Thankful for all sponsors
Dear beautification sponsors (including the Cherokee Scout):
We write this letter to say thank you for your sponsorship toward the Town of Andrews Beautification Project. The 1,800 residents of Andrews and all western North Carolina truly appreciate your contribution and efforts in making Andrews a town of beauty.
We are pleased to report a total of 98 businesses, civic clubs, individuals and churches are participating this year for a total of $24,500 in donations.
The flower baskets will be hung the week of May 12, weather permitting. Thank you.
James Reid, Mayor, Town of Andrews
Nola Cooper, executive, director, Andrews
Chamber of Commerce, Bill Anderson
Beautification project coordinator
Dodging an area bullet
At 72 per 1,000 residents, Murphy has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to communities of all sizes. One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime is 1 in 14.
Elected officials allow outside agencies to dump their trash onto your streets. These degenerates steal, sell drugs, take drugs, harass citizens, sleep on storefronts and urinate on businesses with impunity.
In my view, as a once business owner, these hoodlums exhibit feral behavior and are a menace to the public. They need to be in cages so to be safely viewed in their natural habitat.
My futile attempts at holding law enforcement officers accountable for their crimes, while keeping citizens informed, have been in vain. Citizens, with their silence, have condoned police overreach and nefarious behavior. Your silence comes with a cost.
The sheriff’s office and commissioners are solely responsible for Cherokee County’s descent into lawlessness. Homelessness, drugs, panhandlers, illegals and deviants make Cherokee County less safe.
Having placed this community into my rear-view mirror, I leave with a final thought: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
My family’s safety is a priority as we observe from afar.
Darrin Wright, Murphy
Economics and myths
Some embolden the narrative that presidential administrations have limited control on inflation, gas pump prices and the economy in general.
I take exception and agree with the 58 percent of Americans who disapprove of President Joe Biden’s inept business strategies.
American’s dream has morphed into a nightmare as our country suffers through the economic misery policies of the president’s “Bidenomics.”
Americans long for the prosperity they enjoyed under President Donald Trump. There are two primary tools that failing regimes always use to distort the true conditions of the economy: debt and inflation. In America today, we are experiencing both simultaneously, and this has made economic indicators appear healthy when they are, in fact, highly unstable.
During Biden’s three year presidency, overall inflation has soared 17.9 percent, outpacing the weekly earnings increase of 12.8 percent for that period. “Real buying power” is decreasing, and industrious Americans are struggling.
While non-businesspeople think there’s a slim difference between 4 percent inflation versus 2 percent, professional investors and financial experts understand the difference. At 2 percent, prices double every 36 years. At 4 percent, prices double every 18 years. At the 9.1 percent inflation rate active in June 2022, prices double every eight years.
Another consequence of “Bidenomics” high inflation is the rapid increase in interest rates implemented to damper inflation. Since inflation is continuing at a higher than predicted rate, the Federal Reserve will pause plans to decrease interest rates. Consequently, Americans will not see the lower rates needed on credit cards, equity loans, car loans and mortgage interest rates.
Biden’s incoherent war to end America’s use of cheap and abundant conventional fossil fuels is an unmanageable inflationary policy. He canceled years-long plans to drill in Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuge, halted the Keystone XL Pipeline and introduced draconian regulating policies on energy producers.
Terry Payne, Marble
Zionists’ problems
What’s happening on the campuses of Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT and Colombia? According to the mainstream media, our best and brightest have all gone berserk. All across America, university students are protesting Israel’s relentless genocide, murdering 48,000 Palestinians, with 15,500 of them being children, and starving 2.4 million.
Columbia’s student club, “Jewish Voice for Peace” has been silenced, suspended for the year. Isn’t that anti-Semitism? Can’t allow Jewish students to speak against Israel’s genocide, bad PR. Other Jewish groups, like “Not In Our Name” and “If Not Now,” are having their protests quelled, with numerous members arrested during peaceful protests.
University presidents are being brought before Congress, asking how they dare allow these students to exercise their First Amendment rights, speaking against Israel’s slaughter. Two presidents have since been fired. Didn’t these presidents know students aren’t allowed to speak against Israel’s atrocities and if allowed, the steely boot of Zionism would stomp their necks? The more Zionists attempt to quell student protests, the larger the protests become. This show of strength is terrifying Zionists, as they are losing control of the narrative.
TikTok is another big problem for the Zionists. TikTok comments are 16 to 1 opposing Israel’s genocide. Congress has vowed to stop these anti-genocide voices and is attempting to force TikTok to sell its company. That’s democracy and free speech, right?
Congress passed a bill allocating $95 billion to Israel and Ukraine for more bombs, expanding their wars. Any money in that bill for America’s border security? Not a dime. Who does Congress really serve? Not Joe taxpayer. He doesn’t have multi-millions to donate to Congress’s re-election campaign like AIPAC and the Israel lobby.
One good thing has come out of all of this, Americans are waking up to the control Zionism has over America. And it’s about time.
Mary Mason, Murphy
Wow, what a good deal
I don’t believe God makes deals with people who are sinners, but I do think God has a deal for all that is out of this world.
Some folks might think that God is up yonder dealing out punishments and judgments upon all sinners who are not right with Him. If that is the case, then none of us are worthy of heaven. None of us have any blessed hope of a better tomorrow in glory. We are doomed in the hereafter to hell.
But God, in His infinite and holy righteousness, has a deal you can’t refuse if you listen carefully to what He has to say: God, Himself, so loved the world He created that in order for all to come to the saving knowledge of who Christ is, God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, down to this sinful world, not to rule and reign like a lot of people thought, but to save mankind from its sins.
This was the sole purpose of a God who shows great compassion, mercy, grace and everlasting love, who wants us to be a part of the family of God. What greater love that One would give His own life for others in need of a Savior.
God didn’t come to condemn the world. It doesn’t say that God’s love saved the world, because the love of God could never save a sinner. God saves by grace.
The book of Ephesians, 2:8-9, says: “For by grace are you saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”
I pray you take this message to heart and decide to follow Jesus Christ and become a child of God. Nothing else in the world would please your Father in heaven.
Frank Combs, Blairsville, Ga.