Revenge Hurts Bystanders
Dear Editor,
Is anyone as concerned as I am for the survival of our republic? What will be the future of our government if those who didn’t get the result they desired in the election seek to overturn the 63 million votes that chose to repudiate Hillary Clinton? Will we every four years have an impeachment temper tantrum if we don’t get our way?
Clinton was a candidate with a multi-car baggage train. She ran as if she was entitled to the presidency. We have seen over and over she is a sore loser who blames everyone but herself for her loss.
But lose she did and decided to destroy Trump and ruin his presidency and it is leading us to a possible constitutional crisis. We have seen how there is one set of laws for the Clintons and their allies and another set of laws for Trump’s.
From the first day Trump has been vilified unmercifully, but he is still accomplishing his agenda. He is having to deal with Obama’s messes in the Middle East, North Korea, Iran, etc., while the mainstream media are obsessed with an aging porn star trying to cash in on an consensual one-night stand 12 years ago. News to them: We don’t care. Bill Clinton and Jack Kennedy turned the White House into a brothel but we were told that was their private life. Without hypocrisy liberals would have no standards at all.
The Democrats are saying they will take back the House and Senate in November. I am sorry to have to tell you, but no matter how disgusted we are with many of our RINOS, we are going to have to vote for them. Our own Thom Tillis went from Tea Party to RINO in record time. But we must remember the Democrats are worse. They are saying they will end the tax breaks, raise taxes, confiscate our guns as well as impeach Trump who has done nothing unconstitutional.
Now we have sanctimonious, holier-than-thou James Comey’s book arriving. From the excerpts I have read, he sounds more like a whining junior high school girl trying to get revenge on the mean girls. If we could all be just as morally upright, honest and perfect as he imagines himself to be. He has a habit of striking back at Trump with quotes. Now I have two for him:
“When he started talking about his honor, we immediately started counting the spoons.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” Confucius
Phyllis Picklesimer
No to Body-slamming
Dear Editor,
Does anyone know how many police officers have body-slammed young girls on school property? I can remember at least three cases in the last year. There was a recent case that you can view online. I don’t think that there is any reason for a police officer to tackle, body-slam or beat up an unarmed girl that hasn’t broken any laws.
Chuck Mann
In Support of Hardister
Dear Editor,
I’m turning from my usual ranting this once to show support for Jon Hardister, the incumbent candidate running for re-election in State House District 59.
I’ve known Jon since he was a student at Greensboro College and got to know him better as he began entering the world of politics. He has always shown a level of compassion leavened with common sense in his actions. He holds to his beliefs but won’t ignore a rational, logical counterpoint when presented.
The late Honorable Howard Coble was Jon’s political mentor, and anyone that knows Jon can see this. I admired and respected Congressman Coble, and while I didn’t always agree with him on some of his positions and votes, he would not apologize or try to skirt his position but would stand firm on it because he saw it as the right thing. I can say the same about Jon Hardister.
Jon’s Republican opponent has leveled some serious charges against him. Things that would make people question Jon as a conservative Republican. The problem with the other “Republican” candidate is he is only giving out half the truth. Yes, Jon voted for the service tax, but what you are not reminded of is he also voted to reduce individual taxes to offset it. If his opponent did it once, what other half-truths has he told?
Jon Hardister is a hardworking young man, raised by good conservative parents, who cares about the people he represents and will stand his ground. Jon believes there needs to be a convention of states to try to get this country back to where it was.
Please stand with me and support Jon Hardister with your vote in the primary and then again in the general election.
Go Jon and save the republic.
Alan Marshall
Barnes’ Crime Statistics
Dear Editor,
Sheriff BJ Barnes’ advertisement of a 65 percent reduction in crime has some reasonably explainable statistics. The calculated Uniform Crime Reports of the North Carolina SBI since 1994 show decrease in statewide crime and are online. Guilford County is not alone in having crime reduction since 1994.
A 65 percent reduction in crime appears exaggerated since high population areas have been annexed by the City of Greensboro since 1994. I had assumed that some journalist, somewhere, would have investigated BJ’s claim to fame. From 1990 to 2015, Greensboro’s square miles increased more than once. Greensboro’s population increase was due in part to high population areas being annexed. Some of these annexed areas include and are not limited to annexation of the following: areas north of Lees Chapel Road and West of Yanceyville Road, the Cardinal, Old Highway 70 East area, the Hicone Road Shopping Center area and others. If the above referenced areas had not been annexed, what would BJ’s numbers be? The unincorporated areas patrolled by the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department have seen a significant decrease in populated square miles that were previously included in the sheriff’s report. Obtain the crime reports of the Greensboro Police Department from the areas stated above and add them to the Sheriff’s Department reported crime.
It is difficult to compile reasonably accurate numbers from High Point’s annexed areas since they are a multi-county city. Statistics can be manipulated. I have presented facts and tried to honestly avoid statistical manipulation. I ask that all Guilford County voters consider the facts I have presented. My numbers are approximate.
How much has the sheriff’s budget increased to cover the true unincorporated population growth? From 1990 to 2015, where were the high population housing centers, outside the cities, built in Guilford County?
BJ makes a claim of no scandal. However, there have been lawsuits published in local newspapers involving purported deaths in the county jail. These published lawsuits presumably have been settled out of court. The president is limited in terms, the sheriff should be.
Larry Chandler
Signs of Hope
Dear Editor,
There is hope. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. A new family has moved into the neighborhood. They have at least 5 kids. I first noticed them during the last snow we had. Snowmen appeared in the yard. Not the sculptured ones I’ve seen adults make but lumpy, bumpy lopsided ones. Ones only kids can make. There were children out playing in the snow. Something I have not seen in my neighborhood for a long time. (Something I find eerie and unnatural since my generation took full advantage of the few snowfalls we have in this area.)
Then the basketball hoop came out. They’d stand in line playing shooting games. Then I noticed something. Other kids in the neighborhood started joining in. Most of the time you see the mother sitting in a chair with her baby in her lap, with a smile on her face watching her children. (Notice I said “children” not “a screen.”) I kept noticing other kids from the neighborhood gravitating toward this house. Little girls having cartwheel competitions, bicycles circling around, and now the roller skates have come out. I wish you could see the elation on the faces of the youngest ones as they try to learn to skate. Clomp, clomp, clomp.
And manners, “oh, my.” “Hello, Ma’am. How are you today?” one of the boys asked me while making full eye contact. No hiding his shyness behind a computer screen as I see other children do.
Last Sunday, while our small, circular neighborhood was quiet, there was a big bike race. The hoops and hollers of the children sounded like music to me. I noticed one of the neighborhood boys I had been most concerned about, join in. I had begun to believe he had gone the way of his older brother, a self confessed video game addict. I only see his brother in the daylight as he with pale face and sleepy eyes, lumbers his way to his car to leave for work. But with color in his face and life and light in his eyes, he sped past me, throwing his arm up in the air to wave. I’ve never seen him so happy. It was like he had awakened from a long and drugged sleep. It put hope in my heart that perhaps this will be the generation to break free from the screen addictions and start living again.
Patricia Small
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