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Hensley is right choice for Sylva board
To the Editor:
The voters of Sylva have spoken, and I appreciate all of those who helped to elect me to the new board. I will do my best to be a voice for all of the people. There are only two things that matter to me – my health and the town of Sylva.
I would like to try and unify this board for the benefit of the people. I am willing to do what I have to in order to accomplish this, as long as it doesn’t hinder the citizens.
Once we get into office I would like to see this board take several factors into consideration: the economy, excessive spending, lack of sales revenue coming in, and cuts from state and federal budgets and loss of businesses. I do regret the loss of businesses in Sylva. I think the town could have a voice to try to help those in trouble. Maybe then we wouldn’t lose a long-time business like Scott-Rodes car dealership. Allison’s Chevrolet could also lose their franchise, and the town should be helping them as well.
There has been a lack of effort in securing any of the stimulus money that was available for such things like sidewalks, street repairs and other projects. Asheville and Waynesville got some of that money. Instead of getting that money and putting it to use, we have to rely on citizens like Wayne Smith to take care of things like hazard abatement. I commend his efforts because he saved the town a lot of money, purchasing the properties and cleaning them up. While the benefits to the town are definitely appreciated, we should not have to rely on our citizens to do these jobs for us. We should be taking on projects throughout the town – not just on Main Street.
An area publication claims that some of the board members are more “progressive” than others. I want everyone to know that, while I am somewhat conservative with the taxpayers’ money, I’m all for progress. With the economy in the state it is, with several cutbacks and such, I want to take a hard look at the town’s spending and see what we can cut back on. It’s going to be hard to balance the budget next year without raising taxes or cutting services. I am not for a tax hike.
Finally, I hope Maurice Moody breaks away from the old form of leadership of the past mayor and develops his own agenda. He says he wants to unify this board. If that’s the case, then I challenge him and the rest of the board to do the right and fair thing and choose Harold Hensley to fill the upcoming vacancy. That would be a step towards the board’s unification and, based on the number of votes he received in the election, the right thing to do.
Danny Allen
Sylva
(Editor’s Note: Allen served on Sylva’s town board from 2001-2007 and tied for one of two available seats in the recent municipal election.)
Dump Shuler
To the Editor:
Congressman Heath Shuler had a chance to help all Americans who don’t have or can’t afford health insurance; he chose not to. I choose never to vote for Congressman Shuler ever again.
Jim Cunningham
Dillsboro
Harold Hensley should be appointed
To the Editor:
It was refreshing to read your editorial comments in the Nov. 12 Sylva Herald.
I heartily agree that with only a few votes separating all three candidates that the voters have shown their preferences for the three people to represent what will soon be the vacant seats, two having been elected and one to be appointed for the town board.
I have known Harold Hensley for a lot of years and observed a man of character and faith, as I worship with him on a weekly basis. He is faithful to his church and has also shown a great depth of credibility in the decisions affecting the people of Sylva. He is strong in his beliefs and stands firm for what he feels is right for all concerned.
Let’s hope those with decision-making powers will recognize and consider his past record and appoint him the privilege of serving again.
Arnold Price
Dillsboro
Clarification on transportation plan news story
To the Editor:
I appreciate the coverage in the Nov. 5 issue of the public input hearing held by the Jackson County commissioners on Nov. 2.
This is an important issue and one that needs reporting. In the article about the hearing, I am quoted as saying: “I agree with all the folks that have spoken in favor of removing the connector from the CTP. I like to call it the ‘John Bardo Expressway.’ Our leaders need to consider the extent this will impact the welfare of our citizens.”
While I did say the first part of this quote, including naming the proposed road as the “John Bardo Expressway,” which I am now updating to be the John Bardo/Bear Lake Reserve Expressway to reflect what I believe to be the economic impetus for this road proposal, the final statement attributed to me is not an accurate account of what I said, nor is it even a condensation of my statement that sums up the “gist” of my message.
In order to rectify this mistake, and to further the dialog on the road project, I am responding in the hopes that my letter will clarify things.
What I addressed to the commissioners at the hearing concerned the necessity of building this road based on the idea of continued vehicular traffic growth, without looking at and thinking about the impacts of global climate change and peak oil.
Peak oil is the term for the point where most of the world’s supply of petroleum has been extracted, and most of what is left becomes more and more difficult to get out, with declining rates of return of what can be extracted. This is projected to cause the price and cost of fossil fuels to increase exponentially. We need to remember that there is only so much petroleum in the ground in the first place, and the rate at which we use it is out of control. We are living “high on the hog” at the expense of future generations, as if we are spending their inheritance for our so-called life of luxury.
There is an assumption that we can project growth based upon how things have grown in the past, and based upon how we have grown in the past we can assume that we will grow exponentially more in the future. I believe that without accounting for the effects of global climate change and peak oil, we cannot accurately predict future growth, especially of fossil fuel dependent and intensive vehicular transportation.
When looking at peak oil effects, we need to understand that oil extraction will not just shut off like a faucet when we run out, but rather the amounts of available oil will decrease, and its extraction will get more difficult. These, and other contributing factors, including market speculation, will cause the price of oil to go up, and its availability to go down. As oil, and therefore gasoline, gets more expensive, will we truly see an increase in vehicular traffic on our highways?
When the price of oil jumped to $170/barrel, and the price of gasoline rose to $4.50/gallon, we saw a decrease in traffic counts, as well as an increase in public transportation usage and car-pooling. An NCDOT official has stated to me that they can not include ideas of peak oil in their considerations. For that reason, their projections can only be based on incomplete data.
I asked that the Jackson County commissioners, who can include other factors besides traffic counts, reject the N.C. 107 connector and look for other options for relieving congestion.
Adam Bigelow
Sylva
House bill is step in wrong direction
To the Editor:
The Democratic controlled U.S. House of Representatives Nov. 7 passed its 2,000-page health care reform bill by a vote of 215-210, after using much political arm-twisting and promises of pork to undecided members who agreed to support it.
The sole Republican voting in favor, Joseph Cao of Louisiana, was promised money for his district and even then only voted for it after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had gathered enough Democratic votes to pass the bill.
This was a measure solely so that Pelosi and President Obama could call the bill “bipartisan.”
With such a huge bill, very few know much of what is in it, including the representatives who voted for it. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says it will increase taxes and the cost of health care for most Americans. It will increase taxes by about $750 billion and make cuts to Medicare by about $500 billion over 10 years, hurting seniors. New taxes and mandates for businesses will result in even more job losses when unemployment is already more than 10 percent.
The bill also includes a mandate for people to buy health insurance. Supposedly the poor will receive subsidies to pay for it, creating yet another taxpayer-funded subsidy; often for those who are just plain too lazy to work. Everyone else will be forced to buy insurance or face stiff fines or even imprisonment for refusing. The bill includes the so-called public option, a government-run, government-funded insurance plan against which private insurance companies must compete – by the government’s rules. This will ultimately cause many insurance companies to go out of business and force millions of people onto the government plan. I for one do not want to see our health care system go the way of Canada and the United Kingdom.
Obama demonized the insurance industry for their profits, yet the fact is that in the last year reported, the top 10 insurance companies combined made about $8 billion in profits; a return of less than 6 percent (far less than most other industries). During the same time, Medicare and Medicaid alone had $60 billion in waste and fraud and are now about $55 trillion in debt. A high school dropout in Miami bilked $103 million from Medicare all by himself – a figure that exceeded the profits of four of the top 10 health insurance companies. Does anyone actually think that the government can do a better job running health care than the private sector when the government-run plans already in existence are so grossly mismanaged?
Obama was asking for health care stories to use in support of his plan. Well, I have one in opposition to it. A good friend of mine in the UK was just diagnosed with prostate cancer. The doctors agreed that his best option for beating it was robotic surgery. Unfortunately, the National Healthcare System (British socialized medicine) will not provide it. The only options provided by NHS gave him a very bleak outlook and the doctors told him that by using NHS options he would probably have only 5-10 years to live, with serious side effects resulting in a diminished quality of life. He is only 54. There are much better treatment options available in America (at least for now).
Because of this, my friend is planning on coming to the United States to get his surgery and treatment at his own expense, as the quality and level of expertise of the providers here is far superior.
Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress obviously don’t care that under their proposed system such care would eventually no longer be available and our cancer survival rates will drop.
There are much better alternatives available that will provide coverage to most Americans and keep costs in line without eviscerating the best health care system in the world. The GOP actually has a very good alternative bill proposed which, unfortunately, most Democrats in Congress have refused to even consider.
Greg Walter
Tuckasegee
Board should appoint Hensley
To the Editor:
As a voting citizen, I agree wholeheartedly with The Sylva Herald’s and Marion Jones’ assessment that the people have spoken and Harold Hensley should fill the upcoming Sylva board vacancy. It is obvious that the people have spoken more strongly than just his votes show.
Harold did not send out huge, mass-mail political messages of “vote for me.” Not one. There were no “vote for me” signs all over Sylva. He ran on his record of service to the citizens of this town and his commitment to being a watchdog in the usage of our tax money. Without his published, pithy comments, few of us would have known what the right hand and the left hand were doing. Political platitudes just don’t get it.
His commitment to all citizens in the usage of our tax money was repeated in a telling phrase: “The town of Sylva does not begin at the old Courthouse and end at the Coffee Shop.” As a citizen outside of Main Street, I heard him loud and clear.
The Sylva board, in filling this vacant seat, will define whether they can hear the will of citizens who showed by their votes what the right thing to do is. This same board will define too their personal attitude toward the citizens of this town.
Marie Leatherwood
Sylva
On government
To the Editor:
Over the centuries, much has been written and said about “government,” and those involved in the act of governing.
The ongoing discussion about government has become a central theme in our daily lives and when times get tough – as they are now, the discussion can grow into a heated debate on what should be the role of government and how much government should we have in our lives.
There are those who believe that government needs to continue to do more and more for its citizens and to be much more involved in the control, management and oversight of the economy and businesses. And then, there are those who believe that government needs to severely restrain itself from its ongoing intrusions into the lives of its citizens and the free market system of capitalism. For me personally, my beliefs and concerns about government are best expressed by the following quotes:
Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.” President Ronald Reagan’s famous line was “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ ” Harry Browne, the former Libertarian Party presidential candidate, often said that “The government is great at breaking your leg, handing you a crutch, and saying ‘You see, without me you couldn’t walk.’ ” I never thought I would quote a Frenchman; however, Fredrick Bastiat, a political economist and member of the French assembly, was alluding to government and those who govern when he said “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it.”
Wow, this is getting deep, but let me give you a few other quotes to think about. George Washington said “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” Mark Twain was not being humorous but was carrying on the theme of government being a “servant” when he said “Government is merely a servant – merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.”
As the American people consider the future of America and what it has represented for more than 225 years, we need to seriously think about what we want, need and demand from government. And as we think about what we want, need and demand from government, we need to remember that power granted to government is power surrendered and once power is surrendered to government it is seldom, if ever, regained.
Speaking of power, I can’t help but think of a quote that has been attributed to both Thomas Jefferson and Gerald Ford. Regardless of who the author is, it is a strong warning to those who would willingly grant increasing and unnecessary power to government. Jefferson or Ford said something to the effect that “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”
I have no idea what kind of government you want, but I definitely do not want a government that big and powerful; therefore, in all future elections, I will vote accordingly and I sincerely hope that a majority of the American people will do the same.
Nelson Bumgarner
Sylva
WCU’s Stillwell Building
To the Editor:
Recently you published a picture of the newly constructed Stillwell Building on Western Carolina University’s campus. The picture of this new building brings back wonderful memories. However, my revived memories are not of time spent in that building, although I have spent many enjoyable hours in class there, first as a freshman mathematics major in 1956, then as a business administration major in the late 1960s.
The most vivid memories for me are of the actual construction of Stillwell. I was in the eighth grade at Cullowhee during 1951-52 when the beautiful rock wall was removed and the row of stately pine trees by the old football stadium was cleared to make way for Stillwell. The removal didn’t bother me much then, but I sure would like to see the rockwork and the pine trees now.
In 1951 I believe students from both Canada and Tuckasegee schools were brought to Cullowhee at the beginning of their eighth-grade year. Apparently, the Cullowhee School enrollment increased more than usual for the 1951-52 school year. The need for more space in McKee Building prompted the classrooms assigned to eighth-graders to be in the basement of Cullowhee Baptist Church. For the first time in all our years in school, our class had enough students for two classrooms, and there were new students in our midst. We had two new teachers who older siblings knew nothing about. Both were excellent teachers. We had wonderful, exciting, participatory learning experiences that I remember to this day ... thanks to Mrs. McConnell, the Baptist preacher’s wife, and Mr. Harrison.
But this is about the construction of Stillwell, which occurred primarily during that year. Stillwell stretches from Hunter Library to Hoey Auditorium, almost the entire distance from the Baptist church to McKee Building. So the construction zone for Stillwell was bordered by the walkway from the Baptist church to McKee. The mud, concrete mix, and general construction clutter were not confined to the interior of the perimeter of the new building but spilled over onto the sidewalk ... if there was a sidewalk. There my memory fades. In fact, I believe all the red mud on campus was located along the walking area between McKee and the Baptist church. I believe it was an unusually rainy winter that year also. Our lunch was still served at McKee, so we regularly walked between McKee and the Baptist church at least three or four times a day. The lunch which Irene Crawford prepared was well worth the walk. Special programs were not brought to the eighth-grade door. We also walked to McKee for music instruction and to Hoey Auditorium for assemblies.
Several times daily we traveled independently a fairly long distance across a college campus; we moved safely through a construction zone; we were confronted by many new people and learned we liked them, too; we formed impromptu singing groups and sang mountain ballads and church hymns on the playground; we set fire to our mock Southern plantation and tried to imagine the devastation of a civil war; and we were ever mindful that our new classroom was also a place of worship.
Most of all I survived my mother’s concern about the red mud stain on my shoes and socks. She could not tolerate a less-than-pristine wash on her clothes line each Monday. I often thought she wanted clothes going into the wash cleaner than they came out. Thank goodness for my little brother and the grass stain on the knees of his jeans.
The construction of Stillwell Building elicits good memories for me. I appreciated the reminder and all the time you spend selecting special memories for all of us who read The Sylva Herald.
Barbara (Shelton) Smith
Arden
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