News-Record.com

We are warned of scams, schemes to get your money. I have yet to read of sweepstakes scams.

My wife is on some master list. She has received almost daily letters with an enlarged $6525 saying, “Congratulations, you have been given a number making you eligible to win $6525, in a lump sum or monthly. Just send us your check to (charitable fund) and you may win $6525.”

They say you don’t need to make the donation to win, but you think it helps. They don’t say you have only one in 6,000 chances to win. You think you have been “selected” to win.

Now the letter has changed. The large figure is $3,225,750, “pledged,” and your new number guarantees your eligibility to win.

“Buy a home, new car and take those trips you have dreamed of.” No charity; just send $25 administrative cost. They don’t tell you your odds are one in 3 million to win.

There must be thousands of folks, especially old ones, who think they have already won, not just that they are “eligible.”

The law should require such letters to give the arithmetical odds against your winning.

Dick Douglas
Greensboro

My thoughts regarding the recent election were confirmed when the son of a prominent local minister told me, “Why can I not have both?” when I remarked that the Christians of America can pursue Christ or pursue power, but they cannot pursue them together.

Who is to blame most for the election of Barack Obama? The self-professed “conservative Christians.” The ones who have for many years made an idol of political influence. Instead of the God of heaven, they have turned to worshiping a “god of fortresses” bereft of sincere love, mercy and grace.

These are the people who most claim that they are doing “the work of the Lord.” But in reality they show the lost of this world anything but why Christ came to us. Their lust for power does not demonstrate anything different than what the people of this world have seen already.

My fellow Christians: You are worried about the outcome of a mere election? Then you are not worried about what truly matters at all. Stop sheepishly following the hucksters like James Dobson and Pat Robertson. God cannot bless our lust for political power. It is time to let it fall away and die.

Christopher Knight
Reidsville

I find it sad indeed that the people of Greensboro are not asking for the resignations of those members of the Parks and Recreation Commission who scammed residents out of $12 million. The third time was not the charm, but a well-orchestrated smoke-and-mirrors campaign to repackage the swim center and bury it in the greater park plan. By their own admission, they were proud of how they disguised the real purpose of the bond and duped the voters. Voters like parks, but a swim center isn’t a park.

And shame on city executives for saddling us with another load of debt, all for the benefit of a few. The voters turned it down twice. What part of no don’t you understand?

Steve Parker
Greensboro

The George W. Bush administration developed big lies to justify their murderous attacks on Iraq. They continue to shamelessly promulgate these lies. They must be brought to account for their fraud, deliberate deception of Congress and the American people, the use of torture and extraordinary rendition to acquire information of dubious value from prisoners of dubious guilt.

One nation’s pre-emptive destruction of the infrastructure and population of another sovereign nation without provocation is an international crime. The United States participated in the Nuremberg Trials to prosecute Nazis for these same crimes.

It is time for Congress to finally rise to its constitutional obligations and bring to trial every elected and appointed official involved, along with support staff.

Jack Stone
McLeansville

The Grinch stole my Christmas while my husband shopped the day after Thanksgiving, in Hamricks in Greensboro.

Remember him, Grinch? Silver-haired, hearing aids, a smile on his face? After paying, he turned around; gifts gone from the cart?

Had you approached him with, “I can’t buy for my family, please help me,” he would have taken you shopping, asked how else he could assist your family, accompanied by a warm hug.

Forty years married found us, at times, unemployed, hungry, not much Christmas for our family. Our two sons’ first Christmas gifts, $1 toy, each. We understand want and need. We didn’t go to Mount Grinchdom, just without, or found the generosity of church or family.

While the sleigh of joy has gone by you in a flurry of despair, it isn’t too late. Let me give you the most valuable gift. Christmas began in the heart of God; ask for forgiveness, you have mine. I pray my gifts went to someone who deserves them. I ask God’s blessing toward your true needs and peace — and a new moral compass. It’s ultimately your choice.

Play my blessings to you forward. May next year find you giving, not taking.

Gin-Nie Tanner Smith
High Point

Though the Stokesdale David L. Stump and I seem to be politically miles apart, I believe we can agree on this: A phone call from Becky Layton was a bright spot in any day.

Mrs. Layton, I wish you well on the occasion of your retirement. Journalism in the Triad is diminished because of it.

David L. Stump
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Sharon Nystrom

You coward, you evil skunk, you worthless piece of humanity. Yes, you who laid in wait to shoot a hardworking man in a store crowded with holiday shoppers. For a few pieces of silver.

For what? Your next high? There are places to help you with your problem.

Because you do not work? There are plenty of jobs open if you need sustenance, and places where you can get help with a mortgage, food for your table, clothes for your worthless back or a bed with clean sheets provided by the people you choose to threaten.

Toys for your kids at Christmas? Even that can be supplied by the good folk of Greensboro.

What do you think you can buy with the blood-tainted money you stole from a defenseless man, who had a family that now and forever will be without him?

You exist in a very giving community, and you could have gotten any kind of help you needed, but all you really gained was a weight that will grow heavier with every breath you take. You took a life for coins. I might compare you with another who did the same. Remember Judas?

What you did was cruel, senseless and produced panic in the good people who were out shopping for their families at Christmas. You are a dark shadow who invades our collective souls. May your hands burn every time you touch that money. You will never sleep well again.

You deserve no help or holidays.

It is my fervent hope that you are quickly apprehended and dealt with summarily. There is no pardon for what you did. We will go on, as all good American people do, but you will forever be known for your despicable act. It will show on your face, invade your every thought and give you nothing but sleepless nights.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Sandy Wall

I would like to respond to the Dec. 14 letter about the number of Guilford County children (48 percent) who “qualify for” free or reduced-cost school meals, as well as the Dec. 20 Counterpoint.

First, while that large percentage is rather alarming, it should be noted that probably not all who “qualify” for reduced-cost meals apply. That said, I agree with the gist of the letter-writer’s message: If you have children, it is your responsibility, not the government’s, to feed them. It’s not very costly to create nutritious breakfasts and lunches at home for school-aged children, nor is it terribly expensive to pay for meals from the school cafeteria.

The home of any parent who applies for free or reduced-cost meals for his or her child should be visited by a social worker to determine need. But the county does not have resources to do this. If these families claim to be financially unable to feed their children a decent breakfast and/or lunch, then what other basic needs are going unmet?

What are these parents spending their time and money on? Are the refrigerator and pantry stocked with the basics needed for a decent breakfast and lunch? Or would we find soda, chips, candy, doughnuts and other high-calorie but non-nutritious items?

Does the family spend its money on cell phones, designer shoes and clothing, custom rims for cars, pay-per-view movies, cosmetics, dining at McDonald’s? If so, then these parents can well afford to feed their children.

As for the Counterpoint (“The bigger rip-offs demand attention”) which mentions the incredible mismanagement and waste of funds and fraud at the national level and concludes with, “the energy used to fight reduced-lunch fraud is much needed in other places,” I would remind the writer that fiscal responsibility (or irresponsibility) begins at home.

The “trillions of dollars missing from the Pentagon” and war costs are beyond the average person’s comprehension and seemingly beyond our capability to correct. But waste, fraud and irresponsibility at the local level we can understand and take steps to correct. We should expect county and school officials to do so.

The writer lives in High Point.

In response to the flurry of letters aimlessly focusing on abortion and homosexuality as a matter of political decision-making, let’s review certain facts regarding sin and choice.

Most biblical references to these two activities appear in Paul’s letters. Based on those writings, the Roman Catholic Church calls abortion a mortal sin, punishable by eternal damnation. Homosexuality is not really a biblical issue, therefore not a part of either the law of God or canon law.

God’s law states plainly, “Thou shalt not kill.” In Genesis, He cursed and empowered man with the knowledge of good and evil and the free will to choose between the two. The shortest homily ever delivered neatly reveals the essence of God’s plan for us: Heaven, hell, your choice.

Bringing God’s plan into our sociopolitical environment, it becomes clear that the judicial branch of our government affirmed the “choice” element in Roe v. Wade. It neither condones nor condemns abortion. It simply preserves the choice.

Abortion and homosexuality are a part of the human condition on earth allowed by God, who, alone, reserves the right of judgment. He, however, through Christ, instructs us to forgive, and He will forgive us as we forgive others.

Ben Andrews
Greensboro

I never thought I would see the day when I was a little less proud to be an American. It came as I watched two U.S. senators advocate a pay reduction for American workers.

Our country fights for decent working conditions and livable wages worldwide. Why would U.S. government officials seek to lower the pay and standard of living for hardworking, middle-class Americans? They used false and misleading data to justify this dastardly act.

They say the calamity that has befallen the auto industry is the workers’ responsibility. Never mind the bonehead decisions by executives manufacturing inferior, fuel-guzzling cars and ignoring the good stuff coming from Japan.

An American earning $28 an hour bothers these senators. How about the compensation for auto executives and other corporate heads? How about Wall Street?

Senator, when you made those statements did that satisfy the corporate interests that donated to your campaign? You are paid from the U.S. Treasury, which is drowning in debt. Why don’t you advocate a cut in your pay, pension plan, health insurance and your hidden perks? Have you looked in the mirror lately?

The auto worker is the quintessential middle-class American.

Max Roseman
High Point

The article by Jeri Rowe on Dec. 20, “A Way to Remember,” made me think about the killers who destroyed the lives of these three men who had families and friends who loved them.

This letter is to tell these killers that I think of Bobby Taylor every day and about his son and daughter and his four grandsons and his precious granddaughter, and that at Christmas he was not here.

I pray that his killer sees him every morning when he wakes and that he fills your dreams every night until you can no longer sleep and no longer enjoy living because that is what you did to his family and friends. I was taught to forgive and that the Lord in heaven will punish you.

This thought helps me, and I hope it will help the friends and families of these three victims.

Mary Cox
Whitsett

Greensboro should have the live HD performances from the Metropolitan Opera. Raleigh, Charlotte and Asheville have them and so should we.

A large number of people from Greensboro drove to Danville, Va., to see the Met live at a theater there. It is embarrassing that these live HD simulcasts are not available in the Triad.

Any theater that did it would have sold-out performances. The Carousel has the equipment and the Regal Cinemas are showing Met performances in many places but, alas, not here.

They are missing a great opportunity and we are missing some of the best music in the world.

Judith L. McAlister
Greensboro

I’m paying double property taxes, to Greensboro and Guilford County, and the commissioners and City Council members will not answer the letters I sent to them or answer their phone calls. How come? They are working for us, are they not? What’s wrong with this picture?

When you call the county for service, such as the Sheriff’s Department, you’re told to call the Greensboro Police Department because we are annexed and the county doesn’t handle calls.

When you call about anything you go to Greensboro to have the problem handled. Why is that? I’m paying double property taxes and get nothing from the county.

Why am I paying taxes to Guilford County? What’s wrong with this picture, folks? It’s a rip-off being a senior. I could use this money on myself to live and just pay the city, don’t you think?

All the elected officials can do is put more taxes on us, be wasteful and add different things in the bonds to hide them, such as the pool. They let people vote on the bonds when they are not property owners, such as students and renters. We have to pay for all of this, not them.

You all have some answering to do to the voters.

D. Lee Jacobs
Greensboro

It is a shame what some of the commissioners have done to former County Attorney Sharron Kurtz — in particular Skip Alston and Steve Arnold.

I have known Sharron since she was a teenager. She is an honest, conscientious person, a Christian woman, and a faithful wife and mother. She is highly intelligent and takes great pride in doing her job as the law requires.

It is a shame when politics and the personal agendas of a few self-centered, selfish people can push out those who try to do their job as it should be done.

Steve Whitt
Greensboro

Your article on Caroline Kennedy’s speech patterns (Dec. 31) was most interesting. If Sarah Palin had shown such inability to put together six sentences without using the idiot phrase, “you know,” the media would have drummed her out of the human race.

Four people of some note tried to justify Caroline’s inability to speak properly, and five examples were given of other famous people’s speech oddities as an attempt to downplay her lack of speaking ability. She is a graduate of the Harvard Law School. Surely it taught her to speak properly.

And she wants to be a U.S. senator!

John W. Taylor
Greensboro

In response to, “Don’t postpone exams because of inauguration” (letter, Dec. 31), I commend Guilford County Schools for its decision.

Barack Obama is our duly elected president, and to have our youth watch his inauguration is neither insensitive to those who did not support him nor does it represent disrespect of one’s civic freedoms or freedom of (political) expression. A presidential inauguration is neither a political event nor a political celebration but rather a constitutionally mandated event representing the peaceful hand-over of power.

I am a committed Democrat, but as a high school teacher I had my students watch George Bush’s inaugurations and Ronald Reagan’s state funeral out of respect for the office of the president and for our American democracy. I used the time to foster a dialogue between my students and teach them to listen to, respect and strive to understand opposing views.

On Inauguration Day we should put partisan disagreements aside and celebrate the foundation of our democracy and respect for the office. There will be time, need and use for all views once the new administration takes office and we as a nation begin the ominous task of addressing the shared challenges we face as Americans.

Jeffrey A. Kirkman
Greensboro

Reading George Will’s column (Jan. 1), the same question comes to mind that occurs to me every time I read in the paper or hear on TV that Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid is going broke.

Why does the United States bail out financial institutions and car companies, send aid to foreign countries to help with their disasters and yet continue to whine about the money it costs to keep U.S. citizens from being hungry, homeless or sick?

With an equal amount of money to match the recent bailout, the United States could assure that its citizens, young and old alike, are sheltered, fed and receive medical treatment for many years.

I understand that the government raided the Social Security fund and used the money for purposes other than for which it was intended. If the money was repaid, Social Security would be solvent.

My suggestion: Working people can continue to pay into Social Security and Medicare as they do now, and if and when the funds run short, the government can kick in with a bailout. I don’t see any difference between that and the bailout to car companies and financial institutions.

Judy Barham
Kernersville

In less than 20 days, you who put Barack Obama in office with the promise of change should start asking questions. Start with: “Why should I not be able to retire at 50 years of age after 20 years of service with guaranteed pension, health coverage and cost-of-living increases for the rest of my life? My pension cannot be taken away even if I am convicted of embezzlement or any other crime except treason. I do not have to worry about my 401(k) going to pot.”

This is how your lawmakers in Congress live. Now you know why they want to serve you and ask for your help in getting elected.

Do you know who is paying the bill? Don’t panic. Only those who pay taxes or own property and work should worry. One of these days, voters will figure out why sales-tax proposals don’t pass.

Ken Sawyer
High Point

Aren’t crows interesting? They strut and caw with self-righteous and moralistic pride as they defend their bit of road kill.

Now, there aren’t too many similarities between people and crows, but there is one glaring difference. Crows are pretty honest, since they celebrate all road kill as equals. People, however, tend to pick and choose who may live and who may die.

Not surprisingly, no one heard one caw of protest as Hamas fired rockets into Israel, but let Israel fight back and the whole flock turns out. Lots of noise but not one shred of credibility.

Obbe Haverkamp
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Jeff White

I read with interest about the potential “vehicle miles traveled” tax, which would tax the residents of North Carolina for every mile they drive. It came as no surprise to me that the Democratic legislature in the “First in Flight” state strives to become the country’s first to tax its citizens to pay by the mile to drive.

North Carolina already has the highest gas tax in the Southeast. Those of us who live near the state line know that gas is cheaper in Virginia and South Carolina.

Years ago, former state Sen. W.D. Goldston co-authored a measure to create a Highway Trust Fund strictly for building new and maintaining old roads. Over the years, however, the Democratic legislatures have allowed their Democratic governors to divert much of this fund to general revenue to be used for other things. Some of those funds may help pay Mary Easley’s $170,000 salary at N.C. State. What does she do again?

Transportation experts advocate using GPS technology that would allow North Carolina to charge people different rates based on when and where they drive. Perfect! Now our government will always know exactly where we are, every minute of every day. I can imagine dedicated DOT employees sitting at a console and checking the whereabouts of their spouses and children every few minutes.

Mark Finlayson, co-chairman of N.C. Go!, insists the problem is that drivers are now using less fuel, which diminishes the revenues from the gas tax. Unfortunately, he said, we are still wearing out and tearing up our roads.

How do we tax others who use our highways? How about bicyclists? I see them on the road all the time. What about farmers? Don’t they pull trailers of tobacco with their tractors? How do we tax pedestrians? How about chickens? We all know they cross the road.

I suggest we put a toll booth on the inbound lanes at both borders on I-95 and charge each car $20, each truck $40 and let any vehicle registered in North Carolina pass for free.

If that doesn’t generate enough funds, there are always I-85 and I-40. It may not be enough to maintain our roads, but it should be enough to allow Mary Easley to keep her job during the recession.

The writer lives in Reidsville.

It’s laughable that an editor of this publication claims to be shocked that the “paper of record” would print a phony letter attributed to the mayor of Paris criticizing Caroline Schlossberg’s attempt to be named Hillary’s replacement.

Just prior to this latest example of journalistic malpractice, the New York Times, whose motto is “let’s get Bush one last time,” ran a 5,000-word distortion blaming Bush for the financial crisis while ignoring a wealth of its own reporting on the subject in 1999. Apparently they’re too smart to read their own paper!

In September 1999, the Times noted that “Fannie Mae has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton administration to expand mortgages among low-income people, and has felt pressure to maintain its phenomenal profits.” Also, “In moving into this new area Fannie Mae is taking on much more risk, likely causing trouble in an economic downturn.” Imagine that!

None of this was mentioned in the “get Bush” article, nor was Clinton’s “aggressive deregulation” of the financial-service industry. In fact, Clinton was mentioned only once in passing, while we learned that Bush received $850,000 from mortgage brokers and bankers, but not that the top three recipients of cash from Fannie were all Democrats!

Tony Moschetti
High Point

The following is a Counterpoint:

By W. Carson Anderson

Once again, Thomas Friedman (column, Dec. 30) trumpets the tired slogan, “Americans are addicted to oil.”

I, for one, am not “addicted to oil.” What I am addicted to is transporting my family safely around town and getting to a job that allows me to afford food, clothes, health care and shelter.

I am addicted to having an ambulance transport my son to a hospital if he is sick or injured; addicted to having trucks deliver medicine and formula to the store for my daughter.

I am addicted to being able to travel by plane to visit far-off lands, or to reconnect with loved ones.

In short, I am addicted to the freedom and quality of life that cars, trucks and airplanes allow me to enjoy. I am guessing the rest of the world is striving for the very same thing.

Friedman, however, takes the amazing view that we actually need to increase the gasoline tax during this horrific economic period, essentially penalizing people for driving. His warped logic is, “As long as gas is cheap, people will go out and buy used SUVs.”

Setting aside for a moment the obvious ramifications on people’s wallets that a tax increase would have, Friedman should be reminded that “cheap gas” not only allows people to buy used SUVs, it allows for them to have more money for food, medicine, health care and savings. It allows for people to have more discretionary money to put back into our economy, which in turn reduces unemployment and poverty.

Friedman quotes Michael Mandelbaum as saying, “A gasoline tax would do more for American prosperity and strength than any other measure Obama could propose.” Exactly which Americans is he referring to, and what planet is the good professor on?

Wisely, President-elect Obama has given about as much thought to this idea as to naming Sarah Palin as his national security adviser. As Americans, we all want to move toward energy independence with clean-power technologies. However, demonizing people for driving larger (and safer) cars, and penalizing them for their pursuit of a quality lifestyle only sets back the arguments of Friedman and his ilk. We will have more fuel-efficient vehicles in the future and eventually will get to more alternative types of energy.

However, we don’t have to get there standing in a bread line.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

Here we go again! The spend-happy clowns in Raleigh have found something else to tax — the miles we drive. What’s next — the number of breaths we take?

And they’re thinking of determining the mileage by putting computers in the cars, and sending all our travel details to a government data base. Big brother strikes again. Think of the cost to do this. They’ll probably want us to buy the computers.

If these twits would expend as much energy trying to spend fewer taxpayers’ dollars as they expend looking for ways to rip us off, they’d solve any shortages they perceive.

There is, however, one new tax I’d support. Let’s have a tax on proposing new or higher taxes. Each time someone suggests a new tax, or a raise on an existing tax, he should be taxed an amount equal to one month of his income, and if his tax passes, tax him two months’ income — every year.

George L. Hopkins
Greensboro

Two years ago, I became a member of the first group of community columnists for the News & Record. My articles were reviewed and edited by Elma Sabo. I learned a great deal from this experience and really consider myself fortunate to have had this contact. As my articles were accepted and published, I was encouraged by uplifting remarks from other members of the editorial staff as well.

Having survived as a community columnist, I felt confident enough to write letters to the editor from time to time. Through those writings, I came into contact with Becky Layton. She always called to say that my letter would be published in seven to 10 business days, however, the letters always appeared much sooner.

My thanks to you two wonderful ladies who allowed my work to be published and my thoughts to be shared with my fellow citizens. While I will miss both of you, I do wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Crystal S. McCombs
Greensboro

Israel is a larger terrorist organization than any named by the U.S. government. If you look at the events of the last 50 years, every time there is a hope of peace, or a peace plan sponsored by allies of the Arab world, Israel unleashes its U.S.-supported army on the Palestinians.

It embarrasses me as an American that our government is a coward about saying anything to the Israeli government. If the rest of the world is against Israel’s actions, why doesn’t our government see the problem? It is no wonder that Israel is the most hated government in the world.

I am neither a Palestinian nor a Jew. I am an American who believes in humanity and what is right. I do not hate Jews but hate the Israeli government! If Israel had not stolen the land it occupies, there would be no violence. The United States tells all other countries what is acceptable behavior but says nothing to Israel.

Our men and women are fighting for Iraqi freedoms while we support Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians. How hypocritical is that?

David Pauly
Summerfield

Dear Mr. Obama,

Two millennia ago, a small boy who must have been hungry offered his basket containing bread and a few fish to feed a multitude. I refer to this Bible story, not to emphasize the miracle that Jesus performed with this food. Rather, it is to point out that each of us has a basket filled with something that, when offered, may affect a multitude.

America and the rest of the world is in economic or some other crisis. Our fears and dismay must be vanquished. Our people are creative, determined, industrious and resilient. Mr. Obama, inspire each one of us to offer the contents of our baskets to rescue and change the world. We truly need a modern-day miracle.

Gerald C. Parker
Greensboro

Our Christmas holidays were sadly interrupted when our daughter’s basset hound, Otis, ran away Dec. 22. Otis lives in Raleigh, so he not only was in an unfamiliar area, his situation was complicated by his being very frightened of strangers.

For four rainy days and freezing nights, we walked, rode, handed out and posted signs over a five-mile area. We were encouraged by caring calls of sightings from many thoughtful neighbors in the Primrose Avenue, Hazel Lane, Wynnewood Drive, Meredith Drive and Blanton Place areas.

We received a truly heart-warming Christmas gift when a very nice family, the Sellers, successfully corralled Otis Dec. 26. We are indebted to the Sellers children, who with their mom interrupted their holidays to search for Otis even though they had never met us. They showed the true spirit of good will to others and have inspired us to assist others needing help in the future.

Thanks also go to everyone who searched for, fed or sheltered Otis. Also thanks to North Elm Animal Hospital and other area vets. Lastly, we want to send special appreciation to the Carolina Basset Hound Rescue group (www.cbhr.com) for its wonderful support of Otis and other rescued bassets.

Doug and Nancy Anderson
Greensboro

We wonder what will happen when the president-elect takes office. Many are thrilled that an African American is elected. Many are upset that an African American is elected. Get over it. He’s both, so that should satisfy the racists from both sides.

Many voted for Barack Obama because he was black. Many voted for John McCain because he was white. Shame on you. Many voted the first time because of race. You should not have been allowed.

If color is all that took Obama to the White House, we’re in trouble. I pray the presidency is more than color!

Did I vote for Obama? No! Truthfully, I could not vote for anyone who will not honor this country or flag. Should you not honor it, you should not be allowed to live here or hold office. If this nation is so distasteful, then return to your roots, wherever they may be.

My opinion does not release me from an obligation to pray for Obama. Would the past eight years have been different if we’d all spent more time praying for our leaders? Points to ponder as the new year begins!

Linda Smoak
Stoneville

I wanted to let your readers know about a recent mission of good will made to inner-city Washington by a group of eighth-graders who attend Westminster Presbyterian Church in Greensboro.

In December, this enthusiastic group and their adult chaperones braved cold temperatures to help us clean up an overgrown, badly littered city park, which is the subject of a unique archeological survey being conducted by Howard University. More than 7,000 African American and Quaker citizens were buried during the 19th century in this almost-forgotten cemetery.

With the help of the members of Westminster Presbyterian and other volunteers, we are making sure this sacred site will be commemorated.

We are grateful to the citizens of your city for visiting ours and donating their time and considerable energy to this project.

Mary Belcher
Washington, D.C.

The writer is community liaison to the Walter Pierce Park Archeology Project.

If you’re a letter writer who’d prefer to be seen as well as heard, your time has come.
In early 2009, the News & Record will begin to accept video letters.

What’s a video letter? It’s a letter you read before a camera and submit for posting on our Web site.

Occasionally, the newspaper also will make occasional days and times available in which you can record your letter in the News & Record’s studio. You also may record video commentaries on your own and e-mail them to us at edpage@news-record.com.

As long as your video letter meets our taste and length guidelines, almost anything goes.
Watch the newspaper for more details in the coming weeks.

Steve Parker in his letter (“Swim center approval was won on deception,” Jan. 1) concerning the parks and recreation bond referendum misses the mark. Rather than looking at the facts, he opted to blame the Parks and Recreation Commission “who scammed the residents out of $12 million.”

He seems to forget, or maybe doesn’t know, that the city swim meet is part of Parks and Recreation Department’s summer program at Lindley Park Pool. Nor does he understand the positive economic benefit to Greensboro of having 500-plus swimmers and their families from all over the United States attending a three-day meet hosted by the Greensboro Swim Association at Lindley Park.

Swimming is a sport where reducing your time in a race allows everyone participating to be a “winner” even if you finish last.

Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps’ swimming coach, says, “Words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but performance is reality.” Phelps was voted Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year” for 2008.

Everyone needs a venue to demonstrate their expertise, whether it is a baseball park, football stadium, recital hall, soccer field or auditorium. It is time to support the needs of the community rather than personal preferences.

William T. Linton Jr.
Greensboro

My life, along with millions of other Americans, was influenced for the better by a blue-blood senator from Rhode Island named Claiborne Pell.

I had worked at the Greensboro Summit Avenue Bi-Rite grocery store starting at the age of 14 to save up money for college. I worked hard in high school and obtained some scholarships as well.

My first year in college, my father passed away from cancer. It was the Pell Grant that helped me financially to obtain my degree in chemical engineering from N.C. State University so that I could give back to the community. I celebrated my 25 years as a chemical engineer in industry this past year, due in part to the senator who passed away Jan. 1 from Parkinson’s disease.

Sen. Pell, may you rest in peace and may His perpetual light always shine upon you for the Pell Grant that “teaches people to fish rather than giving people fish.”

Joe Plante
Summerfield

During the presidential campaign, John McCain admitted he voted against the Martin Luther King holiday. He apologized. This lack of vision gives us a brief look into the mind of conservatives: grudging resistance even in the face of advancing history.

Rachel Rogers’ letter (Dec. 31) confirms that conservatives present their sinister world view by selectively choosing only the indicators that support their case. Rogers carefully chooses some statistics while ignoring others. She ignores the percentage of North Carolina voters who shifted from Republican to Democratic. She stretched credibility when she gave a skewed statistic purported to indicate Guilford County was less interested in the presidential election than the rest of the state.

Give me a break! John Kerry carried the county in 2004. We were already there.

Rogers suggests that the county schools should not postpone exams for this historical inauguration. She presumes to speak for all students who supported McCain, believing they are also inflexible, thus would loathe to watch the inauguration of our first president of African descent, Barack Obama. Like McCain, she is blinded by her dismal ideology, unable to see history shining as it marches by her.

Sour grape juice, anyone?

Danny Glenn
Greensboro

“The Waiting List: America’s Health Care Crisis” (“Geraldo at Large,” Dec. 27) addressed issues affecting Americans with disabilities. Across the nation and in our own community, families face a significant lack of support services to meet the needs of their sons and daughters with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Waiting lists are forcing family members to quit their jobs, give up their homes and make other sacrifices to care for their children. Some individuals in the United States wait up to 12 years to receive services.

Nationwide, more than 800,000 individuals live with a family caregiver over 60. These parents are told the only way a service would become available to their child is if they were to die. Even then, their adult children could face the prospect of being placed in an institution due to the lack of services available.

The Arc of High Point is working to ensure that individuals with intellectual disabilities receive the services and support they need. Priority one is to convince our legislators of the need for a system overhaul, for the sake of these families. We encourage our community to join us in this important venture.

Tonya Fowler
High Point

The writer is executive director, The Arc of High Point.

If you’re a letter writer who’d prefer to be seen as well as heard, your time has come. Early this year, the News & Record will begin to “publish” video letters.

What’s a video letter? It’s a letter you read in front of a camera for posting on our Web site. You may record video commentaries on your own and e-mail them to us. Also, we’ll also make occasional days and times available during which you can record your letter in the News & Record’s studio. As long as your video meets our taste and length guidelines, almost anything goes.

Watch the newspaper for more details in the coming weeks.

Israel is favored by the United States for very sound and long-standing reasons, contrary to K.K. Mersereau’s sarcastic letter (Dec. 31).

Israel is the only true long-standing democracy in the region. We have always favored free democratic states as a basic doctrine within our foreign policy.

The countries surrounding Israel understand that the very existence of a democracy in their midst is a threat to their continued rule over their people.

Democracies tend to resolve their differences peacefully and avoid conflict unless their own or the security of their allies is threatened.

In the current conflict, the people of Gaza elected a terrorist organization (Hamas) that destroyed the Palestinian opposition party in Gaza and essentially fractured the Palestinian Authority. The two-state solution has become a dead issue since Hamas does not recognize the right of Israel to exist. They then began lobbing rockets into Israel.
What did they think would be the result of all that?

If Hamas and the people of Gaza wish to fight proxy wars for Iran with Israel, they must understand that the United States stands with Israel. When moderate Muslims take control of their governments, peace will come.

Jerry Olson
Greensboro

Much has been written and spoken about the gravity of this recession, but little has been expressed about the thoughtless legacy we are leaving to untold future generations. The profligacy of our president, Congress, financial and industrial organizations and individuals has plunged us into an incomprehensible debt situation.

Including the recent $700 billion and the proposed new $850 billion, our national debt will be $12 trillion — about $40,000 per person. Simple interest at 4 percent is $480 billion annually.
So what can we do? First, get out of Iraq. Even out the skewed tax rates, though not changing total payments. Raise rates for exorbitant income above a certain level to a maximum of 75 percent.

Ruthlessly eliminate the massive pork in each budget. Implement strict regulation of all who extend credit.

We revere free enterprise and abhor regulation, and look where we are. We need a president and statesmen who have the courage, competence and authority to do what must be done, regardless of the anguished howls of the pampered parts of our populace. It will be hard. Just do it!

Otherwise, words like “default,” “bankruptcy” and “hyperinflation” may be applied to America.

Dan W. Maddox
Greensboro

Bill Toth’s letter (Dec. 28) makes it very plain that he did not go into the confessional as a penitent, but intentionally to make a scene so that he could brag about it in his letter to the editor. By his behavior, he has desecrated the sacrament of confession. Shame on him!

Abortion is not a good thing. It is the calculated killing of a baby. In fact, it is the largest man-made disaster in history. Legalized abortion has claimed more lives than all recorded wars. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will end soon. When will the war on unborn babies end?

Matthew Thekkekandam
High Point

Do you drive? Then listen, because your government has targeted you. Whether it’s new mileage fees, gas taxes, toll roads, ticket cameras, roadblocks of the public highway (to allow "fishing expeditions") or draconian speed enforcement, you’re the target.

The motoring citizen is a soft and juicy victim who pays up without a fight. Any time you hear someone say, "It’s not about the money," it is. Naturally, they couch their crusade in PC propaganda so as to neutralize opposition.

But cops who drive like cowboys and politicians hoisted by their own DWI petards always get off lightly. And if Americans refuse to be herded like cattle into mass transit, they’re going to have to pay.

Car-hating "Red Ken" Livingstone imposed a charge just to enter London, and now San Francisco is ready to do the same. Meanwhile, our masters in Raleigh rob the Highway Trust Fund and plan to hit you up for the "shortfall."

So, will Americans allow themselves to be harassed, robbed and bullied? For example, "wear your seat belt." Or do you cherish your freedom and independence?

It’s time to call your representative and stop them, before it’s too late. And join the NMA (motorists.org).

Christopher Rees
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint.

By Cris Elkins

Most objections to marriage equality for gays are rooted in religious tradition and doctrine, but same-gender couples seek recognition of the state, not the church.

The Constitution, not the Bible or any other sacred text or faith system, is the foundation of our government. The ideas that all people are created equal with unalienable rights are the traditions that define our democracy and are guaranteed by the Constitution. Civil liberties are not subject to faith-based beliefs and practices.

Churches have their First Amendment right to restrict marriage within their own faith communities, but they don’t have the right to force people of other faiths or beliefs to live by their standards. Our Constitution protects against religious tyranny as well as tyranny of the majority.

Religious objections to marriage equality are misguided, at best. The basis of religion is love and the Golden Rule. Imagine what it would be like not to be able to marry the person with whom you want to spend the rest of your life.

It is morally and logically impossible to claim love and respect for gay people and at the same time oppose their basic human right to form families. Gays are real people who suffer when their families do not have the rights, protections, benefits and privileges that heterosexual couples automatically acquire with a civil marriage license.

Without the opportunity to be legally recognized as equal couples and families in society, we marginalize and stigmatize gay people and their lives. How loving is this?
The foundation of modern marriage is love — not gender, race, class, religion or some other construct. When two people pledge to honor, cherish and care for one another, individuals and society benefit. Why would God or any government want to discourage mutual love and lifelong commitment?

History has shown that religious tradition and practices toward racial minorities and women were fraught with injustice and inequality. History will show that society’s treatment of gays is another great moral failure.

Have we become a society so lacking in compassion that we would rather inflict harm than open our hearts, minds and souls to new understandings and revelations? It is not unfaithful to grow and change. Allowing gays to marry gays would show respect for the welfare and equality of all Americans and strengthen society.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

I was sad to hear of the death of Pat Hingle, a wonderful actor. Before moving to Greensboro, I lived in Wilmington, where I acted at the Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts and was an extra in movies. I was ushering at Thalian when he and his wife came in. He looked familiar but I thought perhaps I had seen him on a movie set or in our choral group. After I seated them it dawned on me who he was. I told him how much I admired his work and thanked him for the pleasure of meeting him. He told me they had moved to Carolina Beach.

Ushers were allowed to take a vacant seat after ticket holders were seated. I mentioned I didn’t know where I would sit, since the hall was full. He laughingly said I could sit on his lap. His wife said, “One knee!” Later that year he spoke to our playwrights group and we had a nice discussion about acting. He took questions and I asked, “You’re not a method actor, are you?” He replied, “Sure I am: the Hingle method.”

He was funny, approachable and intelligent and involved in his profession. What a wonderful man. I remember him with fondness.

June Monroy
Greensboro

In her letter regarding America favoring Israel (Dec. 31), K.K. Mersereau forgot to mention the 70 rockets a day the Palestinians have fired on Israel since they moved into the land given to them. (I think the Israelis have shown remarkable restraint until now.)

Israel, as well as anyone else, has the right to defend itself. Isaac was Abraham’s son as well as Ishmael. So they have the right to such a small piece of Mideast property as Israel, which shares the country with many Arabs. What Arab country allows Jews to live there?

Golda Meir said there would be peace in the Middle East when Arabs love their children more than they hate the Jews. It’s so sad — they could really be a positive force in the world if they could peacefully co-exist.

Carol M. Pulliam
Kernersville

I read Mike Keefe’s political cartoon, “Many Eyes for an Eye” (Second Opinion, Jan. 2) with interest. The expectation of proportional response is all well and good (if more than a bit naïve), provided that this expectation is applied universally.

If missiles from Mexico rained down on Texas border towns with the approval of the Mexican government, would our response be proportional? Should it be? What if the Mexican government repeatedly announced its intention to destroy the United States?

If Keefe applies his standard universally, the worst I can say about him is that he has questionable judgment. If he applies it only to Israel, the problem is entirely different.

There is only one major factor differentiating Israel from all other countries: its Jewish majority. I hope the cartoon is misguided rather than anti-Semitic. I can’t ask the cartoonist; that’s up to the editorial board of the News & Record.

Steven Taub
Greensboro

Each year Home Instead Senior Care partners with Walgreen’s for a holiday community service project called “Be a Santa to a Senior.” With the support of organizations such as the Triad Retirement Living Association, the High Point Youth Council, Brighton Gardens, Costco, Stokolan and Keystone Automotive, generous gifts from anonymous shoppers, and more than 60 community volunteers, we have had another successful year.

Through this project, 314 nursing home and assisted-living residents received Christmas gifts. Thank you, Greensboro, for bringing joy to so many seniors.

Leslie Sanders
Greensboro

If you’re a letter writer who’d prefer to be seen as well as heard, your time has come. The News & Record soon will begin to “publish” video letters.

What’s a video letter? It’s a letter you read before a camera for posting on our Web site.

You may record video commentaries of up to one minute on your own and e-mail them to us. Or you may record your letter in our studio Jan. 14. Send your name and phone number at edpage@news-record.com to reserve a slot, first come, first served.

Call Editorial Page Editor Allen Johnson at 373-7010 if you have questions.

Over the holidays, I was pleased to hear about former police Chief David Wray’s lawsuit against the city of Greensboro. This poor man’s good name, family and career were dragged through the mud.

He was locked out of his office years ago, and the man who locked him out is still employed on the taxpayer’s dime!

Be that as it may, Wray withstood the manhandling and criticism well. He behaved as a level-headed gentleman. It will be unfortunate to see public dollars go to pay for legal fees that could have been avoided, had this man been dealt with fairly.

But the fact is, David Wray deserved better. He chose a public service career in law enforcement, which requires many personal sacrifices.

His name and respect should not have been a sacrifice he had to make.

Elizabeth Olson
High Point

Arabs and the knee-jerk Israel-bashers in the media are not my favorite people at the moment.
Egypt created the Gaza Strip and to this day will not let any Palestinians immigrate. They will let them smuggle weapons in but will have little or nothing to do with them otherwise.

The Palestinians of Gaza voted the Hamas in and the Palestine Authority out, not that I see much difference. Hamas, however, is a certified terrorist organization with the same goals as al-Qaida.

This “governing body” of Gaza continued to bait the bear with all their bluster and when the bear turned on them, all they can do is whine.

And finally, I am one American who is fed up with being insulted by the Arabs.

We may not like George Bush, but he is our president and I do not appreciate a pair of shoes being thrown at him by some Arab journalist.

What I would like to know is why the Secret Service did not shoot that clown full of holes.

William Northrop
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Henry McGovern

Recent letters have asserted the Bush administration should be held accountable for criminal behaviors, and I have been convinced that the Bush gang should be charged for murder after reading Vincent Bugliosi’s treatise, “The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder.”

Dubbed “the quintessential prosecutor” by F. Lee Bailey, Bugliosi outlines the legal case against Bush in cogent detail.

Most Americans know the country was misled by Bush to believe that Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat, and this fact is supported by a mountain of evidence.

How many know the extremes to which Bush and Cheney went to manufacture the belief that there were WMDs despite being informed repeatedly by intelligence, such as the CIA, that none existed?

Many Americans still believe the false proposition asserted by Bush that Hussein was in cahoots with bin Laden and al-Qaida.

Nothing could be further from the truth. They didn’t even like each other. Hussein and Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

Bugliosi cites the specific laws broken by Bush in lying to the country, indicating he should be charged with both murder and conspiracy to commit murder. More than 4,000 U.S. troops have died as a result of Bush’s lies, as well as more than 100,000 innocent Iraqis.

The only defense strategy Bush could use would be self-defense, and this would not work.

The ideal venue for the prosecution would be in the nation’s capital, with the prosecutor being the attorney general, but jurisdiction is established for any state attorney general or district attorney throughout the country who has had soldiers die from his or her county or state.

Bugliosi states he would be “more than happy, if requested, to consult with any prosecutor ... in the preparation of additional cross-examination questions.” Numerous ones are cited in the book.

I believe the prosecution of Bush for murder is the right thing to do for the following reasons: no man is above the law; our principle of justice would be upheld; we would communicate to other countries, many of which disrespect us due to Bush’s criminality, that we know what our president did was egregious and we will make him pay for it.

This communication will likely improve our international relations, enhancing the respect we once received as a great nation.

This is not a partisan issue. This is a patriotic issue for anyone who believes in “justice for all.”

The writer lives in Asheboro.

I am writing to express my revulsion to the Israeli military operation in Gaza (:Civilian toll climbs in Gaza,” Jan. 6). It is disgusting and cowardly for Hamas to shell Israel. After all, if Mexico shelled Texas, we wouldn’t sit idly by.

But to kill children by the dozens as Israel is doing now only fuels long-lasting hatred and demeans the values Israel has long represented.

There is nothing that justifies killing children. We already know that Hamas will suffer for its sins of terrorism.

Now, I’m afraid Israelis will suffer for decisions that kill the innocent along with cowardly terrorists.

How can anyone in that region sleep with a clear conscience? How can any of us here?

Robert Goldberg
Greensboro

David Pauly’s letter (“U.S. support for Israel embarrasses Americans”) and your choice to publish it are interesting. He claims that Israel is a larger terrorist organization than any named by the United States. I’m sure his initiative (and yours) are born of the recent Israeli attempt to put an end to missile attacks by invading Gaza, where the missiles are launched. Is that terrorism?

If Summerfield were hit by an ongoing onslaught of missiles from the democratically elected leaders of Browns Summit, would Mr. Pauly not be willing to fight back?

He goes on, “If Israel had not stolen the land it occupies, there would be no violence.” His hypocrisy is inescapable considering that surely he realizes land he occupies belongs to Native Americans.

Steve Schorr
Browns Summit

Way back in 1967, my mother urged me to acquire a Social Security card, and that year I paid my first taxes into the Social Security system.

I contributed to Social Security for 42 consecutive years. The government made this easy by taking the money from every paycheck.

I am retired, and I look forward to receiving the monthly payments I earned. I know many of you feel the same way. Are you with me, baby boomers?

While Congress was busy in 2008 bailing out everybody and everything that had a voice in Washington, the Social Security system was left by the roadside to die.

Thankfully, the head of the Government Accountability Office in Washington went on “60 Minutes” within the last year to inform the public about the health of the Social Security system.

He told us that when the baby boomers begin receiving payments, this will create a financial tsunami that will bankrupt the government.

He also said Social Security will not be able to make payments unless something is done soon to repair the system. It’s time to bail out our Social Security.

Tim Nelson
Summerfield

I was surprised when I read Charles Davenport’s column on Jan 4. Surprised that he’d be stupid enough to rant in public about his treatment at the hospital and surprised that you’d publish it.

First, Davenport better hope that he remains healthy as long as he lives in Greensboro because nurses have long memories.

He should be afraid of the treatment he might get if he has to seek any kind of medical attention in Guilford County. Very afraid. He really stepped in it when he wrote his column.

Second, what were you thinking when you printed it? It had nothing to do with anything remotely connected to news. If you’d gotten that immature whining from a reader, you would’ve trashed it, because it has no business in the paper.

Instead, you gave him a pulpit from which he could tear down nurses without presenting their side.

Davenport’s paid to spew hateful opinions, and he won’t apologize. You are editors, so edit. That means not printing stupidity like this.

You owe every health care professional in the area an apology, and you owe your readers an apology, too. Now. Today. On the very page this letter is printed on.

Susie Barnes
Greensboro

I am writing in response to the Jan. 8 letters by Carol Pulliam of Kernersville and Steven Taub of Greensboro.

How can two people be so close-minded? I don’t condone the rocket fire by Hamas, but I understand the frustration of the people.

Taub likened the Mike Keefe editorial cartoon, “Many eyes for an eye,” as anti-Semitic. Does he realize that more than 450 innocent people have been killed by the indiscriminate bombing by Israel, which is funded by the $3 billion a year the United States pumps into Israel?

If a gunman were holding a group hostage in a bank and firing on police, would the police be heralded if they blew up the bank with all of the innocent hostages inside?

The international community must put a stop to the modern-day holocaust orchestrated by Israel before they achieve their goal of wiping out the Palestinian population.

Shereef R. Juma
Summerfield

I was perplexed when my colleague, Andrew J. Courts Jr., informed me that he was not the automatic choice to fill the vacant seat as Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor in Guilford County.

He is very qualified, not only by the number of votes he received in the election, but also because he is a practicing environmentalist in his professional and personal life. A great miscarriage of the political process may cheat Guilford County out of a real asset.

We as citizens would be well-served with Andrew in this position, and I encourage all to heartily support and endorse him as the candidate for appointment to the vacant seat.

Steven Armstrong
Greensboro

The last line in Maureen Dowd’s column (Jan. 8) reads: “It isn’t what your name is. It’s what you do with it. Or, in the case of W., you don’t.”

That statement is, as they say, absolutely “priceless”!

Bill Burnett
Greensboro

If you’re a letter writer who’d prefer to be seen as well as heard, your time has come. The News & Record soon will begin to “publish” video letters.

What’s a video letter? It’s a letter you read before a camera for posting on our Web site. If, for instance, you’ve got a complaint about a noisy intersection, you may choose to shoot your commentary on the scene to make your point more dramatically.

You may record video commentaries on your own and e-mail them to us. Or you can record your letter in the News & Record’s studio Jan. 14.

Drop us an e-mail at edpage@news-record.com and leave a phone number to reserve time. Limited slots for recording sessions will be granted on a first-come, first-served basis.
As long as your video meets our taste and length guidelines (about one minute apiece), almost anything goes.

Call Editorial Page Editor Allen Johnson at 373-7010 if you have questions.

The Guilford Education Alliance and our community partners say thank you to the businesses, organizations and individuals who have donated office and school supplies to the Teacher Supply Warehouse since it opened in 2007. Contributions of new, slightly used or outdated supplies are recycled back into classrooms through the teachers shopping for free at the warehouse.

In the first year of operation, more than 900 teachers visited for an estimated $250,000 worth of supplies for our classrooms. Businesses contribute goods for a tax receipt of their contributions, and teachers shop for free items for their schools. Everyone benefits!

But, with the economic downturn, coupled with budget reductions for classroom supplies, more Guilford County teachers need the Teacher Supply Warehouse. There is an immediate need for more donations, including gently used or recycled letterhead, carpet squares, fabric and trade-show samples and new items such as pencils, notebook paper, copy paper, markers, tape, glue sticks, index cards, etc., are needed.

Don’t throw away supplies you no longer use or have a surplus. Visit the Teacher Supply Warehouse Web site at www.guilfordeducationalliance.org or call 841-4332 for more information.

Thanks for your continued support of the Teacher Supply Warehouse, and more importantly, your continued support and commitment to the education of our children.

Margaret Arbuckle
Greensboro

The writer is executive director of the Guilford Education Alliance.

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Andy Strand

Although I enjoyed Charles Davenport Jr.’s Jan. 4 column, I feel his experiences in the emergency room of a local health care provider were not typical of my family’s experiences at Moses Cone’s Elm Street campus over the past year. My mother was admitted to Cone for 17 days over Christmas in 2007 and we’ve made numerous visits to its emergency room since.

The professionalism exhibited by the hospital’s personnel cannot be matched.

On one visit to the emergency room last summer, we arrived around midnight on a Saturday. There were no available beds until 3 p.m. that day, so I sat beside my mother’s bed absorbing everything that went on throughout the night.

There had been an awful auto accident and, since they are a Certified Trauma Center, the victims were brought there. One gentleman had a skull fracture, and I watched the whole place come alive with different people concerned with saving this young man.

A gentleman was brought in that morning with chest pains and shared the room with us, divided by a curtain. His caretakers asked the emergency room doctor to take care of other ailments that were bothering him at the same time. The staff did this without missing a beat, acting as concerned for these little problems as the big ones.

Another man was placed in front of us on a gurney. He lost his lunch at the entrance to our room. The nurses took care of this quickly and then had a member of the maintenance staff re-sanitize the area. The emergency room stayed packed that whole day for one thing or another. Throughout it all, the staff showed class and skill in handling many difficult situations.

The biggest problems I observed, other than the dignity-depriving backless gown, were getting someone to do bedpan duty for visitors, as well as the bland hospital food — but it is hospital food.

My mother has spent many nights there, and I cannot think of one instance that we have had a problem with anyone’s attitude or professionalism. In fact, I am proud to say that we have such a wonderful health care system serving our community.

Hopefully, Mr. Davenport’s visit was to a different facility.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

I am proud that my government supports the longest-standing democracy in the Middle East: Israel.

I am proud that my government supports a government that protects its people: Israel. Women and children are not used as human shields in Israel, and they treasure their young people too much to make them martyrs by using them as suicide bombers.

I am proud that my government supports a country whose scientific, industrial, agricultural and technological achievements have benefited the whole world as well as those who would like to destroy it.

I am proud that my government supports Israel.

Elsie Samet
Greensboro

In your editorial “Red and yellow, black and white, we’re more diverse in God’s sight” (Jan. 4), you gave the statistics of the diversity of white churches. Why was there no mention of the diversity of other races’ churches?

It makes me wonder if this is a bias on the part of the writer. The bias of the News & Record? It appears to me that the white race is always being put to the test in racial issues. Why is it never mentioned by your paper that other races have their problems as well?

Anna Myrick
Greensboro

Editor’s note: The study did address trends in predominantly African American congregations and found them to remain, by and large, less racially mixed.

Your editorial cartoon of Jan. 2 was very offensive. You have apparently jumped on the bandwagon to blame Israel for a “disproportionate response” to Palestinian rocket attacks on her citizens.

Palestinians target Israeli citizens on a daily basis. In addition, they locate their military facilities among their own civilians, guaranteeing that civilians will be killed when Israel finally says “enough” and counterattacks. The poor Palestinians then cry to the world, “Look at what those terrible Jews do to our children!” The mainstream media of the world oblige them by printing such drivel as your cartoon.

The government of Israel has a duty to protect its citizens. Palestinians have proven time and again that any “peace treaty” with them is totally worthless. They always violate them, always. The only way Israel can hope to have any meaningful peace is to completely defeat them. I say get on with the program and make the world a better place.

Robert Hudson
Pelham

The proposed rezoning of a long-established residential area to commercial at Elm and Cornwallis, against the wishes of nearly all the neighbors, is arrogant in the extreme.
For whom is Greensboro run — its citizens or its developers?

Richard Levy
Greensboro

I recently read a letter about the elderly care homes in Guilford County and I was wondering why no one has ever discussed the staff issues to explain why maybe the care is so poor for the people.

I work with level 4 adults and hear that lots of my co-workers have been neglected by the owners of these homes. They are not getting the proper training due to poor money usage by owners, and there is lots of complaining about staff not getting paid.

This problem is spreading, and these homes are supported by the state. Doesn’t North Carolina have the right to know where the money goes?

I really think it is time for them to be called out. I wish I could get someone to hear my frustrations in this matter.

Melissa Garrett
Greensboro

As the federal government is spending at unprecedented levels in private companies in the banking, insurance and automotive industries, now is the perfect time to learn from a similar decision 10 years ago.

In 1998, the state of North Carolina began an investment of $115 million in the future of FedEx. In addition, $130 million in federal and state funds were spent for a third runway at PTI for FedEx. This massive incentive program was targeted at one company. At the time, politicians and FedEx officials must have been very pleased. But after five years of delay, the reality sets in. We learn that the company’s needs do not justify the new facility now. When it does open, FedEx says it will need only 350 of the 750 jobs it had promised.

The disappointing FedEx experience is evidence that massive taxpayer-funded incentives directed to individual private companies are no guarantee of jobs. The state government should do what it is primarily intended to do: Promote public safety, build and maintain roads, and offer a quality education.

Kevin Hollander
Winston-Salem

As an involved community leader and a proud 40-year citizen of the Triad, it saddens me to read in the News & Record about all of the layoffs. Every time someone loses a job, a whole family suffers. I pray the economy improves — quickly.

High Point University believes in regionalism, and we do our part to keep jobs in the “neighborhood.” At this time, there are more than 700 construction workers on campus building 400,000 square feet of new academic and residential facilities — all part of our $250 million investment to transform the university.

We have almost 600 employees who live in the Triad, and we call on hundreds of local contractors regularly to fix and maintain various parts of the campus. HPU has a $400 million economic impact annually in our region.

High Point University is growing by leaps and bounds, even in difficult economic times, and its future is bright. U.S. News & World Report ranked us in first place in our category among Up & Coming Colleges.

The world is discovering this institution, and the Triad can only benefit long-term.

Nido Qubein
High Point

The writer is president of High Point University.

I am sorry to say that our “news” sources remind me of a propaganda machine. There is a very strong anti-Russia bias in the U.S. media, with hypocrisy and double standards taking place of the facts.

A good example is the latest gas conflict with Ukraine in which Russia was forced to cut off all gas supplied to the European Union. The way you presented it, it was “playing hardball” and “threatening neighbors … in the depths of the winter” (N&R, Jan. 8).

The truth is Russian gas to the EU transits through a Ukrainian pipeline. Ukraine failed to pay its $2 billion prior debt for Russian gas, and it failed to reach an agreement with Russia on the price of gas for 2009 (Russia is offering a hugely subsidized price to Ukraine). As a result, the only gas Russia began sending through the Ukrainian pipeline on Jan. 1 was transit gas destined for the EU countries. However, after Ukraine started siphoning it off for its own domestic consumption and refused to allow international monitors to ensure safe passage of the gas through the pipeline, Russia had no other choice but to stop all gas transit through the Ukrainian pipeline.

Who is the bad guy here?

Svetlana Krylova
Greensboro

Although the increase in smoke-free workplaces and colleges/universities in recent years is welcome news and improves the health of both smokers and nonsmokers, there is still concern with the use of smokeless tobacco. Spit tobacco and recently added spitless products, such as Snus, are highly addictive, are not safe alternatives to smoking, and generate serious health consequences, including oral cancer. A recent study conducted by West Virginia University found that Camel Snus contain surprisingly high levels of nicotine — more than most other spit tobacco products. Recently added products, like Snus, focus on attracting new users who would not typically be smokers, such as athletes, women and younger populations, to initiate this dangerous lifelong habit.

It is important to remember that there are no safe tobacco options; all products have been found to have serious health risks associated with use.

For users, there is help available. The North Carolina Tobacco Use Quitline has a toll-free number (1-800-QUIT-NOW) for anyone who wishes to quit using tobacco. There is also a helpful Web site for anyone looking to stop using spit tobacco (www.mylastdip.com). It’s never too late to quit. You never know, it could end up saving your life.

Ted Eaves
Greensboro

It has come to my attention that the winner of November’s election for soil and water district supervisor has decided not to accept the job. Where does this leave the citizens of Guilford County? Who will fill the vacant seat?

I hope the powers in charge look at Andrew J. Courts Jr. He narrowly lost the race in November, he works as an environmentalist, he was raised in Greensboro, and he will bring new energy into what has been a sleepy board. I recommend that Andrew be appointed to the position of soil and water supervisor.

Michael Bradsher
Summerfield

“Do not judge others, so God will not judge you, for God will judge you in the same way you judge others, and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others” (Matthew 7:1-2).
Dear God, if we are looking at someone through glasses smeared with prejudice, if we look down on someone for any reason, help us to see and respond to them as you do — with love and care. Amen.

Christ calls on us to look at others with compassion.

Jack Hayworth
Greensboro

In your indecent haste to turn up something unflattering about the incoming governor, Beverly Perdue, you published an editorial (Jan. 9) that suggests impropriety in the funding of the inaugural ball, which had not even taken place yet. This event —which would have occurred no matter who won the election — is a fundraiser for a nonpolitical organization whose activities are described on its Web site, including these paragraphs:

“Since 1933, the Junior League of Raleigh (JLR) has been honored to host the Inaugural Ball, celebrating the newly elected governor and Council of State. Thanks to the generosity of the incoming governor and the volunteer efforts of League members, the JLR has been able to host the Inaugural Ball as a fundraiser, supporting community and statewide programs and projects of the Junior League of Raleigh that benefit the citizens of North Carolina.

“Since the 1930s, North Carolina’s Inaugural Balls have raised money for many worthy organizations serving at-risk children, including hospitals and other health agencies, public school programs, community centers and child abuse agencies. Some organizations have been local to Wake County while others have been statewide in scope.”

Tom Kirby-Smith
Greensboro

Thank you, Red Cross, Guilford County health professionals and Guilford County citizens. You gave our family 21/2 years with my husband, Roger, that we would not have had.

In 2006, my husband had open-heart surgery at Cone Hospital. Their heart unit is top-notch with excellent doctors and nurses. Nonetheless, my husband’s health became very complicated.

Before his death, Roger received 86 units of blood. Many of you gave that blood through Red Cross drives. I am sure you do not realize how much it meant to our family.

To Eagle Internal Medicine at Tannenbaum, Eagle Gastroenterology, Eagle Cardiology, LeBauer Pulmonary, Short Stay at Cone and Wesley Long, Endoscopy at Cone, the ER at Cone and the EMTs who transported him many times: We will forever be grateful for your knowledge and your willingness to answer questions in such a caring manner. You treated us with respect and kindness.

Roger never lost his quick wit and sense of humor, even though he knew his health was no joking matter. I truly believe he knew his doctors and nurses gave him their best. We are fortunate to live where so many work so long to provide good health care.

Linda Stratton
Greensboro

As members of the YWCA of Greensboro, my friends and I have enjoyed using this inner-city gem for years. But now this gem is tarnished by recent funding challenges. Leadership failed to inform the membership of the financial situation, which now looks grim. Questions need answers.

We believe this beautiful place in the heart of the cultural district should be saved. The YWCA can remain a vital part of our progressive city, not just another closing because of neglect.

Patricia Lowrance
Greensboro

I think Susie Barnes (letter, “Nurses will remember hospital care criticism,” Jan. 9) is trying to practice nursing. I also think she is burnt out from rotating schedules, inadequate staffing, ever-increasing demands on her time and attention and ever-decreasing resources. My heart goes out to her.

As a medical professional for 30 years, I understand her frustration. However, if her letter reflects how she really feels, she needs to get out. Threatening someone who complains is unprofessional, irresponsible and just plain scary.

I was fortunate to practice my profession during a time when we were trained to extraordinarily high standards, adequately staffed and focused primarily on serving the patient. I have profound respect for everyone who does the work of patient care.

But keeping quiet about the current situation is not going to get it fixed. And there is much to fix. Just listen the next time you are out to dinner in a local restaurant or when a friend wants to share a health care “horror” story. Ms. Barnes, I wish you the best.

Sylvia Dumont
Greensboro

Because my association represents the state’s bail agents, I felt inclined to respond to the Associated Press story (“Bail bond financing worries lawmen, ” Dec. 26) that ran in your newspaper.

The story gave the impression that bail agents across the nation, including North Carolina, promote and encourage defendants to pursue credit bonds.

This is not true. It is true that credit bonds have been a part of our industry and have been beneficial in reducing jail overcrowding, but they’re not a mechanism bail agents use as the primary way to do business.

In reality, credit bonds add an additional measure of work for bail agents when it comes to collections.

Bail agents and the bail bonding industry have an overall goal to ensure defendants appear in court. Regardless of the premium they might pay on the bond, if they don’t show up for court, the community suffers and bail agents are forced to forfeit the bond.

The North Carolina Bail Agents Association represents a dedicated industry of agents held to strict guidelines by the state. We take our responsibilities to the courts and the communities we serve seriously and work to produce defendants so taxpayers save money.

Mark Cartret
Whiteville

The writer is president of the N.C. Bail Agents Association.

Last month, WXII (Channel 12) elected not to renew my contract. So, after 20 years with the station, I will no longer be able to continue my on-air relationship with Triad viewers.

In those 20 years, I have come to think of those viewers as friends, and I would like to thank them for all of their support, encouragement and friendship.

Since news of my situation was reported, I have been overwhelmed with kindness from people I’ve worked with over the years, people whose stories I’ve covered, and people who were complete strangers. But I have come to find out that those people were never really strangers at all.

When you do your job in a public setting, people feel they know you. And I am the one who is so much better off for having known them.

So, thanks to all of you!

Dave Goren
Winston-Salem

Reaching across party lines to tap Lanier Cansler for Department of Health and Human Services secretary is a well-intended move by Bev Perdue. The new governor has the unenviable task of shaping up a mental health system ransacked by arrogant and misguided reforms endorsed by Mike Easley.

Cansler’s conflicts of interest with clients while he lobbied for Cansler Fuquay Solutions sends up a red flag. The new secretary and former lieutenant governor say he will remove himself from business transactions involving these clients.

Really? Should the people of North Carolina be comfortable with this arrangement?

Meanwhile, J. Michael Hennike, the new Central Regional Hospital director, said if he had his way, the Dorothea Dix patients would move to his facility as soon as possible.

Perdue revealed during her campaign a need to keep Dix open while the system slowly works to restore faith and trust to the patients and their families.

The pressure is mounting within her own administration to break that promise.
Isaac Asimov once said, “If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.”

The quality of life for patients has dropped under these reforms. I am cautiously optimistic.

Steve Church
Willow Spring

As I was driving on U.S. 421 between Greensboro and Liberty a while back, I noticed workers spraying the sides and banks along the road. Later, the cedars and other greenery turned brown.

Instead of using this spray, why not cut back as needed with mowers or bush hogs?
The cedars and other greenery look terrible now, some completely brown, others just one side where sprayed. And what about the environment?

Seems safer only to cut with mowers where needed.

Jo Lynn Coble
Liberty

Rather than spending his time writing a diatribe about his 29 hours in a local hospital (“Twenty-nine hours in hell,” Jan. 4), Charles Davenport Jr. would have done well to reflect on the poor judgment used in response to his initial symptoms.

His eventual admission to a cardiac unit indicates there was some reason to believe he might have suffered a cardiac event such as a heart attack.

Each year, thousands of people lose their lives because they fail to respond promptly to what may be a potentially life-threatening episode such as Davenport reports. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential to saving lives.

Marilyn Evans
Greensboro

Due to an editing error, Sherry Richardson was incorrectly listed as the author of the following letter on Tuesday. We are rerunning the letter in its entirety with the correct author’s name attached.

I think Susie Barnes (letter, “Nurses will remember hospital care criticism,” Jan. 9) is trying to practice nursing. I also think she is burnt out from rotating schedules, inadequate staffing, ever-increasing demands on her time and attention and ever-decreasing resources. My heart goes out to her.

As a medical professional for 30 years, I understand her frustration. However, if her letter reflects how she really feels, she needs to get out. Threatening someone who complains is unprofessional, irresponsible and just plain scary.

I was fortunate to practice my profession during a time when we were trained to extraordinarily high standards, adequately staffed and focused primarily on serving the patient. I have profound respect for everyone who does the work of patient care.

But keeping quiet about the current situation is not going to get it fixed. And there is much to fix. Just listen the next time you are out to dinner in a local restaurant or when a friend wants to share a health care “horror” story. Ms. Barnes, I wish you the best.

Sylvia Dumont
Greensboro

I must respond to Susie Barnes’ letter regarding Charles Davenport’s Jan. 4 column. I am a nurse and know that there are always two sides. Or as my father always told me, “There are three sides to every story: yours, theirs and what really happened.”

With that said, I find Ms. Barnes’ letter a threat. How can you tell someone to be afraid, “very afraid” of seeking medical treatment? Whom does this woman work for and do they realize what a liability she is if this is how she treats patients?

If anyone should apologize, it should be Ms. Barnes, to anyone who needs to seek medical treatment. They need to know that not everyone in the medical profession shares this woman’s mentality.

Linda Sipsis
Greensboro

Regarding the Jan. 9 letter, “Nurses will remember hospital criticism,” in which Susie Barnes responds to Charles Davenport Jr.’s article that criticized some medical care:

The letter makes some outrageous threats toward Davenport and, I guess, anyone else with the nerve to criticize his or her medical care.

Specifically Barnes states, “First, Davenport better hope that he remains healthy as long as he lives in Greensboro because nurses have long memories. He should be afraid of the treatment he might get if he has to seek any kind of medical attention in Guilford County. Very afraid.”

These threats are outrageous and are certainly cause for Ms. Barnes’ employer to assure the community they are aware of these threats and are reviewing her continued employment, and are ensuring any continued patient contact is under continued professional monitoring.
Ms. Barnes is, in fact, the one who owes the medical community an apology for her unprofessional screed.

Richard Calass
Summerfield

Editor’s note: Susie Barnes confirms that she is neither a nurse nor any type of health care professional.

As we stand on the eve of the Obama administration, it is interesting to look back over the last eight years and see how times have changed since George W. Bush took office.

For starters, in 2000 we were at peace. Today we are bogged down in two wars that have so far cost hundreds of thousands of lives, including more than 4,200 Americans, as well as more than $850 billion.

During Bush’s first term, more than 3 million U.S. jobs were exported abroad. However, in 2008 alone, 2.6 million more U.S. jobs were eliminated outright as unemployment skyrocketed.

In 2000, the nation had a budget surplus of $237 billion against a total deficit of $5.674 trillion. In 2008, the government had a deficit of $162 billion against a total deficit of more than $10 trillion. Further economic upheavals have insured this year’s deficit will be well over a trillion dollars.

As Bush retires to his palatial home in an exclusive neighborhood with a generous government pension, we can only wonder if he realizes the extent of the train wreck his administration has made of this country.

Albert Carter
Greensboro

It is Thursday night and here I am watching one of the best sitcoms on television, also known as the Guilford County commissioners meeting. I guess that a county without a county manager operates like this one. This meeting appears to be addressing everything that county staff should take care of.

With the new leadership, there is more than an appearance of micro-management, and this should make all the citizens in Guilford County think. Are the chairman and vice chairman the two people you want to manage the county? Both have problems in their pasts that are questionable as far as running a business.

I feel sorry for the county employees who do not know who their supervisors will be tomorrow or who the new department head will be. A situation like that cannot make for good working conditions.

Maybe after everyone is run off and the replacements are in place, Guilford County will operate as it should until the next change of the guard.

George D. Cole
Greensboro

Regarding the Jan. 8 letter, “Cartoon about Israel misguided ... at best”:

The analogy employed in the letter to prove why Israel needs the force it is using is itself misguided, if not outright misleading.

To be correct, pretend for a moment that Mexicans previously owned the entirety of the United States and Mexico. A U.N. resolution decrees that the minority of Americans in Mexico gets the majority of land. A few years after that, more land is taken from the Mexicans in a series of wars by a heavily armed American military, backed by an extremely wealthy and powerful nation.

Eventually, left unchecked, America occupies the whole of Mexico set aside by the U.N. resolution, save for a small area surrounding Tijuana and a scattering of settlements around Mexico City. Only then would the “America-Mexico” form of analogy truly apply in this situation.

Also, calling someone anti-Semitic for questioning the actions of an increasingly aggressive and imperialistic nation is cowardly and offensive.

Jeff Freeze
Colfax

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Scott Brewington

I was disappointed to learn that the North Carolina Marathon was unable to reach an agreement with the city of Greensboro on the cost of police protection for the 2009 race.

My family and I participated in last year’s event, which began in our city’s center and ended at NewBridge Bank Park. This was a wonderful showcase for Greensboro’s revitalized downtown, neighborhoods and universities as the course touched on each of these areas in our community.

I fully understand the need for fiscal responsibility in these troubling economic times but I feel that Greensboro is missing an opportunity to promote our community in a positive and healthy format. Had this event originated within the Parks and Recreation Department — and not from a nonprofit unaffiliated with the city — I’m sure it would have received the proper support from the City Council.

It is also disappointing to know that, while some on the council waste time, money and our community’s reputation on the firing of the former police chief, the city misses a great opportunity to highlight itself in a positive manner.

High Point seems to recognize the halo effect of associating itself with such a positive event as evidenced by its willingness to cover all of the cost of police protection.

I have run in events in other communities. Marathons are a great vehicle to market a community as vibrant, healthy and engaged.

They can also serve to illustrate the wonderful quality of life, history and diversity of a community. It is embarrassing that, instead of striving for this image, we are focused on the negativity of the past.

I call on the council to seek a resolution between the police department and the marathon organizers and keep the race in Greensboro.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

The horror in the pictures from Gaza and Israel is appalling. Seeing injured or dead children is particularly painful.

This should not happen in our world. How can Hamas allow this? Where is their love for their families? Where is the desire we all have in the Western world to move our loved ones out of harm’s way?

How does Hamas justify using civilians — sometimes at gunpoint — as human shields?
Hamas has all the power it needs to stop this carnage. They don’t have to surrender, give up land, put down their arms. They only have to stop sending rockets into homes, schools, hospitals in Israel.

Hamas, for the sake of your children and of the Palestinian people, stop the rockets!

David Kaplan
Greensboro

Regarding the letter from Susie Barnes (Jan. 9), in which she states that Charles Davenport “should be very afraid” if he becomes a patient of any nurse in Guilford County after his column criticizing his care during a hospital stay:

Ms. Barnes is not herself a nurse, but if she were, she could and should have been reprimanded by the State Board of Nursing for implying threats of poor care toward any patient whose opinions she does not care for.

She maligns me, and the other good nurses in this county, to imply that we would do so. I want to assure anyone, Mr. Davenport included, who may fall under my care, the very best service I can give them. Anger or bias has no place.

That said, I also find it perfectly correct to air such complaints and opinions as Mr. Davenport has done. Most health care workers are quite aware of and working to relieve the overcrowding and understaffing in our industry. He may not know how many of us are just as frustrated as he with the situation.

His column has opened a dialogue for us to help us understand and perhaps move toward solutions together.

Tracy Carpenter
Greensboro

Driving on Guilford County roads, you see trash discarded by selfish, lazy, ignorant slobs. What you don’t realize, unless you walk for exercise like my husband and I do, is how much garbage there is — new and old, all different kinds, bottles with discolored liquid that eventually goes in our streams and lakes.

On our walks, we always carry plastic bags to pick up what’s recyclable. Prison crews come once in a while but they don’t do a great job, and two days later it looks the same. On one of our roads, one person drops, every day, a bag with three beer cans. Once a week this bag includes a vodka bottle. Not only do we have trash but also intoxicated drivers.

Something needs to be done and quickly. You cannot catch the idiots when they are messing up our beautiful world, but maybe businesses, churches, private homeowners or schools could organize a regular schedule to clean the roads around them. It would help, and maybe the guilty would be forced to pick up their own trash.

Earth Day should be every day, not once a year.

Claudie Stuart
High Point

It seems amazing that the Securities and Exchange Commission can find a supposed irregularity in some stock moves by homemaker guru Martha Stewart and yet find it impossible to notice a $50 billion scam by Bernard Madoff. Even with repeated warnings from knowledgeable stock market people, there seems to have been a policy of totally ignoring all warnings.

Amazing, isn’t it?

Dan Blackwood
Greensboro

For those of you who want President Bush to be tried for murder, I have a terrific idea. Why don’t you pool the money you received from his tax credit last year and hire a high-powered attorney to fight your cause? With the sizable amount received, you ought to be able to afford a darn good lawyer. I can’t imagine you spent money given to you by a “murderer.” Surely not.

I imagine you were ecstatic to receive that money and have probably spent it. Shame on you for spending a “murderer’s” money.

You’ve got to be kidding me. You can’t really believe this? The federal government has intelligence on true terrorist murderers who want us dead. What they know would make you never want to leave your house.

I am grateful to President Bush for protecting us from any further attack and making our nation safer. I am grateful for his wonderful tax credit. I would never spend a murderer’s money, nor do I believe he is a murderer.

Thank you, President Bush, for serving our nation.

Robert Wooten
High Point

I enjoyed the young man’s article about Carolina Circle Mall on Jan. 10. I also liked that mall very much.

One day my friend and I were eating at the cafeteria in the mall and I saw some dignified-looking black men sitting at three or four tables put together. A nice woman came and sat with them.

Later she got up and was standing with a young man. I thought he was a bodyguard. I then realized she was Mrs. Rosa Parks. I went over and asked the young man if I could hug her. He said not to hug her too tight. I hugged her and told her I loved her. I bought a book about her life. She was very sweet and a Christian lady.

This was my miracle at Carolina Circle Mall.

Carolyn Corbett
Climax

In anticipation of the incoming president’s pledge to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, I’ve got a suggestion for a bolder move that might address two problems at once.

By all means, close the detention facility. It’s a blot on the reputation of the United States as a country of laws and justice. It is, in effect, a gulag and has no place in our system of justice or in our collective idea of common decency.

In addition, why not close the entire military base at Guantanamo and return the property to Cuba? This would help heal a rift with Cuba that has lasted, to no avail, for 50 years. The base couldn’t be of much military value to us since Cuba is less than 10 minutes flying time for military aircraft based on the U.S. mainland. Cuba doesn’t appear to be a military threat to our country. Returning the base to the Cuban people would be a great goodwill gesture.

Michael Maddox
Madison

Why do developers want to tear down homes and wooded areas and nice buildings when there are so many empty buildings and lots available? The developers at Elm Street-Cornwallis Drive have switched from a medical park to town homes. They have no idea what they want to do. They just own the land and are determined to do something with it.

Meanwhile, diagonally across from where they would tear down and disrupt a neighborhood to build, there is an empty building that was once an Eckerd.

Why don’t they do something with that property instead? It is already zoned for commercial use and sits empty. Why doesn’t City Council, instead of giving developers breaks for tearing down new sites, give them incentives to redevelop the empty buildings and sites that exist in Greensboro?

Barbara Roth
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Kathe Latham

As I watched in awe the beautiful rainbow arch across the sky, I couldn’t help but think of how very fortunate we are to be alive and able to look up into the sky and marvel at its wonders.

At the same time, I can’t help but grieve for the numbers of people all over the globe who do not have the luxury of looking up into the sky in wonderment and joy.

As the implements of war and destruction rain down onto the homes and destroy the lives of innocent people around the world, I shudder in horror, shame and disbelief at the consequences of creating a world with unending violence.

The consequences are so much greater for our children and our children’s children that I wonder what it will take for all good people to stop long enough to realize the devastation we are creating on our own home, planet earth.

I was saddened and outraged by the inhumane stance of William Kristol in his Jan. 6 column on the so-called “success” in Gaza. In describing war as an “unpredictable business,” he takes the worn-out rationale that the ends justify the means and toughness implies strength. So “we” should rejoice in the crushing murders of 680 Palestinians?

Creating peace takes courage. Resorting to weapons of destruction to solve conflicts represents a cowardly inability to seek solutions through negotiation and diplomacy. Candice C. Carter, who is the editor of the Journal of Stellar Peacemaking, recently stated that war is obsolete: “An enemy is one whose story we have not heard.”

To have the strength to reject violence and live as one, we must let go of this notion of winning and focus on what life beyond war looks like, when people connect, hear each others’ stories, and see each other as human beings who all want and deserve the same things.

Seeing each other as human and equal, we can begin to want the best for the “other” as well as ourselves, but to also realize that it is not possible to live freely while others suffer at our expense.

“We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the
sky sparkling with diamonds” (Anton Checkhov).

But only if we have courage to stop the violence once and for all.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

I really wonder what “new direction” Skip Alston and Steve Arnold have in mind for Guilford County.

When the leadership of someone like Sharron Kurtz (former county attorney) is questioned, it really makes us question our trust in public officials.

I personally know Sharron and her family. High morals and honesty are the everyday norm for this family. The children have been taught these principles, through example, by Mark and Sharron.

Guilford County is on the losing side when the choice is doing what “someone wants” instead of having someone with the willingness to stand up for truth and what is right. Hooray for Sharron Kurtz and all that she stands for!

Judy Helms
Whitsett

I voted for John McCain. I was a midshipman in Corpus Christi when he was doing flight training over the Gulf in 1960. He took me up in a Shooting Star. He gave me the stick and said move it slowly to the right. We did a barrel roll, me in control (age 20).

I had enjoyed the previous summer with the Marines at Pendleton (age 19). Before that a destroyer (age 18), later a cruiser (age 21) — summer cruises.

So now pick! I chose none of the above, took additional training in Athens, Ga., to become the supply officer of the USS O’Hare, first ship to the Cuban blockade, last ship back, after a nine-month medical cruise.

Some of my friends now claim to have voted for Obama. Well, Barack is my president. Most think his appointments are wise ones, some experience, some surprises. President-elect Obama has credibility and wide support, and certainly mine! I believe!

Frank Freeman
Greensboro

As a Jewish American, who had most of my family murdered by Nazi brutality, I am appalled by the Israeli government’s massacre of 1,000 Palestinian people, mostly civilians, in Gaza.

Israel is not acting in self-defense. Israel forced Palestinians from their lands in 1948 and refused to implement the United Nations’ declared right of these refugees to return home. Since 2002, until this new invasion, Israeli forces had killed 2,700 Palestinians in Gaza while 25 Israelis had been killed by Hamas rockets. Israel’s siege of Gaza, beginning in 2007, halted economic activity, causing widespread hunger. Half of Gaza residents are now malnourished. Israel refused to stop this strangulation, a condition of the 2008 cease-fire.

Israel’s aggression is propelled and sponsored by U.S. aid of $3 billion each year, the most to any country. This generosity has nothing to do with concern for Jewish people. It is about control of the Middle East and its oil. Support for the murderous aggression against Gaza from both President Bush and, through his silence, President-elect Obama, indicates that from Iraq and Afghanistan to Palestine, it is business as usual for the United States in defense of profits and empire, war crimes and all.

Mark Dimondstein
Greensboro

Enough with the Bush legacy! Our royal family has another scion in the presidential pipeline, Jeb the Plump. The only thing this administration managed to coordinate efficiently was the spiriting away by special jet in the dead of night the relatives of Osama bin Laden before they could be questioned by any official, local, state or federal.

And how about a bike trail at SMU, rather than a presidential library? Video kiosks could be built along the path, with appropriate sound bites. A bike trail would be environmentally friendly, would provide good exercise, and probably would hold more useful information than a library built to honor a president who does not read.

Ross Howell
Greensboro

The best way to cut our nation’s deficit is to stop giving every nation in the world our hard-earned tax dollars. Keep it for ourselves.

We need our money to help pay for our needs. Every agency and state is short of money. Why are we giving countries billions of dollars, whether they need it or not? Let them get their own money.

Like the old saying goes, it’s lots easier to spend someone else’s money than it is your own.

Jimmy Carter
Eden

How would you like to have a right under state law taken away? That is what the Greensboro City Council did more than 30 years ago when protest petition rights were taken from us. The protest petition allows for the owners of 5 percent of the property within 100 feet of a proposed rezoning in their neighborhood to be heard by the City Council. A super-majority vote of the council is required for rezoning.

Every city and town in North Carolina with a zoning department has the protest petition, except for Greensboro. Read the Dec. 21, 1970, Greensboro Record and the Dec. 22, 1970, Greensboro Daily News to see how this was accomplished.

Greensboro’s City Council will decide Wednesday on whether to endorse restoring the protest petition. This is a citizen right we have been denied for 37 years and look what is happening to our neighborhoods. The League of Women Voters, the Neighborhood Congress, Coalition for Concerned Citizens and others support the restoration of the protest petition.

If it is good for Raleigh, Charlotte, Winston-Salem and all large cities in North Carolina, wouldn’t it be good for Greensboro? Contact your City Council representatives and attend the meeting Wednesday.

Willie Taylor
Greensboro

As a former Greensboro City Council member and someone who was involved in a large, controversial rezoning, I was stunned when I heard about something called a protest petition. I was taken aback that such a provision existed and that Greensboro is the only city in North Carolina that is exempt from this legislation. I think that we should have the same power as any other North Carolina city dweller, and I have heard no reasonable justification as to why this right was taken away from us.

The protest petition will not eliminate controversial rezonings. But, the mere existence of the protest petition will motivate the rezoning applicant to engage in meaningful dialogue and to put forth the highest-quality proposal. It will result in improved development and development that is in greater harmony with the surrounding area. This will be especially important as we see more infill development.

To those who say that it will impede growth, I say look to Charlotte and Raleigh. It is obvious to anyone that the protest petition has not curtailed their growth and development.

It is a question of fairness, and I hope that the City Council will restore our voice.

Nancy Vaughan
Greensboro

As a concerned taxpayer and poor person, Mr. Obama, please listen to my opinion about the $700 billion bailout.

First, put autoworkers out of jobs building cars. I realize putting autoworkers on the street will hurt them, but give them jobs building other stuff like prisons and hospitals. Just for a year or so. There are enough cars sitting on car lots in America to give a new one to every licensed driver. When these run out, then start building more cars.

Next, instead of having to buy out carmakers, give the money to the American people to do with as they need. Food, clothing and shelter come to mind. Instead of bulking up an industry that really could use a rest, bulk up Americans. Food and medicine for the young and old is a good idea. Shelter for the homeless or the poorer working person is a good idea. Educate the American public, send the unemployed to school to learn a new trade or job skill.

Mr. Obama, do you remember the platform you were elected on? You were for the little man. Well, the little man like me is still waiting for our president to come to the aid of his country.

Where are you?

Vicky Allison
Greensboro

As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take the oath of office, economists tell us America continues to slide into recession. Fortunately, Obama knows our economic recovery hinges on making smart investments today that will protect our environment, restore our valuable natural resources and set us on the path to a clean energy economy. He’s presented a vision of economic recovery centered around clean, made-in-America, renewable energy. The fate of not just our environment but our economy depends on how quickly we move to re-power America with clean energy solutions.

An economic recovery package is just the first step. The most important thing America can do in 2009 to galvanize investment in clean energy technology is to enact a cap-and-invest plan that reduces global warming pollution and grows clean energy technologies that will recharge our economy. Selling carbon credits to those who create greenhouse gases will also provide funding to invest in America’s natural resources. This funding could mitigate the damage climate change and carbon product extraction (such as mountaintop mining) is having on critical wildlife habitats in this country.

G. Richard Mode
Morganton

The writer is a board member of the N.C. Wildlife Federation and its affiliate representative with the National Wildlife Federation.

I am writing regarding Leonard Pitts’ column (Jan. 14) about President George W. Bush’s legacy.

I am truly concerned about Mr. Pitts. How will he write interesting columns without President Bush to hate? Where will he direct his hate and bile since we will have a Democratic president and House and Senate?

Sherry Mayer
Greensboro

On this Inauguration Day, I wanted to share a story about a pastor named James Reeb. The Rev. Reeb officiated at my parents’ wedding in 1960. Five years later, on March 9, 1965, he went to Selma, Ala., answering a call from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for clergy to gather for a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.

That same evening, Rev. Reeb, a white, Unitarian minister, was beaten to death by supremacists.

I’m sharing this not to sadden nor to revisit the sins of the past, but to celebrate a victory of virtue. For, although an inauguration is merely the installment of a new chief executive, one might acknowledge that, as our president-elect rises for his oath of office, he stands on a platform built in no small part by the Rev. Reeb, Dr. King and countless others of all races, ideologies, creeds and religions whose consciences proved stronger than their fears and whose sacrifices have inspired nations.

Jim Scott
Oak Ridge

Charles Davenport Jr. and I have radically different world views, so I rarely read his column. However, I did read his negative description of his brief stay in a local hospital and, even in this experience, we differ dramatically.

Several years ago, our daughter was in a devastating accident. Her long, arduous recovery began with two months at Moses Cone. At a time when we were overwhelmed with anxiety, uncertainty and despair, we were surrounded by physicians, nurses, therapists, aides, technicians, administrative personnel and even cleaning staff who were not only extremely competent, but also extremely compassionate.

The level of care — in all senses — that our daughter (and entire family) received was exceptional. In a two-month period in a large health care system, there were inevitably some problems and frustrations, but the excellent medical care and constant acts of kindness more than compensated for those minor issues.

I am sorry it took Davenport’s negative commentary, based on his very limited experience, to make me finally publicly say what should have been said long ago: Thank you to the people who make Moses Cone such an outstanding hospital. Please know that our gratitude only grows as we watch our daughter thrive.

Deborah Guttentag
Greensboro

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the many nurses, nurse’s aides, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, pharmacists, nutritionists, social workers, secretaries and staff that I had the privilege of working with over the last 15 years as medical director of the Restorative Care Unit (RCU) at High Point Regional Health System.

I have had the opportunity to witness, firsthand, the outstanding work of a dedicated staff, resulting in life-changing improvements for hundreds of patients. The RCU has been a family of talented, caring professionals with the single goal of improving patient lives. I will miss you all.

Grady M. Stone, M.D.
High Point

I will always remember the first public words spoken by President Bush after the attack on Sept. 11, 2001: “Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended.”

The human race will never have to experience the evil plans and actions that Saddam Hussein or the Taliban might have perpetrated with the resources of entire countries at their disposal and decades more time.

For decades to come, countries that knowingly harbor terrorists also will have the memory that Americans are willing to drop their military might at their doorstep, even in these oh-so-modern times, if we deem it necessary.

Even when our military was on the move, was anyone worried that America would use its nuclear arsenal? No, no one. Contrast this with the worries about a nuclear Iran. The moral-equivalence crowd will at least have to climb over that hurdle.

Maybe we are too optimistic. Even though war and fighting are prominent threads through all of human history, we cannot resist the idea that peace as far as the eye can see is just around the corner. The choice is never between war and peace, but war and slavery. May we always choose freedom.

William Rorrer
Eden

The following is a Counterpoint.

By Charles D. Rodenbough

As I was enjoying the thorough coverage in the News & Record the swearing in of North Carolina’s new senator, Kay Hagan (Jan. 11), I was suddenly taken up short by the statement beside a photograph that she was the first resident of Guilford County elected to the U.S. Senate.

Hagan deserves all the plaudits as our new senator; the trouble is, she is the second U.S. senator from Guilford.

In 1777, Alexander Martin settled his mother and family on Dan River in the northern third of Guilford County. In 1778, he was elected to the N.C. Senate from Guilford and was re-elected for the next four years, becoming speaker of the Senate in 1780. Since there was then no lieutenant governor, when Gov. Thomas Burke was captured at Hillsborough, Alexander Martin became acting governor (from Guilford). The next year, he was elected governor and re-elected for two more one-year terms (from Guilford). When his term limit was up, he was re-elected to the Senate and immediately made speaker again (from Guilford).

During this time, he and his brother-in-law, Thomas Henderson, purchased several hundred acres surrounding the site of Guilford Courthouse and laid out the town of Martinsville. The town incorporated the courthouse and Martin’s home. Still of Guilford, he then was chosen one of the five delegates of North Carolina to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He was returned to the Senate speakership for two years until he was again elected governor (from Guilford) for three more years.

In his last year as governor, he was elected U.S. senator (from Guilford). When he finished his term as senator, he made his home with his mother on the Dan River, which by then had become part of Rockingham County. There, after serving yet again as speaker of the N.C. Senate (from Rockingham), he died in 1807.

How can we forget that Alexander Martin was the first U.S. senator for North Carolina from Guilford County? No single person in the state served more continuously in high office during this 19-year period when this country was being born out of war. Guilford County has no more significant public figure in its history. Nathanael Greene probably spent about a week in Guilford County in his whole life, but we recognized him with two statues.

Perhaps one of the accomplishments of Sen. Hagan will be to see that her home county finally finds a proper way to honor our own Founding Father, Alexander Martin, so that we won’t run the risk of forgetting his accomplishments.

The writer lives in Greensboro and is the author of “Governor Alexander Martin, Biography of a North Carolina Revolutionary War Statesman.”

Editor’s note: Charles Rodenbough and the caption in the News & Record are both correct, in our opinion. Guilford County resident Alexander Martin was elected to the U.S. Senate by the N.C. Legislature as required at that time by the U.S. Constitution. Hagan is the first elected directly by the people as called for by the 17th Amendment. More properly, however, Hagan should be referred to as the first U.S. senator from Greensboro.

The new president gave a rousing and skillful inaugural address today.

It was tough and diplomatic.Hard-edged and warm-hearted.

He clearly recognizes the enormity of the task ahead, and he wants us to know that it will take time and sacrifice to fix all that’s broken.

I especially give Obama points for his direct appeal to Muslims and his warning to America’s enemies about our resolve.

And for his warning that government doesn't have all the answers. Nor should it.

Good start. Now comes the hard part.

Update: I've done it again ... accidentally posted an item for my blog on the letters blog. Please go to "Thinking Out Loud" if you'd like to continue this discussion. Sorry for the confusion.

The following is a Counterpoint.

By Mark Kelcourse

I watched, with some amusement, the gathering of “protesters” on Wendover Avenue last Saturday. They were waving what I assume were Palestinian flags. Two men were carrying a makeshift coffin with “GAZA” painted on the side.

The police presence was increasing as time passed — my guess is, to ensure no one tried to join the group carrying a flag of Israel.

After all, it was quite clear from the words and tone used by the person holding the bullhorn that they see “Palestinians” as the innocent victims here. It is also clear from the TV coverage that the so-called reporters share this view.

What would have happened if I walked through the crowd and asked the person yelling into the bullhorn for a couple of answers for which there is a natural truth answer? (Natural truth is something being true regardless of one’s political views.)

Does the Palestinian leadership, being Hamas, believe that Israel has the right to exist? The answer would be no response because the true answer to the question is that Hamas does not believe Israel has the right to exist. This is not propaganda. It is written in the preamble of the Hamas Charter.

Second, does the person with the bullhorn believe that deliberately targeting civilian centers is always wrong? Again, there would be no response. Hamas does not make a distinction between Israeli military and civilians.

Hamas seeks cover in schools, hospitals and mosques, which violates international war crimes statutes. The world media dutifully report, “Israel bombs hospital” rather than “Israel bombs Hamas weapons depot.”

If the protesters really longed for peace, there would have been at least three flags. And statements on the news would be of Palestinians demanding that their rulers stop attacking Israel and acknowledge that Israel has the right to exist. I won’t hold my breath waiting.

I have no dog in this fight. I am neither Jewish nor Christian. I only seek truth. And no one listening to the protest found any truth.

The writer lives in Greensboro.

As we take the first step toward a new administration, it is a good time to reflect upon the outgoing administration.

While there has been much vitriol about President Bush’s eight years, there are certain things unsaid that should be.

First, reflect upon the grace and cooperation that has occurred since November 2008 and compare it to how the Clinton administration transitioned to President Bush.

The outgoing administration of 2009 is to be commended for its performance, just as Clinton’s team should be condemned for its adolescent performance.

Which brings us to judgment. History will be the judge, as it should be, and in the past, popularity has rarely resulted in high historical judgment: Truman, Carter, Nixon, Bush, Clinton and now the second Bush.

Michael Lopez
Summerfield

Eddie Huffman’s article, “Eco-friendly choices” (Jan. 18), was a welcome introduction to sustainable gardening.

Karen Neill’s comment that encouraging simple steps is the best way to involve gardeners is supported by a number of programs, including the N.C. Native Plant Society’s Natural Habitat Certification Program, which recognizes the value of both native and non-native plants.

We do take issue with one point: Neill was quoted as saying, “Native plants aren’t really an issue, since dense urban development has so radically changed the Triad’s landscape. We don’t have native sites anymore.”

There are sites in Guilford County substantially unchanged by development. Granted, the percentage of land unaffected by human activity is small, but natural sites are around.

We are also fortunate to have some enlightened builders who now leave green spaces and trees, and allow plant rescues, fully aware that this adds economic value to their developments.
Regarding invasive plants, Huffman and Neill should realize that there are plants that have been brought into this country that significantly alter our native environment. They should not be recommended, no matter how easy they are to grow.

As an aside: Chinese Kousa dogwood, though lovely, is not a North Carolina native.

Katherine Schlosser
Greensboro

The writer is a member of the N.C. Native Plant Society.

My daughter and I attended the Eagles concert at the Greensboro Coliseum on Jan. 17. Being a Greensboro citizen and knowing there would be a charge for parking, I was prepared to pay $6 to $8.

I was shocked to see the $15 posted. Since it was too late to turn around, and for safety’s sake, I went ahead and paid.

I checked the coliseum’s Web site on Jan. 18 and under “Guest Services/Parking” it stated that parking is $4 to $12, depending on the event. I sent Coliseum Managing Director Matt Brown an e-mail regarding my displeasure at what I perceive as a blatant attempt to take advantage of a sold-out show to make money, and about the Web site.

Today, Jan. 20, the Web site states $5 to $20!

I have defended Brown and his staff many times over the years, but this is just plain wrong! The tickets for the concert were high enough, don’t you think? My suspicion of gouging seems to have validity in the fact they changed the Web site after the fact. Enough is enough.

Kent Benfield
Greensboro

City Councilman Zack Matheny just spoke volumes in talking to your reporter about the protest petition issue (Jan. 20).

“The neighbors are winning,” Matheny said about our current zoning process. As in: The neighbors have a say about what gets built beside them; the neighbors have a process for having their concerns heard. Whether or not that’s true — that our current zoning process makes it easy for residents to oppose proposals — is that a bad thing?

Aren’t Matheny and his fellow City Council members elected to serve the best interests of the city, meaning all of us “neighbors”? Do any of us want to live in a city where the interests of developers trump the concerns of residents, and a few council votes make it happen?

Lisa Watts
Greensboro

Concerning the “disproportionate” use of force by Israel, a few facts should be kept in mind:

Hamas makes no distinction between civilians and military personnel when attacking Israel.
It purposely situates itself inside schools, neighborhoods and hospitals, using civilians as shields.

Israel drops fliers on these areas asking people to evacuate before it uses military force.

More than 6,000 rockets were fired at Israelis before the Israeli military responded.

In 2000-2001, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians their own state, with its capital in Jerusalem, control over the Temple Mount; a return of 95 percent of the West Bank and all of Gaza; and a $30 billion compensation package for the 1948 refugees. The offer was rejected.

I wish that Hamas would seriously consider the words of former resident Gaza resident Nonie Darwish, who heads the group, Arabs for Israel: “Reject hate, embrace love. Bring out the best in Islam by showing your compassion, gratitude and forgiveness. Make the Holy Land truly holy by giving Israel and the Jewish people the respect they deserve in their tiny little country. ... We need not fear peace, but embrace it.”

Kevin Thurm
Greensboro

At the risk of being presumptuous, I would offer a bit of advice to Hamas: First and foremost, quit being a surrogate for Iran. This hasn’t served your purposes well. Following this path has left your communities in shambles, created catastrophic humanitarian conditions and destroyed the lives of so many innocent people.

Second, quit firing rockets into Israel. In the last 31/2 years (since Israel left Gaza), you have been responsible for launching thousands of rockets into Israel, causing emotional trauma to those living in southern Israel and, more importantly, for innocent Palestinians, triggering a war that puts your electorate in mortal danger.

Third, accept a two-state solution. Having a charter that calls for the eradication of Israel will never have good consequences.

Show the Obama administration and the rest of the world that a change can come to the Middle East. You have the choice to lead your people to prosperity, not war. Your track record, however, indicates that you keep making the wrong choices. It has been said that Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

With a tenuous cease-fire now in place, please don’t miss the next opportunity.

David Marker
Greensboro

Your front-page article, “PTI officials still hopeful after a year of hardship” (Jan. 18), raises some provocative points.

First, the FedEx “package hub”: People are fleeing the Cardinal and other nearby residential areas in anticipation of the nighttime noise created by numerous cargo flights in the early morning hours. And the landscape and road network have been destroyed to make way for the unnecessary third runway. Many of us have maintained for a long time that this is a poor location for this operation.

The emphasis on air-cargo transportation is misdirected, as well as this talk of an “aerotropolis” and the airport expanding its property for economic development. Cargo (except for truly urgent overnight shipment) can be better handled by more energy-efficient and less-polluting railroads that made Greensboro the Gate City.

It’s fine to improve air-passenger service operating at reasonable hours so we don’t have to drive to Charlotte or Raleigh-Durham. Let’s hope that some of this aviation emphasis — HondaJet, GTCC aviation programs, Timco, etc. — help the passenger picture.

Harry Clapp
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Denise Turner

Coming off the holidays, it is a tough blow for the city of Greensboro to be characterized as an Ebenezer Scrooge by the News & Record’s editorial page regarding the North Carolina Marathon moving to High Point. This is especially difficult to accept when Greensboro has already spent more than $500,000 in the current budget to support a variety of community events.

While city staff worked earnestly to find ways to accommodate the marathon within the planners’ budget of $40,000, they had to balance the inevitable additional costs with the reality of our current fiscal circumstances. The city is facing a $4.5 million deficit, and analysts are cautioning us to brace for even more difficulties next year.

The News & Record has been filled with recent articles detailing the economic realities facing families, businesses and communities across our nation. Greensboro is not immune.

Our experience hosting the event last year taught us that the scope and geographical area of the marathon requires the activation of many additional police officers. Such an extensive plan also requires that they be paid at overtime rates so as not to compromise the policing responsibilities that provide the essential framework for the safety of our community.

In reality, High Point was in an advantageous position to attract the marathon. Because of the furniture market, infrastruture will be in place and costs associated with a tent, stage and portable toilets already will be covered.

Moreover, your editorial quotes a Raleigh marathon organizer as saying Greensboro’s cost estimates were “crazy” but fails to mention his qualifier — the acknowledgment that he did not know the actual layout of our course. In fact, Raleigh’s marathon utilizes more park area, thus requiring fewer road closures and police attention than Greensboro’s more urban course.

In any event, the city of Greensboro will continue to support the N.C. Marathon. The city of High Point has already contacted Greensboro’s police department requesting logistical and planning assistance for staging the event.

Regardless of the News & Record’s unjust criticism, the city of Greensboro will remain focused on its core mission: serving as responsible stewards of taxpayers’ money while continuing to provide the essential services that set the foundation for our quality of life.

The writer is assistant city manager for communications for the city of Greensboro.

According to a story by Nancy McLaughlin, a pray-a-thon recently has been taking place for President Obama at Zion Baptist Church. Let’s hope those prayers are answered.

Speaking of prayer, I note that the Indianapolis Star has discontinued printing its Daily Prayer.

The prayer, a short ecumenical petition, at most vanilla, and the size of a postage stamp, has been a staple of the morning edition for decades. It debuted on the editorial page in 1963, moved to Page A1 in 1968 and to Page A2 in 2000.

The decision to drop the prayer rightly generated a torrent of complaints from Star readers. The editor responded: “We appreciate that this has been a long tradition in The Star. But we are re-evaluating our mission and all that we do.

“I believe that prayer is a very personal thing and that offering prayers is something for individuals and their churches. We are a newspaper, not a church.”

At least the Star still provides its subscribers with a weekly TV section.

Fred Gregory
Greensboro

I enjoyed very much reading the Counterpoint, “Making peace, not war, takes courage,” by Kathe Latham. I feel the same way. I wear a T-shirt that says: “Peace also takes courage.” She made some really good points. Funny, our last names are the same!

Ann Latham
Eden

Editor’s note: Ann Latham and Kathe Latham are not related.

I have great admiration for President Bush. He had many difficult decisions to make and took ownership of those decisions.

Those decisions, correctly, were not based on opinion polls. Only history will ultimately tell if they were right or wrong. No other president has faced the challenges President Bush had to face. His courage is to be much admired.

I am very proud that he has served as my son’s commander-in-chief for the past eight years.

Take any individual, any business, any team, add the interference of outside ignorance, hatred and divisiveness, and you will always destroy the success that could have been. Unfortunately, that was the playbook of those opposed to the Bush presidency.

I pray that we all come to our senses and realize that each of us owes the institution of the presidency, and the person filling that position, our support, our good will and our respect. No matter what our political affiliation is, we should support the person holding this office and make every effort to make him successful. Only then do we all succeed.

As a citizen who supported John McCain, I pray that we can all come together to make the Obama presidency the most successful yet.

Charlie Vickers
Greensboro

Addressing the article by Lex Alexander, “Should Smoking Marijuana be a Medical Option?” (Jan. 18), I would like to clarify some facts:

“Based on reviews by the National Eye Institute (NEI) and the Institute of Medicine and on available scientific evidence, the Task Force on Complementary Therapies believes that no scientific evidence has been found that demonstrates increased benefits and/or diminished risks of marijuana use to treat glaucoma compared with the wide variety of pharmaceutical agents now available” (www.eyecareamerica.org).

Smoking gets to the brain faster than ingestion, and that is why the results are felt quicker than oral medication.

The reason why more adolescents use tobacco and alcohol as gateway drugs is because they are legal and easily accessible.

Marijuana is not safer that oral medication. There are 40 carcinogens in marijuana.
Marijuana is addictive.

I could continue to state many rebuttals to the article. Please remember that the risks outweigh the benefits. Ask an addict who started out with “just marijuana.”

Julie Westholder
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Meltonia Loretta Young

Barack Obama gives historians an opportunity to set African American history right. Studying the history of African Americans in early America is both painful and exhilarating.

However, since Obama’s amazing achievement, that sentiment has not and will not change.
It is still painful to learn of African Americans’ terrible enslavement and that there is not a national slavery museum documenting African American history.

Moreover, it is still painful that America has not paid Africans for building America, creating its economic power and its White House.

However, it was exhilarating to learn how African Americans rebelled, ran away, resisted their oppression, and how one African American with an African name has to rebuild America.

It is serendipitous how Obama has to rebuild America’s infrastructures and repair its economic system, because African Americans always possessed the ability to learn and achieve greatness, the same as whites.

Now from an amateur historian’s perspective, it will be interesting to see how other historians take on the challenge ahead of them.

Will they write African American history similar to the manner that it has been written throughout the centuries, or will they rewrite African American history to give accolades to the true leader and director of the 1963 March on Washington — Asa Philip Randolph?

Will they elucidate that Dr. King’s mass-media-made speech, “I Have a Dream,” was not about dreaming but, ironically, about what Obama’s administration has to do, for instance: Return jobs and housing to Americans, and lift up a class of people.

Let me be clear. King’s speech was exciting and spiritually moving yet insipid in comparison to Randolph’s opening remarks or the pledge Randolph made after King’s speech on the economic plight of African Americans.

Nevertheless, Obama’s adventures in the White House will do one epic thing for other African Americans: It will stop some of us from dreaming and start striving to achieve goals and ethics in life, to build a happier and healthier life for future generations.

Rome wasn’t built in a day; neither was the White House. Most importantly, this isn’t the first time capitalism has been taken back to the drawing board, but it’s the first time capitalism has been interwoven with socialism.

It is the first time the left wing of politics can sensibly change America for all of its citizens. It is also an opportunity for some historians to get our history right.

The writer lives in Jamestown.

We want to be a united country. Let’s start by calling ourselves proud Americans. We don’t need to separate ourselves anymore by calling ourselves African American, Irish American, Scottish American. If you were born in one of the 50 states, you are just a plain American.

Most of us have a different country our families originated in — European, African or Asian.

Why can’t we be happy with our great country and represent it by calling ourselves Americans? The Irish have Ireland, Africans have Africa and Scots have Scotland. Americans should have America.

We are the greatest nation in the world and shouldn’t be ashamed of it. If you are born in America, you are an American, no matter what your skin color. Everybody wants change, but it’s time to look past skin color and origins.

Since I’ve never been to Ireland, I’m going to refer to myself as an American instead of Irish American like I have in the past.

I think 95 percent of the Triad will agree with me. Keep up the good work, fellow Americans.

Jason Carter
McLeansville

In 2008, Greensboro lost three outstanding educators: Dr. Jim Hull, Tonie Bryant and Dr. Jesse Marshall.

Hull was chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Greensboro College and an active Civitan. He and his wife, Jo, founded the Piedmont Interfaith Council.

Bryant was a dedicated English teacher at Page High School for 39 years. He served as chairman of the English Department and helped many students through his early morning tutoring when he voluntarily met the earliest buses.

Marshall served as vice chancellor of student affairs at N.C. A&T State University. With the help of his Civitan club, he developed the Jesse E. Marshall Scholarship Fund to assist students in A&T’s teacher education program.

Well done, good and faithful servants.

Robert A. Clendenin
Jamestown

The writer is a Civitan member and retired Page principal.

Regarding Marlene Sanford’s comments on the Jan. 20 editorial page, TREBIC apparently believes it is ridiculous for the citizens of Greensboro to enjoy the same rights citizens of every other North Carolina city, plus those in Durham County, enjoy.

It is not ridiculous. It is right.

Charlie Brummitt
Greensboro

On the whole, “Eco-friendly choices” by Eddie Huffman (Jan. 18), was well-presented with the addition of beautifully colored pictures, some of which included native plants.

However, Karen Neill, our county extension agent, made blunders in her rhetoric: “… native plants aren’t really an issue, since dense development has so radically changed the Triad’s landscape. We don’t have native sites anymore …”

She has seen my small native forest as well as many other native plants in the community.

In July 2006, the News & Record started a monthly column, “Going Native,” where members of the N.C. Native Plant Society wrote about their plants and the conflict of invasive plants. Katherine Schlosser, our editor, continues the column.

Should the next person who owns my property cut down the native trees that protect the precious understory, including some rare wildflowers, Neill’s recent insincere, reckless comments would come back to haunt her.

The development in which we live requires the permission of the homeowners’ association’s architectural review committee to cut down trees larger than six inches in diameter.

Conservation efforts should be more intensive rather than “not an issue,” right, Karen?

Judy Stierand
Whitsett

If I were a robber, murderer, child molester, rapist, etc., I would have been very happy to learn that our already short-handed police department would be sending 50 of our finest to guard the next president. Good job, police department and News & Record, for letting the low-lifes know.

Now I think that was a fine idea, but the news could have been printed after they got back.

Louis Coble
Pleasant Garden

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Rosalyn Orr

I read with interest the story concerning LaToya Coltrane and similar families with school-age children who have struggled with periods of homelessness (“Nowhere they can call home,” Jan. 11).

I imagine many readers were surprised to learn more than 930 students in Guilford County are homeless. (Some estimate the number to be significantly higher and growing.) The News & Record has done a good job describing efforts to help homeless families, including Greensboro Urban Ministry’s regular and overflow shelters and a coalition of agencies implementing a Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness.

The Barnabas Network is a nonprofit working to serve these families as well. In the past two years, Barnabas has provided more than 750 mattress sets and frames to children who would otherwise sleep on the floor, or worse. These include children moving from homelessness or experiencing equally overwhelming circumstances.

I wish to thank the businesses, foundations, faith communities and individuals supporting this effort, including Sealy, The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, Hillsdale Fund, Cemala Foundation, Ellison Family Fund, Bobby Long, Sternberger-Tannenbaum Foundation, Mary Lynn Richardson Fund, Joseph Bryan Foundation and Jim Rucker. The need to help these families will continue. The Barnabas Network pledges to redouble its commitment to ensuring innocent children in need do not suffer unnecessarily.

The staff, board and volunteers of The Barnabas Network also have a unique understanding of Ms. Coltrane’s struggle to find sustainable employment. Employment is arguably the most important variable in ensuring that those returning from prison or recovering from other major setbacks can establish themselves as successful citizens. The stakes are highest for those with children.

Based on statistics, the likelihood of ex-offenders finding decent work is not good. At the same time, the costs and negative implications of these individuals remaining unemployed are huge to their families and the community.

The Barnabas Network offers support and meaningful work experience to those seeking employment during times of critical transition. Lives can be changed for the better when deserving people who have made mistakes are given another chance.

Chances are that most readers, certainly including myself, have made some bad decisions along the way.

Were we given another chance? What if we had not been?

Please call, write or visit The Barnabas Network to learn more about how to help the most vulnerable members of our community.

The writer is executive director, The Barnabas Network, and lives in Greensboro.

To help address the unemployment crisis, we must bring back the manufacturing jobs that went offshore. By doing so, this would provide opportunities for many — from entry-level associates to managers to CEOs — versus structuring our economy on service/financial type jobs.

Many companies are now realizing that lower wages paid in other countries do not compensate for longer lead times to service customers, the cost of transportation, lost productivity and, most importantly, quality.

One method to create jobs is to address Congressman John Linder’s and Neal Boortz’s proposal of the Fair Tax. This is not a Republican or a Democratic issue but an American issue of creating jobs.

As the late Adrian Rogers noted, “What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.”

There will always be taxes, from local to federal, but the Fair Tax is the best of all available options for now and for everyone.

As noted in Linder’s and Boortz’s book, “If we were to pass the Fair Tax and eliminate all taxes on capital and labor, and tax personal consumption instead, we would be the only nation in the world whose companies could sell into a global economy with no tax component in the price system.”

That would open our economy for a tremendous gain in manufacturing jobs.

Dan West
McLeansville

The News & Record is to be commended for Lex Alexander’s remarkably thorough story, “Should smoking marijuana be a medical option?” (Jan. 18). A couple of clarifications are in order:

First, marijuana need not be smoked to be used as a medicine. Vaporization, which delivers the fast action and easy dose adjustment of smoking without the tars and other harmful components of smoke, is available today and has been proven by published, peer-reviewed research. And even when smoked, the majority of research indicates that marijuana is, in fact, not a risk for lung cancer.

Second, a number of studies have been conducted and published since the 1999 Institute of Medicine report. Several have demonstrated that marijuana safely and effectively treats a type of nerve pain common in multiple sclerosis, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and other illnesses, for which conventional treatments often fail.

Bruce Mirken
San Francisco

The writer is director of communications, the Marijuana Policy Project.

What a beautiful day! What a grand group of people!

I am so proud of my country and proud to be an American. This has not been the case for the past eight years, when I mostly have been ashamed for, and embarrassed about, what the administration was doing and saying, and wanting to hide under a rock.

Not today! I fly!

Now the whole family of this wonderful country can come alive with pride again. And that’s all there is to say.

Indeed, God blessed America!

Gay Cheney
Browns Summit

When Jimmy Carter took office in 1977, he inherited the national debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product (ND/GDP) of 27.5 percent, but he reduced it to 26.1 percent.

In 1989, when Ronald Reagan left office, he had increased the ratio to 40.9 percent (the national debt grew from about $1 trillion to about $3 trillion, an increase of more than 200 percent).

In 1993, when George H.W. Bush left office, the ratio had increased to 48.1 percent.
In 2001, when Bill Clinton left office, the ratio had decreased to 35.1 percent (the national debt actually decreased).

In 2009, when George W. Bush left office, it had increased to 40.8 percent (the national debt grew from $5 trillion to about $11 trillion, an increase more than 100 percent).

These facts are taken from the Jan. 20 edition of The Wall Street Journal, page R4.

Now that we have President Barack Obama in office, both fiscally conservative and liberal economists agree that it is necessary to spend another trillion dollars to get out of this deep recession.

Do not blame the Democrats!

Gaylord Hageseth
Greensboro

What’s wrong with this picture? County and city officials can levy a tax on property owners in the county without their consent, and without a vote.

Equally distributing the costs of municipal government among all citizens in the county and visitors to the county in a far more democratic procedure requires a vote of the entire county, most of whom do not own property. Several years ago, a petition initiative addressed that problem in California.

Oh, and incidentally, isn’t it against the law for any municipality to forbid its citizenry the right to redress grievances by exercising their right to petition?

Anybody remember the Boston Tea Party?

Lonnie Groendes
Greensboro

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been impeached and Roland Burris seated as President Obama’s replacement in the Senate. While the legality of Blagojevich’s actions is under question, the morality is not. Burris’ appointment was, at best, dubious.

From childhood we are taught the difference between right and wrong. This should be well-ingrained in adults. No one is perfect, but auctioning off Senate seats is clearly not right. The legality of the politicians’ actions shouldn’t even enter the equation. Both of these men should have the grace to step aside because, like it or not, they are morally obligated to do so.

Adults say we teenagers are not engaged in the political process, and we’re too busy texting our friends to be bothered. The behaviors exhibited by the governor, his appointee and countless other politicians, past and present, only encourage future voters to be apathetic and cynical. It is not our fault if the examples we see in the news are ones of corruption and indifference.

In three years, when I’m 18, you can expect to see me at the polls so that corrupt politicians do not continue to poison the democracy so many Americans have worked to protect.

Callie-Marshall Wallace
Greensboro

The writer is a sophomore at Page High School.

With the Reign of Error’s closing days, we saw a supremely competent pilot bring 155 passengers safely through a crash landing where the miraculous survivors appeared to be walking on water.

What powerful symbology in these times of strife and financial turmoil, on the eve of a new administration that brings such hope in informed, inspired, competent, caring leadership that understands the changes our nation and the world yearn to see bring rescue from the disastrous consequences of unchecked incompetence, cronyism and corruption.

What a blessing for our moving together into a new way of being.

Peter Campbell
Greensboro

In all the “Letters to Obama,” I only read one letter with a little bit of an opposing viewpoint. The instructions said you could send advice as well, and this was all I did. I tried stating that, as a Republican, I am extremely disappointed at the lack of respect President Bush had gotten in the last eight years and pleaded for Mr. Obama to rise above the blame game he has been known to cast.

I am now disappointed at how this paper has portrayed us Republicans. I thought, being 19, I may have had a chance, but now I see that any letter not worshiping and praising the “wonderful and loving” Barack Obama would just be wrong to print.

Thank you for making me just more set in my Republican ideals.

Darby Winters
Greensboro

The story, “Food stamp requests tell bleak tale” (Jan. 15), is saddening. Worse, it just reports figures. We all know someone who is struggling to make ends meet.

After viewing the Guilford County Web page for food stamp applications, I was shocked to see so few categories asking information from the applicant about other expenses such as mortgage/shelter and utilities.

These people need food or they wouldn’t go through this process. Why is there no mention of accountability on the part of the applicant?

I would like to see a budget planner right alongside the application for food stamps and make it mandatory to submit these forms together. This would force applicants to realistically look at their finances.

When 2,800 people applied for food stamps in December (almost a 50 percent increase from 2007), that sets off an alarm. I hope they have taken steps to rein in their finances. Cancel cable TV and premium channels, cancel or review cell phones and plans, use the public library, do not eat out, refill water bottles, utilize averaging programs for utilities, clip coupons, shop food sales. We need to re-educate people on being responsible with their finances. It will empower them to do with less.

Troyce Hood
Greensboro

While Julie Westholder (“Risks outweigh benefits for marijuana smokers,” letter, Jan. 23) makes some valid points, I would like to advise her that the current policies are not working. While she may consider alcohol and tobacco gateway drugs because they are easily accessible due to being legal, I would argue that marijuana is even more accessible while being illegal. Drug dealers do not ask for IDs. Furthermore, addiction is a disease. Prevention has obviously not worked, so why not move toward rehabilitation?

Another point that needs to be considered is the burden the current policies have put on the system. Mandatory minimum sentencing has filled our jails with nonviolent offenders. When was the last time someone committed a violent crime to support their pot habit? The money saved by not prosecuting these offenders and the money earned by taxing marijuana could pay for the rehabilitation of addicts and give the Drug Enforcement Administration the resources to go after violent drug offenders.

It is time to decriminalize marijuana, take the money earned from taxing it and put it to better use like rehabilitation, enforcement of violent crimes and, God forbid, balancing the U.S. budget.

David Smith
Greensboro

With the Obama administration in place, now is the time to make up for lost time in the battle against global warming. But with economic woes, two wars, terrorism and health care making the headlines, will climate change get the priority it needs? Even without the other priorities, will the coal and oil lobbies force us further down the fossil-fuel road?

A group called the National Teach-In on Global Warming is getting the word out. It has presented to Obama a President’s Climate Action Plan, a guide for making the revolutionary changes this change requires. As part of its grass-roots efforts, it is planning to have a thousand teach-ins on global warming in early February.

Local environmental groups have joined together to hold one of these teach-ins in Greensboro. This free event will be held Feb. 5 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church at 607 North Greene St. Come learn about what must be done in Washington, and what we must do here.

To learn more about the national organization, go to http://www.nationalteachin.org. To learn more about the local event, call 460-7924.

Craig Lawrence
Greensboro

Kathe Latham’s Jan. 16 Counterpoint was beautifully written, but her call to “stop the violence once and for all” is idealistic nonsense.

Violence has been a lamentable part of the human condition since the beginning. The Old Testament has Cain killing his brother Abel, and the New Testament predicts “wars and rumors of war.” Prehistoric human remains show injuries inflicted by other humans, and history is marked by war after war.

This is not to say that war is desirable. War destroys life and property and breeds disease and poverty that often kill more people than the fighting. Peaceful co-existence benefits both sides, but there is no negotiating with someone who demands your eradication.

If Ms. Latham’s pacifist dream was realized and the world renounced violence, freedom and security would only last until one evil person was willing to use violence.

European history from the 1930s shows that failure to use force can create larger problems. If France and England had confronted Hitler in 1938, the six-year bloodbath that followed might have been prevented.

A T-shirt seen at a local gun show expressed it most succinctly: “War is not the answer — except for fascism, communism and slavery.”

Jeff Pickett
Franklinville

Horace Kornegay was unfailingly a kind, courteous and decent man. Little would one suspect from his gentle manner that he served with distinction for months in the midst of some of the most desperate combat of World War II. He is a classic example of the greatest generation, which stepped forward, put aside personal agendas, and did its duty.

Jon Maxwell
Greensboro

A letter to the editor on Jan. 18 by Mark Dimondstein reminded me of the moral courage shown by Jewish citizens who actively supported Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s when they openly said that civil wrongs perpetrated against blacks were wrong and must be stopped.

Most of Mr. Dimondstein’s family was murdered by the Nazis. He understands that peace is possible only when the human rights of both the Israelis and the Palestinians are honored and protected.

I applaud him for his moral courage and for his personal commitment to speak from truth.

For those who would like to learn more about this tragic crisis, The New York Times has commended these scholarly books: “O Jerusalem!” by Collins and Lapierre; “One Palestine, Complete — Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate” by Segev; and “The Israel Lobby and U. S. Foreign Policy” by Mearsheimer and Walt.

Our government should and has guaranteed the safety of Israel; this is not the question. The question is whether we will demand that our government will speak for a balanced peace for the children in both Israel and Palestine.

Thank you, Mr. Dimondstein.

Homer L. Mason
Greensboro

The Bible admonishes us to pray for those in authority over us. It behooves us to do so — for our country, ourselves and our children.

So, I pray for Obama — that he will make wise decisions and lead us in the way we should go as a nation.

And I pray that he walks in obedience to Jesus Christ, whom he says is his Savior.

And I continue to pray for President Bush and Laura. He and Laura brought integrity, dignity and decency to the White House. He stood by his convictions, popular or unpopular.

He loved his country and kept it safe all the years following 9/11, a feat within itself. He had more to deal with than the average president (9/11, Katrina, etc.). He was criticized by many, including the media, but he bore it all with much dignity and grace.

Regardless of your stand on the war in Iraq, many there thank him and our troops that they no longer suffer horrendous abuse. They are grateful for the freedom they have.

I am happy and proud to have called George Bush my president and I pray God’s best for him and Laura in the coming years.

Bobbie Hege
Greensboro

I just wanted to compliment you on your excellent coverage of the inauguration. Regardless of party affiliation, we need to keep our president and administration in prayer for wisdom and strength.

We also should pray for him to keep the vision he has for our country. God bless Barack Obama.

Frank Delfino
Greensboro

Another one bites the dust, thanks to the almighty automobile. And, as the Jan. 21 City Council meeting suggests, its death grip on Greensboro has never been greater.

It was at that meeting that a $3.6 million downtown project was tabled over parking concerns. Are city leaders just now realizing that downtown Greensboro has a parking problem?

Either way, such an important investment should not have been curbed over four or even 15 parking spaces, because that small number alone will not address the greater parking problem that downtown faces.

City leaders should feel fortunate that this is even a problem they must contend with. Ten years ago, or even more recently, downtown Greensboro would have had an abundance of parking spaces, but also few customers to fill them.

I applaud downtown business owners for all the hard work they have done to revitalize downtown. But their success should not come at the expense of future development.

If their product is good — if their food is good, if the services they provide are good — consumers surely will find a way to get there.

City leaders should get behind the proposed development at 324 S. Elm St. And downtown business owners should welcome it.

Andrew Murphy
Durham

The writer is a former resident of Greensboro.

Surely those who knew the man were upset, as was I, at the negative tone of the editorial “tribute” to former Congressman Horace Kornegay upon his recent death (Jan. 23).

While you weighed heavily on what, in retrospect, might be considered a questionable position in defending the tobacco industry (then a mainstay of our local and state economies), you ignored other aspects of his service to community, state and nation.

Where was a mention of his valorous service in World War II (Purple Heart, Bronze Star), his civic service to Greensboro prior to and since his days in Congress and at the Tobacco Institute, or his concerted efforts to represent his constituents while in Washington? Nor did you acknowledge his unwavering commitment to every cause he supported and his compassion for everyone he met, from whatever walk of life.

Horace Kornegay was a gentleman in every regard, a competent and tireless public servant, a genuine human being; let’s remember him as such. Most ignoble of all was your comment that “he was frequently wrong but never in doubt.”

It seems that might apply more to the media, national and local, than to this wonderful man.

Robert E. Sevier
Greensboro

With the mountain of problems at home, President Obama submitted to the United Nations on abortion. Our tax dollars will be used to promote, subsidize and pay for forced abortions in foreign countries.

Many countries have voted against abortion but the United Nations is attempting to force abortion on them.

Why are we paying for abortion in foreign countries? Because the ultra-liberal left in the U.N. and here wants to control the population in those countries. What’s next, euthanasia? Yes, that’s under consideration by some in the United Nations.

President Obama made several promises during his campaign and his submission to the U.N. on abortion is one of many. Beware of what might follow in the continuing attack on life by zealots here and in the U.N.

Don Mulligan
High Point

I have volunteered at two middle schools in Guilford County and I am currently interning at a high school. From what I’ve seen, most teachers really don’t care about student success in school.

More teachers just seem to be passing students along and don’t seem to care. Eighth-graders did not know their times tables and some read on a fourth-grade level. This creates problems for students and teachers when they enter high school.

I mentor students with low grades in high school and, when asked what problems they are having, they respond, “My teacher would not explain it to me” or “My teacher does not teach.”

I asked what were their activities in class and they said, “He hands us our homework and we just do whatever we want.” Teachers must teach for kids to succeed.

Deaira Brown
Greensboro

The writer is a social work intern.

A headline from the Associated Press in the News & Record recently caught my eye: “Hard economic times help Geithner’s Treasury bid.”

The article stated that the severity of the economic situation (and the so-called super abilities of Timothy Geithner) will cause the U.S. Senate to “look the other way” when voting to confirm Geithner for secretary of the Treasury.

It was right. Geithner has been confirmed.

The reason for “looking the other way” is because of Geithner’s problems filing taxes, for not paying taxes owed in 2001 and 2002 even though he was cited for and paid back taxes for the same problem in returns for 2003 and 2004.

These problems have disqualified other candidates for cabinet-level positions in the past. This is the man who will oversee and hold all American taxpayers responsible for their tax returns.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., defends Geithner’s suitability to head a cabinet post in the Obama administration by saying, “These are not normal times.” What a pathetic response. If there ever was a time for honesty and integrity it is now.

Dick Kern
Greensboro

In his Jan. 26 column, Leonard Pitts rails about how outrageous was Rush Limbaugh’s comment, “I hope he (Obama) fails,” made during a televised interview.

Apparently Pitts either didn’t listen to the entire interview or chose to offer an inflammatory interpretation by taking one phrase out of context.

After Limbaugh made the comment he immediately went on to state why he hoped Obama would fail.

He gave many reasons why he believes the Obama policies will be bad for our country: Redistribution of wealth is socialism; tax refunds to those who already pay no taxes; disincentives for business to grow, the growth of which is the basis of America’s strong capitalist economy and its greatness.

One can easily conclude that Pitts is further left than Limbaugh is right.

Walter Strand
Reidsville

The following is a Counterpoint.

By Al Wright

Regarding Kathe Latham’s Counterpoint (Jan. 16) in which she writes about the horror and shame of war and violence: I agree with her that “creating peace takes courage.” But then she writes that creating peace through war is a cowardly failure to seek solutions by diplomacy. Then she quotes Candice Carter, editor of the Journal of Stellar Peacemaking, as saying, “An enemy is one whose story we have not heard.”
Here is one whose story has not been heard. The reader can decide if he is an enemy.
My mother’s brother, Homer P. Braswell, was a child of the Depression. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps before World War II because he loved to fly. He became a pilot and was assigned to the 91st Bomb Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group (Light). In November 1941 his unit was sent to the Philippines. Eighteen days later the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, destroying many aircraft on the ground. My uncle became a pilot without an airplane to fly.

When the Japanese landed on Luzon three days later, he was handed a rifle and helmet and assigned as an infantryman with the First Provisional Air Corps Regiment. He fought on the ground until the fall of Bataan on April 9 1942. He survived the Bataan Death March, during which U.S. and Filipino soldiers were beaten, shot, stabbed and beheaded by Japanese guards.

Prisoners were starved, tortured and often made to dig their own graves. Many died of diseases such as malaria, dysentery, gangrene, beriberi and typhoid fever. In December 1945, he was put aboard the Japanese hell ship Oryoku Maru, along with 1,600 other American POWs. Of these, only 400 survived when they got to Japan to be used as slave labor. My uncle died at sea and was thrown over the side of the ship by the Japanese as if he were garbage.

Many thousands of POWs were released after Japan surrendered. There were American, Dutchmen, Brits, Australians, Indians and troops from New Zealand who lived because of the terrible war that killed thousands of Japanese civilians. Latham closed with a quote from Anton Chekhov. I would like to close with two quotes from George Orwell:

• “People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”

• “War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil.”

The writer lives in Oak Ridge.

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Robert Hudson

Leonard Pitts, as is his wont, has again engaged his typewriter without first engaging his brain. He quotes Rush Limbaugh as saying “I hope he (Obama) fails”. Yes, he said that, but ...

The subject was the growth of government, about which Pitts is either ignorant or intentionally misleading. It is no secret that Obama is a fan of big government. He is, not to put too fine a point on it, a socialist. To what degree may be argued, but his statements about “spreading the wealth” and “only government” being able to solve our financial problems leave no doubt where his sympathies lie.

Obama believes that life is not fair, and he is correct. He also believes that he can, using the power of the federal government, make it fair. About this he is very mistaken. His socialist ideas, which have been tried in many places by many people, always fail. Always.

They always produce scarcity instead of the promised plenty, scarcity instead of the promised abundance, grinding poverty instead of the promised riches, misery instead of Utopia. Marx tried it, Castro tried it, China tried it, much of Europe is trying it now.

There is a reason that one cannot fool God and make life fair by using the power of government: the heart of man, filled as it is with greed and laziness. Not all hearts, mind you, but enough to foil the plans of anyone foolish enough to try such nonsense.

Obama has grand plans to succeed where others failed. He will punish hard work and success, reward sloth and immorality, and will never admit that those without are without mostly because of bad decisions they have made. I, along with Rush, hope he fails at that.

I wish him success in carrying out the duties of his office. I just wish he would glance at the Constitution and learn what those duties are.

He seems to be more than a little confused about that.

The writer lives in Pelham.

Thank you for publishing Charles Davenport’s expose (Jan. 25) concerning the Elon University professor who punished a student who disagreed with his leftist ideas by charging him with disorderly conduct and prompting a hearing before Elon’s Honor Board. This is just another example of the left’s refusal to accept contrary points of view that was revealed in Dinesh D’Souza’s 1992 book, “Illiberal Education.”

Liberals always accuse those who disagree with them of the very behavior they perpetrate. They sneer at conservatives for being narrow-minded, yet college campuses are replete with arrogant professors, like the one Davenport exposes, who refuse to accept alternative viewpoints. Their hearts bleed for the poor, but they will not support school vouchers that would allow disadvantaged inner-city children to attend private schools that are their best vehicle for a better life.

You didn’t see liberal icon Ted Kennedy’s kids in public school, did you? We are all supposed to embrace diversity, but there are few conservatives in higher education or the news media.

The editorial boards of newspapers view conservatives with contempt. Liberals are the biggest bunch of phonies going. Don’t buy their nonsense. And certainly, don’t send your kids to universities that shelter them.

Michael Dougherty
Eden

I read with amusement the front page of the Saturday Life section (Jan. 24), on which the headline read, “Californian to redecorate White House.” Last I checked, our federal government was in immeasurable debt, unemployment was at a generational high, there were layoffs aplenty in Greensboro, and the president says it is only going to get worse. Yet, the new first family finds the White House so unlivable that they have to “redecorate.”

I also remind you that this is the same decorator hired by the former CEO of Merrill Lynch to redecorate his office at a cost of $1.2 million. That sure went well.

Can’t wait to see what the White House will cost. Unbelievable.

Tom Garcia
Greensboro

Congratulations to the Guilford Record for the insightful article on Jamestown’s Soap Lady, Susan Stringer (Jan. 25). She is a model of success for the many small businesses attempting to fly in a very challenging economic environment. As your staff writer, E.A. Seagraves, astutely observes, Susan is providing a personal touch of sincere interest in her customers. It is entertaining to stop by her shop on Jamestown’s Main Street and visit because she is happy, positive and cheerful.

Susan provides a delightful twist on practical products and is very progressive in her marketing of “all-natural” ingredients. She prepares gorgeous gift boxes and baskets filled with sensible, beautiful items. I hope that the Soap Lady will mentor others who wish to start small businesses. She made a business plan, added her winning personality to useful products, and creatively turned her ideas into a successful business.

I am a Greensboro native and subscribe to the News & Record for Greensboro news, but I also appreciate the attention given to the small towns and businesses in Guilford County that have so much to offer to their residents. Thank you for your attention to all of the citizens in our community, and please visit our Jamestown shops on Main Street.

Kathryn Billings
Jamestown

Charles Davenport (Jan. 25) warns us that college professors are disproportionately liberal, citing a 2007 study by Neil Gross of Harvard and Solon Simmons of George Mason.

Davenport declared: “The university campus is a bastion of left-wing thought.” Too bad Gross and Simmons don’t share Davenport’s cavalier conclusion. The study was reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education, page 10, Volume 54, No 8. According to The Chronicle, “The report’s authors cast doubt on certain claims made by conservative critics of academe. The researchers emphasized that American faculty members are not uniformly left wing. On most issues, they said, college instructors’ views are better characterized as 'centrist’ or 'center left.’

And there is evidence of a convergence toward moderation: Faculty members who are 35 or younger are less likely than their elders to be left wing, as well as less likely to be conservative.”

The Chronicle quotes Simmons as saying, “The claim of extreme leftism is not well supported.”

Evidently, Davenport did not research the study beyond the right-wing Web site where he learned about it.

Perhaps Davenport’s writing on this subject would benefit from a bit more academic rigor.

David W. McLean
Liberty

I would like to commend Kent Benfield (letter, Jan. 21) for his observation of the outrageous parking fees charged by the Greensboro Coliseum. I have been thinking about that for years, and to see Mr. Benfield charged $15 to park for the Eagles concert made me want to follow up.

I attended the Celine Dion concert at the RBC Center in Raleigh on Jan. 20. The parking charge there was $10, which seemed a lot more reasonable for a big-name star than $15 for the Eagles (even though they are very good). If my memory is correct, I paid the same to see Josh Groban and Yanni at the RBC center.

Maybe there is a reason Greensboro can’t attract big names. I am always a little upset when my wife and I attend the Craftsman’s Classic. We pay $6 for parking and $6 each to get in, for a total of $18 for the right to purchase items. I just don’t understand why the coliseum is so much more expensive than other venues. It would be very interesting to see what other cities charge for parking at their taxpayer-supported facilities.

Mike Cantwell
Stoney Creek

Kudos to Tom Keller for his inspiring article (Jan. 24) regarding Smith High School’s swim team. With our nation’s high unemployment, a faltering economy and growing pessimism, an article about such courageous and enthusiastic student-athletes is heartwarming.

Coach Titus Duff and his assistant, Spencer Abraham, are instilling a positive can-do attitude in their swimmers as well as teaching them the rewards gained through accomplishing goals against overwhelming odds.

Hopefully, more students will become interested in joining the team so they too can achieve personal satisfaction by participating in a team activity.

It sounds as if Tre’Sean Cooks and Jesse Lavelle may have a personal competition beginning between them. Good luck to them and all team members. It will be fun to follow their progress.

Walter B. Fisher
Greensboro

To say that Kay Hagan’s first meaningful vote as our new U.S. senator is a disappointment would be a great understatement. Her vote to confirm Tim Geithner as secretary of the treasury despite his obvious attempt to avoid paying his self-employment taxes is a travesty that demonstrates zero political courage and no leadership.

With Geithner’s educational and vocational background, it’s beyond absurd to believe his failure to pay was a mistake. A fifth-grader could come up with a better excuse.

If Hagan has no desire to lead or take an ethical position against the wishes of the majority leader, she should do us favor and come home. The last thing we need is another “go along to get along” senator.

Sam L. Howe
Greensboro

We hear a lot about jobs being cut in the United States. No one has addressed the real issue as to why it’s being done. Had we not out-sourced American jobs to foreign countries, they would still be here.

We could get out of NAFTA and CAFTA. I’m not in favor of free trade as much as fair trade.

Every administration since Jimmy Carter has pushed for a free-trade agreement. It’s time to bring jobs back to the American worker.

George Deaton
Stoneville

If you’re a letter writer who’d prefer to be seen as well as heard, your time has come. The News & Record soon will begin to “publish” video letters. What’s a video letter? It’s a letter you read before a camera for posting on our Web site.

You may record video commentaries on your own and e-mail them to us. Or you can record your letter in the News & Record’s studio. We’ll soon announce a date and times for the next studio appointments soon.

As long as your video meets our taste and length guidelines (about one minute apiece), almost anything goes.

Call Editorial Page Editor Allen Johnson at 373-7010 if you have questions.

“God ordained the mistreatment of blacks” — Leonard Pitts Jr. (Nov. 12, 2008).

It is, of course, a calculated outrage. And, trailing behind, like the folks with brooms trail the elephants in the circus parade, Pitts’ devotees complain that their hero was misquoted, misunderstood or otherwise mistreated. “What Pitts meant was … yadda yadda yadda.”

The line, from one of Pitts’ columns, was taken totally out of context. If you read it out of context, you are shocked and outraged. It has nothing to do with the point he was making.

Pitts’ column on Rush Limbaugh was another example of something taken totally out of context. It had nothing to do with the point he was making. Limbaugh said if President Obama wants to succeed in implementing socialist policies in the United States, “I hope he fails.”

Did you see any quotes of what Limbaugh said before that or after? If I had given you Pitts’ words before and after the words “God ordained the mistreatment of blacks,” you would have easily recognized it was taken out of context and he actually said and meant nothing of that nature.

Ed Pring
Greensboro

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Stephen Dennis

It will go down, perhaps, as one of the most historically important moments of this century. At 12:05 p.m. in Washington, D.C., the son of an African immigrant took the oath of office to become president of the United States. But as the world looked on, we all cringed in unison.

We watched painfully as President Obama and Chief Justice Roberts stumbled over each other in trying to repeat the sacred oath.

Why should a simple mistake immediately bring such trouble to our hearts? Understandably, both men were nervous on this monumental occasion.

Indeed, it is not unusual to see a bride or groom stumble over their vows at a wedding. In fact, if it happens, we would merely smile and wish the happy couple all the best. So what exactly makes this slip-up any different?

Simply put, the political discourse in American politics has gone off the deep end. Everyone’s actions, none more so than the president’s, are examined and then re-examined under a microscope by the political opposition.

We saw this for eight years under former President Bush. Every mispronunciation, every stumble, every minute mistake was shown brightly to the world. His defenders would, predictably, make excuses for the blunders. They would blame the mistake on others, or brush them off by saying everyone stumbles or mispronounces words occasionally, especially when under pressure.

Now, the shoe is on the other foot. Those who defended Bush’s blunders now point the finger at President Obama. Those who trumpeted the gaffes of President Bush now find themselves defending a stuttering Obama.

And so it goes on and on. We may remain hopeful for a change in the political discourse, but change will not come from one man alone. We must all change.

From politicians, to the media, to the everyday man on the street, we must change the way we think about and react to those we disagree with politically.

We can change. But will we?

The writer lives in Hong Kong; his parents live in Archdale.

I, like other writers, have a special personal memory of Carolina Circle Mall.
In 1996, I took my mother shopping there. Unfortunately, she was unable to walk well and remained in the car while I shopped for her.

I had a few days off from the school where I taught in Bridgeport, Conn.

At this special time with my mom, I remember being allowed to bring several beautiful hats from which she could choose. She was delighted and chose two of them to purchase.

Sadly, my mom became ill and passed away a few weeks later. She never had the opportunity to wear either of the hats.

Carolina Circle Mall will always have a very special place in my heart. For it was my mom’s last shopping trip.

Shirley Wiley
High Point

Israel could re-enter Gaza and build hospitals, schools, housing and marketplaces. It could distribute food and medicine. It could re-open the portals of commerce.

Those portals could continue to be monitored for contraband, but these positive steps could lead to a better outcome. Recovery should not be left to Hamas.

E. Norman Graham
Greensboro

Reading the column, “An episode of intolerance at Elon,” in Sunday’s paper, I was struck by the idea that parents send their children to universities and colleges, to be educated, not intimidated. Ideas and opinions should be free-flowing in order to have class involvement.

The class taught by Stephen Schulman certainly does not provide that experience. It is more, “My ideology is the only thing that counts, not yours.”

If Schulman can’t take the heat, he should stay out of the classroom.

Judith Mancuso
High Point

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Jane Osborne

North Carolina has lost a great leader with the passing of former Gov. Bob Scott. He was not only a great political leader but also a kind and caring person.

In 1972, our daughter, Jennifer Osborne, was attending second grade at Liberty Drive Elementary School in Thomasville and mentioned at school that she was related to Gov. Scott. (His wife, Jessie Rae Scott, is the first cousin of my husband, Don Osborne. Their fathers were brothers.)

The kids at school did not believe Jennifer, so I wrote to the governor and asked if he would write a note back confirming that he was related to Jennifer.

Not only did Gov. Scott write Jennifer a nice letter, but he also wrote a letter to Principal Tom Beard of Liberty Drive School. In his letter to Jennifer, he invited her to come visit with him at the Governor’s Mansion and signed the letter “Cousin Bob.”

We came down for Jennifer’s eighth birthday and had lunch with the governor in his mansion.
Don and I and our other daughter, Cindi, came along with Jennifer.

Gov. Scott’s wife and children were out of town and he was alone. He took us all over the mansion, including the attic, and he showed us the different rooms and even let Jennifer sit in the official governor’s car.

He was the most gracious host, and we just enjoyed talking about things other than politics. He gave us a copy of the book, “The Executive Mansion,” and gave each of the girls a medallion necklace with his name on the back.

This became a special memory for Jennifer and Cindi and showed just how thoughtful Gov. Scott could be.

What an act of kindness to a little girl who will always remember her “Cousin Bob.”

The writer lives in Thomasville.

On Feb. 3, the City Council will vote on approving the proposed development at 324 South Elm St. This project is wrong and should not be approved.

Beside the fact that the building is modern and would be two stories taller than its neighbors, the developer expects the city to give him a portion of the parking lot next to it, via a forgivable loan.

Council members are so desperate to green-light this project that they called a special meeting on Jan. 27 to overturn their Jan. 20 vote against it. At the original meeting, many nearby business owners objected to the deal the city had made with the developer — without public involvement — and the proposal failed, 5-4. Nonetheless, it is now back on the agenda for Feb. 3.

I urge everyone to attend this 5:30 p.m. meeting and register their distaste for the special treatment being given this developer, especially since the project is inappropriate for our historic downtown.

Support the business owners who have played by the rules to make downtown great again.

John Davis
Greensboro

“Counterpoint” writer Robert Hudson (Jan. 29), like so many of his fellow Rush Limbaugh defenders, has taken serious umbrage with Leonard Pitts’ suggestion that wishing for the failure of our president is tantamount to wishing for the failure of our republic.

The point missed, Limbaugh defenders say, is Rush’s opposition to the growth of government spending and our president’s apparent love of big government and solid credentials as a socialist. Here we all go down that slippery slope to “sloth and immorality,” just like China and Karl Marx! Oh, my!

Yet, how do these so-called “Dittoheads” refer to the 57 percent growth in federal government spending between 2001 and 2008 under the watch of a Republican administration and Republican-controlled Congress in six of those eight years?

And if socialism is the collective ownership of the means of production by the government, how do they refer to its assumption of massive losses at the big investment banks and AIG under a Republican administration and treasury?

There seems to be a double standard here. Time to put away those tired catch phrases rendered meaningless by the events of the last year, and let’s support our president and Congress to get this right.

Bill Yaner
Jamestown

Two things should be learned from the recently passed, extraordinarily long election and recent events in Washington. The first is that the media can no longer be trusted. For whatever reason, they’ve deemed themselves a political action committee rather than America’s watchdogs.

The second is that, in regard to this nation’s financial management and oversight, the Congress is incompetent and out of control. What they are doing is obscene, if not criminal, and I for one have zero confidence in their abilities.

They have grossly mismanaged public funds to the tune of a $10 trillion debt and now want more?

America, you’d better wake up quick.

Jim Sartwell
Liberty

President Obama’s inaugural speech would have been more appropriate during the Berlin Blitz. While Limbaugh rages and The New York Times raves, the problems we face now pale in comparison to more recent history.

When President Obama was finishing high school, our diplomats were held hostage in Iran. Fear of hijacking gripped international travel and commerce. The economy struggled with double-digit unemployment and inflation.

President-elect Reagan faced a hostile Congress and a hostile press. As if he didn’t have enough problems, labor challenged the new president with an unprecedented illegal strike by air-traffic controllers within days of him taking his oath.

Invoking Washington’s crossing the Delaware might have been more appropriate for Reagan’s inaugural speech. Instead, he was quite modest in calming our fears:

“The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice that ... so many thousands of others were called upon to make. It does require, however, our best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that together, with God’s help, we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. And, after all, why shouldn’t we believe that? We are Americans.”

Joe Exum
Snow Hill