EBCI can set its own rules
We are writing in response to U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards’ letter in the Carolina Journal insisting members of Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians vote against the legalization of marijuana use.
For a moment we are setting aside our disagreements with Edwards about the role of marijuana policy in reducing crime and addiction.
Make no mistake, we do disagree with his policy approach, but this letter is about a different issue. This letter is about our rejection of his attempt to coerce the people of the EBCI into making the decision he wants. The EBCI is a sovereign nation and has the right to govern itself and pass such laws as its duly elected government and enrolled members see fit, without federal or state interference.
In his letter, Edwards threatens to eliminate federal funds to tribal governments that choose to legalize any form of marijuana use. Edwards’ strategy reeks of the same paternalism we have seen throughout the history of federal dealings with tribal governments.
This is not the action of a friend with a disagreement, it is patronizing and coercive. Edwards offers false friendship. The federal funding owed to
the EBCI must never be a tool for extorting one man’s policy goals. A real friend would
know that the United States of America owes a debt to the Cherokee, and making good on that debt is not dependent on disagreements over marijuana policy.
Garrett Lagan, Swain County, Democratic Party chair
Diane Snyder, Cherokee County, Democratic Party chair
Cody Lewis, Jackson County, Democratic Party chair
Sam Edney, Transylvania County, Democratic Party chair
National POW Day is Sept. 15
Sept. 15, 2023, is National POW/MIA Recognition Day. It is a day to remember and honor the commitments and sacrifices made by our nation’s POWs and those who remain missing in action from all wars.
More than 81, 500 soldiers are still unaccounted for from past wars, and still their families wait. There are 1,584 MIAs from the Vietnam War, including 37 from North Carolina. U.S. intelligence indicates that Americans known to have been alive or in captivity in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam were not returned at the end of the war. A grassroots effort and show of concern by Americans is key to gaining and keeping foreign governments support in allowing our teams to search and in assisting them to locate our MIAs. I am one of the next-of-kin family members.
My only sibling, SFC Alan L. Boyer, was missing in action while on a covert special ops mission in Laos on March 28, 1968. Then 48 years later, a tiny bone shard of Alan’s matched my DNA to his femur and he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors on June 22, 2016.
Please write to your representatives to ensure bipartisan support for a full and accurate accounting of our MIAs. We as a nation must never forget their sacrifices and pledge to bring them home.
Judi Boyer Bouchard, Hayesville
Why Trump in the 2024 race?
I support former President Donald Trump because he stands for everything that is antithetical to the Washington ruling class, including the Republican and Democrat Party elites, lobbyists and their media propagandist.
To those who say he is arrogant, a braggart, a bully and crude, I say the “barbarians are inside the gates” and Trump is my “Queens borough barbarian.” I’m a policy guy and not a personality therapist.
Trump is an existential threat to the slowly boiling frog in the pot of tyranny that has escalated from the inept and corrupt D.C. establishment of politicians, unelected administrative state pariahs in the alphabet agencies and media co-conspirators.
Trump’s challenge to restore our constitutional republic is a gauntlet:
Maverick persecution. President Joe Biden’s administration is paranoid about independent thinkers and dissent. The goal is to punish disruptors before they initiate damage and deter aspiring detractors. Think about Tucker Carlson, Robert Kennedy Jr., Gen. Michael Flynn, Devon Archer, Andrew Breitbart and Steve Bannon.
Entertainment propaganda. Biden’s team know it’s crucial to distract Americans from their appalling behavior. Entertainment propaganda tools trivialize the population. Media ignores Biden’s family influence peddling evidence, shell company payolas and covers nonstop Trump’s political indictments.
Education enhances brainwashing. Radical leftist public education targets potential rebels when they are young. Like entertainment, the education curriculum is tailored to glorify liberalism and attack opponents. When young consumers mature, they become staunch proponents for socialism and ion tenets including woke and manmade climate change.
Abundance of hoaxes. Americans are controlled through fear. COVID was used to change election laws and spawn unconstitutional lockdowns that nullified our Bill of Rights.
The No. 1 reason Trump is the leading candidate to restore the republic is establishment elites oppose the MAGA movement. There are valid reasons the liberalized Grand Old Party has transformed into the POS, or “Party of Spineless.”
Terry Payne, Marble