Some letters that got overrun by other topics.

Your breathless piece about the start-up game company Autarch (“Local developers say their role-playing game fills a long-standing niche,” Oct. 10) should scare the pants off parents not paying attention to how their children spend their time. Like the infamous Dungeons & Dragons cult, adherents to the Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS) can be easily absorbed into an imaginary world populated by evil and bizarre beings.

Likening hardcore D&D followers, and now those of ACKS, to a bowling league is like comparing punk rockers to Mary Poppins. And not antisocial? Why do they call their publication Escapist Games? They retreat into a dark, sinister and macabre world fraught with fantasies of violence, greed and mayhem. Players frequently substitute their own sense of warped reality for real human relationships. There are real dangers in these games.

Having watched youngsters become caught up in their fantasy existence and suffering the consequences, I offer a warning to parents: Be afraid, be very afraid.

Mike Hoyt
Raleigh

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The last paragraph in the Oct. 19 article “Hospital rule changes proposed” was absolutely stunning. I read and re-read it several times to be sure I had not misunderstood it. It concerns how the White House says many rules that apply to hospitals and other health care providers will be rolled back after concluding that the standards were obsolete or overly burdensome to the industry.

The paragraph said that in order to save money, “Other proposals would eliminate requirements for hospitals to keep detailed logs of infection control problems and would relieve certain organ transplant centers of the need to certify the blood type of organs donors.” Can you imagine the horrors that could occur from the elimination of these two procedures? The wonderful standards of U.S. health care would possibly revert to third-world countries’ standards.

The article also says that in order to save money patients could self-administer both hospital-issued medications and the patient’s own medications brought into the hospital. Another situation that could cause a great deal of confusion and medication errors.

Annette Rose
Smithfield

Editor’s note: The quoted paragraph concluded by stating, “Hospitals would still have to investigate outbreaks of infections, and other medical experts would check on donors’ blood type.”

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As reported in Under the Dome Oct. 10, the plan of a group called Americans for Securing the Border to persuade presidential and congressional delegates to pledge to build a double fence the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border is an ambitious goal. And I mean getting delegates to make the pledge is ambitious. The proposed 1,969-mile double fence, to be completed by the end of 2013, is even more ambitious.

A number of questions come to mind. What materials are they considering to use for the fence? Masonry, metal, wood? How high will it need to be? In the interest of being secure as soon as possible, will one fence be completed first, and then the other? Or will both fences be constructed at the same time?

How much space between the two fences? If someone should by chance get over one fence, would he have to walk to one of the ends to get out, or will there be escape hatches every so many miles?  If so, how will the escape hatches be made secure? What is the estimated cost? Has consideration been given to asking Mexico to pay half? Finally, I’m wondering if this is really for our security or if it might be a conservative activist’s idea of job creation.

Dudley Waldner
Chapel Hill

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How can a $60 million cut in Medicaid be made into a $120 million [cut? The North Carolina legislature said it was an “accounting error” (news story, Oct. 27). If an error of that size were made in my classroom when I was teaching, it certainly would have been pointed out and corrected.

My sister, who has severe mental and physical disabilities, depends on the help that Medicaid gives to her caregivers and doctors. Now she can’t even get a new prescription for her eyeglasses. Medicaid also won’t cover the medicine she needs to help her swallow and keep down food. She can’t afford the medicine she needs for her eyes in order to heal a cyst on her lid. She can’t even afford to get her lunch at the care center she attends to help her with daily living. Why can’t someone in that legislature help with the math so that at least the huge cuts in this program aren't doubled by mistake?

Karen Kauffman Fletcher
Retired Wake County school teacher
Raleigh

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Here are 20 letters from readers commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some of these you will see in the paper Sunday. Please add your own comments about how the attacks changed you or on what you think the best and worst U.S. responses were.

We get far more letters than we can print. Here are some that got overrun by other topics:

July 30 marked the 46th anniversary of the Medicare program. Medicare is representative of old age in America to most of those who receive it and disability coverage for others. It now includes health coverage and economic security for seniors and their families. As we celebrate this anniversary, lawmakers in Washington are poised to make deep cuts to the Medicare program as part of an effort to reduce the federal debt.

Few programs have seen the unqualified success that Medicare has. With good reason, Medicare is especially important to vulnerable older patients with multiple chronic conditions. Their care is complex and often expensive. Health reform is only making the Medicare program stronger.

I am active in the Campaign for Better Care, which is recommending that lawmakers look to reduce costs by improving the quality and coordination of care for our oldest and sickest patients. Rather than cutting this essential program in ways that threaten Medicare as we know it, by reducing unnecessary hospital readmissions and hospital-acquired infections, and paying only for high-quality care, we can save billions of dollars.

That’s a much better way. We need to preserve and protect the Medicare program that seniors, the disabled and their families rely on.

Patricia Baker
Knightdale

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Your “Mallard Fillmore” comic strip just keeps getting worse and worse, increasingly and outrageously partisan, and personally smearing of our elected president. It is not funny, especially in this most fractiously partisan time in our nation’s history. The strip’s making up ridiculous “quotes” from President Obama for things he hasn’t actually said is way over the top in lack of fairness. It wouldn’t be quite as bad if you put the strip on the opinion page, but its total lack of subtlety and humor would be a waste of space. I’d like to keep my subscription of 21 years, but this embarrassing partisanship in the funny papers during these frightening times is pushing me to the brink.

Terry Eason
Pittsboro

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Your July 25 Science & Technology section included a nice report on the production of 2.5 million pounds of hybrid bass in North Carolina, worth about $10 million. It was pointed out that the former director of N.C. Sea Grant, Dr. Ron Hodson, was instrumental in initiating the crossing of wild striped bass with the fast-growing white bass that flourishes in deep waters of freshwater lakes. I have known Ron for nearly 30 years and his charisma and devotion to North Carolina freshwater aquaculture research is praiseworthy.

Prof. Craig Sullivan of N.C. State University wisely follows Ron Hodson’s original initiative on hybrid bass genetic studies. However, it is also important to recognize Dr. Howard Kerby of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who first introduced hybrid bass research in North Carolina while stationed at NCSU.

There is substantial promise to enhance hybrid striped bass aquaculture in Falls Lake, Jordan Lake and Kerr Lake, and obviously this dream hinges on restoring the health of these freshwater bodies that are becoming a victim of nutrient overloading. Falls Lake is an umbilical cord for the Triangle community and provides drinking water for half a million people. Let us encourage all stakeholders to remain vigilant to keep Falls Lake healthy.

Robert Y. George, Ph.D.
Wake Forest

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The caption under a July 30 photo said, “Students won’t have to suffer through an extra five days of school this year.” Is that really the message we want to send? That students have to suffer through school? Education is a privilege, and they should be grateful for it.

Joel and Amy Huenemann
Cary

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I would like to commend the state House for their override of the governor’s veto of legislation that would require a woman to receive additional information prior to having an abortion. While categorized as a restriction, the legislation is anything but. While the option of abortion is still law, a final override will allow for a more informed decision about a procedure that will alter two lives. How can anyone argue against education?

Is one’s life not worth a little education, and is a life not worth at least 24 hours? I’m sorry if the life created is an inconvenience and I’m sorry if a little education and a 24-hour waiting period keeps someone from getting their body back or keeps them from getting back to the grand life they had planned. Decisions have consequences.

I am sure that Rep. Alma Adams, D-Guilford, is thankful that her mom didn’t need any further education in her decision to carry the creation in her womb to full term.

I am thankful that Adams’ mother felt that the life she helped create was more important than the other aspects of her life or her body.
Representatives, it’s about personal courage, not politics.

James Wagner
Mount Airy

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The July 15 photo of John Edwards leaving a federal courthouse could have been one of a jocular “Three Amicis.” Yet the article spoke about three of the most skilled legal entities in the entire state of North Carolina and their daunting task to defend one of their own against “complex charges.” They must meet this challenge in a mere few months! Though the charges have been known for months.
Money laundering. Campaign finance violations. Betrayal. Perjury. Not to mention megalomania.

I see two ways to solve their problem without delaying the trial.

1) Hire the lawyers who defended Meg Scott Phipps and/or Jim Black and/or Mike Easley. They were aware of how badly their clients had screwed up. But they didn’t feign challenge overload.

2) Just plea bargain for simple possession of a controlled substance and throw his butt in jail for five to 10.

The residents of North Carolina will be satisfied. And we will have saved a ton of money that can be better allocated to helping the ever-growing number of Part B members of the “Two Americas” who are delinquent on their mortgage payments due to lost jobs. That would be something to smile about.
 

Mike Webb
Wake Forest

Sometimes we move more of the 1,400 letters we get each month into the publishing pool than we can possibly print, given that we have room for fewer than 280 of them each month. Our over-editing is your gain, however. Here are more than 25 letters that just got overrun by other topics before we could get them into the paper.

Some election-related letters to the editor:

I recently attended a candidate forum at Carol Woods Retirement Community in Chapel Hill with our congressman, David Price and his opponent, B.J. Lawson.

Knowing that Lawson opposes comprehensive immigration reform and instead emphasizes sending troops to guard the border, I was struck by his apparently thoughtful response to a question about the DREAM Act, which would offer a path to college education for hardworking immigrant students who were brought to the United States as kids.  

Lawson said it gave him heartburn to know the doors of opportunity were being shut to these children because of their immigration status.  He said the DREAM Act was worth discussion, and even gave the impression that he would potentially support the bill. (Price is a longtime co-sponsor of the bill.)

To my surprise, the very next day on his website Lawson attacked Price for supporting the DREAM Act, which he disparaged as amnesty for illegal immigrants and a government handout.

The candidate B.J. Lawson at the forum was not the same person who desperately attacked David Price the next day.  And the worst part is, Lawson was attacking Price for something Lawson himself appeared to support or at least consider supporting.

Hank  Elkins
Chapel Hill
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I am an avid Democrat, and I will be voting Democratic in this year's midterm elections; however, I feel the party has let me and America down. You had such a chance to do something, and instead I received a lot of nothing.

I suppose you would tout health care reform as a major milestone, and I would have too, except it's lacking what most American's asked for, a public option. Your financial reform is weak, the economy is still in shambles, you're spending more than you make, and my only alternative are a bunch of right-wing zealots who would I disagree with on everything, except gay marriage and ending the war (funny that, you promised to end the war and close Gitmo; how's that going for ya.)

All that said, I'm pretty mad. So yes, Democrats, I will be voting for you, but you deserve to lose, and lose badly. Also, please quit asking me for donations; my money could be better spent paying back our national debt.

Eric Page
Cary

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As this year’s non-presidential election cycle rolls around and is just around the corner now, I couldn’t continue to suppress the expression of numerous emotions and thoughts that are stirring within me.

Our nation’s history is seasoned and peppered with the efforts of countless good, decent, and brave men and women. Men and women of every creed, color and religion have sought and fought to make America into the greatest nation on earth and secure her as the last bastion of freedom to the world.

It is with such in mind that I find myself so deeply and greatly disturbed by the erosion that is underway at the hands of the current ruling class to some of our most fundamental and cherished freedoms and liberties.

In an attempt to not be misunderstood, please know that, while I did not vote for Barack Obama, I have been steadfastly hoping beyond hope that he would fulfill his promises to unite and not divide, to run a more transparent government, and to bring us change we could all be proud of. However, the longer he’s at the helm of this nation, with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi by his side providing the heft and leverage of the legislative branch to literally push through his agenda and policies, the more we witness the erosion and systematic dismantling of freedoms and liberties most Americans consider dear.

This is the frightening part. It has nothing to do with Obama’s color; instead, it’s all about the content of his character.  I stated to a friend back during the 2008 campaign/election cycle that, I don’t care if he’s purple, pink, green, yellow, red or orange  He’s wrong for America!  I continue to hold fast to this belief to this day.  

So, with this election cycle being a non-presidential election cycle, we do not have a chance, at this point, of removing Obama from the presidency.  However, we have an excellent opportunity of stripping away from him the House of Representatives and the Senate. Provided we’re successful in doing so, he’ll either be forced to govern more from the center rather than from the far left, as he’s been doing since taking the oath of office, or he’ll wrap up the next two years of his presidency as a lame duck president, since the Congress will no longer be completely under his sway and a willing puppet by his side.

Having long been very interested in American politics and, over time, having grown increasingly aware of the depth and breadth of the defining characteristics of our Founding Fathers as men, both those who were known to be very prominent figures and those who were less prominent but equally influential in the shaping and birthing of our nation, this knowledge of our founders begs one to assess our current nation’s leadership against these men who undoubtedly aimed us in the right direction.

Knowing the intent of our founders and their character that fueled that intent, I truly believe that one would be hard pressed to point to any other moment in time, in any other context, whereby men gathered in a collective attempt to unite to benefit the masses. Never before has there been, and perhaps never again will there be, such an impressive array of wisdom and faith, knowledge and talent, leadership and servitude, and love and hope that are both bridled and unleashed for the common good.  Most certainly, what we have in Washington now is a far cry from even being a shadow of the men who established our course in history.

It is in light of these good and brave men and the documents they drafted, upon which our nation has rested securely for better than two centuries, and other brave and good men and women who have subsequently embraced all the goodness that is America and forged their most earnest attempts to further her goodness – it is in light of sacrifices made, at home and abroad, of the lives and limbs lost, the cost of blood and treasure through more than two centuries now, that causes our duty as citizens to get up, get out and go vote to seem so inconsequential.

Yet, this is at the very core of what our founders sought to establish and what men and women have fought, bled, and died to defend. If our voices are heard no more frequently than every two years, then I say let them be heard then and let the message they send as we vote be so clear to those in power as to once again cause them to realize that this is, as President Lincoln amply noted in his Gettysburg address, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. This dearest concept is framed in the preamble of our Constitution as it starts out – We the People  

Therefore, regardless of your political bearings or party affiliation, I urge you as a Fellow American to take time and go vote this Nov. 2.  As you vote, keep the freedoms and liberties you enjoy and wish to have preserved at the forefront of your mind and let’s make sure that the voice of We the People has resounded with clarion clarity the day after. Let’s make sure that all those who grace the halls of power, whether in our nation’s capital or in our state and local governments – let’s step up to the duty that is ours as free citizens in a free society and once again remind them that ours is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people!

Jimmy H. Baker Jr.
Nashville
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I've followed politics all my life. I want a better life for my family and for the citizens of North Carolina.  I feel very strongly abut Sen. Richard Burr. I know he can outspend his opponent, Elaine Marshall – that's the advantage of being the incumbent. I simply believe, after listening to his speeches about broken government, that he has already had the opportunity to make changes for the better. He tells us what we want to hear, but he already hasn't delivered. When a thing doesn't work, you must make a change in a new direction.

Elaine Marshall can't compete with his money and his bombardment of expensive advertising. But I feel North Carolina could do better under new leadership and a new plan. If government is broken, what has Burr been doing, as our incumbent senator, to fix it? I believe Marshall has new ideas and a different direction to better our lives. I also believe she is more sincere and dedicated to improving our lives. She's not the status quo. If you decide to take a new direction by voting for Marshall, and she fails, will we be any worse off than voting for Burr – again?

Kyle Simpson
Durham

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President Obama and other Democrats criticize so much outside money in support of GOP candidates getting into this election.  

As I sit here in North Carolina’s 8th. Congressional District, I am looking at six glossy political brochures in support of Democratic Party candidate Larry Kissell and/or against Republican Party candidate Harold Johnson. On two separate occasions, two of these six different glossy political brochures came the same days.  Additionally, there is probably more of the same to come.

With over 600,000 residents in the 8th District, with each glossy brochure’s production, handling and mailing cost of $3 each, with six mailings, I calculate up to a total of $2,160,000 from the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education, a subsidiary of the teachers union.  Why don’t Obama and others criticize these expenditures?

Oscar Y. Harward
Monroe

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The race for the 2nd Congressional District between Rep. Bob Etheridge and Renee Ellmers has certainly been interesting. One of the more controversial parts of this race was the TV ad about the mosque in New York City that ran about a month ago.
Of course this so-called mosque (it is actually a community center) located two blocks from ground zero has nothing to do with the 2nd Congressional District. It fuels the fire of religious hatred and prejudice in this area and this country. We need less of this hatred and prejudice not more. I would have serious concerns about sending a person to Washington who would approve of this ad.

Etheridge is a good man and has served his constituents well. He is a man of honesty and integrity and he deserves reelection.

Marvin Woll
Raleigh

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I understand that there are hard-core voters who will vote the party line regardless of any logic. I am hoping to appeal to the independent voters who will try and ferret out the truth from the emotion that flows so freely in all the current political ads on television.

I am particularly offended by the ads that attack politicians who voted to support the "failed Pelosi and Obama stimulus plan."

To the best of my knowledge there no evidence that the stimulus package failed at all. If fact, this country may now be in a lot worse shape if there had been no stimulus package.

I suspect the stimulus plan actually helped the working people in this country.
Just my 2 cents.

Gary Griffith
Raleigh

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This election season we have been inundated with ads and rhetoric from the Democratic incumbents telling us their GOP opponents are “extreme.” How do they define extreme?  Adherence to the Constitution, Extreme. Not spending more than you take in, Extreme. Letting the taxpayer keep more of their own money, Extreme. Not borrowing trillions of dollars, thus leaving our grandkids a life of debt, Extreme. Belief that individuals should make health care decisions, not a government bureaucrat, Extreme. The list goes on.

Based on this definition of “extreme” I am proud to say that I am Extreme as were our founders and millions of other Americans. Based on their definition, I think it will be an “extremely” sad year for the Democrat incumbents.

Tom Imler
Clayton

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In May 2009, our home was broken into in the middle of the night, while our family was home. It was a terrifying situation, and exacerbated by opposition we received from our insurance company in covering the theft of household items.
I contacted my elected officials to look into state insurance regulations regarding theft coverage. Rep. Jennifer Weiss contacted me personally to make sure our family was alright and to offer her staff's assistance in combing through N.C. insurance law and policy. Over several weeks, she and her office provided updates and suggestions and liaised with the N.C. Insurance Department on my behalf.

This is exactly what we need in our state representatives: A good steward who commits to finding solutions to the very real problems we face in our North Carolina communities.

Jennifer Weiss has earned my vote, and my trust that she will represent me and my community well.

Kimberly Yaman
Cary

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Republicans are concerned that government at all levels is living beyond its means. They held the presidency for 20 of the last 30 years and controlled Congress for most of the other 10. Their presidents made deep tax cuts while increasing the sizes of their budgets. Result: over 8 trillion dollars of new debt on their watches and a going-away gift of the TARP program for their banker buddies as the economy they touted came crashing down two years ago.

Now they are shocked, shocked that Democrats haven’t quickly balanced the budget. They promise to do so without changing anything they did before. Are they really that stupid? Are we? Rep. David Price’s legislative record shows that he cares about America’s broad middle class and not just its upper crust. He is smart enough to know Shinola when he sees it. The tired collection of Republican talking points that his opponent uses are not Shinola.

Charles Humble
Chapel Hill

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Unaffiliated voter here.  We hardly ever get heard.  But here goes. I am supporting B.J. Lawson this election. I have voted for David Price in past elections.  So what changed my mind? Price’s consistent support for government control over peoples lives. Think about it, federal control over many functions of my life.

I realize now that my Constitution gave the power to me, gave the power to We the People, not Price and his associates demanding changes to that sacred document.  I am willing to give Lawson a chance to defend my Constitution like he promised.  If not, I will look for someone next election who will. But for this election I will vote for Lawson for 4th District congressman.

Larry Ballas
Apex

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Recent election-oriented articles in The N&O have sometimes pointed out that various Republican and tea party candidates have been endorsed by Sarah Palin as if winning her support is a guaranteed path to victory. Has this nation already forgotten how blatantly ignorant and stupid this woman proved herself to be during the 2008 presidential campaign?  John McCain will draw his last breath regretting his boneheaded decision to put her on the ticket with him.

Palin has no chance of ever being elected to national office of any persuasion. Folks on both sides of the political aisle with common sense and a decent memory will always see to that. If the Republican Party makes the colossal mistake of putting her back on the ticket in 2012, she'll make even the bumbling and incompetent George W. Bush look like a Rhodes Scholar.

No, I'm not a desperate Democrat. I'm an extremely fed-up registered Republican.

Jon Gibson
Raleigh

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It is always disheartening when you publish letters that have no obvious facts behind them and are obviously programmed attack letters. One such letter claims that Rep. David Price has been afraid to meet with his constituents (“Time to retire,” October 25). The letter writer also goes on to make some preposterous statements about Price’s tax policies.

When I retired from the Air Force and moved to the Triangle I immediately looked into the politics of the area and became familiar with my representatives. One of the first I heard speak was David Price. He struck me then, as he still does, as a level-headed, thoughtful person trying to resolve the issues of a diverse society. Price has always been there when I need questions answered both in person and via other forms of communication. Where the letter-writer has been during the more than a decade of my experience with Price is anyone’s guess.

The more baffling claim from the letter-writer, and heard from many on the right now, is the issue of tax raises. What has been more irresponsible than any other act by the right over the last two decades is the villainization of taxes. Claims that Price is raising taxes are absurd. People can take any opinion they want but the facts are the facts. The GOP is responsible for the huge debt we now face through fighting two unfunded wars and giving $1 trillion to the wealthy which resulted in no benefit for society. Like it or not, taxes are the price of admission to a civilized society. It is time for businesses and the wealthy elite to pay for their front-row seats. The time has come to roll back tax rates to pre-Reagan rates.

A final note to the right – hat waste would you cut in government? I have yet to see a rational explanation of the cuts you intend. Maybe we can start with a bloated Pentagon budget and hand-outs for the rich and powerful.

Michael Schore
Major, USAF (Retired)
Apex

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On Friday, Oct. 22, I arrived at the polls to cast my first-time vote in North Carolina. The street leading to the polling place was lined with candidates’ signs. As I walked up the winding pathway to the polling place I saw that every inch of space on both sides of the path was also lined with signs, a candidate was there shaking hands and asking for my vote, and approximately 12-15 people stood on each side of the path thrusting literature at me and asking for my vote for their candidate.

I have voted in every election for thee past 50 years in California and Florida, and I have never had to walk the gauntlet to do so. I have never been subjected to anything remotely like this and I felt quite intimidated.

Since I moved here, I have seen politicians taking bribes in the restroom, two governors investigated, politicians merrily riding the state ferry while taxpayers wait on the shore to get home, and I'm sure I have yet to see it all. I had hoped to see a better brand of politics here than in California where I spent 42 years, but I can see that the "the good old boys" here can make those guys look like beginners, and can one-up them on all fronts.

Shelva Jean Greene
Raleigh

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The tide of politics may be changing direction.  The public has voiced their opinion on attack ads.  Indications are that they may be having a reverse effect.  They underestimate the intelligence of the citizens of North Carolina.    Outspending your opponent might not work this time.  Richard Burr, at his percent rating, is a shoe-in for the Senate race.  Why has he decided to go back on television to discuss politics (when it is in his best interest not to say anything more), and continue bombarding us with his expensive commercials?

The citizens are the employers and the politicians are the employees.  Our tax dollars pay for their  salaries.  We as employers hire them by electing them into office.  Sometimes you have to take a calculated risk by changing directions when things aren't going as hoped.  Take a calculated risk and place your vote for Elaine Marshall for the next Senator of North Carolina.  Think about past history.  As Ronald Reagan said, are you any better off than you were four years ago?  I wish the best for  Richard Burr and North Carolina regardless of the outcome of this election.  But maybe it is time for a new direction.

Kyle Simpson
Durham

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As we near Election Day, I am struck by the stark contrast of 2008s Election of Hope to the Anger of 2010.  According to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops: Faithful Citizenship;  in addition to the right to life, each person also has a right to the conditions of living a decent life  faith and family life, food and shelter, education and employment, healthcare and housing.  We also have the duty to secure and respect these rights not only for ourselves but for others.  We have a duty to fulfill our responsibilities to our family, to each other and to the larger society. To see an immigrant as a brother, the view the earth as our home, to care for the sick and to protect the young are the lessons we hear every Sunday.  Perhaps on Tuesday, rather than heading to the polls in selfish anger, we will once again head to the polls with hope and faith.

Joanne Casey
Raleigh

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Congressman David Price says Fourth Congressional District Republican candidate BJ Lawson is “extreme” to suggest eliminating the Department of Education in Washington.
 
I think it is extremely wasteful to pay $1.83 billion for salaries and expenses to 4,603 people in Washington’s Department of Education. Since President Jimmy Carter set up the department 30 years ago, K through 12 math scores have increased slightly, reading achievement has stagnated and the national drop out rate remains at about 27%.  What is extreme in stopping a program that is not working and more importantly, why has Price not stopped wasting our money?    
 
By the way, in addition to the 4,600 education officials in Washington, there are about 1,800 non-teaching central office education officials in North Carolina and our dropout rate is 26%.    
 
Tom Hauck
Pittsboro

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In the days after the passage of Health Care Reform, Republicans in the Senate used procedural tricks to halt the Senate's business. Senator Richard Burr used such a tactic to prevent a meeting of the Armed Services Committee - a meeting for which the Navy's Commander of the Pacific Fleet, the Air Force's Commander of Strategic Command, and the Army's Commander of US forces in Korea had been flown in. These military commanders had come from as far away as Korea to give testimony in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2011 and the Future Years Defense Program. In retaliation for the passing of a bill he did not support,  Burr put spite and petulance ahead of national security and blocked the meeting in which they were to testify. While making his objection, he said he had no personal objection to the meeting proceeding. This just makes it worse. He did not object to the meeting being held - he was just going to stop it out of spite.

When you vote  Tuesday, ask yourself if this is the kind of representation you want in Washington - the kind that puts temper tantrums ahead of national security.

Russ Manzer
Raleigh

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As the old saying goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. For decades, North Carolina citizens have been electing Democrats to most state and national offices. And look what we have to show for it.

Will this be the year that the insanity ends? Or will the voters continue to send the same tax and spend, not to mention corrupt Democrats back to Raleigh and to Washington? Lets hope that some semblance of sanity can be restored this time around before our state and our country go bankrupt.

Erv Thompson
Raleigh

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As a newly christened Republican, I will, as my first act, take the blame. I will take the blame for the Great Recession - for the creditors forcing loans on people who can't afford them. I will take the blame for global warming - for the evil, evil companies that belt out toxic wastes unchecked and leave their giant, carbon footprint all over the poor earth. I will take the blame for all of the racism that is currently infecting so many of my comrades and turning them into angry, tea-loving idiots.  I will even take the blame for the school board majority that is currently ripping down old policies in favor of ones that work only for the elite, white children of our county. It is an awful burden to bear but I'm sure the left won't mind heaping it on my back, and then some. Anything else I can take the blame for?  

Emily Kousis
Raleigh

Eight letters on Wake County schools: magnet money, William Barber, tolerance and more.

At least three people in the Triangle area have experienced an act of human kindness recently. Enjoy these heart-warming letters. Got anybody you need to thank? Feel free to add yours to the comments.

Here is a batch of letters to the editor, some of them simply too long to run and others that have been overrun by other news. One writer was incensed over the July 28 front-page article on the deaths in rest homes in the state. (Read it here.)

I would like to praise the Raleigh Police Department, Field Operations Division, for its prompt and caring response to an incident on May 24. My laptop was stolen from my vehicle while visiting in Raleigh, and even though this was a minor event in the grand scheme of things, it was still a theft of personal property and important to me. Officers Niemann and Maucher were kind, caring and professional and treated this incident as important. I wish to thank both officers and all police personnel involved for helping to take the sting our of this event for me. I visit Raleigh often and feel comfortable having met some of your finest!

Carolyn Winter

Roxboro

Lots of letters, many in support of U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, are pouring in about the congressman's confrontation with two young men with a video camera and a microphone. Here is a sampling, including some from out of state. You likely will see several of these letters in print over the next few days. What's your take on the video? 2 p.m. UPDATE: more letters.