Mourn with accountability
The loss of a police officer in any community is tragic. In small towns like ours, where bonds run deep, the grief can be overwhelming and personal.
We see memorials, we hear tributes – and rightfully so. But too often, any meaningful conversation about the circumstances surrounding an officer’s death is pushed aside.
When negligence, poor judgment or avoidable mistakes play a role in a fatal incident, we must have the courage to confront that reality. Not out of disrespect, but out of a desire to learn, improve and prevent further loss.
Real respect isn’t blind. It’s honest. And if we truly care about our officers and our community, then we must be willing to hold them – and ourselves – to a higher standard of truth and accountability.
Ed Figueroa, Murphy
Mom found resting place
I write this letter for the sole purpose of letting everyone who doesn’t know the Lord that Jesus Christ as their Savior.
My mom came up to live with us in 2005, and she had just accepted Christ into her life at age 86, which is cutting it close when we think about eternity. She was a changed mom, with a gracious attitude toward others and loving spirit. She loved listening to Elvis Presley singing gospel songs on television, and though she couldn’t carry a tune, she sang with all of her heart, which was full of joy because of her relationship with God.
God is long-suffering, for He wants no one to die without knowing Him.
Mom knew she wasn’t living right, but saw the light of God’s love and grace was all she ever needed. She has been in paradise since 2006, when she passed over to glory at Union General Hospital under hospice care. The night of her departure was sweet as I held her little hands and sang “Amazing Grace.” Two minutes later, she closed her eyes and entered peacefully into the arms of her Savior.
I arrived home about midnight, went to bed about 1 a.m. and was awakened by God at 5 a.m. with a poem racing through my mind that goes like this:
“Praise God – another soul has gone to be with the Lord.
“Jesus is waiting for Mom at Heaven’s glorious doors.
“No longer a slave to sin – this old body of a shell is bound for glory, not for hell.
“She’s free, free at last to live in victory by Gods’ amazing grace.
“Mom has found her resting place.
“Now she awaits those who hope and believe that one day soon their souls, too, will be set free – free to love Christ for eternity.”
Frank Combs, Blairsville, Ga.
Help save the U.S. republic
I love America, I love the Constitution, and I feel that I have a fair understanding of what the Constitution says and what it represents.
The chairperson of the county Democrat Party recently submitted a letter to the editor telling of an outdoor gathering she had attended. She ended with the statement, “This is what Democracy looks like.”
No, that is false. Ma’am, if you lived in a democracy, you would likely not have been permitted to attend a gathering such as the one you did. Your statement displays an ignorance of our form of government. We live in a constitutional republic, not a democracy.
You were allowed to participate in this gathering because of your right to peaceably assemble. This right is protected by Amendment I of our Constitution, but a democracy affords no such protection.
If you had read and studied the document that you want to wrap yourself in, you would know better than to make statements such as the one you made. But as a loyal Democrat, I suppose you follow and support the leaders of the Democrat Party, AOC and Jasmine Crockett.
The brave men who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution put it all on the line; they risked everything. They were willing to sacrifice their lives, fortunes,and sacred honor to see that this republic, this experiment in self-government, succeeded.
Shouldn’t we all do our part to see our country and our Constitution continue to survive?
Carl Townson, Murphy
Use sense, jump ship
I live in Clay County and always request my letters to be sent to the Cherokee Scout. This is letter No. 36 since President Joe Biden took office and only twice have they made it to the Scout. I’ll personally take this one to the Scout.
This is not a personal attack on letter writer Glen Kolp. Do you know what LGBTQIA+ stands for; if not, look it up. Do you support it? Do you believe in allowing transgender men to play in women’s sports? Do you believe in open borders, allowing rapists, murderers, child traffickers, drug smugglers, etc., into the United States? Some people in your party do.
Do you believe in this noun-pronoun “woke” crap? Do you believe in sanctuary cities, all of which are ran by democratic governors and mayors? Are you for defunding the police, against ICE, against smaller government, against trying to stop government fraud, against tax cuts and against tariffs? I am not.
The United States has been taken advantage of way too long, the list goes on and on. Finally, we have a president who stands up for America, and all the Democrats can scream is, “We’ve got to get rid of this idiot,” meaning Trump.
My opinion is we got rid of the idiot on Jan. 20, 2025. Also, in next year’s midterm elections, we need to vote out lots of these screaming idiots.
Just so you know, I was born and raised a Democrat. We’ve all heard the old saying, “A good captain always goes down with the ship?” Now, I’m no ship captain and I didn’t like the direction the Democratic ship was heading, so in 2012, I jumped ship.
Did this take courage? No, just common sense. So, Glen, your party has went way too far left, you don’t have to go down with the ship. Glen – jump!
Perry Reece, Brasstown
Editor’s note: A quick check of our online archives shows the Scout published letters from Perry Reece on June 12, 2024; May 15, 2024; April 24, 2024; March 20, 2024; and Feb. 28, 2024. A letter submitted in August 2024 could not be confirmed and was not published. Those were the only letters from him that have been received by the Scout.
Panthers are in this region
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is wrong about panthers, period. Evidently, they did not live in the Andrews Valley nor surrounding areas, because many people have witnessed seeing panthers.
My aunt and uncle raised 11 children at the foot of Robbinsville Mountain, and they remember two black panthers that traveled together, and how frightening it was to hear them scream or that growling pant they made. Their territory was along Stewart Road from Piles Creek to Beaver Creek.
They would always show themselves at hog-killing time when Purel Miller would come and dress the meat in the smokehouse. My uncle, Alfred Grindstaff, was the night watchman for Parker & Reichman chicken farm, and he encountered them many times during the late 1950s and 1960s.
My grandpa, Jessie Clay Birchfield, showed the older children a field near the chicken house, where the large cats had buried chickens with their feet sticking up they made so they could run through and snatch them up without breaking their stride.
And in the early 1990s, my daughter and I were coming out of Big Choga just before dark when we went around a curve. A tan-colored panther was crouched on the left side of the road and jumped to the bank across the road. The next morning, I called the wildlife station in Murphy and told the man what we had seen.
His rude response was, “Let me make this perfectly clear lady, there are no panthers in western North Carolina.” The next night on WLOS-TV, they featured a man who had hit and killed a tan-colored panther in Bryson City with his vehicle when it jumped off a bank. And the big cat’s paw was bigger than his head.
I called the wildlife man back the next morning and told him he may want to research the news clip and look at that panther!
The Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, and many areas in Florida, have panthers. It has been reported that the large cats can travel up to 50 miles in a night. So, do the math.
Kandy Barnard, Andrews