To the Editor:

Recently three Haywood County citizens long involved in issues of public concern met with Congressman Chuck Edwards at his office in Hendersonville. Issues focused on were SNAP, medical insurance, research cuts and the federal match for Medicaid payments to hospitals and nursing homes.

As the federal shutdown drags on, Republicans accuse Democrats of prolonging it for political reasons, pointing to stalled votes that could reopen the government and fully restore programs like SNAP. But Democrats say what they’re holding out for isn’t politics — it’s protection. Specifically, protection for millions of Americans who rely on Affordable Care Act subsidies that will soon expire. 

To the Editor:

As my grandmother used to say, the MAGA party “doesn’t have the sense it was born with.”  

The MAGA presidential candidate — a multiple-times-bankrupted felon convicted of sexual assault against one woman and of covering up his illicit liaison with another to protect his reputation — has nothing to offer against his opponent, the current vice president and former California attorney general and senator from the state with the fifth largest economy in the world (see Japan, California, India).  

Democracy means that we voters get to decide with elections which candidates are empowered to serve in our local, state and federal governments. Those elected officials are supposed to serve us, not their own personal selfish quests for wealth and power. We want our political leaders to listen to our wishes and provide us with essential government services. 

To the Editor:

I was in my 20s in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Legislative and legal decisions this year brought back memories from those days, and not pleasant ones.

June 24 marked the two-year anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade. Since then, 21 of 50 states have enacted some variation of abortion restrictions, whether that be an outright ban or a time limit for when the procedure can be performed.