Mail-in voting here a very smooth process
This is a public thank you to the Clay County Board of Elections. This year we voted by absentee ballot. North Carolina ballots were mailed on Sept. 4. Ours were completed and returned and are confirmed as accepted by the BOE on Sept. 19. With the enormous amount of dire warnings about mail-in ballots, I am recognizant of the work done by Clay County's BOE. The staff have always been nonpartisan, welcoming and efficient. My sincerest thanks to them all. I am very grateful for my right to vote.
Natalie Moses
Family appreciates condolences after loss
Thank you to everyone who sent flowers, cards, the hundreds of emails, texts and messages, phone calls and visits. It meant more to us than words could ever express.
Hugh Howell family, Lou, Cindy and Eileen
The Irish Potato Famine: Sound familiar?
Perfidious Albion. There was mass starvation in Ireland from 1845-1849 during the so called potato blight. At least one million men, women and children died of starvation and disease. Ireland was ruled by England at the time. That government stood by and did nothing. No program was developed so starvation and death kept getting worse. Even though the granaries were full in England, none of it was supplied to Ireland.
The grains were sold on the export market. Political leaders believed in laissez faire economics and trusted that the markets would cure the famine. One writer described the horror of witnessing a mother’s wailing while they watched their children die. The markets stood by and did nothing but sell to the highest bidder. Wouldn’t it be awful to live under a government that would not turn a hand to prevent such a tragedy? One of the key roles of any government is to minimize human suffering and never forget that each person counts for one.
Perfidious Albion. Aaron Martin Hayesville, NC
All children share fear of separation from parents
Lately, I’ve been thinking about migrant children being separated from their parents at the border and how horrific that must have been for them and still must be. I was reminded of my childhood when my mother worked for the Southern Pacific railroad. For a while, she worked in another city and every Sunday we would take her to the train station where I can remember clearly my utter devastation at her leaving.
No, we didn’t enter the country illegally, nor were we Latino, not even migrant workers but I can still remember how I felt and I think that is how these children felt and feel. I do understand that some of you feel overwhelmed by the prospect of others invading the country and overrunning our jobs, schools and our way of life. The reality, I think, is much different. It is estimated that nearly half of all undocumented immigrants in the United States entered the country at designated ports of entry and were here legally until they let their visas expire. That leaves us with the rest, approximately 11 million who entered the country illegally across our southern borders.
Nonetheless, it is also estimated that both documented and undocumented immigrants add an astounding $2 trillion to the economy each year. Regardless of what you feel about how these men, women and children arrived here, don’t you think there must be a more humane way to solve our immigration problem than what has so far been done? I believe Joe Biden has the answers. He has pledged to maintain border security, to establish and maintain a morally based policy for asylum seekers; in addition, he wants to bring technology to the fore in dealing with this problem. There is more information at: www.joebiden.com/immigration.
Please, take a moment to visit the site and read for yourself Biden’s plan. And as you ponder your vote in November, remember those devastated children who through no fault of their own have been living in limbo. Remember, too, your own children and how lucky they are not to be living in a cage. Please consider voting for a plan and a man that will bring us to a resolution of the immigration dilemma in a kind and reasonable way. Joe Biden.
Fran Wallace
Stark contrasts in health care between candidates
As someone who likes to be informed on the issues before voting, I appreciated Kathy Waters’ letter. More people should be thinking about what our current president has done for us versus what we would be getting with a Biden presidency.
There are so many stark contrasts to these two men, but I will focus on health care. Joe Biden helped make the Affordable Care Act a reality when he was vice president. Until the ACA took affect, I could not get insurance because I had a preexisting condition — hypertension. Many Clay County folks have pre-existing conditions like diabetes, hypertension and cancer. Now with COVID-19, many more have a pre-existing condition and without ACA, they would not qualify for health insurance. ACA prevents lifetime or annual limits to coverage. Biden has proposed to expand the ACA, establish a new public insurance option and lower the Medicare enrollment age from 65 to 60. President Trump supports the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
The Supreme Court will hear the case in November and if he wins, tens of million of people will lose insurance in the middle of a pandemic. Think about that. On Thursday, Sept. 24, Trump signed an Executive Order suggesting protection for those with pre-existing conditions, but it has no legal weight. Despite Trump’s support of the ACA repeal, he has yet to offer a health care replacement for the American people. We are only told it will be better. Biden would increase federal health care spending in rural health care and mental health funding. He will protect funding for Medicare and Medicaid while Trump considers cutting funding.
Biden would double federal funding for community health centers, more than half of all of them are in rural communities like Clay County. He supports the Save Rural Hospitals Act and expanded care in rural communities. In short, Biden is offering the health care changes and safeguards that western North Carolina needs. Without a healthy community, how can we prosper? My vote will be for Biden.
Dianne Olansky
Why do leftist attack the individual rather than his facts?
Leftist virtually always dismiss indisputable evidence by character assassinating people who expose their deceit, suggesting sinister motives. For example, in my last letter, doctors who saved COVID-19 patient lives were labeled “narcissist self-promoting” by Mike Gora and he dismissed Chris Martenson’s reporting of COVID-19 because “Martenson is an economist, not a doctor.” Dr. Martenson has a Ph.D. from Duke in neurotoxicology. Oops.
Leftist generally lack the intellectual curiosity to research and evaluate opposing points of view evidence. For example, Martenson publicized the prestigious Henry Ford Health System study of 2,541 hospitalized COVID-19 patients that showed Hydroxycholoquine/Zinc/azithromyocin, even without zinc, had resulted in a “77 percent hazard ratio reduction.” When President Trump mentioned that European doctors were having great success in saving lives with HCQ, rather than immediately initiating a study on the efficacy of HCQ, anti-Trump CDC bureaucrats and politically compromised scientists who depend on Big Pharma for their livelihood, immediately declared HCQ was too dangerous — Fauci.
Within weeks two prestigious scientific publications had articles that HCQ did not work. The articles were later retracted when the studies dishonesty were exposed. Despite over 200,000 USA deaths, many leftist, like Gora, appear adamant that HCQ should NOT be used to save lives until clinical trials prove its efficacy and/or a vaccine is produced, despite there has never been an effective COVID vaccine. Gora said the 2005 study concluding HCQ’s effectiveness on SARS-COV “couldn’t possibly have any bearing on COVID-19.” Really? Their properties are very similar. That’s how most cures are found.
The leftist establishment scientific community and media regularly censor, vilify and/or punish doctors who have success saving COVID-19 patients lives with HCQ. Like Gora, they express no concern of censorship when it supports their political agenda. Gora wrote I am “misleading” when I quoted the recent CDC report that “For 6 percent of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only one mentioned.” How can one be misleading when quoting? The other 94 percent all already had multiple comorbidities — life threatening conditions — which could have caused the death rather than COVID-19. Last week the CDC reported people under 20 who get COVID-19 have a 0.00003 chance of dying from COVID-19.
Is that justification for shutting down schools? For people under 50 it is 0.005. Is that worth destroying the lively hood of millions? We have a much bigger chance of being killed in a car accident than dying of COVID-19. Show the incentive and the outcome becomes obvious. Hospitals are getting a $13,000 subsidy for each COVID-19 identified inpatient and $39,000 for each put on a ventilator. Big Pharma will lose billions if a vaccine is not needed to contain the COVID-19 outbreak and the CDC would be exposed as a political fraud and lose a lot of its taxpayer paid funding.
And most important, since the Trump-Russia hoax and impeachment did not topple President Trump, maybe shutting down the United States economy and destroying millions of jobs will convince the uninformed that it was all Trump’ fault and vote him out of office.
James F. Davis
President Trump has repeatedly violated his oath of office
On Jan. 20, 1917, Donald Trump swore the following oath: “I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” To which he added, “so help me God.” Since that day, nearly four years ago, President Trump has consistently violated his oath of office and the Constitution at will.
Here are some of the more egregious examples:
• To obstruct the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump fired FBI director James Comey, repeatedly attacked the Mueller investigation and provided written answers that were misleading or evasive. He has fostered through private phone calls a suspicious relationship with Vladimir Putin, who is bent on destroying American democracy.
• The Emoluments’ clauses of the Constitution forbid any officer of the United State from accepting any gifts. Trump has made millions during his term by violating these clauses.
• Instead of working to bring people together, Trump has fostered division among Americans, encouraging white supremacy, racism, xenophobia and sexism. He has repeatedly lied to the American public.
• Failure to protect the American public from a deadly pandemic. Trump knew in February that COVID-19 was highly infectious, but has misled the populace and did nothing to protect Americans when quick and decisive action might have saved more than 100,000 lives.
• Violating rights afforded in United States law for asylum seekers at our border. Trump’s administration has separated parents from children, and sent thousands of the children alone to their home countries. Trump has repeatedly lied about the asylum seekers to stir up fear and hatred.
• Trump was impeached for conditioning military aid to Ukraine on President Zelensky’s help in “digging up dirt” on Joe Biden.
• Perhaps the worst, in what one commentator called “a dagger into the heart of the Constitution,” Trump has said that he may not accept the result of the 2020 election if Biden wins. Toward the coming election Trump has done everything he can to suppress the vote and sow doubt and division among voters.
These are the actions of a dictator like Benito Mussolini, not of any American president or candidate before. Trump has given four years of chaos, deceit, dishonesty, division, death and destruction to our nation. I ask you, dear readers, does anyone want four more years of this? When our constitutional republic is in peril?
Robert J. Schneider