Stand up for all our rights
I have never been an activist or involved in politics, but I am being called to do it now. I am fed up with the constant lies and manipulation from the mainstream media, the absurd agendas coming from the far left and the feeling that my rights, according to our Constitution, are being chipped away, little by little.
I am done just sitting around watching and waiting to see what happens. It’s time to stand up America … it’s no longer about being Republican or Democrat, left or right, or anything in between. It’s about being an American.
Start with just one thing you believe in, one thing that you can see that is wrong, do some research, get the details from a reliable source and then speak up and don’t stop. Take it as far as you can. Talk about it, post about it, write letters to the editors, call your senators, join like-minded individuals and keep going.
Fly your flags. Let it be known that you are in, and you are not rolling over. We have to all come together, find common ground and get in the fight.
I am feeling it, so I know you are, too. “United we stand, divided we fall.”
Penny Johnson, Murphy
Free corn hurts U.S.
A college professor noticed one day an exchange student rubbing his back. When the professor asked him about his back, the student said he had a bullet lodged in his back from fighting Communists in his native country.
During his story, he looked at the professor and asked, “Do you know how to catch wild pigs?” The professor smirked, thinking this was a joke, and waited for the punch line.
“The way you catch wild pigs is locating a suitable place in the woods and distribute corn on the ground. If you have patience, pigs will find the corn and return every day to eat the free food. Initially, you construct a fence on one side of the foraging ite. After the pigs are accustomed to the one-sided fence and continue eating, you erect another two fence sides.
“The pigs ignore the three sides of the fence and continue devouring the free corn. You endure until a fourth side is completed with an installed gate. Leave that gate open.
“The pigs are accustomed to eating free corn and the entire sounder enters the enclosure. Slam the gate shut to enclose every pig.
“Immediately the wild pigs lost their freedom. They are disorganized and movement is limited inside the fence. Soon they ignore their captivity and gorge on the free corn. They are very satiated, embrace their captivity, and forget how to forage in the woods for themselves.”
This is an allegory depicting the political climate in America. The current administration’s income redistribution plans and top-down policies push us toward socialism.
Remember two truths about intrusive government:
- There is no such thing as a free lunch.
- When people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.
Terry Payne, Marble
Doctors’ Day was last week
National Doctors’ Day was March 30. The Western Carolina Medical Society honors and thanks the physicians across western North Carolina for their commitment to exceptional medical care and patient advocacy. We acknowledge their dedication to patients and communities during this past year with the added pressures presented by COVID-19.
Doctors’ Day is a way of saying thanks to the physicians who work tirelessly to keep their patients and our community healthy. We are privileged to have some of the most skilled physicians in the country in our mountains. The next time you see your physician please say thank you and let them know how much you appreciate them.
We appreciate the dozens of organizations who have shown their support for our doctors this past year. These organizations include (but are not limited to) the N.C. Healthcare Foundation, Physician Foundation, Community Foundation of WNC, WNC Colorectal Cancer Screening Initiative, Duke Endowment, Buncombe County, Walmart, Helen Powers Fund, WNC Bridge Foundation and Dogwood Health Trust.
Doctors do more than keep us healthy. They work hard to improve the well-being of the community. A big way local doctors do this is through Project Access, where 700 area physicians donate their time to care for low-income, uninsured patients, working to address inequities in healthcare.
We set aside March 30 as a special day to demonstrate our appreciation for the role of our area’s physicians.
For details about WCMS or Doctors’ Day visit www.mywcms.org or contact Niki Duff at niki@mywcms.org or 828-274-2267, Ext. 1313.
Miriam Schwarz, Asheville
The writer is chief executive officer of the Western Carolina Medical Society.
Just asking for a friend
Why am I watching St. Jude Children’s Hospital on TV beg for money when our government is sending $1.3 billion to Egypt to buy Russian-made weapons?
Why don’t we cancel the medical debt for cancer patients instead of student loans? College is a choice, cancer is not.
When was the last time a foreign country sent us money from their stimulus packages?
Why do we have more troops in Washington than in Iraq and Afghanistan? Could it be we have more enemies there?
Now that she interviewed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, when will Oprah interview American pipeline workers who lost their jobs?
When the Judiciary Committee proposed an amendment requiring ICE to be notified when illegal immigrants try to buy guns and the Democrats voted a resounding “no,” does that mean the Dems don’t mind people having guns as long as they are not working-class Americans?
Why do we have thousands of homeless American veterans in our own country begging on street corners when we can afford to send millions to Pakistan for gender studies?
The Rev. Dr. Louis Guerin, Mineral Bluff, Ga.
Carbon cost and dividends
Whether you believe climate change is a threat to humanity or whether it’s a hoax, climate change is receiving a lot of legislative attention now. Not only has President Joe Biden introduced a $2 trillion infrastructure/energy plan last week, but market tides have shifted.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and big businesses like members of the Business Roundtable have been calling for Congress to pursue market based approaches to address climate change. Even the American Petroleum Institute officially endorsed carbon pricing on March 25. All of this makes it likely that some form of climate legislation is in our future.
The introduction of Biden’s plan and actual legislation are two different things, and much debate and Senate stonewalling are yet to occur. What do you want your future to look like?
If you had a choice between partisan regulations, which specify solutions and are subject to vast changes with each administration vs. market-based approaches that can provide longer-term stability, which would you prefer? Putting a price on carbon emissions is a market-based approach that the business community likes since it provides a level of certainty, is effective in reducing emissions, and doesn’t legislate winners and losers.
Not entirely coincidental is last week’s re-introduction to Congress of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. This bill is a popular market-based solution that puts a price on carbon, puts money in your pocket in the form of a dividend and allows our nation to meet net zero emissions by 2050.
If you have avoided the discussion on climate, it is time to take a seat at the table and order up what is good for business, good for people and good for the planet.
Let your representatives know it’s time for a price on carbon.
David Miller, Brasstown
Equality Act makes sense
The Equality Act (H.R. 5) addresses issues of inequality experienced by almost all women throughout American history, as well as openly LGBTQ individuals and their families in recent decades. Most legislation addresses several issues at the same time, so it makes perfect sense to include women and LGBTQ individuals.
I’m not sure why anyone would be offended, since this legislation is simply about protecting all people from discrimination. Heterosexual men have rarely or never experienced discrimination in the ways women and LGBTQ folks have, so I question their right to tell us who deserves protections and who doesn’t.
I am a devoted wife, mother and grandmother, but I will not pretend that encountering more work at home and less pay for equal work has ever been acceptable. I will not listen to men who have actively tried to keep women in their place and who are so clearly afraid of people who are different.
My faith tells me to love and value everyone. I am deeply saddened and concerned that so many Christians seem to have replaced charity and compassion with fear and scorn.
The politicization of the churches began after Watergate and some Christians don’t realize they were manipulated into supporting Republicans by their party elites, to boost their numbers and donations. Opposing abortion became the single issue that united Republicans, although other compassionate concerns for children were ignored.
The same Republicans opposed the Equal Rights Amendment, which simply established that women were entitled to equal pay for the same work done by their male co-workers. Men have benefited from these measures, at the expense of women and children.
It’s time for women to question how we got here, and how we can create a fairer system for ourselves and our children.
Kathie Kline, Asheville