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Government Leaders Should Support Businesses They Say They’ll Protect
If Bev and Barack really want to create jobs, why don’t they buy American-made products? I have owned Uniform Express (www.Duckscrubs.com) in Mocksville, N.C., for 26 years. We manufacture health care scrubs in 18 different styles, 21 solid colors and 22 prints.

I have seven employees at my Lansing location who have been laid off for 12 months. I have 14 employees in Mocksville who only get to work every other week. We have gone through all the red tape to get the company in position to sell to the government. Nothing happens. I have collected sales tax for North Carolina for many years. I have paid respectable state income tax and have mailed in state income tax for my employees since 1984.

I have never been so insulted as I was when I was asked (two times) by the postmaster of UNC at Chapel Hill to remove them from our mailing list. I’m forced by law to be taxed for support and then told in effect that we don’t even want to see your catalog. It’s sad to realize what our country has come to.

I don’t get to bid, while Halliburton doesn’t have to. I don’t understand why lawyers don’t get the math. 2 + 2 = 4 and you can’t stay in business unless you take in more than goes out.

Delmar McDaniel
Mocksville

Thanks to Mellow Mushroom from High Country Hospice
Dear Editor,

High Country Health Care System Hospice would like to thank Mellow Mushroom of Boone for donating 10% of all proceeds on Valentine’s Day to Hospice patient care. We would also like to thank everyone that ate at Mellow Mushroom in support of our cause to serve all the terminally ill that are eligible for our services.

High Country Hospice is a nonprofit organization that serves families in Watauga, Ashe and Alleghany Counties. For more information, call 828-265-3926 or visit our website highcountryhospice.org

Candice Cook
Marketing
High Country Health Care System Hospice

March Is Red Cross Month
Dear Editor:

March is Red Cross Month throughout our great land and a perfect time to acknowledge the dedicated service of our volunteers in the High Country. Our Chapter of the Red Cross is a humanitarian organization led by volunteers who have provided their good works for the residents of the High Country since 1917. They clearly illustrate why America is a special place, a place where someone you may not know will give you their blood, save you from drowning, perform life saving CPR or provide you with shelter during a severe winter storm.

Although earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes make the headlines, the day-to-day work of the Red Cross is centered on communities like ours and done by volunteers. This year over 700 of our friends and neighbors volunteered with our chapter and constituted over 97% of our work force. That’s why when we say, “Volunteers are the heart of the Red Cross” we really know it and sincerely mean it.

As chairman of our local Red Cross, I believe we can take great pride in what we’ve done together. Thanks to your support of the Red Cross, there will always be a place where our residents can learn first aid and CPR, how to save lives with automatic external defibrillators (AEDs), find hope when hope has been temporarily loss due to a house fire, give life-saving blood and celebrate the goodness of human kind.

Much has changed since 1917, but one thing has not. Our community is still a place where neighbors help neighbors.  Your support of our Red Cross is a true reflection of that spirit.

Thank you.

Ron Hood
Chairman, Board of Directors
Watauga County Red Cross

Integrity—What I Am Looking for in a Candidate
The definition of integrity comes from the word integral, which means wholeness or soundness. In its broader application it refers to (1) adherence to moral and ethical principles, soundness of moral character, honesty; (2) the state of being whole, entire or undiminished, to preserve the integrity of the empire; (3) a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition, the integrity of a ship’s hull. This is the kind of person I will vote for in this coming election.

I’m not interested in who your parents were. They are not running. I’m not interested in who your spouse is for the same reason. I’m not interested in which “church” you attend. I am interested in whether you know the Word of God and treat others with respect, dignity and fairness no matter their position, faith, race or political affiliation.

I’m not interested so much in your “education,” how many “training sessions” you have attended or in which “political party” you belong to. I am interested in your reputation in the county and whether you pass the character test with most of the people you know and deal with on a regular basis.

I am not interested in how long you have lived and/or worked in this county. I am interested in whether or not you know the North Carolina State Constitution and U.S. Constitution and understand the limitations they place on you as an “elected” official. I am interested in whether you will take an oath to uphold the Constitution of both North Carolina and the United States and if you will swear to abide by them no matter what. In other words, will you openly declare that you are not above the law and will behave as a law-abiding citizen of this county, North Carolina and the United States? Will you swear that you will not use the power of your office to practice tyranny against those you disagree with or those who openly oppose your actions? Will you remember and uphold the freedoms that have been given to “We the People” and not use your office to destroy our Constitutional freedoms?

Further, I am not interested in your qualifications to hold office if you have never attended an official meeting of the County Commissioners, the City Council, the School Board or the DSS Board, posted anything on any opinion page signed by you or written a letter to the editor stating your beliefs or taking a side on an issue.

For way too long, people have been elected to office even though they have never taken part in any community government entity or meetings, never given an opinion publicly and never revealed their associates who are either behind them or supporting them. I am interested in your proven character only. Many have been duped into supporting people for the wrong reason. Now is the time to go with true, solid character. Nothing else will do this election!

Respectfully,
Betsy Soler
Green Mountain

Watauga County Area Has Resources To Help the Homeless
Dear Editor,

As a freshman at Appalachian State University, I chose to write my freshman paper on widespread homelessness issues in Watauga County. After conducting various kinds of research, I decided to try to make my cause public, thus I am writing this letter.

Due to current declining economic conditions, many people around Watauga County have lost their homes, resulting in no place to sleep. The extreme winter weather conditions have caused an overload in homeless shelters around the area. Men, women and children across the county are struggling with no food and are freezing with ratty clothing. Watauga County currently has over 1,000 homeless in need of food and shelter, and the community should commit themselves to help.

Watauga County, especially the Boone area, has more than enough resources to make a significant contribution in battling the homeless problem in the area. Boone is home to Appalachian State University, whose student body of over 14,000 would be willing to donate time and resources to the homeless. The university should be creative and use incentives to motivate students to serve in the community. Boone already has organizations (such as Hospitality House and Health and Hunger Coalition) that tend to the homeless, but I feel the public has a responsibility to donate more of their energy to bettering society, such as donating food to homeless shelters.

Winter is the hardest time for homeless people to try to survive the elements. Snow, ice and bitter cold temperatures make it especially hard for people to survive with no shelter. Food is scarce for the homeless in the area, so food donations to Hospitality House and Hunger and Health Coalition would be very much appreciated. Clothing is also very important in these frigid months, so any gently used clothing can be donated to the Salvation Army. Please evaluate your possessions and realize there are people in the area that could use the clothing you do not wear anymore.

Thank you,
Joseph Stengel

Muslim Populations Growing in the West
Today, as in World War II, the free world is once again engaged in a struggle against evil.

On September 11, 2001, our enemies were successful in killing thousands of Americans in just a few hours before noon on that day. Our enemies did not pick the date of September 11 by any mere chance.

Americans assume that the date 9-11 was picked due to our 911 system we have here. It was most assuredly not picked for that reason. The forces of what is referred to as “radical” Islam picked that date because in the 1600s, the Austrian, Polish and German armies forced back the Ottoman Muslim forces from invading  Europe back into the Balkans on the day September 11. Had they been successful then, Europe would have likely fallen and become another Muslim continent.

Yet, today there is a pattern of change in the world so slow, unnoticed and deceptive that it is unknown to the vast majority of the American civilization. Western Europeans are starting to awaken slowly to it, but for some of those countries it may be too late. After four decades of “modern” immigration patterns to Western Europe, Great Britain and America, once again the advancement of the Islamic world into the modern world has been propelled forward at a horrific pace.

Since our protective immigration laws were destroyed in 1965 by Lyndon B. Johnson's signing of the Immigration Control Act, the Islamic footprint on the American civilization has grown dangerously out of control. Well over 2000 mosques (aka Islamic Centers) and Islamic Student Centers have sprung into existence. According to Pew Center studies, now there are 2.5 million Muslims living here in the United States. Whereas in 1970, there were an estimated 150,000. 

Given current patterns of immigration, experts project Muslims to be almost 2% of the U.S population by 2025. Some experts predict that given France’s Muslim population of about 8% and given current rates of reproduction, France will become a 51% Muslim country as soon as 2036. America should have learned its lesson after 9-11, but sadly we are still a nation of seemingly directionless fools who do not know what we are or who we truly came from. Given the free and unbridled hand of immigration into this country you may as well start counting the days until there is an Islamic mosque in Boone. There already is one in Morganton from what I hear. Most certainly they are in other nearby cities, I can assure you.

Like uncontrolled deficit spending, which seems to be ok with the mass of politicians in power, uncontrolled mass immigration is just another symptom of a government (not form or constitution) which is devoid of responsibility and who is an unwitting character, a collection of laws and statutes, some of which are programming our destruction.  Massive overwhelming debt, deficits and bewildering foreign immigration most certainly portend the eventual end of the American civilization as you have known it.

Sincerely,
Robert Tygart
Blowing Rock

Washington’s Cash and Carry Programs
As 2008 came to its close, the gamed system of finance—the house of cards constructed on Wall Street by the international bankers—began to implode. The Bush Administration reacted to prevent the full collapse of those perceived as "too big to fail" corporate donors and Congress passed the Toxic Assets Recovery Program, or TARP for short.

The professed funding was $700 Billion within the statute. However, under the administration of Neel Kashkari between $10 to $12 trillion somehow disappeared and was unable to be accounted for. There has been no oversight by Treasury nor Congress into the matter. Nor were any toxic assets with any certainty resolved in the Bush adventure. Then came Obama.

Now on January 20, H.R. 41733 was sent from the House to the Senate for consideration and action. Within it is contained another $4 trillion in funding for the banks who had their best year since 2003 and were still awarding engorged bonuses to their employees.

Hopefully Mr. Kashkari will not be the administrator of the distribution of that funding, for to do so could add perhaps another $50 to $60 trillion to the national debt under the Geitner watch.

There is a parallel within the bailouts:

In the parable of the man who owed a huge debt to the King and he came to plead for mercy because he could not meet his obligations to the Kingdom...and the King forgave his debts.

But as soon as he left the royal court the man began to seek out all who owed him and to demand that they pay him to the utmost farthing. In the parable when the King heard of it, he called the man to the palace to account for his actions and the King declared to the man, "Because you have done these things, I will throw you in the dungeon until you can repay your prior indebtedness unto the utmost farthing so that righteousness might be restored in the Kingdom."

The bankers and Wall Street are behaving like the man in the parable and have unleashed a great unrighteousness—a plague upon the nation and upon the world—in the merciless exaction of payments upon the people and in the withholding of funding unto the nation once they have been so richly endowed and funded by the people and their actions have only benefited them as they have sucked the wealth of equity from the middle class and transferred it to their oligarchic circles and from the public treasury.

The question that time must answer is:

Do we have a righteous King? A government willing to stand up for the people and to declare with a certain and clear voice that this will not be tolerated?

Or is corruption institutionalized and sanctioned by both parties as "business as usual?”

Regulation or deregulation without accountability are nothing but the propaganda of political theater. We shall await the Senate’s reply and the President’s. Response...meanwhile it is an election year and all meaningful change has to begin with us, we, the people and the ultimate responsibility is ours to initiate real change that we can believe in.

Willie Wolfert
Mountian City, Tenn.

EDITOR'S NOTE: High Country Press does not verify the information in the letters to the editor submitted to the newspaper and does not endorse the positions expressed in the letters. The opinions and assertions are those of the writers alone.

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