Winston-Salem Journal LTE's SU 11/06/11

The little wren
The little wren sings so loud and beautiful, sitting on the railing of the deck just a few feet in front of me. I can see its little throat expanding with every note sung.
Little wren gives me so much pleasure and relief from the thoughts and scenes of the battles where I lost many of my buddies the first night of battles of World War II.
The neighbor's big old yellow cat ended that pleasure for me when I saw it chew down on that precious little wren. Feathers of the beautiful bluebirds and others are scattered about the yard after the cats made their kills.
I hope others will keep their cats home so that I and others may enjoy God's little feathered angels.

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L.C.G. COOPER
Winston-Salem

Most recent resistance
"Finally," columnist John Hood writes ("OWS protesters treading on rights of others," Oct. 29), "... the Occupation crowd seems remarkably uninterested in the constitutional rights of corporate shareholders and employees who may want to pool their resources to express political opinions." I would change that "remarkably uninterested" to "particularly outspoken" in regard to that recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision he refers to (Citizens United v. FTC).
Corporations finally got their wish to equate money with speech, therefore protected as a First Amendment right for corporate "persons." Now that dollars fund three lobbyists per Congress member for every policy issue, the corporations with the most gold make the rules.
That straw finally broke the people's back. Occupy Wall Street is the most recent manifestation of a resistance to the growing private auction that is our government and to the continually changing laws that further silence protest.
Finally, Hood refers to Occupy groups leaving alone corporate liberal media outlets ... do tell. The only nonbiased media I can find are listener/reader-supported; e.g. Democracy Now!, Common Dreams, No Agenda, Real News Network and VBS TV.

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ANDREW L. BREWER
Winston-Salem

Animal cruelty
In reference to "Lexington man charged with animal cruelty" (Oct. 27), my heart aches for the poor, defenseless Basset hound that died as it did. The man who shot it is a poor excuse for a human being.
I trust the judge will recognize this as a malicious, premeditated and violent act and will sentence the perpetrator to a stiff jail term.

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JEANNE W. MYATT
Winston-Salem

Bill sponsorship
Sen. Kay Hagan has proudly announced that she has introduced the Foreign Earnings Reinvestment Act (S. 1671) in the Senate because it will act as "an incentive to create jobs," clearly the senator's main priority. She is looking out for the workers and the unemployed in North Carolina.
Unfortunately, as an editorial in The Washington Post confirms for the umpteenth time ("No time for a corporate tax 'holiday,'" Oct. 30), even investment banks like Goldman Sachs have declared that "the short-term economic benefit of such a policy would likely be minimal." As Sen. Hagan doubtless knows, the more likely effect of this bill would be to "reward companies that maneuvered to shift profits to tax havens."
The Post also concludes that "a tax holiday could have the perverse effect of encouraging companies to shift operations — and jobs — overseas in the expectation of another break down the road."
Inasmuch as these conclusions are typical rather than unusual, one can only wonder why Sen. Hagan thinks her sponsorship of this bill will do anything for anyone beyond the larger corporations from which she hopes to garner donations. And this is our "liberal" senator fighting so hard for those who are striving to stay afloat during the ongoing crisis.

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JAMES HANS
Pfafftown

Challenging approaches
U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles wrote that requiring ultrasound images forces conversation, and that freedom of speech means the government cannot force conversation ("Judge right to limit new law," Oct. 27). If the government cannot force you to pay for your own health insurance, surely it cannot force you to conduct a conversation.
Abortion is an emotional issue and has been a political hot button for at least 40 years. We will get nowhere until we challenge our own approaches.
First, if you believe abortion is murder, what are you willing to do to prevent it? Provide food and education for the unwanted children? Handle the social costs caused by adults who were addicted or infected pre-birth? Support free, easily-accessed birth control for anyone old enough to procreate?
Second, for those who believe abortion is not murder, how do you define life? Are brain-dead people alive? Should we try to resuscitate the dying? Should people be dissuaded from suicide?
Third, for those who believe government should promote the general welfare, why not put emotional issues on the back burner and focus on important, solvable issues, like where are the jobs ?

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DOROTHY MATHEWS
Rural Hall

Sum It Up
Is the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners right in trying to take its fight for sectarian prayer to open its meetings to the Supreme Court?


Correspondent of the Week

Infrastructure change

It appears that our infrastructure is below par, and many people think that fixing that disaster will bring about the economic change we all want. But as usual, the ideologues seem to forget those facts that fail to fit with their solutions. For example:

The infrastructure needs to be fixed, agreed. The government and its union employees are the ones to fix it. Wait a second, aren't these the self-same people who have been in charge of the infrastructure for the past 75 years? They failed to keep the systems up to date, and the politicians were afraid to ask for the money to fix things, lest they not get re-elected. So we want to put this turnaround plan back into the hands of the people who failed in the first place.

The government will fix the infrastructure; really? It will create bids that the private sector will bid on, and the private sector will fix the system. So our Nanny State will just administer the bids, take the kickbacks, the lobbyist dinners, and like Little Jack Horner say, "Oh what a good boy I am." Nuts.

The next time you drive past a construction site and see the guy leaning on the shovel watching the traffic go by, see if it is a government project (city, state, or federal) or a private company. Bet you know the answer to that question.

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KEN HOGLUND
Clemmons