Public schools at risk
The first 10 words in Tom Campbell’s opinion piece “GOP lawmakers are destroying public schools” (June 6) has, in my opinion, always been true. He states that if the present North Carolina legislature has its way, education of our youth will change and cause a huge detriment to the sound education system that I, as a longtime N.C. public school teacher, experienced in the classroom.
Mr. Campbell affirms in his writing that if the legislative body stays the course it is on, "students will leave traditional schools and fewer and fewer dollars will be available to support them. In time, traditional schools will end up with lower-performing and higher-needs students," resulting in "lower test scores and student performance." This will lead to a request for more instructional support with less funding to maintain what’s needed.
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Thank you, Mr. Campbell, for telling it like it is! As a citizen and now a retired educator, I urge the legislature to put public schools first with the money to make students the best they can be and to create respectable salaries for all school personnel.
Bet Wilson
Winston-Salem
The end is near
As the immortal Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over till it's over." Well, it may not quite be over, but the Fat Lady is singing her scales.
The die is cast, the fix is in and the con is on. Redford and Newman in "The Sting" would be jealous. Through sleight of hand, patently unfair election rules, shameless gerrymandering, by hook or by crook or just plain old pay for play, Republicans at all levels have rigged the game to ensure that they will elect or, in the case of the U.S. Supreme Court, appoint people who are not at all reflective of the ethics, morals and values of the very people they are supposed to be representing.
The net result of this sham is that the laws, interpretations of those laws and the policies enacted by these bodies will be 100% contrary to the will of the vast majority of the citizens of the United States and the state of North Carolina. This is the precise opposite of the "representive government" that our founders sought back in our country's infancy. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and James Madison are turning over in their graves.
Never has there been a political party whose "relentless freedom from doubt" about its "rightness" (see Chief Justice John Roberts' comment regarding the Dobbs case) been so out of touch with the will of the people. Unfortunately, this is absolute proof that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We’re getting closer, Yogi!
David Thompson
Greensboro
We're being tested
An echo from the past renewed and delivered to us in the present:
"Twelve score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
"Now we are engaged in a great political war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that now highly resolve that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of union, that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."
Ben Andrews
Greensboro
Black patriots
Ivan Saul Cutler wrote an excellent opinion piece; "This Memorial Day, remember the Black patriots of the Revolution" (May 26). He urged readers to consider a revolutionary act on this Memorial Day and "honor the nearly three dozen African American and other patriots of color who fought for American freedom right here at the pivotal Battle of Guilford Courthouse."
So here is my revolutionary tribute. I am offering honor, respect, love and gratitude for their service to Adam Adams, Willis Boone, Cyfax Brown, Isaac Brown, Jim Capers, Thomas Carney, Edward Coleman, Francis Coley, William Cuff, John Epps, Andrew Ferguson, Simon Fralix, George (unknown last name), Thomas Gibson, Edward Going, Ned Griffin, Lazarus Harmon, Henry the Wagoner, Micajah Hicks, Henry Hill, Agrippa Hull, Zachariah Jacobs, Moses Knight, Thomas Mason, Andrew Peebles, Richard Pendergrass, Primus Record, Dempsey Reed, Daniel Strother, Drury Taborn, Ishmael Titus, John Toney and David Wilson.
These Black patriots deserve the community's remembrance and appreciation.
Joanna Winston Foley
Berkeley, Calif.
The writer's ancestor, Maj. Joseph Winston, is honored with a statue in Guilford Courthouse National Military Park.