarantees health care services. The program is based on the idea that Mexican families have a right to health care and related financial protection. The program is being phased in from 2002 to 2010, starting with Mexico’s poorest citizens, and currently serves more than 5 million people.

The benefits include preventative services, free medication, hospitalization and a fund to cover catastrophic illnesses. This is being provided at a cost of around 7 percent of Mexico’s GDP. I obviously wondered why we in the United States cannot do something similar, or maybe even better. Anyone wanting information about this program can find it (in English) at

http://www.ciss.org.mx/assembly/pdf/en/2006/plenary/juan_a_fernandez_en.pdf

Joseph B. Mountjoy
Greensboro

I have always thought of Barbara Walters as a very classy lady. But after her recent interview with John McCain on “The View,” I think of her now more in terms of a snapping turtle.

I do not watch “The View,” but I saw a piece about the interview on Fox News. I have not seen Walters conduct herself in that manner before.

Violet Kirkman
Randleman

The Republican Party wants you to believe that Barack Obama is an “elitist” while it is John McCain who owns seven houses worth more than $13 million. John McCain twice recently stated the foundations of the American economy were strong and thinks that people who make less that $5 million per year are in the middle class. His economic advisor called Americans “whiners” for complaining about wage stagnation and inflation.

On “Meet The Press,” he was quoted as saying, “I don’t know much about the economy.” McCain has voted with Bush to keep the United States on the same economic path. He is slightly out of touch. Contrary to Republican spin, McCain is not “just like us”; he married into money and power.

The choice is simple, another “C” student, right-wing hawk shillin’ for the super rich, John McCain (Google McCain/lobbyists) or real change with a Harvard honors alumnus that actually has experience helping people in the face of economic hardship, Barack Obama.

Michael Northuis
Greensboro

I can’t remember the first time I heard the word “illegitimate.” My teacher asked me about my father. I told her I didn’t have one.

She responded by saying, “You are illegitimate.”

It was a big word, but it sounded important — and made me feel important until I found out what it meant. Back then, in the 1940s, when a girl got pregnant, it was assumed the couple would marry. No questions asked.

My mother was 15 and my father was 18. Unlike today, unwed mothers were ostracized. There were no baby showers, or words of congratulations. You were damaged goods. Marriage could wipe the slate clean and make you respectable.

Thank God for my grandmother. She refused to give consent for her daughter to marry. Two young people made a mistake, but she wouldn’t compound one with another.

Today, I am blessed to have a wonderful relationship with my 86-year-old father. I also pray for Sarah Palin’s daughter, Bristol. I hope she realizes that love is blind, but marriage is an eye-opener. Children deserve parents who love each other; not parents whose families feel marriage is the correct political thing to do.

Shirley J. Wright
Greensboro

I recently moved to Greensboro and was thrilled to find the BarkPark located within Country Park. I have taken my two dogs there on a regular basis since my relocation here six weeks ago.

However, on Sept. 17, my terrier mix was viciously attacked by a pit bull at the BarkPark. My dog was held in the pit bull’s painful bite for more than a minute before four BarkPark patrons and I were able to pry the dog’s mouth open.

This incident is not easily forgotten and, while my dog is recovering well enough, I fear that the next time a dog attacks at the BarkPark the results will be far more unfortunate. The BarkPark currently has a list of rules and regulations that are more often ignored than they are followed. Young children are often present in the BarkPark even though they are forbidden to be there.

I think it’s time for the city to take a look at its operations at the BarkPark and look to ban all known aggressive breeds from the park.

I urge the citizens of Greensboro to use caution when near aggressive breeds and protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Here’s hoping.

Leah Tompkins
Greensboro

In the last few weeks, we have heard outrage about Sarah Palin’s so-called “lack of experience” and that she is not qualified to be a vice presidential candidate.

Barrack Obama is thought by many to be unqualified to be president as well, since he has very little experience. Voters seem to have moved past Obama’s lack of qualifications, but as yet, not Palin.

There is an answer why the founders of this great country established the following qualifications for the job: (1) The candidate must be a native-born U.S. citizen, (2) be at least 35 years old, and (3) have lived in the United States for at least 14 years.

The answer is that no one can come up with an infallible predictor of success for a job that is mainly about character (moral fiber). There is no single 35-year-plus life experience that is best. The founders understood that it was just fine if you were a soldier, a mom, a community organizer or a career politician.

I would like to hear a probing interview of Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin that gets to moral fiber issue.

Walt Brittle
Chapel Hill

We have all been listening to plans for a long time, and after a while one is tempted to believe that the presidential candidates’ grand plans for the future can simply be handed down straight from the presidency of the United States.

Yet, this election season I find myself working for the United States Senate campaign of Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan. What drew me to the campaign is the importance of legislators who understand what our country needs.

While the most of us have been feeling the pinch, Elizabeth Dole has consistently voted for oil subsidies and against market control of speculators to reduce the price of oil.

While Kay Hagan has supported raising the minimum wage in-state, Dole has voted against raising the minimum wage three times (while accepting a pay raise for herself).

Kay Hagan has been ranked as one of the top 10 most effective state senators, whereas Dole is ranked 93rd in effectiveness out of all U.S. senators.

Come Election Day, the right choice is not just the right choice for president, but the decision to send effective and intelligent legislators like Kay Hagan to Washington.

Nathan M. Aspenson
Greensboro

The Republicans have been complaining that no male candidate would ever be asked the kinds of questions Sarah Palin has been asked about her children, her marriage, her mothering, etc. On the other hand, no male candidate would ever be given three weeks relief from the media and interviews where he/she might not yet have studied or been told the answers.

If you want to complain, complain equally, on both sides. Also, get to the point of her “exaggerations,” called lies in most people’s language. She has told some whoppers and more recently been caught at them.

Now McCain is doing the same thing: accusing Obama of wanting to teach sex education in kindergarten? Where does he get it? Such absolute nonsense and non-truths from both of them. Who could ever trust anything that came from their mouths?

I just heard on the radio that McCain would like to go to war with both Russia and Iran! More insanity. We don’t have enough troops to go to war full out with Afghanistan. Where will he get the other thousands that he needs to do this preposterous thing?

What a mockery of American thought and morality these Republicans are making. The real problem is, so many people believe them.

Gay Cheney
Browns Summit

I would like to make a modest suggestion to those running for federal offices: Get over the need to make promises to lavish money and new programs on us for the next four years. Instead, stand up before your fellow citizens and pledge that you will spend every waking moment of your term in office fixing all of the messes that have been created in our name.

We know things are broken, severely broken, and we are desperate for someone to fix the brokenness. Please, will you make that pledge?

Oh, and one more thing. While you’re making that pledge, how about also accepting the fact that the people in other political parties are fellow Americans.

There won’t be any fixing things if you don’t work with them. And if you can’t take the pledge, how about not running for office? We just don’t need the old system anymore. It is ruining this country.

Roger Rollman
Greensboro

For years these companies and their corporate masters have whined for free trade and no common-sense regulations. Yet, when the fruits of their greed come due, they are crybabies and want us, the people, to bail them out.

Why is it just dandy for them to get socialized bailouts at our expense when they do not want to pay their fair share in taxes?

Why is it OK for them to have free enterprise but we the people have to bail them out time and again? Remember the savings and loan bailout? Lots of the same people were involved.

I say no bail out for the selfish and greedy; let them sink. Help the American taxpayers keep their homes ,not the corporate executives keep their mansions, planes and yachts.

If it means another depression so be it. My household has done without the same handouts that the corporations get. We use what we have as wisely as we can. We saw this coming from as far back as Ronald Reagan. Why couldn’t the big money folks see it? We have learned to do without. Why can’t they?

Robert W. Peer Jr.
Yanceyville

In his zeal to win the presidential election, Sen. McCain has stepped up his efforts to frighten and confuse the American people about Sen. Obama by spreading distortions and lies.

We have a sitting president who has not been honest with the American people. Now we have Sen. McCain doing the same thing. Sen. McCain needs a self-check to adjust his moral compass. The American people deserve a president who is truthful. If Sen. McCain feels it is perfectly acceptable to spend millions of dollars on false advertising to win this election, how can we trust his honesty and good judgment if he is elected president?

Sen. McCain’s lackluster style is not inspiring the American people. Gov. Palin is a beautiful and talented woman who gave his campaign the spark it was missing. But did Sen. McCain exercise good judgment when he picked her? Is she the most qualified person to be vice president? I think the American people should take a hard look at Sen. McCain before voting for him.

If Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are elected, I believe we run the risk of having the next four years look far worse than the last eight.

Barbara Sterger
Greensboro

Christopher Knight of Reidsville made some good points in his letter (Sept. 16) concerning the impending death of America. His reasons are valid. It’s easy to see how any of us could reach the place he has. However, we as a nation must reclaim the “wisdom and virtue” that made us great, not just give up.

That apathetic attitude is one reason we have the jingoistic policies of Bush and Cheney. The illegal aliens. The crumbling infrastructure. The corrupt politicians.

As Hamlet said, “... the law’s delay, the insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes ...”

A good example: peace in the Middle East. This is a fool’s errand. That will never happen in our lifetime. I believe this to be indisputable. There will not be any peace there until the Prince of Peace returns.

And to paraphrase Knight, it is a shame our choice of president has come down to McCain and Obama. In an ideal world, we could vote for John Galt.

Stephen Botts
Greensboro

I look at many news channels and they tell me that more than 60 percent of evangelicals support John McCain. During our last election, how many evangelicals supported George Bush?

You must be so proud that you supported a president:
• who has seen gas prices increase to between $3 and $4;
• who has seen so many Americans lose their homes;
• who has allowed wounded soldiers to be hospitalized in unsanitary sick rooms;
• who has seen a higher than average number of veterans commit suicide or become addicted to alcohol or drugs;
• who did such a super job cleaning up and supporting the American citizens of New Orleans.

You must be so proud.

You made me feel that the media ran scared and did not really check to see if the United States had enough proof to go to war.

You believe in God so much that it’s acceptable to let the president get away with torture. (Think about who was tortured for our salvation.)

If you support McCain like you did Bush, then people like me will wonder how you can be so proud.

Margaret Blackstock
Eden

Who is pulling wool over whose eyes? In a recent flier, the Liddy Dole campaign accuses Kay Hagan of being in the pocket of the oil companies by virtue of owning some petroleum stock.

Is it because Sen. Dole owns fewer oil and petroleum stocks? Or is she trying to hide the fact that she has been supported with nearly $300,000 from the oil and gas industry over her career?

Which way of receiving support and funds is more aboveboard? Investing in companies or receiving contributions to support political campaigns?

Alex Epanchin
Greensboro

The word utopia comes from ancient Greek words meaning nowhere. The Greeks knew there is no perfect world.

Still, Republicans have a bridge to nowhere for you. We can re-create that most American of utopias, the 1950s. America will rule the world. Right will be right and wrong will be wrong. And, like Lake Wobegone, all our women will be strong, all our men will be good-looking, and all our children will be above average.

All we have to do is cut taxes for the rich. All we have to do is rattle our sabres when another nation gets uppity.

All we have to do is drill, baby, drill. All we have to do is believe a man who has been in Washington for 26 years will really change anything.

Our infrastructure is crumbling, our schools are second rate, our health care system is a mess, our jobs barely support us, and our government is broke.

America needs forward-looking leadership to tackle the challenges of the 21st century. Tell John McCain and Sarah Palin thanks, but no thanks to that bridge to nowhere.

Vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden for America’s future.

Mikel Taylor
Greensboro

After seeing Kay Hagan’s ads, I am convinced that Elizabeth Dole is the most powerful senator ever. Wow! Look at all she accomplished all by herself. What’s more remarkable is that she did all this in a Senate controlled by Democrats for the last two years, that included Barack Obama.

We need Dole, if for no other reason than to help counterbalance ultraliberal tax-and-spend Democrats.

M.M. Way
Graham

I have long listened to calls to “get the government off our backs,” to “deregulate,” and to statements that “government is the problem, not the solution.” I heard more than a bit of this from a national political convention just weeks ago.

After years of policy informed by such economic romanticizing, on Sept. 18 Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke briefed congressional leadership that the entire American financial system would soon collapse unless immediate and drastic federal action was taken. And, according to Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, that action may cost us $1 trillion.

Well, I have been wondering for years when something would “trickle down” to me, and now I have the answer.

Please, let’s pause a moment. Have we now finally entertained our antigovernment fetish for long enough? May the adults re-enter the room to clean up the mess made by the privateers entrusted with handling our money? How bitterly ironic that our much-maligned government (like the cavalry of old) must ride to the rescue and avert disaster by using our common resources to right the economy. I sure hope we haven’t shrunk it to the point that it’s not up to the task.

Alan Ferguson
Liberty

I am writing to support the re-election of Darlene Garrett to the Guilford County school board.

Her main focus is on the educational needs of students, which drives her decisions. She has sometimes served as a lone voice of reason, respectfully challenging the administration and other board members when their motives are not always based on what would be best for students.

However, she also works hard to reach out to other board members to build consensus. Her decisions are fiscally responsible while striving to improve academics.

My experience with Garrett involves the status of the Advanced Learner (AL) program. Even though I do not reside in her district, she has been accessible to my husband and me, listening to our concerns when these services have been put at risk. She has helped us and other AL parents have a voice, and advocated for the academic rigor of the AL program when few other administrators and board members have.

Darlene Garrett wants each child in GCS to reach his or her full potential no matter where that child may fall on the academic spectrum, and works diligently for our schools to provide that opportunity.

Ruth Spaulding
Greensboro

The Ideas section (News & Record, Sept. 21) containing opinion pieces by Charles Davenport Jr. and David Coats is hilarious. Davenport makes good, sound, reasonable comments about the Republican ticket. He points out the obvious folly of the Democrats’ disingenuous populism.

Coats makes snide, defamatory remarks about the Republican ticket. Could it be he has nothing positive to say about the Democrats’ ticket?

First, Sarah Palin is the vice-presidential candidate. It shows a lack of substance when he defames the bottom of the Republican ticket instead of listing positives on his own ticket. Could it be the top of the Democratic Party ticket has nothing to brag about other than great oratory?

He has the chutzpah to compare Palin to an American Idol? He also writes, “She is no Hillary Clinton.” Isn’t that the point? Most Americans don’t approve of infanticide, approve of hunting and the right to self-protection. And surprise: Most believe in God. Only a “progressive” in an insulated, academically incestuous, elite university could believe such things are positive.
George Bush is not on the ballot. Most conservatives intensely dislike Bush, but unlike Coats, we don’t suffer from BDS: Bush derangement syndrome. As usual, the hatred on the left is palpable.

Larry Emory
Greensboro

George W. Bush and his minions deregulated trading practices on Wall Street. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan proclaimed the resulting paroxysm of Sept. 15, 2008, the largest financial crisis of the century.

Why the deregulation? Purportedly to allow the force of the free-market capitalism to catapult our country’s financial sector to new heights of global greatness. And through NINJA (no income, no job, no assets/loans, backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and others), bestow the American dream of home-ownership on the economically disadvantaged.
Splendid! A win for the super-rich; a win for the poor. But a loss for the middle-income taxpayer.

Unless America moves to a non-debt-based source of currency — thereby bypassing the Federal Reserve — taxpayers must labor, nearly in perpetuity, under $5.4 trillion of new national debt to support aid to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, not to mention the bailout of insurance firms. Today’s retirees are suffering erosion of income from IRA portfolios, 401(k)s, pensions, etc.

Alan J. Greco
Greensboro

There are many reasons why Bev Perdue is the right choice as the next governor of North Carolina. One of the most important reasons is her experience in the field of education.

The education of our youth reflects in many areas of our state — from new business development to becoming a responsible citizen.

As a former public school teacher, Bev knows and understands the importance of students completing their education. She also has an innovative plan to reduce the dropout rate along with expanding early childhood programs.

I am in the public school system on a weekly basis and am familiar with the impact of a solid education. The impact of education on our state, counties and cities is immeasurable, making the choice of a former educator even more essential.

Please join me in voting for Bev Perdue.

Cyndy Hayworth
Greensboro

I’m an oil addict. I don’t care if Exxon makes record profits while Americans lose jobs. I don’t care if the rich get richer when kids and moms go without health care. Nothing is sacred to me. Values? I value oil. You wonder if I’m liberal or conservative? I’m for anything and anyone that keeps America just the way it is because when I don’t get my daily dose, I turn ugly.

Some say my addiction distorts the economy, spreads corruption, destroys the environment and stifles alternative energy development. I say, where’s the problem?

Yeah, I feel bad — vaguely — that my money goes to oppressive petro states. In the mirror I scare myself, I’m so messed up. But if we’re in Iraq a hundred years, I don’t care if another 20,000 Americans are killed or maimed. Listen, I’m an addict, not your friend, and that’s the hard truth. The rush I feel when my gas tank’s full? That’s freedom, baby.

I was afraid that Obama or McCain might change things. Now that the governor of our own American petro state awash with federal dollars, earmarks and scandal is on the ticket, I know who I’m voting for. Drill, baby, drill!

Andrew J. Young
Greensboro

Listening to the news of the financial debacle I’m facing as a taxpayer, I’m amazed to hear all the conservatives calling for government intervention to bail out a number of financial institutions and failing industries. These are the same people who always throw their hands in the air when government wants to impose regulations. These are the same people who will be balking at the new taxes we will have to pay to fulfill all the obligations we are getting into with the new policies.

I’m amazed that when we are talking about building more schools, improving teachers’ salaries, providing universal health care, we cannot find the money, which somehow miraculously appears when it’s needed for a war or for saving the financial world.

Does anybody remember the savings and loan debacle brought by the Reagan voodoo trickle-down economics of deregulation? We all paid for it. I take that back. Most probably you and I paid for it. The people who got us into that mess made their money and were running our government for the past eight years!

Lucia De Ratmiroff
Greensboro

The last couple of days of Democratic jockeying for position over the Paulson proposal is only the latest example of what makes the public so disgusted with Washington. The domestic financial system (and, therefore, the world’s financial system) is about to freeze up with the potential of economic collapse and our nation’s Democratic leaders are ticky-tackying for theoretical political advantage. (The Republicans are not much better.)

And while Congress is as much to blame as any other institution for the mortgage mess, they see the Paulson plan as just another “starting point” to load up with irrelevant items. Anyway, there do not seem to be any current congressional candidates for an updated version of John Kennedy’s “Profiles in Courage.”

Ken Miller
Greensboro

I find it funny that Barack Obama has been running for president for more than a year, yet after all the interviews and books concerning him, we still hear the so-called undecided voters stating, “We just don’t know him.”

Now, Sarah Palin throws her hat in the ring and she is instantly considered “one of us.”

Please, folks, let me know what the heck this says about those who are undecided.

Sam Nowlin
Greensboro

Amid all the financial carnage, let’s consider this as we look at the presidential candidates, especially those of us who are independents and ticket-splitters. Warren Buffett, The World’s Greatest Investor, supports Barack Obama’s candidacy and in general the Democratic Party’s platform. Buffett methodically looks for value and growth in the same package. He’s in it for the long term. He believes in America. He puts his money where his mouth is and usually makes money by doing so. We all wish that we had bought Berkshire Hathaway 20 or 30 years ago.

So should we listen to the thoughtful advice of Warren Buffett, or the snide comments of a Fox News pundit and the rants of a talk radio commentator? Come on, people, let’s use our heads. Vote for Obama-Biden and the rest of the Democratic ticket this year.

Paul Levy
High Point

I’ve known Don Vaughan for more than 10 years, and there are so many good things to say about him. He’s brilliant, hard-working and fully prepared to be our state senator.

But as a mother of two daughters, one of whom is a second-grader in Guilford County Schools, I’m most excited about Don’s commitment to fighting for the funding we need for our schools. This means recruiting the best professionals and retaining high-performing teachers. It also means focusing on reducing the drop-out rate, improving classroom discipline and making sure all students — from the most at risk to the most accelerated — can get an excellent education so that they can go on to good jobs.

The investment has to happen now for our kids. Don knows this, and he knows the system, and he’ll fight for our share in Raleigh.

Quinn Dalton
Greensboro

Last week I had the pleasure of kicking off the 2008 United Way campaign with a wonderful celebration hosted by our friends at High Point University. We have announced an ambitious, yet attainable, campaign goal of $4,660,000. Our 31 Pacesetter companies have already enthusiastically responded to our campaign by raising $1,743,265 toward this goal — a 9 percent increase over what those same accounts raised in 2008.

This is an encouraging start, but to achieve this year’s goal, we need everyone’s help. If you haven’t already, please commit to your 2008 donation so that United Way’s 29 partner agencies are able to continue to provide life-changing and life-saving benefits to so many in our community.

On behalf of the United Way of Greater High Point, and particularly those served by its 29 partner agencies, I extend our heartfelt thanks to all the generous citizens who support our United Way with their donations and volunteerism. Underneath everything we are, underneath everything we do, we are all connected, interdependent, United. And when we reach out a hand to one, we can influence the condition of all. That’s what it means to Live United.

Coy Williard
High Point

The writer is 2008 campaign chairman.

Apparently, those McCain-Palin yard signs have great value.

For the fourth time, I will go get one to replace the third one to be removed from my yard.

Are the pawn shops buying them, or is it a sign printer’s conspiracy?

Frank Freeman
Greensboro

Many readers will remember the classic comedy film, “Blazing Saddles.” It is a story of a black sheriff of the early West who is hired to clean up the town. When he arrives, a mob prepares to lynch him. Thinking quickly, the sheriff pulls out his gun, points it at his own head and shouts, “Stand back or I’ll shoot him.”

The sheriff’s behavior is similar to that of Sen. McCain, who aims his criticism at the Republican Party and pretends he’s not a Republican. But make no mistake. McCain and Palin are dyed-in-the-wool Republicans. By voting Republican, you are voting for four more years of what many historians believe will go down in history as the worst leadership in American history. It is time for change, and most Republicans know it.

William Watson Purkey
Greensboro

As a new resident in Greensboro, I have been attending high school football games. The games are fun and exciting, but the attendance of students seems quite low, even for schools with very large enrollments. Perhaps the $5 admission is keeping the kids away.

I believe that every student has a right to see his school’s team play without having to pay anything for admission except possibly a very small token price. After all, the games are played for the students. Surely there could be a better funding model for school sports, which would allow all students to afford to see their teams compete.

I would like to see a county commission organized to see how the operation of school athletics could be better organized to make them more fairly funded and more easily available to the students they are designed to serve.

Joseph Bickford
Greensboro