Mask is Slipping
Dear Editor,
The mask of the socialist, progressive, radical left has slipped, and I’m thinking they don’t care.
These school walkouts supporting gun control should prove once and for all what is going on in the overwhelming majority of taxpayer funded public schools. I exclude private schools because if you are paying for attendance you the option of changing your situation.
These walkouts were way too organized, and in some cases too well financed, to have organized by the children on their own. And not only are the school administers guilty of allowing professional organizers access to the children, they are guilty of participating in this blatantly obvious indoctrination. There are a few exceptions and I salute them.
I am not saying that these kids do not have a right to assemble and protest. In fact, I encourage it. But when someone who is supposed to be educating children instead abuses their position of power and authority by using it to brainwash, indoctrinate and dictate to the children whom they have been given responsibility, it’s time to stand up and demand answers.
In some of these protests the children were placed in situations where they could have been injured. In fact, in one case a child was assaulted and received a broken arm as a result. If that had been my child, I would own the school system. And then there was the protest where the students tore down and stomped on the American flag and vandalized property, all with no punishment. In fact, they got a do-over and had a second walkout. And what about the one where they vandalized a Walmart?
The question that has been asked but never answered is, would the school administration support and condone a walkout over a conservative issue. Would they allow conservative advocates access to students as they did here? Would teachers assist and participate? I seriously doubt it.
Every Guilford County school administrator, principle, teacher and worker that advocated, supported and/or participated in any walkout in our taxpayer funded schools needs to be called to the floor and made to justify their action and made to reimburse the taxpayers for their lack of responsibility as it applies to what they are being paid to do versus what they seem to view as their opportunity to push their political beliefs on children placed in their charge.
Go Galt and save the republic.
Alan Marshall
Main Swamp Creature
Dear Editor,
Donald John Trump has been taken to court over 1,000 times for failing to honor a contract. This count doesn’t include all the people he’s deliberately underpaid knowing they wouldn’t have the time or resources to file suit against him. Don the con man.
Trump University was sued for fraud, for charging enrollees tuition for services that weren’t provided. Trump agreed to pay $25 million to settle the suits. New York State regulators required him to stop using the term “university,” calling it misleading and illegal. Don the con.
The Donald J. Trump Foundation has been fined for making illegal political contributions. It has admitted to using charitable donations to benefit Trump, his family and businesses. Don the con.
Trump has put more industry executives and lobbyists into positions in the federal government than any previous president. So much for draining the swamp. Don the con.
Trump makes frequent trips to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. We taxpayers pay his resort over $3 million per pop. He’s withheld the normal release of the White House visitor logs to hide all the corporate executives he meets with. Unlike presidents before him, he’s refused to divest his business holdings or put them into a blind trust. As a result, he is regularly signing legislation and executive orders that benefit his businesses. Not only is he not draining the swamp, he’s the main swamp creature. Don the con.
Trump has filed for bankruptcy five times. He’s bragged that using the bankruptcy laws to avoid paying people what he owes them shows that he’s smart. Most people would call it dishonorable. Don the con.
Trump presents himself as a huge supporter of our military. He used five deferments to avoid military service. None of his children have served. He’s aggressively avoided paying taxes. In other words, he’s a supporter of the military, as long as it’s not his blood on the line and he’s not the one paying for it. Don the con.
He’s bragged about going up to women and grabbing by them the crotch. Well, that’s not a con, it’s just disgusting.
I thought about listing some of the hundreds of lies he’s told just since being elected, but that would require an entire separate edition of the paper. Our president is a con man.
Joel Landau
Parkland Disconnect
Dear Editor,
Since the shooting we have seen many young adults engage in protests to be “heard.” No one can deny the pain felt by those present that day. Students, faculty and parents across the country have logical concerns.
Few would object if this was merely a protest to bring awareness to the impact of gun violence. With encouragement these students went beyond voicing concerns. They proposed solutions. Some of the solutions only affect current students and teachers. Others effect everybody in the country. So, everyone from all sides deserve to be “heard.”
As a result, frustration is growing. Tactics are becoming more dangerous. We saw a student refuse the presidents invitation to an open dialogue. That student rudely and proudly hung up the phone. He demanded the president attend the CNN town hall. The same student at the event attacked Sen. Rubio for accepting donations from the NRA. The NRA has a constitutional right to lobby policymakers regardless of agreement. Refusing to take the NRA money would be as insulting to the NRA as refusing to take that students money.
Many critics of the proposed solution have been accused of hate. The student who hung up on the president said “liking” an opposition site was bullying. The author of the “liked” page did take literary license calling the students paid actors. They did receive donations from Hollywood in order to protest for a solution. The web service banned the site because the student complained of bullying. Disagreeing is not bullying. Literary comparisons are not bullying. The hosting site violated the individual’s free speech. If you are going to propose a solution that affects everyone, do not get angry at opposition.
The students have been victimized three times. First they were involved in a horrendous mass shooting. Second, they should haven’t been allowed to grieve. They were encouraged to protest by adults knowing this was controversial policy. Finally, most importantly, the tactics of banning sites that hurt feelings for disagreeing is becoming dangerous precedent. They are creating tactics that could prevent them from “being heard” in the future.
Emotional pain does not excuse attacks on constitutional rights. Both sides have the right to criticize policy that effects them, to communicate disagreement, and to donate money to advocacy organizations/politicians. The advocacy organizations/politicians have the right to accept donations.
Alan Burke
Herd of Brave Sheep?
Dear Editor,
Barry K. Henline’s public post to Facebook: Today, over two-thirds of the kids in my daughter’s ninth grade class walked out of class for 17 minutes. Our media, much of our society and many of their parents have hailed them as being brave and being heroes. Maybe some of them are but most likely most of them are sheep, being steered along by the loudest barking (media) and following the herd. Most were being disobedient for the sake of disobedience knowing there would be likely no consequences. Yet they were praised just the same by our media.
If they were only concerned about a threat to their lives, which is extremely unlikely to ever happen to them, there are many greater threats. If they chose to give up their phones for 17 days to protest texting while driving deaths I would believe their motives were sincere. If they chose to give up 17 Saturdays, to meet fellow students at school who are lonely and felt excluded, I would hail them as heroes. They skipped class and disobeyed their school system and were praised. It concerns me the trend that has been started with rewarding this behavior.
My daughter was not part of the civil disobedience. She made that choice and went against the peer pressure. I did not influence her decision by any demands on her. She was told it was her choice but also her consequences if the school decided to act.
She was not raised to be a sheep. The brave ones, the ones that were ignored by the media, were the ones who stayed in their class and didn’t follow the herd. She was raised to think for herself and to follow her passion. Her passion is to get an education and that is what she did. I couldn’t be any prouder.
Judy Downs Henline
Deflecting Tactics
Dear Editor,
The biggest swamp that needs drained today is from the river of hypocrisy that feeds it. Herein, any problem that needs to be addressed is overlooked for another problem that simply switches the subject to one with less substance. The hypocrisy is as much in its timing as anything else. It surfaces just as a more pressing problem is overlooked.
As long as this type of conscience is allowed to lead us we will never be able to successfully reach a good solution for the one we should be addressing in the first place. It’s a river that has ruined many free nations. It truly is a political ploy that creates murk for the worst of swamps.
Consider the powers granted to different departments, like the FBI, and then consider how they might usurp these powers and, unchallenged, how they become this river of ruin. Yes, it’s the swamp that needs draining, but the river that leads into it is the problem.
Ray Hylton
Assaulting Weapons
Dear Editor,
One of the March 8 beepers made a valid point by mentioning that guns are not the only things that kill people. Knives, baseball bats and cars, he said, can do it too. He’s right, of course. However, knives, baseball bats and cars don’t kill with the same ease and precision as assault weapons and they don’t kill large numbers of innocent people in just a few seconds. Baseball bats, knives and cars cannot be compared to assault weapons when it comes to killing capacity.
Another beeper said that more children were killed at home than in schools, and I have no doubt that he is correct about this. However, a shooting at home, whether accidental or not, can hardly be compared with an assault weapon attack on a group of strangers.
A third beeper compared killing someone with a gun with killing someone with a car, and I think he is comparing apples and oranges. This is why the legal system takes into account the “intent” of the killer, in recognition of the fact that an accidental killing is not the same as premeditated murder. When people kill other people with assault weapons, their intent is to murder, whereas when people kill other people with cars, it is almost always accidental.
Maureen Parker
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