Winston-Salem Journal LTE's TH 08/25/11

Good AM, folks! I see we have both sides of the spectrum represented today, with pronouncements by Peter T. Wilson and Boon T. Lee.

The forecast high today is 90. Counting today, there are 37 days until October.

While we ponder the wisdom printed in the Journal today, the earthquake-ravaged area of the US continues to dig out (apologies to Sharon for this one :)

And now, the LTE's:

'What if?'

What if? How many families are asking themselves this question? I am writing in response to Scott Sexton's column, "A What-if of crime and time" (Aug. 16), about James Leonard Hungerford, 35, who died of a drug overdose after being denied access to drug rehabilitation by Judge Todd Burke at the request of prosecutor Patrick Weede.

Are prosecutors and judges required to be educated about drug addiction? Common sense tells me that it takes much more courage, dedication and hard work to complete 24 months of drug rehabilitation than it does to sit in prison doing nothing for six months. What if James had been a member of the Burke family or the Weede family? I think we all know the answer to that question.

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SUSAN CACCAVELLA
Winston-Salem

Real hope for change

It's over, children (Democrats); the golden goose (other people's money) is dead. All the class warfare and blaming the messenger — i.e. Standard & Poor's, the tea party — won't alter the coming political and economic sea change.

Without the ability to bribe their disparate factions, the Democrats will find it very difficult to sell a common message. A good example is the turmoil within Big Labor now because of President Obama's inability to deliver "card check" legislation. Another is the disarray among the "greenies" because of no "cap-and-trade" law — yet. Even in a severe recession, liberals are hard-wired to tax, spend and regulate. Therefore, it will be impossible for them to reduce the national debt and create private-sector jobs.

My guess is that Obama's "September plan" and the congressional "supercommittee" will be dismal failures. Nov. 6, 2012, is our only real hope for change. The "Chicago mafia" and their Senate enablers must be defeated.

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PETER T. WILSON
Winston-Salem

Sum It Up:
The Sum It Up question from Sunday was: Are we better off than we were in January 2009?




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President Obama has accomplished a lot. He inherited a lot. He was accomplishing good things for all people, until reality hit some people that here is a black man as president. Then everything he tried to do for the good of all people went downhill. With all he has to face, working with both parties I feel will make him stronger.

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ELIZABETH R. ERVIN




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Memories of nightmares fade so fast! We were losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a week. The banks (Wachovia) and the generals (General Motors) were dying. The Republican candidate for president suspended his campaign and rushed to Washington to fix it, and ended up sitting in the back of the room nodding cluelessly while those who knew more trembled in fear of what new chaos the next hour would bring.

The crisis eased, and we thought we'd be back to partying like it's 1999 by now. We aren't. It is better, but still very bad. It won't get good enough until the tea-sipping elephant sits down with the donkey and they learn how to get re-elected and govern at the same time. And the solutions will be solutions that make it possible for those of us in the vast but dying middle to move forward.

Prosperity was a shared happiness when Henry Ford got rich by paying his workers enough to buy one of his cars. We need a Henry Ford for this century.

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STEVE SCROGGIN




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I don't know if our country is better off than it was when President Obama took office in January 2009, but it certainly is no worse off. President Obama inherited two wars and the largest deficit in the history of our nation. Now, magically, it's supposed to get better with the Republican and tea-party Congress blaming him and fighting him on every measure to attempt to get our country on track again. Case in point this week: Republicans not wanting to extend the payroll tax cuts that would benefit the average working Joe in his weekly paycheck, but by all means fight tooth and nail for extending the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthiest. Despicable.

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SUZANNE A. CARROLL




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The simple answer is yes and no.

Economically speaking, the nation has been recovering from the recession but slowly and painfully. It benefits only Wall Street and big corporations. They rake in record profits, and their CEOs earn astronomically huge bonuses, but it does little for the working middle class. They either find themselves unemployed or their income stagnated.

Politically speaking, the federal government (the Congress and the executive branch) is brought down to its knees by the radical right and becomes completely dysfunctional.

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BOON T. LEE




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Yes. We're two and a half years further away from the Bush administration.

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KAM BENFIELD




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A definite "no" as far as the condition of our country since the presidential change in 2008. We have slipped in status internally and externally.

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LOUIS JONES