Winston-Salem Journal LTE's WE 10/05/11

Good evening, folks! Sorry, for the late posting, and many thanks to OT for his posting the LTE's in the Comments section. Learning my new job and adapting to my new employer's excellent corporate culture (yes, I'm deep in the belly of the capitalist beast) is a bit tiring as I keep up with coworkers almost young enough to be (gulp) my grandchildren. And I don't keep up; I lead. At my age and level of experience, I had better.

Perhaps I will be a bit more energetic tomorrow. But, I am trying to see what I need to do confer co-authorship on someone else, in this case my good friend Bob, so we can reliably get the LTE's posted.
Utopian world
A counter to the letter "Ideological Views" (Sept. 25) in, mostly, the writer's own words. (Changes in italics.)
In the tea party's utopian world:

• Marriage must be what the Bible says it should be .

• Abortion is illegal because rape and child abuse should be encouraged .

• The voting system remains conveniently vulnerable to fraud.

• Religious expression is mandatory in public life.

• The ideals and principles expressed by the Founders and founding documents are virtually irrelevant and must be overhauled for the 12th century .

• Wealth belongs to a small minority, because money is the best gauge of a person's worth .

• The government unfairly favors corporate lobbyists over the rest of the private sector.

• Energy independence gives way to the demands of Big Oil , while billions of taxpayer dollars are wasted on cleaning up ecological disasters .

• Class warfare is waged by power-hungry elites.

• Crises are exploited, or created, for the purpose of political gridlock .

• Terrorists are those who brandish opposing political ideas, and non -militant Islamists are presumed to be terrorists .

• Over-reactive cuts to government spending and borrowing become a reckless course.

• The U.S. dollar is devalued . . .

• Taxes continue to be cut , choking the economy and the well-being of all Americans.

To be clear, I do not endorse the above (or the original) extremism. My point is that hurling insults is bipartisan, and easy; please empathize first, then speak.

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CARL LOMBARDI
Winston-Salem

Wasted green energy

We have a significant source of green energy in our own backyard that is now being wasted. It is Idol's Dam on the Yadkin River in Forsyth County.

Idol's Dam produced electric power from 1887 until 1998, when a fire destroyed the generator shed. The dam has produced and is capable of producing approximately 2,500 horsepower. This equates to over 16 million kilowatt hours of power per year.

Federal law requires Duke Energy to have 12.5 percent of its sales from green-energy sources by 2021. Progress Energy is paying 18 cents per kilowatt for solar power from eight start-up projects, and Progress is currently merging with Duke Energy. Solar and wind power are intermittent and must have a storage system or backup power available. Hydroelectric power is 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, with long equipment life and low maintenance. If the Idol's Dam power could be sold for 18 cents per kilowatt, it would earn over $2.8 million per year.

I'm sure the installation of two or more turbine generators and the necessary interface equipment would be very expensive; however, the property and dam are already owned, and that is usually the major cost of a hydroelectric installation. There are multiple sources of government grant money available for such projects.

From my limited knowledge, this appears to be a feasible undertaking if anyone is interested in using available green energy.

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DONALD L. GARREN

Lambsburg, VA.

A pious fraud
In reply to the Sept. 20 letter "Big returns," the heart of a Ponzi scheme is its intent to defraud.
Social Security is the finest example of positive government. It does what it intends: more good for the elderly, the disabled, veterans and children than private efforts ever could.

Success is precisely why Social Security so threatens government-is-the-problem ideologues and fellow travelers, disaffected, militantly ignorant bigots who glimpse a socially acceptable path to regain status, segregation having been disgraced.

Ideologues require an echo chamber; contrary facts must be ignored; if not ignored, then explained away; if not explained away, then silenced; if not silenced, then destroyed. Ideologues exploit, rather than resolve, Social Security's problems to destroy it.

Nineteen-thirties ideologues averred retirees would never receive benefits. Today, Gov. Rick Perry pontificates and dissembles, denying rather obvious facts that Congress looted billions from Social Security, which is underfunded for only a few years, which is readily preventable through sensible adjustments to withholding caps.

The pious fraud is the Republican Party. Embittered by Harry Truman's victory, Republicans sold their souls for power, embracing McCarthyism's shameless lies. They doubled down with Richard Nixon's nauseating exploitation of race. True patriots, conservatives in the mold of Theodore Roosevelt or Margaret Chase Smith, are caricatured by tea-party opportunists.

The contrast could not be starker: FDR Democrats saved America. Reagan Republicans saved themselves. Fully devolved into the party of stupid and spiteful, Republicans win elections but will never help America.

Yes, call a spade a spade.

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ANDY G. MILLER
Kernersville