Letters that got overrun by election letters before they made it into the paper:
In 1975, Dr. William Friday wrote a letter to me while I was a marine biology professor at UNCW asking me to serve on a panel to prepare for a conference in Atlanta to chart an action-plan for determining the potential impact of oil and gas off the southeastern coast of the United States. I went to Atlanta to co-chair the conference organized by the Research Triangle Institute.
Today, 35 years later, the Republican candidates for N.C. governor and U.S. president have oil and gas drilling off North Carolina in their agendas. Whoever becomes governor needs to appoint a panel to make recommendations to hold a conference in Raleigh on pros and cons of oil and gas drilling off the N.C. coast, as William Friday did in 1975.
Robert Y. George, Ph.D.
Wake Forest
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I read the Sept. 30 Business section story “Temporary holiday hires more likely to lead to permanent jobs this year” and couldn’t help but think of why? Why this year of all years is different? The difference is because hiring has been kept artificially low in an effort to boost Mitt Romney’s presidential bid as was outlined in the Sept 15 letter “Post election hiring.”
That letter proposed the theory of large companies putting off hiring until the good economic news would be of no help to Barack Obama’s re-election bid. An obvious result of this action of hiring fewer workers today would be the need to keep more seasonal workers on as full-time employees after the holidays. Which is exactly what the story showed to be the national trend this year.
Again, I am looking for news to show business leaders are not devious enough to put off hiring in an effort to sway the presidential election. I want to be wrong, I am just having trouble finding the evidence.
Doug Kalning
Cary
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Regarding the Sept. 11 article “Are you being overtreated?”: Which came first: the pushy doctor or the demanding patient? An attitude has been created where if a patient is told to take an over-the-counter pain reliever and rest as treatment for a common virus, he responds with feelings of being unheard and underserved.
Many times this is not the case; he simply has a trained response that a doctor’s office visit should result in a specific diagnosis or prescription. With the changing tide of care due to health care reform, this is an issue that needs to be addressed.
Putting policy in place to promote patient self-advocacy education will allow both the newly and already insured to best navigate the system for themselves. As someone in the article explains, many patients can feel pressured into overtreatment but would be better prepared to make choices if provided with education and resources.
Targeted personal health empowerment education provided at schools, faith-based organizations and other community facilities would allow many care recipients to be reached in a comfortable and accessible way. It would be great to fix the problem on the service end, but it might be more realistic to empower consumers.
Carolyn Bacchus
Asheville
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The Wake County school board has become not only an embarrassment for our otherwise great area, but a tragedy for our kids. It should not be this difficult to run a school system. I have three suggestions to fix the problem.
1) Board members should not be elected, but appointed by an independent panel of educational leaders and teachers. Get the partisan politics out of the process. As in everything else in this country, partisan politics is killing this system.
2) Model successful programs. There are school systems around the country that run efficiently. Identify them and copy them. Why do we need to reinvent the wheel?
3) Stop focusing on where kids will go to school, and start focusing on how to improve the quality of education in all our schools, so it won't matter where kids go. Everything this board does should be focused on the kids. Right now, everything about this board is focused on the board members and politics.
As usual, it's a question of leadership, and the Wake school board has been sorely lacking in leadership for a long time. Get the egos and the politics out of the way, and focus on what is important, that being educating our children. It should not be this hard.
John Lowe
Raleigh
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In the Oct. 16 debate President Obama expressed deep offense that Mitt Romney accused him of misleading the country about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. I have to take the president at his word. But how could a U.S. intelligence apparatus with a $50 billion per year budget not know the difference between a violent protest and a preplanned attack by militants? And more specifically, how could they not see that the Sept. 11 attack in Libya was planned to coincide with a propaganda campaign by militants in Egypt to incite outrage and unrest?
Just prior to the attack in Benghazi, a Salafi militant named Wesam Abdel-Wareth took to the television airwaves to call for a protest in Egypt against a sacrilegious film. Roughly 2,000 people responded. Before that day, hardly anyone had heard of the film.
A careful review suggests that influencing public opinion was the goal of militants that day. Unfortunately, rather than counter that goal, U.S. leaders in the government and media played right into their objective. As a result, unrest and violence broke in at least 20 countries.
The battle against terrorists is not only about protecting innocent lives. It is a battle for the hearts and minds. And most importantly, it is a battle for the truth.
Patricia Mohr
Durham
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Hindsight is 20/20. In rereading your Oct. 25 article “Challenge raises questions in new Superior Court judicial district” a bigger stink should have been made. While you tried to present a fair picture, you kept hammering away at a survey taken by the N.C. Bar last spring where attorneys opined on judicial candidates' abilities. Alas incumbent Judge Abe Jones didn't finesse that very well. But there was no evidence, just opinions, and I am surprised The N&O gave it the weight it did.
North Carolina has now lost an excellent judge in the District 10 race, one who listened to all sides and was thoughtful in his renderings. No doubt that took up everyone’s time. Though senior Judge Don Stephens, the winner’s mentor, has every right to encourage people to run for office, it’s a shame he didn’t put these energies into sitting judges.
The fact that Bryan Collins must now settle into the district he’s won makes me wonder what kind of election fraud people feared – it’s not voter fraud, is it? I wonder if I could I rent an apartment in Durham and run for Durham’s City Council while really living in Raleigh – and then move once I win? Ain’t politics great?
L. Reed Kingsley
Raleigh
