Motsinger is the antidote
Apathy and inertia are perhaps understandable reactions to the current political climate, but Elisabeth Motsinger is the antidote for both. As a candidate in North Carolina's 5th Congressional District, she brings passion and energy to representing all of us.
Elisabeth is intelligent and articulate, and has demonstrated compassion and a commitment to public service. Voters in the 5th District have an opportunity to enact meaningful change in Washington, and it begins with the May 8 primary. Please support Elisabeth Motsinger for congressional representative.
LAUREN WHITAKER
Winston-Salem
Equality and justice
Equality and justice are very dear to my heart, so I brought my 10-year-old daughter with me to the Trayvon Martin candlelight vigil at Wake Forest University ("Vigil held in Fla. teen's death," March 27). I wanted her to experience what it felt like to be part of a crowd united over a divisive issue.
Countless individuals stood in solidarity, mourning, anger and disappointment over the continued freedom of George Zimmerman. All races were represented, but there was a far greater number of participants of the African-American community. This brought sadness to me, as a white woman, because this is an issue that speaks to the fundamental values of our country and humanity.
Our country has come far from its creation, but it has yet to truly adopt the concept of equality and justice for all. Trayvon's death gives the nation an opportunity to divide or to unite. It gives people the chance to truly look within their hearts to see in which ways they have been indoctrinated by prejudice. We can believe that we are free of it, but it is a near impossibility to live in the U.S. in which our psyches are bombarded with fear and divisive rhetoric and not to have assimilated it into our belief systems in some way or another.
It is only when we are truly honest with ourselves that we can change. Change begins within and spirals outward. We are all interconnected, and an injustice to one is an injustice to all.
MARIE HOPPER
Winston-Salem
Proud to be liberal
The Republicans and the Republican Party call themselves the conservatives. They look to the late President Ronald W. Reagan as their hero of conservatism, yet they never mention former President George W. Bush. Now, this is where my confusion comes in.
Bush was considered a conservative president, but look at his record: He inherited a $236 billion surplus but left office with a $10 trillion debt. He invaded a sovereign nation, Iraq, with false information and half-baked lies (not to mention Afghanistan).
Bush put a plan in place called "No Child Left Behind." This sounds good on the surface, yet he refused to raise taxes to fund the program. It was left up to the states and counties to come up with the money — which they could not do — at least not all that was needed.
If all of this and much more are the marks of a conservative, then I am glad that I am a liberal Democrat, as were former presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and now Barack Obama. And Jesus the Messiah was also a liberal.
Therefore, I feel as though I am in good company. However, I am still confused as to what a conservative really is and what a conservative stands for.
JACK LUTZ
King
Backing his brother
The March 28 letter "Imposing their views" pitches a great idea for a feature piece by a Journal reporter, and that is, "1,000 reasons to be married."
I have been married for 31 years and doubt that I can cite the 1,000 provisions, tax breaks and governmental protections mentioned. It makes me wonder, if the nuptial perks are so remarkable, why do more than 55 percent of marriages end in divorce? And, why do men abandon their wives or families when their emotions change?
All things considered, on May 8, I will vote for a clear "definition of marriage" and vote yes for Amendment One. I will also vote for my brother, John Bost, as a candidate for Forsyth County commissioner. John is a man with conservative ideals; he has a solid marriage of 35 years and a track record of building a better Piedmont Triad community. He was re-elected to serve a third term as Clemmons' mayor, but I encouraged him to run for county commissioner so the region could benefit from his vast experience in education, leadership and economic development, politics and service.
See you at the polls!
TOBY BOST
Winston-Salem
Good afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: Endorsement
LTE 2: "Countless individuals stood in solidarity, mourning, anger and disappointment over the continued freedom of George Zimmerman." - Is this a call for justice or revenge? It may very well be that Mr. Zimmerman is not eligible to be charged much less convicted due to FL's SYG law. IMO, more attention should be focused on how SYG laws hamper potential murder investigations. Simply saying "I feared for my life" should not be grounds for walking away from killing someone.
LTE 3: Another "us"/"them". Mr. Lutz does make the most honest statement I have seen when he states "I am still confused as to what a conservative really is and what a conservative stands for.". That goes equally true for those who identify themselves as "liberal". It's all in the eye of the beholder. Both words have lost their true meaning and have been reduced to buzz for those who are unable to identify why they support their positions or oppose other positions. Reducing complex potential solutions for complex problems to a simple "liberal"/"conservative" plank may work for some, but I would like to think there are more sophisticated people out there who can understand all of the nuances of the given situations and discern which is the more viable solution. But then again, I read the LTE's and the posts on the Journal site and sadly SMH as wishful thinking.
LTE 4: So, Mr. Bost is backing his brother...bless his heart. I don't think getting married automatically makes one an expert on every tax, property and domestic law on the books that pertain to marriage regardless of how long one has been married. Men and women leave their marriage for any number of reasons, but mostly I would think because they could no longer bear to live with the person they were married to.
Disappointed in Toby Bost. When he was agricultural extension director here, he was often quoted by the paper (when we had much more of a paper). I thought highly of him until this letter.
ReplyDeleteSo Mr. Bost thinks that length of marriage should have a bearing on deciding who to vote for. As dotnet points out, many divorces probably stem from just not being able to stand being around the other person any more. I know plenty of people who have been married 30-40 years who are in the same situation, but due to financial reasons, social pressures or just plain gutlessness, are still technically married. If length of marriage is important, Bill & Hilary Clinton outstrip the Bost brothers, having been married for 37 years.
ReplyDeleteIt amuses me that the people who make the biggest deal about the sanctity of marriage, are the same people who have the highest divorce rate in the US...fundamentalist christians. And those demon atheists and agnostics have the lowest. What does that say about family values?
The national divorce rate has been dropping for years and is now at about 50%, but much of the reason for that is that the marriage rate has been dropping even faster. You cannot get a divorce if you don't get married in the first place.
The rate for second and third marriages remains very high, in the 60s for the former and the 70s for the latter.