tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters/36 2008-05-09T08:00:20Z Give your take on the News & Record's Letters to the Editor. Movable Type 3.34 tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24642 2008-05-09T08:00:00Z 2008-05-09T08:00:20Z

I was delighted that North Carolina finally had a say in the nominating process for president of the United States but disheartened to read that many voters chose not to cast votes in the down contests and bond issues on...

News & Record http://www.news-record.com Margaret E. Mrstik Greensboro]]> tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24643 2008-05-09T08:00:00Z 2008-05-09T08:00:18Z

It is time to demand zero-tolerance for juvenile violence and crime and hold elected officials accountable for providing resources to accomplish this. We are tying the hands of our law-enforcement agencies, prosecutors, the court system and probation departments and insuring...

News & Record http://www.news-record.com V. Rosan Hutter Durham]]> tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24644 2008-05-09T08:00:00Z 2008-05-09T08:00:11Z

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

News & Record http://www.news-record.com William K. Oden Jr. Greensboro]]> tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24646 2008-05-09T08:00:00Z 2008-05-09T08:00:08Z

On Saturday, local letter carriers in the Triad and across the country will participate in the National Postal Food Drive, collecting much-needed, nonperishable foods for local food pantries. With food, fuel and health care costs rising, many vulnerable citizens, including...

News & Record http://www.news-record.com Bobby Smith High Point The writer is president, United Way of Greater High Point.]]> tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24647 2008-05-09T08:00:00Z 2008-05-09T08:00:13Z

The following is a Counterpoint: By William K. Sparks I have read with fascination the statements of TIMCO’s CEO John Cawthron and his view of the American free-enterprise system and the employer-employee relationship. Are we to believe TIMCO has never...

News & Record http://www.news-record.com The following is a Counterpoint: By William K. Sparks I have read with fascination the statements of TIMCO’s CEO John Cawthron and his view of the American free-enterprise system and the employer-employee relationship. Are we to believe TIMCO has never hired employees from other companies? Has Cawthron done an internal examination as to why these employees wanted to leave TIMCO? American employees are not indentured servants. In my opinion, Cawthron is trying to restrain the right of every American to work for whomever they want, wherever they want. Companies across our country lose key employees every day to competitive forces. Any company that went into competition with TIMCO should try to hire every TIMCO employee it can get its hands on. HondaJet put out a “help wanted” sign. Cawthron should have responded by giving his engineers a huge raise. The way you keep great people is to pay them what the market will bear. TIMCO could try to chain free people to their desks. Evidently the people who left TIMCO did so because they saw the grass as greener at HondaJet. The reaction from TIMCO’s CEO tells me they were smart to leave because they were working for a man who has the bizarre idea that because he invested training dollars in them, they belong to TIMCO like the wrenches their mechanics turn bolts with. I laugh at TIMCO’s threats to cease expansion in the Triad. I suggest it move with all speed to the nearest communist country and forge a deal with the leaders there that prohibits the free movement of employees to other firms. Where do you think John Cawthron would be working if HondaJet offered him $100 million a year to run its North American jet business? I cannot stop laughing. The writer lives in Greensboro. ]]> tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24615 2008-05-08T08:00:00Z 2008-05-08T08:00:14Z

For the many people who still oppose capital punishment on moral grounds and favor the alternative of life imprisonment, columnist Charles Davenport Jr. (April 27) has a simple Orwellian solution: Just change the meaning of a word. The people on...

News & Record http://www.news-record.com Don Crawford Greensboro]]> tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24616 2008-05-08T08:00:00Z 2008-05-08T08:00:11Z

Allen Johnson’s Sunday column (April 27) inspired me to write this by hand, with pen on yellow legal pad, to honor his nostalgic look back at a time when correspondence was done that way (although not necessarily perfumed like those...

News & Record http://www.news-record.com Bill Beerman Greensboro ]]> tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24617 2008-05-08T08:00:00Z 2008-05-08T08:00:19Z

Regarding a front-page article in the News & Record on April 27: A simple solution for Mark Ozment and the hundreds of other residents trapped in our neighborhood by the increasingly heavy traffic on Horsepen Creek Road is to finally...

News & Record http://www.news-record.com Lorraine Viguers Greensboro ]]> tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24618 2008-05-08T08:00:00Z 2008-05-08T08:00:16Z

Hypocrisy and denial: President Bush: We must commence drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive Alaska. Oil companies: Don’t worry — their supertankers are now double-hulled. Farmers: We must divert our grain crops from the 800 million malnourished to the 800...

News & Record http://www.news-record.com President Bush: We must commence drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive Alaska. Oil companies: Don’t worry — their supertankers are now double-hulled. Farmers: We must divert our grain crops from the 800 million malnourished to the 800 million cars on our planet. Sen. John McCain: We must have a fuel tax holiday (that’ll buy several million votes in November). North Carolina General Assembly: We must replace our gasoline tax with toll roads — the tax is an unfair burden on SUV owners. Donald Rumsfeld: We must sacrifice soldiers to protect our oil interests in the Middle East. Congress: We must send out stimulus payments to all taxpayers since oil has driven up prices on everything else. Consumer: “We must tap the Strategic Oil Reserves now — these high pump prices are an emergency. Besides, I’m doing my part — my hybrid Tahoe gets two additional miles per gallon!” Eulogy of our oil economy in a 2050 history text: “It was the greatest folly in the American experience. All they had to do was take a cue from Europe: Drive smaller cars, carpool, ride a bike, walk, live closer to work, use mass transit. ...” John Altizer Archdale ]]> tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24620 2008-05-08T08:00:00Z 2008-05-08T08:00:21Z

Everyone enjoys some benefits of current technological advances, but many of us old-timers also fondly recall the good old days. Our school days featured opportunities, not violence and disrespect — the sweet innocence of young love as opposed to the...

News & Record http://www.news-record.com Dan W. Maddox Greensboro ]]> tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24584 2008-05-07T08:00:00Z 2008-05-07T08:00:21Z

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

News & Record http://www.news-record.com Dave Howerton Greensboro ]]> tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24585 2008-05-07T08:00:00Z 2008-05-07T08:00:24Z

Food production can’t meet demand and food prices are rising. Perhaps people will eat less and the U.S. epidemic of obesity and related health issues will subside. Fossil fuels are scarcer. Gas prices rise. Maybe everyone will limit his or...

News & Record http://www.news-record.com James Chris Webster Greensboro ]]> tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24586 2008-05-07T08:00:00Z 2008-05-07T08:00:18Z

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

News & Record http://www.news-record.com Ron Frazier Greensboro ]]> tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24587 2008-05-07T08:00:00Z 2008-05-07T08:00:29Z

I was delighted that the article by Jennifer Fernandez, “Students take a new look at society” (April 27), covered the innovative course “Reclaiming Democracy.” However, it neglected to mention the central role of the students and faculty member (Ed Whitfield)...

News & Record http://www.news-record.com Hollyce (Sherry) Giles Greensboro]]> tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/opinion/letters//36.24588 2008-05-07T08:00:00Z 2008-05-07T08:00:27Z

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

News & Record http://www.news-record.com The following is a Counterpoint column. In his column “Assessing the public education foolishness” (April 13), Charles Davenport gave us a clue into his unique version of conservatism. Davenport cites as a great influence Albert Jay Nock. Curious, I went to the Internet to find out more about Nock. Here is what I learned. First, Nock described himself as an anarchist. Technically, Nock is an architect of an ideology known as anarcho-capitalism. Briefly, this is a philosophy which believes all major decisions that affect on our lives should be made in the boardrooms and back rooms of business firms and corporations, not in public forums like city councils, Congress, state legislatures or town meetings. Nock’s ideology is anti-democratic, since democracy subordinates the interests of corporations to those of society. Interestingly, Nock was a pacifist. He protested both World Wars and was one of the few pacifists to continue his opposition to fighting fascism throughout World War II. His reasons arose not from Christian ethics but suspicion of America’s motives for intervention. I wonder if Davenport feels the same about intervention in the Middle East. Finally, Nock was absolutely opposed to public education. His reasons, which Davenport references, grew out of his belief that social elites, the captains of industry, should have free rein to manage society. Educating the working class only provides them with means of challenging these natural elites and impeding them by pesky means, such as collective bargaining or worker safety and environmental laws. To challenge the ruling elite is to impede progress itself. The trouble with any form of anarchism is that it appeals to romantics, but is a poor basis for a civil society. Anarchism is unworkable in the real world, for it places too much trust in the “natural goodness of the heart.” Real societies depend upon a system of counterbalancing forces and institutions. The genius of our American Constitution is that it places checks and balances within the political system. The three branches counterbalance one another. Are there mistakes? Of course. But over the long haul the checks and balances prevail more than they fail. Society also needs checks and balances. Under Nock and Davenport’s system there are no countervailing forces to keep the business sector in its proper role. Corporations would grow so powerful that community interests, the right of people to better themselves, even the health of the planet, would be trampled. The writer lives in High Point.]]>