|
Soldiers make sacrifices for us all
To the Editor:
No matter what our political beliefs, no matter who we think is a good leader or a bad leader of this great country, in the end, it is the soldier who is put in harm’s way so that we will be free to debate any of this.
It is best summed up by Marine Sgt. Dennis Edward O’Brien, who fought in the terrible battle of Peleliu in the South Pacific, where he lost 1,336 of his fellow Marines, and 6,032 were wounded in just several days of battle.
“It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protestor to burn the flag.”
Please, let us remember our soldiers in Iraq, and please let all of us put aside our differences and pray for their safe return home.
Ron Gamble
Sylva
Was Kerry really off the mark?
To the Editor:
So ... the “Blunder of the Week” award goes to Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) for suggesting to college students that if they didn’t study hard they’d get “stuck in Iraq.”
In political circles this is known as “gotcha.” It was a colossal miscalculation, Sen. Kerry, and extremely poor timing, coming a week before the election.
However, misinterpretations and political hype about what Kerry really said aside, how far (reasonably) off the mark was he?
Being a Navy veteran and a Vietnam veteran and the same age as Sen. Kerry, I find it incongruous to presume he meant anything even remotely deprecating to the armed services.
More precisely, consider his audience, college students. During my teen years, the 1950s, it was accepted that young men had three options: private industry, college (if they could afford it) or the military. Today, though life in America has changed considerably over the last half-century, the basic concept remains.
Thanks in part to affirmative action and equal opportunity programs, standards and expectations have also changed. The draft, too, has come and gone since then, and the armed forces have resorted to colossal bonuses (as much as $40,000) to lure the less inclined. Still, less than 1 percent of the population serves in the armed forces.
In the November VFW Magazine is an article written by Kathy Roth-Douquet, whose husband is a career Marine and Iraq veteran, and Frank Schaeffer, whose son served in the Marines in Afghanistan and Iraq. Their article, titled “AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes from Military Service – and How it Hurts Our Country,” takes the sting out of Kerry’s remarks.
Roth-Douquet and Schaeffer believe that a day of reckoning is approaching when “the military is going to be asked to do the impossible by very misinformed civilian leaders who will not be around to pick up the pieces.”
In my view that day has arrived. It is here.
Kerry’s advice to college students was sound for any number of reasons, not the least of which is that educated students can avoid being used for fodder in ill-conceived, irrational and misguided military ventures in places where America has no legitimate business – like Iraq.
David Snell
Dillsboro
History repeats: leaders to once again dance with EDC, JDC
To the Editor:
Sylva Mayor Brenda Oliver, a long-term member of the Economic Development Commission, recently issued another (among many) clarion call to the county, municipalities and institutions to come together for a new influx of county tax money into ailing organizations called Economic Development Commission and the Jackson Development Corporation. Commissioners’ Chairman Brian McMahan is answering the call.
Why? Is this a new dance before the taxpayers? I think not, since most of the main players are still present on both boards. Two of the JDC members sit on the EDC board with voting power in decision-making processes over our tax money.
These organizations with most of the same main players have left a paper trail along with county commissioners to one of the biggest political scandals in recent times for our county. The excellent reporting of the local news media contains an outline of the JDC property purchases and the EDC’s interaction on furnishing the county’s tax money for them. Reporters even went to the Courthouse records and published a timeline of all the financial actions of the JDC and EDC inclusive, because JDC being a private corporation is not required by law to provide any information as to how or why our tax money was spent by a board of five people with no accountability. As Chairman (Tom) McClure stated, “JDC’s financial assets came from EDC’s tax dollars allocated to this entity for economic development from Jackson County, Sylva, municipalities, etc.” Once these tax dollars go to EDC and JDC, the money belongs to those organizations.
These two groups, connected to the “nth” degree, along with the commissioners and its chairman, took part in a scenario of epic proportions. Scene one: Jackson County Commissioners accidentally find that a $565,000 second mortgage held by EDC on a JDC purchase of the Tuckaseigee Mills Property is being foreclosed by the Sossamons of Bryson City, doing business as “Triple S.” JDC didn’t even place the EDC as first mortgage holder, but it appears members of the EDC and JDC never informed the commissioners. Nor did any member of either entity alert the commissioners to the impending danger of having to bid for the property; or attempt to buy the mortgage or else lose $565,000 of tax money.
Scene two: absolute panic with sweeping motions aimed at damage control to conceal the fact the commissioners were totally ignorant of EDC and JDC’s loan ventures, serious indebtedness for real estate ventures, unpaid property taxes and the tweaking of loans to conceal the actual bankruptcy state of one, the failure of some to pay on time or not at all. A special arrangement with EDC purchased invoices of the bankrupt company for a reduced rate, giving this company cash to pay off its loans to the county. Even with EDC cooperating with our tax dollars, closed-session minutes state this company had not made a payment in two years. The county is now contending with this EDC loan and has written another one.
In an attempt to address the status of loans, the EDC and the JDC were involved in and about $1.3 million these entities had received from county taxes (as estimated by county auditor Mitch Crisp), a secret session was entered into by the commissioners. Former Chairman Stacy Buchanan was quoted as saying, “We have to act like we are on top of everything.” The rest is history – records were seized, examined and audited. Court trials and motions were heard. The commissioners were ruled against for violating (McClure’s) due process and the Open Meetings Law.
As taxpayers, what have we learned? EDC and JDC seem to have operated for years without even an audit or proposed budget; any member had the opportunity to alert the commissioners to foreclosure or even resign if they considered practices in either organization as unethical or not in the best interest of the taxpayers. Since no one did anything, all members bear equal responsibility. Perhaps Mayor Oliver will explain a transfer of $300,000 to EDC from JDC since the town of Sylva signed an affidavit of payment ($304,023.40) on the Buster Brown property from JDC June 28, 2001.
Placing the 35,000 county citizens into $60 million of indebtedness is about as smart as some of the ludicrous things I have written about. Will the election bring three new commissioners to make a difference or just more of the same?
Time will tell.
Marie Leatherwood
Sylva
|
