Progressive posturing
Winston-Salem mayor Allen Joines will not be running for North Carolina governor. This is no surprise. Why would he? "Mr. Untouchable" makes $155,000 annually as head of the Winston-Salem Alliance in addition to what he makes as mayor. Another perk of his position at the alliance is that business leaders will not support anyone else. Ain't local politics grand?
Joines is loved by liberals throughout the city. He appears at the right events, he says all the right things and makes a real effort to been seen as a moderate progressive. But he never gives any more than token attention to the poor, while the development projects that benefit the rich are never far from his mind.
Regardless of Joines' progressive posturing, anyone who really wants change in this community should not forget that he's in the pocket of Winston-Salem's 1 percent, and ultimately it is for their benefit that he serves as both mayor and head of the Winston-Salem Alliance. This peculiar arrangement should not be allowed to continue.
CLIFTON TEW
Winston-Salem
Name-calling
I sympathize a great deal with the writer of the Jan. 27 letter "Disagreements," who is upset because he is called names because of his conservative political views. As a liberal Democrat, I know just what he means. These days we're casually referred to as socialists, fascists, tyrants, terrorist sympathizers, baby killers, un-Christian, un-American and worse simply because we don't agree with the conservative view. Talk about name-calling!
He writes, "At one time, I considered myself a patriot, but now I have to be careful what I say in public, as I will have labels placed on me by others who disagree with my thoughts." That's exactly how I feel.
My purpose isn't, though, to say "we have it just as bad or worse." I agree with the letter writer that it's time for civil discourse, and I pledge to avoid name-calling. I pledge to listen to the view of the other side — as it is truly presented, not as it is characterized by people on my side — and consider its merits.
I pledge to never vote for politicians who throw divisive bombs, irrationally demonizing his opponents. It's one thing to apply critical thought and disagree — it's quite another to just call names mindlessly with no critical factor at all.
So who on the right — and the left — will join me?
TOMMY H. SIMMONS
Winston-Salem
A new policy
When I was in high school, coaches were demigods. East Forsyth High School coach Mike Muse and Kernersville Police Officer James Deeney should have been fired ("Student recorded coach's tirade," Feb. 2).
Here's a new policy for the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board: No cursing or threatening students or their parents. Also, no texts from teachers or coaches to students. None, no tolerance — they can text, email or call students' parents if they are concerned.
PAUL ARMSTRONG
Winston-Salem
Massaging the truth
In a recent Republican presidential-candidate debate, it was amusing to hear Mitt Romney respond to Newt Gingrich's claim that he (Romney) was "anti-immigrant." Romney defended himself by pointing out that his father (former presidential candidate and Michigan Gov. George Romney) was born in Mexico, the clear inference being that his dad was an immigrant; therefore how can you claim he is anti-immigrant? Pretty convincing.
Of course, his father was not an immigrant at all. Both of his parents were natural-born U.S. citizens, which, by law, conferred automatic U.S. citizenship upon their son at birth, irrespective of where on the globe he first drew breath. He could have been born in Kenya, for that matter, and he still would have been a natural U.S. citizen. In an alternate universe, the media might have pointed this out on the spot.
Perhaps this was Romney's way of wooing the Latino vote — or was he just trying to pull the wool over the eyes of a stupid electorate? Politicians do, of course, massage the truth to meet their purposes, but this little episode clearly underscores the lack of respect candidate Romney has for the intelligence of American voters.
Does anyone find that troubling?
ROD C. MARTENIS
Clemmons
LTE #1 - I have known Allen Joines for a long time and sometimes get a little tired of listening to fools rave on about him. Almost all of them begin with his having a job...duh...being Mayor is NOT a full time position. Almost all past mayors had full-time jobs...
ReplyDeleteIn addition to participating in many initiatives on the city council to address poverty and other similar problems, the Mayor has committed uncounted hours serving organizations that make a difference in the economy of the city and state. It would be hard to find a better way to help the poor and disenfranchised. A partial list:
N.C. Development Association
Leadership Winston-Salem
Sertoma West
Tourism Development Authority
Housing Authority of Winston-Salem
N.C. League of Municipalities
Winston-Salem Arts Council
The Children's Museum
Winston-Salem Business, Inc
N.C. Metropolitan Coalition
Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of
Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership
Piedmont Triad Research Park Board of Trustees
Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation
Piedmont Triad Partnership.
North Carolina Local Government Commission
N.C. Fiscal Modernization Study Commission
N.C. 21st Century Transportation Study Commission
Chairman of the State Economic Development Board
North Carolina Innovation Council
N.C. Logistics Task Force
North Carolina Bio Fuels Board
Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club
United Way
Goodwill Industries
There is, of course, much more. The Mayor has won many awards, several of them humanitarian ones, for seeking to foster racial harmony and justice.
One wonders what Mr. Tew has done lately for his community.
One of the very few Dems for whom I would vote, has done a lot for this city.
DeleteHe's a loser no matter how many pillows you put under his head.
ReplyDeleteHi Zero.
DeleteLTE #2: I've recently been on the JournalNow forum, noticed no one has yet taken Tommmy Simmons' pledge.
ReplyDeleteWonder if JournalNow will ever let Bucky back on the forum?
Newspaper message boards generally aren't the best places in the world for civilized, rational discussion. Nature of the beast.
DeleteI thought the Journal's boards pre-FB, and the LTE section in particular were for the most part quite tame in comparison to most boards. About the only time the dialogue really disintegrated was whenever the Journal published articles concerning latinos or blacks which brought the local chapter of the KKK. Even post-FB, I've noticed some still have no problems showing their latent and not so latent racist attitudes.
Delete@Arthur: Un-moderated message boards do attract the irrational and uncivilized, but irrationality can be discussed. Uncivility cannot.
Delete@dotnet: JournalNow's LTE forum is a great place for discussion. The big attraction still are the articles relating to anyone that is different than the reader (ie blacks, latinos, and homosexuals) and the points of discussion are still irrational, but thank goodness the FB format was put in place. I don't think there were that many out there that are uncivilized, just one or two with multiple screen names.
It appears to me that many of these left leaning groups in the U.S. have become nothing more than non sheet wearing Klu Klux Klan like people. The are the new bigots in today's world. The throwing of sparkle 'dust' on Republican presidential candidates by gay activists is absolutely outrageous. What if that 'dust' had been tainted by anthrax, or other poisonous substance. Irregardless, those acts were assaults, and those individuals should have been arrested and prosecuted.
DeleteThe verbal and non-verbal assaults on Christians by leftists are also disturbing.
What will it take to get these Klu Klux Klan like people prosecuted for their criminal conduct? It's obvious the liberal media isn't going to do anything to help bring about justice.
You're a real charmer...the Christian love comes shining through.
DeleteI'm stunned at the amount of hate and bigotry these leftist liberals possess.
DeleteOK.
DeleteBig surprise, when a Republican tells the truth, liberal Democrats start calling the person a racist.
Deletehttp://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/senate-candidate-under-fire-for-very-disturbing-super-bowl-ad/
Not familiar with the sparkling assault, but whatever it was, it wasn't "absolutely outrageous." Stupid, silly, and juvenile, yes, but an outrage is what the Syrian government is doing to its citizens. The dilution and cheapening of our language is dismaying. Awesome.
DeleteAs for the sparkles possibly containing anthrax, yes, they could have, but they didn't, so the "could have" reference is essentially a non sequitur. They didn't. Irrelevant and hysterical vapidity.
If a Tea Party member threw dried tea leaves on a Democratic candidate for ANY office, what do you think would have happened?
DeletePlease....it would have been all over the news, and the person or persons would have been arrested and sent to jail!
Well, Zero, I see that you are just as ignorant as you have always been...Democrats, Republicans, Tea Party, whatever...all idiots from the start. Just like you.
DeleteLTE3: absolutely agree re no texting, email, phone, etc. Contacts should be via parents.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
DeleteI think that it is a shame that we live in a society in which communication and interaction between students and teachers has to be so limited...it says a great deal about who we have become.
DeleteBUT, I cannot imagine that since we live in that society, the school board did not long ago spell out the obvious rules...it is no way appropriate for teachers to be texting, e-mailing or phoning students. Would be nice to see a whole new school board in November.
Of course, it is hard to imagine how any sensible teacher/coach would not understand the inappropriateness of such acts without having to be told. Coach Muse likes to present himself as a "popular" teacher, so I guess he thinks texting and Tweeting like a teenager makes him "cool".
In my experience both as a student and a teacher, the "popular" teachers were the ones from whom you learned the least.
Good afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: Downtown W-S has gone from a place one visited only if you worked there or had govt business to a vibrant social scene and desired spot to live. If being head of the Winston-Salem Alliance provides Mayor Joines with contacts with key industry figures across the country who may be looking for places to expand, then that arrangement should be seen as a definite positive for the city.
LTE 2: "I pledge to never vote for politicians who throw divisive bombs, irrationally demonizing his opponents." - lol..that pretty much leaves out everyone. Thanks to the SC's Citizens United, this will be the worst political season yet.
LTE 3: While I can understand a coach texting with his players concerning practice or schedule changes, I don't see the reason for a school police officer to have a student's phone number for texting. Perhaps someone can enlighten me on this? Coach Muse's flipping out is understandable, albeit badly mishandled, but the officer seemed to be suggesting that it's best for a student's sake to hide potential evidence of wrong-doing than to come forward with it. That bothers me as much as the ganging up on a 15 y.o. child. Obviously, new policies concerning teacher/student communications are needed.
LTE 4: Is it troubling that a candidate shows lack of respect for the intelligence of American voters? The same ones who are more concerned about who gets voted off AI or what's up with the Kardashian sisters or think global warming and evolution are part of some made up liberal plot? Don't think I'm going to touch that one.
Woman to Adlai Stevenson: "You'll have the vote of every thinking American."
DeleteStevenson: "Yes, but I need a majority."
It is interesting to note that Romney's great-grandparents fled Utah for Mexico in the 19th century because they were polygamous Mormons. Romney's grandparents gave up polygamy, but remained in the Mormon colony, so that his father, the future governor of Michigan, was born in Mexico.
DeleteAll of these folks were American citizens from birth, but it is surprising that someone with the "birther" mentality hasn't tried to cook up some story that Mitt is a foreign born polygamist.
As to the Kardashians, I thought that they were proof of global warming, or symbols of the highest degrees of evolution or something like that. Maybe I am confused.
DeleteThanks to Wordly for posting the link yesterday to the extraordinary video about the King christian flag controversy. It was made by Scott Burdick of Statesville.
ReplyDeleteSince we long ago lost interest in such passe things as the super dooper bowl, my friends and I decided to watch Burdick's video instead. When we saw that it was over two hours long, we agreed to watch 10-15 minutes, then move on to other things.
That didn't happen. We ended up glued to a 27" iMac screen for the whole ride. Fascinating and thought provoking and important. As Burdick says:
"Although I started the project out of anger, I ended up truly liking the people I interviewed on all sides of the issue and it helped to diffuse my own negative emotions to the point where I felt a responsibility to honestly represent the viewpoints of even those I disagreed with the most. To that end, I have not done any narration, but have simply let the people themselves give their opinions in their own words. I will leave it up to you to decide who you agree with.
"This was just me with a camera on my own, so it is definitely not a professionally produced documentary, but I hope some will find it as interesting a subject and as much an education as I did in making it."
Burdick does himself a disservice when he claims amateur status. This is as good as you're going to see anywhere.
So lay in your favorite beverage, make some popcorn, hook your computer up to a big plasma mother and settle in to learn about yourself and others. I've made the link clickable so you won't even have to copy and paste:
In God We Trust
Glad you enjoyed it O.T. I too did not plan on watching the entire 2 hours plus but was hooked. I even re-watched parts of it when my husband inquired about Presbyterians and their views on religious freedom during the Revolution.
ReplyDeleteThe linked was posted by Stephen T Wishnevsky on Facebook. He used to be a frequent LTE contributor until the Journal cancelled Linda Brinson's book review column.
I might have known...I have known both Wish and Linda Brinson for somewhere around a century.
ReplyDeleteI note that in the comments at the site, some complained that the video is too long. We found it just the opposite...it is so good, we hated to see it end.
That is why I suggested that viewers do a bit of prep before watching. Otherwise, they will be running out for beer or snacks and it will take even longer.
I've sent the link to a lot of people in hopes that there might be public showings around town where people can watch and then discuss. Thank you again, not to mention Scott Burdick.