In Need of Forever Families

Dear Editor,

How long will foster care children languish in search of a forever family? 

Opioid babies born into the care of a parent too incapacitated to properly care for them has led to an alarming 36 percent increase in the number of children entering the state’s foster care system. Last week, the General Assembly passed HB-918, designed to provide these children with a stable, permanent home within the first 15 months of life with either a recovering parent, a close relative or an adoptive family. The bill finally shifted the child welfare system away from the needs and desires of addicts and toward the long-term welfare of the child.

Born into addiction themselves, these children bear a steep price while awaiting their parent’s arduous path to healthy living and full recovery. Far too often the unification with a birth parent is just the start of a bitter cycle that jettisons children right back into the system due to a relapse of substance abuse. 

Gov. Cooper’s Thursday veto saddens me. The legislation that he labeled as harmful and misguided is showing promising results in Arizona and six other states. It’s time to reform the system to help protect children.

Jim Quick

 

Advice from the First President

Dear Editor,

As we reflect on our country’s 244 years of existence that represents the longest standing democracy in the history of the world, it would behoove us to take to heart the words of warning and advice of George Washington as he was about to leave public service after his second term as president:

“It is important that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of powers of one department to encroach on another.  The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all departments in one and thus creating real despotism.  A free, enlightened great nation is always guided by justice and benevolence.”  

And his thoughts on foreign affairs: “Observe good faith and justice toward all nations creating peace and harmony with all.”

Bob Kollar

 

Fighting for the Soul of America

Dear Editor,

July 4th has the probability of being a major turning point in the madness that is sweeping our great country. It is the day we celebrate our independence from Great Britain and the beginning of our ability to dictate our individual future. 

Anyone who doesn’t think it will be filled with violence and destruction lives in a dream world. What started with the senseless, tragic, horrific death of George Floyd has gone beyond that to a single minded effort by socialist, communist and anarchist groups to dismantle and destroy America and turn it into a collection of mob ruled fiefdoms run by power hungry individuals, of all colors, who are no better than third world dictators. Any dissent, any voice that speaks contrary to what they say is right is quickly silenced by any means necessary. In other words, they want slaves and peons, not free people.

Many people are beginning to believe this is the start of what will turn into a civil war. Not a war between states but a war between philosophical beliefs and views, or worse, a race-based war.

One of the biggest organizations guilty for the current situation is the Black Lives Matter movement. They are guilty of colorism, which is defined as discrimination based on skin color.  It is a form of prejudice or discrimination based on skin color. I defy any follower of the BLM movement to deny this. Every time someone challenges the movement by claiming all lives matter equally they are accused of being a racist and destroyed. By the very action of attacking anyone who says all lives matter, the BLM followers are explicitly implying, if not outright saying, black lives are more important than any other. The movement cannot afford truth to take hold. 

When some liberal icon who’s been rabidly showing their wokeness and “heartfelt support” for the flavor of the moment has their past actions of stereotyping people or culture, performing in blackface, brought up today, they publicly flog themselves, beg forgiveness, say they’ve grown, learned and have moved past it; they are forgiven by their sycophants and held up. Why doesn’t the same standard apply to our country’s history? We, as a nation, have learned from our past, which is why it’s important to preserve it, not destroy it. We have looked at our actions and used that knowledge to make ourselves a better nation.

Is there racism in this country? Yes. Is it “rampant,” “institutional” and “wide spread” as some try to make it seem? No. If BLM were honest, they would be looking inward as well. Is all the blame there? No. But the entire problem is not one group as they would have you believe. If the truth came out, the upper leadership of BLM would have nothing to keep them in power.

We are in a battle where the final prize is the soul of America. Like the Civil War (Or will it soon be called the First Civil War?) this is going to form a new America, assuming it survives as a united country. 

Sta unitum nos, cadunt non divisit.

Alan Marshall

 

Buried Details

Dear Editor,

Important information on the horrific death of Mr. George Floyd was buried at the ends of articles if reported at all. The below deserves attention. It is not intended to prove a side.

  1. The individual who claimed Mr, Floyd and Derek Chauvin had animosity prior to the incident retracted the statement. The individual later said the individual he thought was Mr. Floyd was another man. The retraction was printed. However, several news organizations continued the claim. Either there are new witnesses or reporters missed the retraction.
  2. The store clerks called police over an alleged counterfeit bill and being under the influence. Video shows Mr. Floyd was behind the steering wheel when police arrived. Many locations have strict laws on public intoxication and DUI. If true, this is an arrestable offense.
  3. The definition of resisting arrest includes relaxing or tensing muscles to the point officers must use force to apprehend. Mr. Floyd’s stress over allegedly being “claustrophobic” caused him to stop walking toward the patrol car. Effort was exerted to “convince” or “direct” him into the vehicle. Claustrophobia does not rescue from apprehension.
  4. A popular cable news organization printed a report from an individual claiming to have viewed the body cam video. The individual claims the video shows Mr. Floyd was aggressive while in the patrol car. Police bodycams were not released to the public.
  5. Minneapolis police policy prohibits neck pressure for resisting arrest – unless actively resisting. Aggression makes resisting active. It allows pressure on neck to immobilize suspect to reduce harm to officers, bystanders and the suspect.
  6. Officers called EMS due to a cut on his mouth early after removing Mr. Floyd from the patrol car.
  7. National statistics on death under police custody demonstrate African Americans are twice as likely to die when considering race population distribution. However, when considering crime distribution, interaction, statistics demonstrate African Americans are less likely to die in custody.

These reporters buried details to promote personal ideology. They believe all different perspectives are either too biased to understand reality or are evil. Either way, only their perspective is the “truth.” Ideologies that demonize alternate perspectives will demand greater cycles of abuses. More misunderstanding will be leveraged to demand greater abuse resulting in greater misunderstanding. In the meantime, the opportunity to identify real problems to implement substantive beneficial change will be missed at great cost to all.

Alan Burke

 

 

We are in Danger

Dear Editor,

Socialist government redistributes wealth though taxation; consolidates power into the hands of a selected elite; hollows out the middle classes in the name of equality; and becomes more totalitarian as its vested interests are protected and competitive ideology are destroyed.

Socialism is built on the erroneous philosophy of stasis. The elite always rule in their own best interest, which is the status quo. Life is not stasis; it is ever moving, evolving and changing and the forces of change create conflict where the socialist government doubles down on protecting itself. The socialist entity either evolves into a more totalitarian state and/or it creates the conditions for its collapse under its own weight.

Venezuela is an advanced example of socialist collapse. Europe appears to be socialism in mid collapse and the United States is in a state of civil war.

In the USA, the vested interests of the political bureaucracy, the mainstream press and the political structure that keep these entities in power are at war with individuals, religious leaders, economic and conservative political and economic entities that refuse to accept the socialists definition of what is.

The socialist power structures’ inability to acknowledge the fact that the bureaucracy attempted to keep a candidate from entering office and the attempt to remove him in a coup is an example of totalitarian evolution in the USA. Unleashing violence to squash descent and attempting to destroy the institutions that keep our society together are further proof of socialist power consolidation.

China is leading the world into unchartered territory. With economic strength; the consolidation of power with the communist ruling class; the use of rapidly evolving technologies to control and/or destroy entire populations and with the western world in a state of disarray; we are not only in danger of a new totalitarian word order; we are in danger of a fundamental degradation of the human spirit.

To defeat the socialists, free Americans must rise up and defend our culture. We must counter the indoctrination and hate that the socialists in power have been spewing for two generations. We must show civic pride; we must protect our religious institutions and we must show compassion and care for the least among us. We must defeat the socialists.

Jamie LaMuraglia

 

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