Sunday, February 19, 2012

Winston-Salem Journal LTE SU 02/19/12

The prayer fight

Could the U.S. Supreme Court's summary denial of Forsyth County's cert petition have to do with these very same issues and arguments having been litigated repeatedly, for decades, in jurisdictions all over America, culminating in the same outcome?

Predictably, the losers (no pun intended) profess surprise and dismay and view themselves as righteous victims of malevolent, godless liberals, biased, gullible media and incompetent, activist judges. Like all victims, they deny that they could have done anything wrong, or that their opponents could have anything right. There is nothing they need do but await the day when everyone finally hears them and "gets it." For them, like for all victims, the conflict is the solution.

I sincerely offer them something to ponder: They are right. We aren't listening. We stop listening precisely when we liberals begin to make better arguments for conservatives' own positions than conservatives themselves could make. When we can make more sense out of their positions than they can make, how are they relevant?

Anybody with intellectual honesty knows conservatives are not wrong about everything. Any time you get two smart people thinking, you will get different opinions. But they also know conservatives are in a prolonged funk, indulging militant ignorance and outright bigotry and wallowing in tired, fatuous, ideological drivel.

America needs conservatives to snap out of it and come up with new, genuinely conservative ideas and arguments with intellectual and existential power. Every real liberal out there is pulling for them to do just that. Jesus surely is.

ANDY G. MILLER

Kernersville

Spiritual students needed

High-school student Joshua Llodrat, who describes himself as a "big-government liberal Democrat," ("Students tackle tough topics in N.C.," Feb. 2), is a reminder that big government is detrimental to our political freedoms. Cuba, Communist Russia and China, as with the Holy Roman Empire and Islamic dictatorships and socialistic nations, demonstrate the authoritarian controls of big/dominating governments. They provide for basic needs of a select group of people and require submission to their leaders. Democracies are not much better, as Henrik Ibsen revealed in his play "An Enemy of the People," and their failures are revealed by partisan politics in our Congress as well as groups walking out of state assemblies because they do not get handouts from government. The answer to people's needs is not "bigger" government of endless executive orders replacing freedom with totalitarian regulations.

We need citizens devoted to the Lord of all, as Martin Luther King contended, and is expressed in our Declaration of Independence, supported by a bill of rights providing basic human freedoms that endorse the commonwealth without requiring religious affiliations. Therefore, citizens must be reared in homes of spiritual devotion with personal accountability and productive behavior in economic affairs. This is lacking in societies where secularism replaces God with government. Government assumes care for selected groups of people, gains their support and manipulates behavior, as secular-minded leaders endorse abortions, sexual promiscuity and favoritism. This history of political control repeats itself where secular liberalism promotes socialized government for sustenance, but fails in preserving human freedom.

JIM HELVEY

Winston Salem

Sum it up

Do you think Americans are too obsessed with the untimely deaths of celebrities?

Respond to letters@wsjournal.com and put "Sum It Up" in the subject header. Only signed entries, please, no anonymous ones. Briefer responses receive preference in print.

CORRESPONDENT OF THE WEEK

Purse power

I agree totally with your Feb. 1 editorial, "Trees lose out to billboards." That is why I am not going into the politics that caused this farce to be enacted. Your editorial said it all. I hope those who may have missed it will scroll back, read and think. Those who did read it, please chime in.

As my husband and I travel the highways of our beautiful state when the warm weather returns (if we can afford the gas), we will be looking for the chainsaw crews clear-cutting the public-owned trees that block the precious billboard advertising. We used to read: A Hotel 6 at Exit 6 ... 6 miles. A discount at Baloney's, with free drinks with a Bisa card, at Exit 11. Come see our pretty girls who fight in the mud after 12 a.m. with a Bastacard. Exit 12, hurry!

As we travel our roads and highways, I will be jotting down the names of the advertisers on these billboards who are killing our trees, and we will boycott them. Why? Because that is the only way to get the message across. No revenue. Get it?

PATRICIA STOCKMEISTER

Winston-Salem

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Winston-Salem Journal LTE SA 02/18/12

Relative question

I have a question relative to the logic (?) of the Republican legislators who are opposed to abortion and Planned Parenthood. Who do they think will care for these children of, more than likely, poor, unwed, young women? Them? Hell no. The state and the counties will end up using taxpayer dollars to support these children for many years to come. What part of that makes any sense?

With that kind of stupidity, how can we ever hope to get out of the financial mess we're in?

JOHN SHELDON

Winston-Salem

Quite the contrary

After reading the letter "Pipeline evaluation" (Feb. 1), I feel compelled to dispute certain assertions made by the writer, who accuses Republican supporters of the project of lying "loudly and … consistently" about the project.

The complaint made by opponents of the Keystone XL project is that it would cross the environmentally sensitive Sandhills area in Nebraska, which sits atop a small portion of the Ogallala Aquifer. Last November, TransCanada and Nebraska officials agreed on an adjustment to the pipeline route that would detour around the Sandhills region, negating that objection.

The Ogallala Aquifer is a huge water table that underlies a corridor from South Dakota through Nebraska, eastern Colorado and New Mexico, western Kansas and Oklahoma into northern Texas. While this corridor no doubt contains fertile farmland, I'm speculating that many farmers of this land would agree with farmers from other regions that the aquifer does not irrigate "the most productive farmlands on the planet."

The writer implies that the land overlying the Ogallala Aquifer is pristine and unspoiled and that the Keystone pipeline would put the water in some new environmental peril. Quite the contrary; there are at least a dozen existing oil and gas pipelines traversing some portion of that corridor built with older, less reliable systems than that proposed for the Keystone pipeline.

Finally, the writer implies that our government has not had time to sufficiently evaluate the risks of the Keystone project. TransCanada proposed this project in 2008. How much time do the opponents need?

BARTON L. TIFFANY

Winston-Salem

Finish the Thought

Briefly complete the sentence below and send it to us at letters@wsjournal.com. We'll print some of the results in a few days. Only signed entries, please, no anonymous ones.

"Rick Santorum can win the GOP presidential nomination if he …"

Friday, February 17, 2012

Winston-Salem Journal LTE FR 02/17/12

Whitney's light

I was very sorry to hear about the death of Whitney Houston, who at one time was a talented, bright, positive soul who cheered everyone who listened to her ("Singer Whitney Houston dies," Feb. 12).

I hope you will not receive any of those letters — and if you do, you will not print them — criticizing her for her later drug and alcohol problems, which almost certainly destroyed her life, and criticizing the media, the conservative's favorite whipping post, for reporting on Whitney.

Nobody glamorized her problems; nobody praised her for them. What we praise her for, and remember her for, was her beautiful, rich, seemingly effortless singing ability, her songs and her sparkling personality, which touched her listeners and made the world a little brighter. We will miss that Whitney Houston.

DEBRA A. SNYDER

Winston-Salem

The coach's punishment

I am writing about the decision reached by the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board on Coach Mike Muse. I, too, feel that this was a slap on the wrist. What would they have done to the student if he had spoken to the teacher in that manner?

Text messages are very different from emails. If Muse had been sending emails to a list of students it would have been different. The board has set a very poor precedent about reporting cases of abuse. Anyone who suspects abuse has a duty to report it. I realize that the student was not reporting anything, merely remarked that the texts were weird. I, too, find it weird that this man was texting a 16-year-old girl frequently.

If I were this girl's parents, I would not want this man texting my daughter frequently. I would think they would be trying to find out why he felt it necessary to text her. And further, the school board should be putting a policy about text messages into effect to prevent things of this nature from happening.

If I had a student at East Forsyth High School, I, too, would think about moving the student, not only from that school, but also from the county. Our schools here in Davie County have had this problem and it was hidden until it no longer could be, much to our sorrow.

There is a price to be paid for these kinds of things and sometimes it is too dear.

PAULETTE HENDRIX

Mocksville

Sum It Up

The Sum It Up question from Sunday was: Should school systems allow texting between teachers and students?

* * * * *

I am sure the school systems have established proper channels to communicate with students and their families. If teachers have further concerns about students, they should talk to their parents.

BOON T. LEE

* * * * *

No, school systems should not allow texting between teachers and students. Any communication between staff and students should be done through the school only. Technology is moving fast and our school board needs to step up to the plate and put these safeguards in place for all children. As I recall last year there was inappropriate (sexual) texting between a teacher and student. Is our school board even paying attention? Perhaps instead of squabbling over the right to opt out of the Pledge of Allegiance they could pay attention to the inappropriate indiscretions that are occurring under their noses each academic year. Our children deserve better.

SUZANNE CARROLL

* * * * *

No. If a teacher needs to contact a student regarding his or her grades, it should be done via mail, text or phone to the student's parents. Thankfully, I do not have a student in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system, but if I did, I would not want any teacher contacting my child via these methods. I would definitely want to be contacted personally by the teacher.

Contacting a student only opens the door for suspicion of the teacher. And I definitely do not think it is the school resource officer's place to contact a student for any reason via email, text or phone.

VICKI LYNCH

* * * * *

Absolutely. Why not? Should they be allowed to speak via the telephone? Should the student be allowed to raise his hand in class? Of course they should be allowed to text. How could you stop it? Invade their privacy? To those who do not recognize it, both the student and the teacher are part of the same human race. Get real.

CATHERINE W. PITTS

* * * * *

What happened to face-to-face conversations with students and teachers? Let's go back to some of the old ways to communicate, OK?

ELIZABETH R. ERVIN

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Winston-Salem Journal LTE TH 02/16/12

God's word

This letter is in response to the Feb. 12 letter 'Traditional marriage,' asking to which "traditional marriage" the Rev. Ron Baity is referring ("Same-sex ballot strategy forming," Feb. 4). I would submit that my pastor, the Rev. Ron Baity, is referring to the traditional marriage between one man and one woman as set aside by God Almighty when he first created mankind as recorded in his holy book the Bible.

I know all the arguments the opposition has set forth, ie, those listed by the letter writer, which I won't waste space repeating. I would submit that God's word has not changed one iota and his word still means the same. All those who want to be so progressive and deny God's word will one day be judged by the very word they want to change to suit their own desires.

Furthermore, all of us will one day be judged by God Almighty for not studying his word and finding out just how he wants us to live: In his righteousness as provided by Jesus Christ.

ALICE R. JOYCE

Winston-Salem

Diversity

Given its liberal trend over the past few years, I was not surprised to see Wake Forest University hire Imam Khalid Griggs and embrace Islam ("Imam says he's had warm reception at WFU," Feb. 13). I can see them placing an arrow on the steeple of Wait Chapel, pointing toward Mecca to provide proper orientation for prayer and placing a minaret on Deacon Tower. Think of the possible revenues from naming rights.

I have been a critic of the annual raising of tuition far exceeding inflation at an institution that spends so lavishly on sports and sport facilities. At least a small portion is going to possible spiritual enlightenment of students.

Perhaps next year the school will hire an atheist advisor, a Buddhist monk and a Voodoo practitioner for diversity. We can't have too much diversity. Can we?

THOMAS L. GWYNN

Advance

Finish the Thought

Last Saturday we asked readers to complete the sentence, "The victors in the May primary vote for an amendment banning gay marriage in North Carolina will be ..."

* * * * *

"… stunned and shocked by the surprisingly broad impact on unmarried straight couples in their congregations, on businesses deciding not to come to North Carolina because of the difficult challenges facing their gay and lesbian employees, and other major businesses deciding to leave because of their national commitments to equal rights, and the dramatic increase in suicides by youngsters and teens despondent because they see life in North Carolina as hopeless."

ROBERT CONN

* * * * *

"There can be no winners, for whoever comes up short in the vote will just continue to try to change the other side's point of view."

FRANK SCISM

* * * * *

"... those who believe in Natural Law."

ROSE M. WALSH

* * * * *

"… none of us. Why are we spending time and money on this issue when we have more hungry children than any other area in the nation?"

CYNTHIA GOUGH NANCE

* * * * *

"… the majority of insightful, broadminded citizens who voted against Amendment One, realizing that writing discrimination into the constitution is just plain wrong. What is not being clearly stated is that this amendment will hurt not just same-sex couples but also unmarried couples and children. I urge my fellow citizens to vote against Amendment One."

ANNE G. WILSON

* * * * *

"... ultimately, gays and lesbians. This amendment will either fail in May or, if it passes, be declared unconstitutional at a later date. Of course, the Rev. Ron Baitys of the world will just run out some other homophobic ploy. These are the same old raggedy groups that opposed black civil rights in the 1950s and '60s. Will bigotry never take a holiday?"

KAM BENFIELD

* * * * *

"… able to go back to an unimpeded spreading of their foolish creation notions and perhaps mount a search for Noah's Ark. That, with the assumption that 'victory' means the further erosion of civil rights for gays. How do 'evangelicals' view genetic research?"

KENNETH B. SCALF

* * * * *

" … those who have enough backbone to stand up against unrighteousness. Victorious only because God Almighty answers the prayers of Christians across our state who want the marriage amendment added to our constitution to ban gay marriage (John 14:14). Marriage is between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24) not between two men or two women (Leviticus 20:13)."

Reid Joyce

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Winston-Salem Journal LTE WE 02/15/12

Do what they want

The writer of the letter "Justice Kagan" (Feb. 7) is out of line — but that's the rule for conservatives these days, rather than the exception.

"If this great nation is to remain a nation of laws for all people," he writes, "Elena Kagan should be impeached …" But wait — has she broken the law? Has she been convicted of a crime? No, the writer only has his belief that she has lied, though there's not a shred of evidence to support his imagination. He apparently doesn't even know what "a nation of laws" means — he's ready to punish her before she's even been tried.

I wonder if he would feel so strongly about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who was also accused of lying to Congress — or U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who is alleged to have presided over cases in which he has a personal interest.

Of course not, though — they can do what they want — they're not "liberal."

MARK B. HOWARD

Winston-Salem

Making a choice

On this "birth control" discussion, more attention should be given to those who choose to use contraception. These are the people who will ultimately be affected by this issue, and Catholics are a part of this group.

A recent pole revealed that 98 percent of Catholic women say they have used or are using birth control. They choose to use it. Nobody in government forces them to. They clearly have chosen to reject the church's teaching on this particular subject.

I don't question the sincerity of the Catholic clergy, but there is no way they can show that they know the mind of God on this matter. Furthermore, the official Catholic position on various things has sometimes been proven wrong. (Remember Galileo?)

Now, the Catholic church has done many good things in the world, and it is not my intention to criticize. However, history has shown that the church is not always right on everything, and in our free country we are free to decide for ourselves what may or may not be God's intentions.

It will seem ironic to some conservatives, but when you rationally look at the facts, it is President Obama who is standing up for the personal liberty and religious freedom of all those who choose to use contraceptives, and for all of those who choose not to.

DAVID BARNES

Winston-Salem

Well-done

Last week I went to Washington to meet with some of North Carolina's members of Congress. I'm not a political guy. I run a construction business in Winston-Salem called Sharp Interiors.

I went to Washington to tell my story. Two years ago we almost went out of business because our community bank called our loan. A credit union stepped in, took the time to learn about my business, and made the loans I needed. Our revenue grew by 30 percent last year, and we still employ 70 people in North Carolina.

I wasn't alone — other business owners from North Carolina shared the same story. Credit unions provide important access to capital and help us sustain and create jobs.

Credit unions have money to lend, but soon many will hit a lending cap that will stop them from being able to help businesses. Congress can fix this problem, and it won't cost the taxpayers a dime. The only group that opposes this legislation is the banks — the folks that took TARP.

Our members of Congress don't want to choose between banks and credit unions. My 70 employees would like the choice to be for business. Leave the bickering to something important like human growth hormone in Major League Baseball.

Ben Franklin once stated, "Well-done beats well-said." It's time we stop talking about creating jobs and let's get to the business at hand.

JIM DOBBINS

Winston-Salem

Unsupported assertion

I may not like what people write in letters, but I am prepared to defend their right to do so.

However, at a time when ad hominem attack and defamation have displaced reason and civility in political discourse, the media needs to exercise a degree of discretion when considering letters that may be little other than unsupported assertion and partisan bias.

This seemed to be the basis of the Feb. 7 letter "Justice Kagan," regarding U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, which made sweeping accusations of perjury and lack of integrity without a shred of evidence.

Censorship is an ugly word and I am not suggesting it; but surely it is incumbent on a publisher, at a minimum, to check facts before disseminating what may be no more than misinformed gossip and rumor.

JOHN HARRISON

Winston-Salem

Acceptance

I read with great interest the Feb. 4 article "Same-sex ballot strategy forming" and what followers of approving the ban on same-sex

marriages believe.

One of those interviewed said, "We love the homosexual. We don't approve of the lifestyle.

I get very offended when all we hear in the media is that we are hate-filled and bigoted."

Yes, those who support the ban are in fact hate-filled and bigoted. They say they love the people the ballot will affect, but don't approve of their lifestyle — why is that their business to begin with?

Everyone needs to accept people for what they are. And for those who may be confused, the definition of a bigot from Webster's is as follows: "Intolerant person … somebody with strong opinions who refuses to accept different views."

I guess many really don't have any idea what they are, do they? Love and accept people for what they are — nothing more, nothing less.

DONALD WITTE

Advance

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Winston-Salem Journal LTE TU 02/14/12

This special day

On this special day called Valentine's Day, I want to declare my undying love for Winston-Salem and the surrounding area. Winston-Salem, you had me from the get-go. It was love at first sight.

I would like to give a special shout out to the city mothers and fathers and humbly ask the city to be re-branded as The City of the Arts, Innovation and Compassion . Can I get a witness?

CLYDE LEE GODWIN

PASTOR, HOPE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Winston-Salem

Good deeds

I just read the article about the sale of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s collection of artwork ("7,000 pieces of RJR's art, collectibles are going on sale," Feb. 9).

RJR, a long-time employer and friend of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, graciously agreed to donate the proceeds of this sale to the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. There's no doubt at all on my part that these funds will be used for the benefit of our community. Just look at our downtown streets now compared to the ghost town of just a few short years ago.

But maybe the funds from this particular sale could have been used to save (or delay) the layoff of some RJR employees desperately needing their jobs ("Reynolds confirms layoffs," Feb. 9)?

As the saying goes, "No good deed goes …" You know the rest.

CHARLES R. DAVIS

King

So concerned

What fun facts are found in the Journal.

John Railey, in his column about Erskine Bowles ("Bowles may have been haunted by '72 race," Feb. 5), points out that the first Republican governor of the 20th century was James Holhouser Jr. in 1973. Remember, boys and girls, that the N.C. legislature was also controlled by Democrats for virtually all of the same century.

The Journal has crusaded endlessly for the compensation for the victims of the North Carolina Eugenics Board sterilization program, conducted under the auspices of the state Department of Public Welfare. And who was in charge of the state from 1929 to 1973? That would be Democrats, those public do-gooders who are so concerned about the poor and oppressed.

The sterilization program did not end until Holshouser took office. Obviously, Democrats were the responsible party in power when these atrocities took place.

Let us note the following statement from Michael Gerson's Feb. 6 column, "The war on religion declared": "the Obama administration announced its final decision that Catholic … hospitals ... will be compelled to pay for health insurance that covers sterilization."

Thank you, Journal, for reminding us that the Democratic Party is the party of abortion and sterilization. Those 12 Democratic governors from 1929 to 1973 would be so proud.

HARRY R. COOKE

Winston-Salem

'Enlightened' country

Not long ago, on an ABC 20/20 episode about the aborting of female babies in India, it was reported that because people in that country regard female babies as less desirable than male babies, abortions there average about 50,000 female babies every month — approximately 1.2 million annually. I began to wonder how many babies are aborted annually in our country.

I subsequently learned that U.S. abortions have exceeded 1.2 million for a number of years. Considering that India has a population roughly three and one-half times that of the U.S., the abortion rate in our country is proportionally an astounding three and one-half times the abortion rate in India. Since our "enlightened" country doesn't discriminate as to sex, there probably hasn't been a significant difference between the number of male babies and female babies who have been aborted in the U.S.

In a recent year, approximately 84 out of every 100 abortions in the U.S. were performed on unmarried women. In other words, sexual intercourse outside of marriage, which the Bible regards as sin, is responsible for the vast majority of the abortions in our country. Furthermore, roughly three-fourths of abortions are being performed for selfish reasons such as to avoid interference with work, school or other responsibilities.

I for one am ashamed of these statistics. I love this country, and I hate to see it increasingly becoming a nation of people who have a low regard for innocent human life. Those who agree, please let our government representatives know.

HARVEY ARMOUR

Winston-Salem

Monday, February 13, 2012

Winston-Salem Journal LTE MO 02/13/12

Who loses?

At this point it appears that the Democrats are in a "win-win" situation and the only dilemma they face is whether to vote for complete socialism (President Obama) or expanded big government (Mitt Romney).

But who loses? The politicians and the so-called 1 percent, who are collaborators, certainly will not. And the poor who are being bought for "bread and circuses" will not, but will continue to eat the crumbs from the table of the previous groups. No, the real losers will be the working middle class.

The middle class is caught up in the everyday struggle to survive and stay afloat, and its members either don't have the time or they don't want to take the time to get involved, and the result will be that the bread-and-circus group will vote for the same group that makes the promise to give them free bread.

Evidently the middle class will be taxed out of existence; then what?

DONALD R. CREWS

Winston-Salem

A simple plan

How many idiots does it take to come up with a simple plan ("Pledge policy back on table," Jan. 25)? When I was in school, we recited the Pledge of Allegiance and prayed every morning to start the day. Those who didn't want to pray could either sit quietly or step out in the hall.

No one had any problem with that, it worked fine, no hassle.

Go back to it, quit wasting time and money on all the meetings, lawyers, groups and whatever, making a big deal out of it. You can't please everybody, never could, never will. Have some backbone and do it like it used to be.

RICK COVINGTON

Winston-Salem

Pruning trees

On Jan. 30, the Journal printed an excellent guest column by David Lusk on the practice of pruning trees in Winston-Salem ("Weird trees of Winston-Salem"). I, too, find it most disturbing. What is being done to our beautiful trees is not pruning, but just plain desecration of the trees, besides weakening the trees and shortening their lives. This cutting is done to all kinds of trees, regardless of their age, leaving ugly maimed stubs of branches up in the air.

This kind of cutting is needless work, filling the time sheet of the laborer and the salesman who sells such a needless service. Winston-Salem sadly loses a good bit of its natural charm.

FRED J. GRAF

Wilkesboro

Preserving history

It truly saddened me to read that the UNC School of the Arts could possibly tear down the 100-year-old historic home on Sunnyside Avenue ("Historic house faces demolition," Feb. 4). The home is on the National Register of Historic Places and sits within the Washington Park Historic District.

It amazes me that a city that prides itself on preserving history such as Old Salem might rezone this location and give permission to tear down a perfectly good home that has survived over 100 years and allow UNCSA to build a large storage warehouse right next to an existing home. I hope the Winston-Salem City Council will have the wisdom to come to the rescue and preserve this part of our city's history. Once it's gone, it's gone. We need to preserve our historical neighborhoods for future generations.

DEAN M. SHORE

Winston-Salem