The left’s response
It was both interesting and humorous to read the Feb. 8 responses in the Readers Forum to the Sum It Up posit: Will North Carolina's conservative trend last?
From the right, the submissions were brief, respectful and prescient.
From the left, they were about what one can expect. Verbose; why use one word when 10 will do? Name calling; “nut-job Republicans,” “right-wing bullies,” “tea party wingnuts” and “reckless bunch of Pope-picked politicians,” to cite a few examples; a faithful regurgitation of liberal hysteria talking points to events that have not yet occurred and a confusion of the facts by conjecture.
Where does all this whining nonsense come from? From the folks who were in power for well over 100 years. It is directed at those in power for less than 40 days.
Give conservative leadership a chance. You just might be amazed where it will take us.
LYLE WHEELER
Millers Creek
Public safety
This is in response to Rep. Virginia Foxx’s Feb. 5 guest column, “Second Amendment rights ‘…shall not be infringed.’” She aptly quotes, “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state...” At the time it was ratified, we had a meager army, no navy, no marine corps; we had no “well-regulated militia” in 1791. The framers of the Constitution provided that citizens, if called upon to defend the nation, be allowed to keep and bear arms without infringement.
More than 200 years later, our state is defended by a huge military complex, accounting for roughly 20 percent of the federal budget in 2011. Additionally, most of us enjoy professional police and emergency responder protection.
Rep. Foxx is missing the point of history and of those citizens calling for reform. We already spend vastly on security. Does she now believe we need protection from our government? Today we need protection from irresponsible and unstable individuals and from criminal enterprises taking advantage of lax or ineffective regulation of deadly weapons.
She fails in her duty if citizens are threatened because powerful industries or lobbyists are allowed to influence regulations and their enforcement to the detriment of public safety.
Today, in contrast to 1791, we have a strong military to secure our state; now we need legislators with backbone and sound judgment to enact strong and responsible controls on the manufacture, distribution and sale of military-grade firearms.
I am a gun owner.
JOHN DUDLEY
Winston-Salem
Sum It Up
The Sum It Up question from Sunday was: Were the Boy Scouts of America right to take more time for consultation before taking action on its policy of excluding gays as Scouts or adult leaders?
I have known many fine Scout leaders during my seven years as an assistant scoutmaster in my son's Boy Scout troop, so I would like to believe that the recent attempt by BSA national leadership to compromise at the local level on the issue of acceptance of boys of all sexual identities in scouting was well-meaning and intended to allow time for the discriminatory and ill-informed rhetoric to fade and permit them to move scouting in the direction of fairness and equality.
However, the delay in discussion is not the core problem. Discrimination is the real issue, and it must be corrected to right a wrong, restore justice and preserve the pride and dignity of a great altruistic institution, the Boy Scouts of America — for all Americans, regardless of sexual identity.
ALAN J. TOWNSEND
By taking more time, the Boy Scouts of America are just prolonging their discriminatory practice of not allowing gays in their organization.
SUZANNE CARROLL
The Boy Scouts were right in taking time to consider all aspects of this dilemma. There is the fear of pedophilia, but not all gays are pedophiles. After 100-plus years in existence, there had to have been gays in the Scouts at all levels. There had to be incidents of molestation too, known or unknown.
The Scouts have a sacred trust to protect the boys, and this has to be factored into their decision as to how they handle this emotionally volatile situation.
Now, if the Catholic Church had followed this approach there may have been less damage done there.
KEN HOGLUND
What's to take more time about? Either we've learned from Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall or we haven't.
KAM BENFIELD
