August 26, A Date Which Will Live In Infamy
Dear Editor,
This came to mind on the day 13 of my brothers were killed.
“Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
“Today, August 26, 2021, a date which will live in infamy, American forces were suddenly attacked in a cowardly action by our enemy.”
Does anyone else see how close these two actions are? The only difference being the Japanese military didn’t know the declaration of war hadn’t yet been delivered.
As a retired soldier, the fact that we’re withdrawing under the existing conditions I find hard to accept. The only thing that we, the service members on the line, can cling to is it’s our “leaders” that have created this. We did everything we could but can our “leaders” say the same? I don’t lump all of our elected officials in this. Some have truly tried to give the military the support they need, but unfortunately their numbers are few, their power not strong enough to effect changes.
As I write this, they’re saying as many as 1,000 Americans may be trapped after August 31. How could this have happened? Billions of dollars of modern military equipment has been abandoned. Hopefully there were at least some attempts to render most of it inoperable. Unfortunately I don’t think it was.
There are people that are saying this may be the beginning of the waning of the power of the United States. And in my opinion as long as Biden and the Democrat Party hold the power, it will only get worse. We currently don’t have a leader in the White House, we have a puppet. And the VP is even worse.
Add to this the disaster called our southern border. So far they have been able to distract the majority of the American people from that circus, but with this withdrawal winding down it will come more to the forefront. Personally I don’t have much confidence in what’s going to happen on the border. The only thing that will help is this situation is in our face. This situation cannot be colored over; the facts can’t be manipulated and concealed. If we fail on this, we are well on our way to ruin.
Stand up and make your voice heard before it’s too late.
Alan Marshall
Harden Our Power Grid
Dear Editor,
We must do more to harden our power grid against an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) event. This can be created by our enemies, or it can occur naturally. Such an event could cause devastating loss of life.
We should also have a ground-based GPS back-up (like Russia has) or we could lose internet.
Alvin Blake
Nutters Spew Misinformation
Dear Editor,
Overall I am very proud of Guilford County and its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our seven day average for COVID deaths never surged over 10 cases a day. Our vaccine rate could be higher, but with the FDA approval of the vaccine I hope to see our community break the 70 percent threshold.
What disappoints me is the range of what I refer to as “nutters” that are spewing the misinformation of the COVID pandemic being an overreaction, masks not working and vaccines not being safe. I use the term nutters as the only way to believe any of these points of misinformation is to only accept the fringe media or random talking heads on social media. To believe this you have to believe that the US government agencies are out to get you, control you, and make your life miserable. You also have to believe that mainstream media (MSM) is out to do the same. It is embarrassing how politicized the pandemic has been handled. I believe it started with Trump and his rhetoric about the left using the pandemic coverage to make him look bad and his fascination is controlling the media’s coverage of the numbers and potential impact of the virus. As a result, I have left the Republican Party and now register as independent.
The pandemic is real. It is dangerous. Just because you have not been personally impacted doesn’t give you the excuse to deny its existence. Over 600,000 Americans have died and the count is rising. There are those that want to frame that count as misleading because it doesn’t fit their point of view. Sure, people who were most likely at risk of death had other contributing factors. But who doesn’t over the age of 55? If you would have lived a day longer having not gotten COVID, you died of COVID. Not complicated. The count is potentially even under stated as many died at home without having a COVID test in the first big wave of COVID.
Masks are not perfect but they make a difference. Sure the studies like the recent study at Duke University are not perfect because ethically they can’t ask a control group to not wear a mask and put themselves at risk. But this doesn’t invalidate their study or the multitude of other studies. I reference for example an analysis recently published in The Lancet that found that mask wearing significantly reduces the risk of viral transmission. They used a meta-analysis of 172 studies that looked at various interventions to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, SARS and MERS from an infected person to people close to them. The key is that wearing a masks protects others as much if not more than it protects you! So if you personally choose to listen to only those people who say masks don’t work, at least wear them as a courtesy to those around you who may very well be more at risk to a negative impact to the virus. It really isn’t a big deal. Mandates for masks is no different than a mandate to wear seat belts.
Vaccines are safe. I had one nutter tell me she didn’t believe the vaccine was safe because she didn’t know what was in it and science didn’t know the long-term impact. This while she was dragging on a vape. A true nutter. Hundreds of millions of people have received the vaccine with only minor side effects. Last article I read showed only four people’s death were directly linked to the vaccine (blood clots from J&J). Sure your chance of death from the virus is low (less than 1 percent for most of us) but hospitalization, unknown long-term effects of the virus and contributing the spread (and ultimately the increased mutations) far outweigh the risks.
As always, consult your local doctor about what is right for you. Not everyone that dislikes masks and is afraid of the vaccine is a nutter. I use the term out of frustration as the base line ignorance required to fight against the preponderance of evidence sighted by leaders in the scientific community.
I am free, I am proud and I wear a mask as a courtesy to others around me in public. Because it is the right thing to do for the community. Please consider doing the same.
Christian Rice
Alan, 13 soldiers died in a military conflict. 34 and counting have died of coronavirus. Love your fake rage. Keep it up buck.
Your statement shows that you know nothing of the situation.
What is really so profoundly disappointing about Mr Rice’s tirade is the clear contempt he has for those with whom he disagrees. It suggests he is a particularly odious individual, incapable of disagreeing without becoming disagreeable.
His misconceptions and misunderstandings are multiple. I have neither the time nor inclination to refute each of his politically correct, toe the line contentions, but I will congratulate him for leaving the Republican Party.
We are all very grateful.
Didn’t realize tough guys like Austin were so easily unnerved. Sorry about your feelings tough guy. Bang bang!
What a juvenile comment. How old are you? Ten?
And a half. Stop fantasizing about me.
Don’t flatter yourself, mate.
It is disappointing. The antivax crowd and anti mask crowd are the reason we have yet to beat the virus and continue to have to operate under restrictions that continue to have negative impact on local small business owners. So yeah, I am very disappointed. My points are not opinions to agree or disagree with, they are facts. But I guess the new world where nutters have such a big voice that they even own their own broadcasting network (looking at you foxnews) it is the new way of things. I will survive. I hope you do to.
Best wishes.
The only real world study on the efficacy of face masks (DANMASK19) proved that wearing fabric face masks is completely ineffective in preventing Covid transmission. Fact.
The Finnish national airline, Finnair, has just joined the other European airlines AirFrance, Lufthansa and SWISSAIR in prohibiting their passengers from using fabric face masks because they’ve determined them to be COMPLETELY INEFFECTIVE. Fact.
The two mRNA “vaccines” (Moderna & Pfizer) induce a Covid viral load in the pharynx that is greater than that of people who are infected with Covid, thus becoming individual super-spreaders, which is causing tsunamis of the virus in highly vaccinated countries like Israel & the UK. Fact.
The apparent FDA approval of “the Pfizer vaccine” is another deception. The FDA has approved a different Pfizer vaccine (Comirnaty) to that which is currently available, and the corporate media and medical establishment are happily ignoring the distinction, blithely peddling the lie that “the Pfizer vaccine has now been approved”. Fact.
There are many other aspects of this mass deception that are indicated by circumstantial evidence, but I’ll refrain from speculation for now, and stick to facts.
One of us is a sheep.
One of us is a nutter.
I’ll let the readers figure it out.
Cloth masks…have always been in question…fine wear a surgical mask.
Vaccine causing spread of virus has been debunked as mRNA vaccines don’t involve the actual virus just the proteins that trigger a response.
Your other claim of a different version being approved has also been debunked by numerous sources.
Just another Nutter sheep following the nutters online.
Best wishes.
My God, you’re really not going to let the facts get in the way of your opinions, are you?
You definitely don’t belong in the GOP.
The Democrat Party will suit you much better.
And you accuse me of being a sheep and a nutter..?
You just keep spouting Joe Biden’s line, buddy, get your unproven mRNA injection, wear your pathetic little cloth mask for Covid theatre, and go to sleep smug as a bug in a rug. I hope you do not develop an autoimmune disease in the next 3-4 years, or problems caused by blood clotting, or incur scarring of the heart from Moderna’s jab, like my brother-in-law. Either way, your DNA will be irreversibly altered, and that means your progeny’s DNA will be too. What a breathtakingly reckless thing to do – just to avoid a flu bug.
Maybe one day you’ll learn to think for yourself.
I shan’t hold my breath.
Good luck.