Following the leader
If Cherokee County’s GOP leadership is not doing their jobs, perhaps it is because they are following their leader, twice-impeached President Donald Trump, who did not do his job, either.
David Jockusch, Peachtree
Protect our children here
I challenge every pastor in Cherokee County to make this Sunday’s sermon, “Stand up, speak up, and fight the devil.” Enough is enough. Our society is in great moral peril.
My daughter and I recently visited the Murphy Public Library and saw a book in the children’s “easy reading section” called I Am Jazz. This book proudly promotes so-called transgenderism.
The book Being Jazz is in the teenager’s reading section. Jazz is pictured with his smiling Dad, wearing ostrich feathered stilettos, and a hair bow at age 18 months. His parents had their little boy go to first grade dressed as a girl.
Jazz has developed a serious mental illness called gender dysphoria. Jazz has been castrated, never again being able to have biological children. His penis has been split down the middle to form a pseudo-vagina, forever incapable of having an orgasm. For the rest of his life, he must use a vaginal dilator daily to keep this orifice from closing.
This procedure is painful, and Jazz has refused to do it. His mother told him if he doesn’t do it, she would forcibly do it for him. He’s on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. He has gained almost 100 pounds and admits being depressed.
I’ve been a registered nurse for 21 years, working about two years in a psychiatric residential treatment facility for children. In my opinion, these deranged parents should be horsewhipped for their child abuse. Jazz has X and Y male chromosomes, which are non-negotiable. No amount of lipstick, stilettos or surgeries will ever change him into a woman.
These books are cruelly deceptive and will cause great harm to our children. I have made a written request that the library removes these books. Would you do the same? We must protect our precious children.
Mary Mason, Murphy
‘Choose to be kind’ to us all
I wanted to thank Evelyn Nastos for her reply to Deni Shepard, who made homophobic remarks in her letter in the April 5 “Your Views” section. Seeing people in our community standing up for LGBTQ people is heartwarming.
As a gay person living here, the rise of LGBTQ bigotry is scary. And its increase nationally, along with the many recent bills/laws aimed at erasing LGBTQ people from public view, is terrifying. It brings back the anxiety and fear I had growing up here in high school, where homophobia was the norm. I thought we as a society were moving past this.
Growing up here, I heard many demeaning comments like those of Deni. People describe being gay as a “lifestyle, sinful, wrong, immoral, an abomination.” That hatred almost caused me to end my life, but I found a way through it.
I say this not for sympathy for me, but for compassion for others – especially the youth Deni claims she wants to protect. Young people listen, and hateful, bigoted remarks can lead a young person trying to accept their sexuality down a dark path.
LGBTQ book displays don’t harm children; hatred, bigotry and erasure do. Access to media where LGBTQ people can find themself represented brings hope, love and a sense of belonging.
I wish I had access to LGBTQ media in middle and high schools; I might have learned to love myself a lot sooner. You can’t erase us; choose to be kind.
Joey Macaluso, Murphy
Master AI or it masters us
Our world is experiencing major scientific advances in “AI” (artificial intelligence), but what is happening to our innate intelligence? Could “smart” technology be repressing the abilities of human beings to utilize their own attributes to read, study, question and reason.
Students’ math and reading scores have declined since the pandemic, but there are other forces contributing to this decline.
Smart phones, smart cars, smart TVs, smart ovens – but what happens when these things don’t work? As humans, will we lose our capacity to do simple tasks or solve problems without the assistance of technology?
As our digital highways become increasingly crowded with streams of information, it is difficult to discern what is real, what is truth or fiction. Critical information vital to daily life is interspersed with dangerous, daily digital assaults to steal our identities, bank accounts and other assets.
Our electronic devices constantly transmit calls, texts and emails over digital networks that can be tracked, measured and correlated to “artificially” determine our needs and wants, perhaps even before we know them ourselves.
The GPS app in our phones and cars guide us step by step to our destinations, but what happens when the signal is weak or fails completely. Will we still be able to read a map and know where to go?
Nearly all of the places we call have digitized menus asking you “to please listen carefully because our options have changed.” The technology is specifically designed to route your call to a another pre-recorded message. A last option might allow you to access an actual person, assuming they are not handling another call.
So, will AI result in dumbing down many of us, or will it be an effective tool to increase productivity? Will we master this technology, or will it become our Master?
Robert Karl, Murphy
A disaster for decades
In response to Andrew Clyde’s letter to the editor, “Trump indictment; irreparable injustice.”
Former President Donald Trump’s entire adult life has been that of a great con man and a poor failed businessman and criminal. This, of course, has been true in his business and political life. He has been, and is, an enemy of the people.
Only a short list follows:
His birther myth claiming President Barack Obama was not born in the United States; racist claims against the Mexican people; making Mexico pay for his wall on the border (LOL); stated John McClain “was not a war hero;” the vast number of misogynist statements he has made toward women; his public ridicule of a physically handicapped journalist; his bragging to Billy Bush about grabbing women by their genitals without consent; paid a $25 million settlement against his criminal Trump University; his collusions with the Russian government; his acceptance of payments from foreign states through his businesses while in office; weakened Obamacare while in office, harming the health of millions of Americans; the hate filled travel ban on Muslims; his continual lies about the general election and voter fraud; his criminal attempt to “find votes” from Georgia officials to overturn the general election results; and, the most despicable of all, his failed coup attempt to overthrow our government on Jan. 6, 2021, which was treason.
Hopefully, the three other impending charges against Trump will result in criminal indictments. I will feel great joy to see justice be brought to bear against this man who has been a disaster to our country for decades.
Jim Grazis oung Harris, Ga.
10 reasons to not wear Musk
Here are 10 reasons to be jealous of this South African upstart kid who comes to this country and:
1. Gets rich first by making online phone books.
2. Buys PayPal in order for you to send him money directly.
3. Becomes our first private space Pony Express, supplying the Space Station.
4. Shoots a candy apple red Tesla convertible into outer space with a clown dummy behind the wheel.
5. Developed reusable boosters that land on their butts on ocean barges or coastal bulls-eyes.
6. Tunnels a road from Hollywood to downtown Los Angeles.
7. Borrows $500 million from the government to make millions of electric cars with 18 moving motor parts, and batteries that last for 800,000 miles and soon will last for a million. And the government pays people $7,500 apiece to buy them.
8. On rainy days, these cars will pick you up at the store doors, from across the parking lot.
9. He shoots hundreds of mailbox-size trains of specks of light into the evening skies, covering the earth with Starlink, which is expensive but wires up the hollers pretty good.
10. He’s sitting on the south Texas coast with this 30-foot-wide rocket, longer than a football field, in his backyard, hoping it’ll make it once around the Earth on its first try, planning on using it to inhabit the moon and Mars, where he plans to end his days. Good riddance!
Harry Holdorf, Brasstown