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Obama and Biden will better serve the country
To the Editor:
I have been watching both political campaigns. No one doubts that John McCain is patriotic. No one doubts he has suffered in war times. He grew up in a military family, so he knows about war. But being in the Iraq war is what has caused so many of our country’s problems already – the deaths of many of our young people, our alienation of our allies and our economic demise.
We do not want four more years of war in Iraq or elsewhere; our country cannot withstand four more years of war.
Barack Obama had the sound judgement to oppose the Iraq war from the beginning.
McCain vows to reach across party lines. However, everyone knows that he voted with Bush’s policies more that 90 percent of the time. McCain promises to be an agent of change. However, he does not intend to raise taxes on big corporations and oil companies. He has no timetable to withdraw from Iraq, which is financially depleting our economy.
How does he plan to fund health care reform and improve economic growth short of increasing our national debt? From his own admission, he is not strong on economic policies. So who do you suppose will oversee his policies? The same old Republicans who have led us into a recession.
McCain says he has good judgment, but choosing a running mate who is not qualified to run our country does not show good judgment. By voting for a war that should have never happened, he was not showing good judgement.
McCain’s vice-presidential pick, Sarah Palin, does not believe that global warming is directly affected by people. Palin opposes abortion, even in the cases of rape. We all remember the days of illegal abortions in young girls’ bedrooms and the disastrous results.
According to national media reports, prior to having a handicapped child, Palin cut funding in Alaska for disabled children by 60 percent. Now that her child has Down’s Syndrome, she is an advocate for disability funding.
Freedom for America means being pro-choice. How can someone be pro-life and pro-war at the same time?
George Bush wanted people to believe that if you disagreed with him you were unpatriotic.
Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden love America as much as McCain and the Republicans do. Obama has consistently shown good judgement – he and Biden have our best interests at heart. We do not need to live our lives out of fear. Fear is what got us into the Iraq war. We need to move forward with a vision for this country’s future with hope, and we need to be led by a president with sound judgement, strong capabilities and a vice president with years of foreign affairs experience.
Susie Stephens
Cullowhee
Mountain people are not ‘bigots’
To the Editor:
I am writing in regards to Clark Lipkin’s latest letter. I think he went too far in calling mountain people the “b word” that rhymes with spigot.
All we are concerned with is how our mountains are looking and our mountain heritage. There’s a big difference between one home being built by the homeowner and hundreds of homes being built by a developer who is just in it for the money he can make off of it.
There is also a difference in how it looks. I would rather see trees growing on the mountains rather than a city growing on the mountain. Us mountain people also like to explore, take our kids out hunting and fishing or just take a ride in the old truck on the old roads in our mountains. Those used to go back to our families’ old home places, but now all we run into are gates.
Teresa Henry
Sylva
Tired of political ‘business as usual’
To the Editor:
Current events in Jackson County have caused people to ask me, “what can I do about this assault on our values and our way of life? What can I do about the developers buying up the county? What can I do about the politicians constantly spending us into debt and shrugging their shoulders and smiling over the outright disappearance of public monies that has been going on for years? What can I do?”
“Jacksongate” has been building for some time. Years of neglect, double-dealing and outright apparent fraud by the few have finally caused us, the many, to wake up to the determined, greedy attack on our way of life in Jackson County. But what can you and I do?
If you’re tired of the same old political “business as usual;” if you’re tired of mega-developers buying thousands of acres of our mountains for the benefit of the few; if you’re tired of the same old excuses and outright stories from our so-called leaders; then join with others just like you and fight these destroyers. It’s about the water and a whole lot more. It makes no difference whether you were born here, raised here or moved here a short time ago. What matters is whether you want the land to survive and prosper, whether you want to raise your children here, whether you want what is right. Friday, Sept. 19, at 6:30 p.m. at the Family Resource Center in Webster is when you get your chance to say “No more. This must stop now. We, the people, want what is right.”
Carl Iobst
Cullowhee
Join group to plan for impending energy crisis
To the Editor:
At the end of the last century, the world community faced a crisis in the area of computer operations which we all called Y2K. There was the possibility of breakdowns and chaos on a global scale. But several years of planning and hard work by thousands of people resulted in a smooth transition.
I believe, based on reports from geologists and experts on oil exploration, that we are approaching a new crisis related to energy.
Oil prices are determined by the forces of supply and demand. We have already seen how worldwide demand for oil can cause gas prices to skyrocket. And worldwide demand for energy will certainly continue to rise. We are also facing a reduction in the supply of oil, because we will soon reach the point where half of the oil that exists in the earth will be used up. We will still have a lot of oil but it will be increasingly hard to get and therefore will cost more and more on the market.
What this means for every one of us is that we will have to pay higher and higher prices for everything that we buy, because oil is used to make everything as well as to bring it to the shelves in our stores.
Already we are having to make choices about how much to drive, what to eat, how to heat our homes. These choices by individuals have had the effect of bringing down the price of oil and the price of gas in the short term. In the long term, faced with increasing demand and decreasing supply, meeting our needs for food, transportation and heat will require that all of us together develop plans for how to do that using less oil.
Some experts say that we will need to cut oil use by 80 percent. That will take a lot of planning, and cooperation and work for every household, every neighborhood, every business and organization and every governmental body.
Please join us at CREATE (Community Response for Energy Action and Transition Education) every second and fourth Thursday at Bubacz’s Underground (below Lulu’s) from 6 until 7 p.m. and begin planning for our future.
Ron Arps
Sylva
Look beyond attack ads when choosing next president
To the Editor:
Now that the tumult and the shouting of the Democratic and Republican conventions have died away and the parties have officially nominated their candidates, it is we, the people, who are charged with electing the next president and vice president of the United States. The campaign has been in progress for nearly two years, and some of us grow weary of the seemingly endless debate. But let’s not be distracted by the countless surface issues that can be discussed till the cows come home. Instead, let’s focus on what is truly important in electing the person who is to lead our country into the future.
For me it is not important that my president be a woman or a man, that my president be black or white or brown or yellow, that my president be blonde or brunette, short or tall. These are simply physical characteristics that a person is born with. The long reign of the male white anglo-saxon Protestant is ending, and we see increasingly gifted candidates, with varied physical characteristics, who bring rich experience from all walks of life. It is not important to me whether the president comes from the legislative, executive or judicial branch of government; past presidents have proven successful coming from the military and each branch of government.
What is important to me is that our president has integrity, intelligence, and loyalty, beyond selfish interests, to our nation and our planet. That our president has the courage to be bold when boldness is required; the patience to listen to all sides of an issue before making decisions; the insight to discern the hard truth of an issue; the desire to act out of fairness; and the compassion to respect all people and all forms of life on our stalwart but fragile planet.
Let us remember the oath of office that the next president will take on Jan. 20, 2009: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That’s it. The oath speaks of nothing specific other than the Constitution formed by our nation’s founders more than 200 years ago. That Constitution protects the rights of the individual and regulates the way we live together as a nation and in the world.
When someone asks me who I am voting for, I say I am for Barack Obama. I am voting for Sen. Obama because he has a deep understanding of our Constitution, having taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for 12 years; because he brings a global perspective to his thinking; because he had the insight to oppose the Iraq War; because he will work to make it possible for all people of this nation to have affordable health care; because he will strengthen Social Security; because he will provide new jobs in the critical area of renewable sources of energy.
These are issues that are important to me and why I am voting for my candidate. What are the important issues for you, and why are you voting for your candidate?
Let’s look beyond the attack ads, beyond the distortion of facts by commentators and opponents and in letters to the editor. Let’s examine carefully the way each candidate deals with the issues that are important to us and important to the nation and the world as a whole.
Let’s make sure we register to vote by Oct. 10 and that we go to the polls on or before Nov. 4. Let’s show the world that we, the people of the United States of America, are a strong and capable people who vote intelligently and responsibly in a fair and open election.
Nan Watkins
Tuckasegee
Support for WATR’s involvement in panel
To the Editor:
This past spring and summer the Watershed Association of the Tuckaseigee River has sought dialogue with Legasus and with the greater community about the environmental impacts of the River Rock resort communities planned for the Tuckasegee area off of N.C. 107.
Through talks with Legasus management, we developed a public forum that was held this past Tuesday at Tuckasegee Baptist Church. Support for this effort came from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and WATR members and friends who have paid both dues and gifts. These funds have supported WATR’s engagement in this endeavor. We also appreciate the panel members, state and federal agency representatives, and community members who participated.
Roger Clapp
Bryson City
(Editor’s note: Roger Clapp is the executive director of the Watershed Association of the Tuckaseigee River.)
Dreaming of home in gated community
To the Editor:
For quite a while my main ambition has been to live in a house in a gated community, on a high mountain, somewhere, anywhere, in Western North Carolina. My taste is modest; not a $1.5 million house, a $350,000 one would do nicely. The view from the house should be panoramic and spectacular.
At this time I have none of the $350,000. I am 88 years old. I had better get started.
George Penland
Webster
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