Winston-Salem Journal LTE TU 12/11/12

Respect and appreciation

It's too bad self-proclaimed Baptist, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school-board member Jeannie Metcalf, can't treat the smart-guy Buddhist from MIT, Peter Senge, who wants to make our children's educations and lives better by teaching critical thinking (“Board members question curriculum,” Dec. 5), with the same respect and appreciation she gives our local Moravians (“A priceless jewel,” Dec. 5).

DEBBIE PRICE

Lewisville

Demeaning harangue

Is it too late to recall U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx? Her harangue of “the tipster” and a House staffer for using the “members only” elevator was demeaning, elitist and low-class (“Staffer, Foxx in elevator kerfuffle” Dec. 7). Does she believe that the public can likewise be treated in the same way by our public servants? Maybe so.

In this little episode, she may have shown more of her true self than she wished.

ANTHONY POLICELLI

Winston-Salem

Desperate

I was amused at the front-page story, above the fold, in the Dec. 7 Journal: “Staffer, Foxx in elevator kerfuffle.” The story documents a “gossip section” of The Hill, an inside-the-beltway political Washington newspaper. The referenced story uses an unnamed “tipster” to allege that Rep. Virginia Foxx berated an unknown staffer for using the “members of Congress only” elevator.

Neither the Journal nor The Hill could confirm the story, which indicates just how desperate the Journal has become to slam Foxx. At the end of the no-news article, the Journal mentioned that Foxx had beaten her Democrat opponents by significant margins in the four re-election campaigns since she first won the 5th Congressional District seat in 2004. The article fails to mention her voting record or her exceptionally high constituent service record.

I'm proud of Foxx and feel fortunate to live within her district. I'm sure glad that she beat “wonderful” Elisabeth Motsinger. As should we all be.

BRENT EATON

Clemmons

Fiscal-cliff avoidance

I’m afraid we are all going to have to endure some lifestyle adjustments in this new era of austerity. However, here are two seemingly simple steps this nation could take to minimize the pain:

• Stop encouraging, by financially rewarding, unwed, unemployed women to have multiple children and
• Cut off funding to all other nations, starting with the ones who hate us and our only democratic ally in the Middle East.

GARY H. ROBERTS JR.

Winston-Salem

Getting it

What delicious irony. “They still don’t get it,” the title of a letter from a man who clearly doesn’t get it (“Dec. 8). Journal, you crack me up. Oh, this is so rich, where to begin?

About President Obama he writes, “He is the guy who spends and spends and never seemed concerned about the deficit he was building until after the past election.” I suspect the president — whose “spending,” incidentally, The Wall Street Journal cited as increasing at a slower rate than any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower — was concerned about all the unemployed Americans created by the previous administration, which spent and spent and never seemed concerned about the deficit it was building. In fact, let’s not forget Vice President Dick Cheney’s claim that deficits didn’t matter.

The writer adds, “the U.S. just keeps printing money and printing money.” Well, we’re running a nation here — what does the letter writer expect to happen? Does he expect the president to put the White House up for sale? Does he expect the U.S. Treasury to just close up shop? “We’ll have to content ourselves with the money that’s already been printed, folks.”

The president was handed a basket of dirt and asked to turn it into gold coins. It’s going to take some time. I think most of us “get it” just fine. And we elected the candidate who does, as well.

JAMES T. FULLER

Winston-Salem

A wonderful excuse

I am aware — and who is not? — that this paper does not like Rep. Virginia Foxx. But was it necessary to print a story about an encounter in a U.S. House elevator on the front page, and in such excruciating and delicious detail (“Staffer, Foxx in elevator kerfuffle” Dec. 7)? Do you even know all of the circumstances or is this just a wonderful excuse to make Foxx look mean and petty?

What you don't write about, and what really matters, is how she is helping to bring the impending fiscal crisis to a responsible conclusion. That, however, might show her in a good light, and doing the job for which she was elected, and that would never fit your narrative.

How about some real news for a change?

PAULINE G. CHAPMAN

Winston-Salem