UNC Athletes Did have Class
Dear Editor,
I agree with your assertion that the NCAA should abandon the pretext of amateur athletics and simply pay the athletes. However, you continue to refer to UNC athletes attending “classes that didn’t exist.” That is false. Various investigations revealed that the classes in question were misrepresented as lecture classes, when they were, in fact, independent study classes, approved by the faculty. Athletes and non-athletes were required to write a 20- to 25-page paper in order to receive a grade and credit for the courses.
Regarding your suggestion that other schools follow UNC’s lead in this area, you might be surprised to learn that many schools already give academic credit to varsity athletes, just based on their participation in sports. They include such institutions as Nebraska, Oregon, Stanford, Michigan, TCU and many others. This is verifiable fact, unlike your “presumption” that the UNC starters got A’s and the benchwarmers got B’s.
I have been reading, and enjoying, your reporting for many years. It surprises me that you have lazily bought into the narrative spouted by Ed Hardin and the rest of the mainstream media hacks that the NCAA should have hammered UNC with penalties.
Here are some facts: The NCAA Notice of Allegations did not accuse UNC of academic infractions. By their own admission, this is out of their jurisdiction. They alleged that athletes’ access to these mislabeled courses constituted impermissible benefits, as they were not available to the entire student body. UNC’s response clearly refuted this, as athletes comprised less than 50 percent of the course enrollments.
These courses were not rigorous – they were likely very easy. Is UNC unique in this regard? All schools have courses that could be termed easy – and athletes and other students gravitate toward them to pad their GPA’s. So what? Duke offers academic credit for courses taught through North Carolina Central University. Had I known about Geology 38 (aka “Rocks for Jocks”) as a lab science alternative at UNC, I would certainly have steered clear of Chemistry 11.
With the NCAA ruling, this story should be history. But you and others want to keep it alive. As the old saying goes, you are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts. So come on, John. You are better than this. Stick to the facts, or emphasize that a statement is merely your opinion if it cannot be verified.
Ernie Snider
Editor’s Note: The UNC administration initially said the class was fraudulent. The class didn’t meet, had no professor and no instruction, and the only requirement was that a paper be turned in. According to UNC, no one read the paper but an office assistant looked at the first and last pages. This was not simply an easy class, it was a fraudulent class.
Infected Body Politic
Dear Editor,
President Trump called the investigations of him and his administration a witch-hunt. It appears to have devolved into a flat out lynch mob.
However, what bothers me is what I am seeing. Not only is the keft actively screaming for his head, the establishment right is being tepid in their response. Let’s be real. They never wanted him as president in the first place. He’s an outsider; he’s not one of them. He’s not part of the insider network. He’s one of the unwashed masses that somehow made it to the highest level of the peerage.
With the Hildabeast, the left and their lapdogs in the media rallied around and defended her regardless of the mounting evidence and blatantly obvious lies she and her lackeys were telling. In the case of President Trump, the right (read Republicans) is silent.
Is he squeaky clean? No. But I defy you to show me one who ever was. Has he made mistakes? Yes. Again, I defy you to show me one who never did.
Again, let’s be real. If the Hildabeast had been subjected to the same level of scrutiny as President Trump’s administration, she, her husband and possibly her daughter would be under a jail somewhere.
If what is going on in Washington right now does not convince the American people that this government “of the people, by the people and for the people” has or is becoming a government suppressing the people and controlling the people for the benefit of the those ruling the people, then we have reached a point where we are truly getting the government we deserve.
If people were to actually read the Constitution (something the lords and ladies of Washington secretly fear), it would be blatantly obvious what is happening. These parasites (I’m done pulling punches) have infected the body politic and turned it into a Frankenstein-like creation they control. The most obvious sign is how they consider our money theirs and throw it around for the purposes of buying votes and power. They claim they have to do these things. Wrong. What they have to do is obey the laws as outlined in the Constitution.
Article 10 US Constitution: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Clear enough?
Go Galt and save the republic.
Alan Marshall
A Wager
Dear Editor,
I recently passed by the site of the future Tanger Center for the Performing Arts on a beautiful fall morning – just the kind of day that anyone would love to be outside in whatever capacity – and noticed that there was not a single worker on the site, nor any sign of any human activity anywhere. And I wondered how many workers are going to be out there when the harsh winter weather sets in.
And I thought of all the serene assurances from the adherents of the project – particularly Matt Brown – that the center will come in on schedule in June or July 2019, which I still find hard to believe even if there had been dozens of workers out there.
So I will make Mr. Brown the following deal: I will pay him $100 for every day the Tanger Center is completed before July 1, 2019, if he will agree to pay me $1 for every day the completion goes past that date.
As far as I’m concerned, Mr. Brown might as well put a check in the mail for the first $500 right now. Even if a few people ever do show up for work.
John Pugh
Actively Waiting
Dear Editor,
Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. (Isa. 40:31)
You may think of waiting as a passive, inactive time. Waiting on the Lord is anything but inactive. While you wait in Him, you will be praying with a passion to know him, his purposes and his ways. You will be watching circumstances and asking God to interpret them by revealing to you his perspective. You will be sharing with other believers to find out what God is saying to them. As you wait on the Lord, you will be very active in asking, seeking and knocking: “Ask and it will be given to you. … For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matt. 7:7-8)
While you wait, continue doing the last thing God told you to do. In waiting, you are shifting the responsibility of the outcome to God – where it belongs. Then, when God give you specific guidance, he will do through you more in days and weeks than you could ever accomplish in years of labor. Waiting on him is always worth the wait. His timing and his ways are always right. You must depend on him to guide you in his ways and in his timing to accomplish his purpose.
Rev. Ernest Scoggin
Tax the Rich More
Dear Editor,
In a nation divided by the poor, the middle class and the very rich, timing, supply and demand again raises its hand to announce the only truth: Only the very rich can pay more taxes. Why? The poor do not have enough as it is and to tax the middle class more will hurt all of us.
Not taxing the very wealthy a little more may even prevent the problem George W. Bush created – a boom bust in only one industry. It was housing, in his case, as there were no obvious investing opportunities then and to accumulate more wealth simply made sense to this group, at that time.
Regardless of what system of government we live under, there will always be the well off and the not so well off. Fair taxation will require the wisdom of common sense instead of old criticisms that never were, like, “trickle down economics.” This phrase apparently originated during the great depression by Will Rogers, a comedian, and the parts of it that do or do not work have nothing to do with trickling down. It works only within the timing and supply and demands within our economy that we need to properly balance at that time.
Ray Hylton
Who’s Your Daddy?
Dear Editor,
Mother Earth? Earth is not our mother. Earth was created by our heavenly father as a home for us – a home filled with beauty and wonder. Give God the glory and thank him. Thank him for all the gifts he gives us today, and every day.
Anonymous
Send to letters@rhiontimes.com or
216 W. Market St., Greensboro 27401
