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Registration is now open for the Assault on Black Rock, a seven-mile trail race in Jackson County that takes runners and hikers on an ascent and descent of one of Western North Carolina’s most picturesque mountain summits.
Haywood Waterways Association is calling on lovers of clean water, those immune to the cold or anyone out there crazy enough to jump on Polar Plunge bandwagon.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will receive 25 to 50 white-tailed deer every year for the next three years from Morrow Mountain State Park.
To the Editor:
When Hillary Clinton proposed a government-run, single-payer system to solve our health care crisis, Republicans responded by proposing a private insurance system based on an individual mandate. Then-Gov. Mitt Romney then adopted this insurance proposal for Massachusetts with great success. It was the conservative approach based on the free market and designed to save taxpayers from out-of-control healthcare costs. That plan was the basis for the Affordable Care Act, now known as Obamacare.
Conservatives hate big government almost as much as they dislike big government deficits. Their plan attacked both problems. Private insurance companies ran the system and made a profit. Out-of-control healthcare costs were curbed.
Money is the key. The United States pays almost twice as much for health care than any other industrialized country, and yet we have much poorer health outcomes and fewer people covered. Our current system was broken, and would have soon bankrupted the country.
The Affordable Care Act is not something progressive Democrats wanted. What they wanted was a government-run single-payer plan. What we got was a private, for-profit insurance plan that everybody has to join because of the individual mandate. As the very conservative Heritage Foundation said, the key is personal responsibility. Everybody has to pull their own weight, no free rides.
What you don’t hear through the media noise surrounding the now-repaired website is the fact that the ACA is already helping to reduce health care cost inflation to a 50-year low. That fact alone will reduce our long-term deficit more than short-term cuts in spending.
Congress spent over a year crafting this law. It is complex because it is full of compromises to satisfy all the stakeholders. It is clear Republicans are doing everything possible to make it fail even though it was their idea.
Whether this law is good for you may depend on who is your governor. Democratic-led states created their own websites, expanded Medicaid and in general promoted competition between insurance carriers. In those states there has been much success.
In Republican states like North Carolina, the insurance rates have been higher because of the state’s failure to encourage competition. The state’s failure to expand Medicaid to more than 500,000 uninsured has caused a financial crisis for many hospitals. One in four uninsured Macon County residents will continue to use the emergency room for basic care, at great cost to all of us.
As Mitt Romney said of the individual mandate in 2006, the plan must include “... the personal responsibility principal, that is essential to bring health care cost down for everyone and getting everyone the health insurance they deserve and need.”
Louis Vitale
Franklin
David C. Friedman • Guest Columnist
Doug Wingeier’s op-ed published in The Smoky Mountain News on Dec. 25, 2013, titled, “Christmas ‘peace’ in the land of the Holy One,” (www.smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/12259) is an impressionistic and factually distorted presentation of classic anti-Israel bias bordering on a rejection of the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Doug Wingeier • Columnist
My oh my! Looks like the long arm of Israeli surveillance has reached out to us way down here in the mountains of Western North Carolina (see column to the left). I hadn’t thought the experience of a peace-loving octogenarian professor worthy of such attention. But I do appreciate the opportunity to respond.
SEE: Columnist’s anti-Israel tirade distorts truth
What I wrote in that Dec. 25 column was mainly an account of what I personally have seen and experienced in the “land of the Holy One” — not an exercise in ideology or biblical interpretation. In addition to what I mentioned, I have personally experienced the following:
Jake Flannick • SMN Correspondent
He campaigned on the promise of making Franklin fertile ground for new ideas and encouraging more openness and transparency in government.
There’s an open call for actors to audition for “To Kill A Mockingbird” Feb. 2-3 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville. Professional actors are asked to be there at 6 p.m., with community theater actors at 7 p.m.
This year HART is trying something new. The theater is giving actors a chance to audition for principal roles for the entire season at one time. The idea is to give actors interested in being considered for leading roles an early shot at casting and give directors more time to assemble a cast. This is the only scheduled audition for “To Kill A Mockingbird,” the first show on the season, which will cast all roles. Anyone interested in being a part of that show in any role should attend one of the two nights or contact the director Wanda Taylor to make special arrangements for another time.
HART’s 2014 season includes “To Kill A Mockingbird,” opening April 25; “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do,” opening May 23, with auditions March 23-24; “Grand Night For Singing,” opening June 20, with auditions April 27-28; “Hello Dolly,” opening July 11, with auditions May 4-5; “The Odd Couple,” opening Aug. 22, with auditions June 29-30; “Urinetown,” opening Sept. 26, with auditions July 27-28; “Macbeth,” opening Oct. 24, with auditions Aug. 17-18; “A Christmas Carol,” opening Dec. 11, with auditions Nov. 2-3.
Apollo Winds, a professional chamber music group, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21, in the recital hall of the Coulter Building in Cullowhee.
The concert features Francis Poulenc’s “Sextet,” a three-movement work with an extensive part for the piano, to be played by Bradley Martin, WCU associate professor of music. Also on the program are “Three Shanties” by Malcolm Arnold, “Dublin Bay” by Percy Granger and “Klezmer Music for Woodwind Quintet” by Donald Draganski.
Apollo Winds is a group of musicians who teach at colleges and universities in Western North Carolina and are members of several orchestras in the region.
Free.
828.227.7242.
Smoky Mountain Sk8way & FUN ZONE will host a ribbon cutting ceremony and customer appreciation skate on Wednesday, Jan. 15, in Waynesville. The ribbon cutting will be from 4 to 6 p.m. followed by a customer appreciation night from 6 to 9 p.m.
The rink has expanded and improved, adding a new FUN ZONE, with inflatable obstacle course, climbing wall and slides, and a new wood skate floor. Also, the snack bar has been remodeled and its menu expanded. The rink also added another 100 pairs of brand new rental skates so they can accommodate larger groups.
Admission is free for this fun-filled night of roller-skating. Skate rentals cost $2; FUN ZONE is $2, with all-night specials on pizza and drinks.
828.246.9124 or www.smokymountainsk8way.com.
Play Shop, a free event in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. National Day of Service and Celebration, will be held from 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 19, at the Swain County Regional Business Education and Training Center, 45 E. Ridge Drive, Bryson City.
This year marks the beginning of Western Carolina University’s 125th year of existence, and university faculty, staff and students are planning a yearlong celebration to mark the milestone.
Appalachian fiddle and banjo duo The Stuart Brothers will perform at 7:45 p.m. Jan. 16 at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville.
An exhibit of work by Edward J. Bisese titled “Good Thoughts Better” will open with an artist talk and reception at 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 16, in the Fine Art Museum at Western Carolina University.
Hiker Danny Bernstein of Asheville, author of The Mountains-to-Sea-Trail Across North Carolina, won third place in the “People on the Trail” category of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail photo competition for this shot of her hiking partner, Sharon McCarthy, while hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
One of the region’s premier garden and landscape designers will give a talk at 2 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 16, at Lake Junaluska as part of the monthly “Live and Learn” series.
By Colby Dunn • SMN correspondent
Perched atop the crest of a mountain, with two slim pieces of fiberglass strapped to your feet, that last big push to send you careening down the slope is a leap of faith — with nothing but your own skills, a couple aluminum poles and perhaps the assistance of The Almighty to guide you.
Maybe that’s why the ubiquitous youth group ski trip has long been a staple of churches across the country. Perhaps it’s just because teenage bravado and youthful agility are particularly well-suited to chucking yourself down a mountain at high speeds in unusual contortions.
To the Editor:
I love this time of year. Cold, crisp days remind me of the days I spent with my dad and our beagles chasing rabbits. Now it means it’s time to share a blind with a wet retriever or float a river when no one else is on it to see if any wood ducks are still here or if mallards have come down from up north.
Now my 40-year-old son hunts and fishes with me. I love the time I get to spend with my son afield. We hunt and fish on the public lands and public waters that we are blessed to own with other Americans.
Unfortunately these resources and all wildlife habitats are under attack. In recent years our duck hunting has suffered because ducks are just not coming down from the north like they use too. We are finding trout streams that are warming to a point that cold water fish can’t survive. We have witnessed damage from saltwater incursion in national wildlife refuges that kills fresh water marshes as sea levels rise.
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) just completed four reports on the impact of a warming world on wildlife habitats:
• Swimming Upstream: Freshwater Fish in a Warming World.
• Shifting Skies: Migratory Birds in a Warming World.
• Nowhere to Run: Big Game in a Warming World.
• Wildlife in a Warming World.
You can find all four reports at the on the NWF website at www.nwf.org/sportsmen-/climate-change.aspx
Whether you are a hunter, fisherman, birder, or simply enjoy kicking around outdoors, I believe you will find these reports compelling.
G. Richard Mode
Morganton
To the Editor:
While I recognize that The Smoky Mountain News’ annual year in review awards are meant to be tongue-in-cheek, the “Longwinded Award,” which reflects on the proposed annexation of Lake Junaluska by the town of Waynesville, misses the mark and, in my belief, misleads readers into the key issue on why the proposal which was presented to the N.C. General Assembly failed to pass.
Lake Junaluska went out of its way to ensure a full and transparent discussion of the issue of annexation. Yes, everyone was given multiple chances to have a voice in the discussion, and all were provided on-line access to minutes of the formal discussions. Those results were also fully reported on in the local print news media.
To even “tongue-in-cheek” call it longwinded does not fairly represent the process, the persons who were involved, or the question of whether or not a consensus was reached. In fact, the comprehensive survey done of all the homeowners resulted in a clear preference for annexation by a 2 to 1 margin.
When a select few of the opposition to annexation — people who had more than ample opportunity (and did) voice their concerns during the public discussions — lost their argument when viewed in the results of the survey, they went to the legislature and found what certainly appeared to be an ideologically driven General Assembly House of Representative to take up and effectively stop even a vote on annexation in the House (after a fully supportive vote to approve annexation had passed in the Senate).
This now leaves Lake Junaluska homeowners with higher out-of-pocket infrastructure costs (with even higher costs potentially coming, as the SMN noted in the closing words of the “Longwinded Award” article).
For Lake Junaluska to be fiscally sustainable and to be able to meet current and future needs, the annexation was, and remains, a critical issue.
I would urge all those persons who see the need for change to speak out and support the bill for annexation in the upcoming short session of the General Assembly.
It is truly not a laughing matter but a very serious one with lasting economic consequences hanging in the balance.
James Ryer
Lake Junaluska Homeowner
In numerous newspapers in late November 2013, it was reported that six U.S. Forest Service (USFS) employees from Western North Carolina were awarded “Law Enforcement and Investigations Awards” by the USFS for their roles in “Operation Something Bruin,” a four-year, multi-agency investigation targeting bear poachers in Western North Carolina and surrounding states, resulting in arrests in February 2013.
It had also been reported earlier that the National Wildlife Federation bestowed "prestigious conservation honors" on Sgt. Chad Arnold, an officer from Charlotte with the Special Investigations Unit of the N.C. Wildlife Commission. Arnold was named "Wildlife Enforcement Officer of the Year", and the Commission was named the "Natural Resources Agency of the Year," according to a press release from the N.C. Wildlife Commission.
By Melanie Threlkeld McConnell • Correspondent
For most of Yvonne Wadham’s 64 years, horses were her life, on a big scale, a 22-acre California ranch kind of scale, where she raised and showed horses, brokered high-priced horses, and taught children how to ride — lots and lots of children.
By Colby Dunn • Correspondent
Since Harrah’s Cherokee Casino opened and started bringing an influx of steady cash to the Eastern Band of Cherokee, it’s been a boost to both the tribe and its more than 13,000 members. Annually, individual members benefit to the tune of several thousand dollars a year, and the Cherokee Enterprise Development Center is hoping they’ll turn that money into much more with their own small businesses.
Southwestern Community College leaders unveiled a master plan last month outlining a major expansion of its campus in Macon County.
The campus would double in size from 20 to 40 acres. The master plan has several phases, but the first phase calls for a 38,000-square-foot science building with 15 classrooms and a lab. The first phase also calls for a new law enforcement training center and indoor firing range.
“Smokey Joe’s Café,” a song and dance revue of hit tunes from the rock ’n’ roll era before the Beatles, will hit the stage as part of the Galaxy of the Stars series at 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University.
The touring exhibit “Understanding our Past, Shaping our Future,” will be on view through Feb. 9 at the Jackson County Library in Sylva. The exhibit focuses on Cherokee language and culture, using sound recordings as the basis for presenting a coherent story in words and text
The new Earl Scruggs Center, honoring one of the nation’s premier banjo artists, will celebrate its grand opening at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 11, in the Cleveland County Court Square in Shelby.
Haywood County will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a pride march and a weekend full of services, including the 24th annual MLK prayer breakfast at Lake Junaluska.
• A pride march will be at 11 a.m. Jan. 18 in Waynesville. It will begin at the Haywood County Justice Center in downtown and end at the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center, where there will be a time to share historical reflections, and refreshments will be served.
• A commemorative service will be at 3 p.m. Jan. 19 at Long’s Chapel United Methodist Church near Lake Junaluska. Speaker will be Rev. Reginald Eldridge, pastor of Harris Chapel AME Zion Church in Canton.
• A prayer breakfast will take place at 8 a.m. Jan. 20 at the Lambuth Inn at Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center. The speaker will be Dr. Dudley E. Flood, a retired school sdministrator from Raleigh, with live music by Chuck Beatie (aka Dr. Blues). Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for students and children. Children ages 8 and under are admitted free.
828.215.0296 or 828.246.2588 or 828.648.3363 or 828.648.5471.
Western Carolina University has several speakers and programs as part of its annual Martin Luther King celebration, which is themed “Beloved Community: Peace and Unity,” running from Jan. 20 to Jan. 25.
By Colby Dunn • Correspondent
If someone asked you to describe the world of competitive, non-electronic gaming, your first thought might be poker, perhaps followed closely by chess. Dungeons and Dragons might get a mention in there somewhere, but cribbage probably wouldn’t be the first thing that popped into your mind.
But this centuries-old game — which dates back to the 17th-century English balladeer Sir John Suckling — is still enjoyed by thousands around the country and the world, including Western North Carolina’s Reservation Peggers, or Res Peggers for short. With the distinction of being the only cribbage club on an Indian reservation, they are a group of anywhere from just a handful of committed players to 14, 15 or more who get together weekly to battle it out in this fast-paced card game.
Waynesville cattleman Tony McGaha was honored recently by the WNC Beef Cattle Commission with the Happy Hollow Award for his efforts to promote and support the beef cattle industry.
The winner is selected by past recipients based on the person’s involvement with the WNC Beef Cattle Commission activities over the years.
“We are pleased to be presenting this award to Tony McGaha in appreciation for his dedication to the beef industry. Over the past 30 years, Tony has worked diligently to improve the agriculture for the future and farm families not only in Haywood County but many other parts of N.C.,” said Neal Stamey, a cattleman from Haywood who nominated McGaha.
About 200,000 gallons of untreated wastewater spilled from a manhole and made its way into a small tributary that feeds Richland Creek outside Waynesville last week.
The sewer overflow began during a period of intense rainfall at about 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 22, and lasted about 28 hours, ending when the rain and stream flows subsided. The overflow emanated from a sewer manhole at the county fairgrounds off N.C. 209.
The affected areas were cleaned and limed, according to a notice sent out by the town as required by state statute in the event of untreated sewer spills.
The rainfall total for the period was 4.3 inches. Waynesville Public Works Director Fred Baker said maintenance activities and sewer system rehabilitation are being performed to identify and correct infiltration and inflow sources connected to the sewer system to prevent overflows in the event of future heavy rains.
828.456.4410.
A $30,000 grant to repair failing septic systems in Haywood County will help reduce bacteria contamination in local waterways.
A landslide in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was recently discovered along Newfound Gap Road, but is not blocking the road and is not considered a safety threat.
Survey your supermarket and you’ll see pretty much the same stuff anywhere in the country: oranges from Florida, onions from Georgia, potatoes from Idaho.
Some variety has crept in recently — with artful displays of mountain-grown produce paying homage to the local food movement — but generally the corn we eat in North Carolina is the same corn they’re eating in Iowa and Utah.
To the Editor:
This move by the state to “reward” 25 percent of the state’s teachers (and I’m not even focusing here on all of the far-from-minimal strings attached to those “rewards”) while at the same time dismissing 75 percent of the state’s teachers as unworthy of even a scintilla of recognition is probably the single most underhanded and potentially devastating action ever designed and implemented by anyone in this state who claims the title of elected representative. Make no mistake, this is a finely choreographed divide and conquer strategy intended to strike at the heart of education — the teachers, the administrators, the support personnel, the parents — by creating a system of “incentives” that will literally force the stakeholders to take sides, so to speak, and disregard and dismiss past efforts at teamwork, collaboration, and consensus.
I firmly believe that it is the unstated but very genuine goal of some of our so-called “education reformers” in Raleigh to dismantle our constitutionally mandated public education system and replace it with a taxpayer subsidized, privatized mishmash of unstandardized and unaccountable educational services that will absolutely ensure ongoing inequity and inequality of opportunity for North Carolina’s youth (but that will, at the same time, provide a wonderful investment opportunity for corporate educational profiteers who will gladly offer their services to our “failing” school systems).
This is a formula for educational disaster ... but such a great opportunity for the profiteers. Those who dreamed up this scheme knew that, though, and they still know it. The public now needs to do its part and call them out on what they are trying to do.
Our “representatives” need to be shamed for supporting such a willfully divisive and potentially harmful scheme — a scheme, by the way, that is nothing less than a slap in the face to professional educators in this state (i.e., “75 percent of you are unworthy”) — and then disingenuously boasting that this is part of their effort to “reform” and “strengthen” education in North Carolina. I urge everyone to contact your legislators and let them know what you think of this “reform effort.”
John Sanderson
retired principal, Waynesville
2013 is behind us now, and all the news reported over the last 12 months is headed for the history books or perhaps a less-lofty final resting place. But lest we all forget, here’s our annual tongue-in-cheek awards, a tribute to those who played some small part in the events that held our interest for at least a few moments during the past year.
Painter and paper maker Elizabeth Ellison will demonstrate the use of collage in a landscape painting at the Art League of the Smokies meeting at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 9, at the Swain County Center for the Arts in Bryson City.
Folkmoot USA had a $9.2 million impact on Western North Carolina in 2013, according to an economic impact study conducted by Tom Tveidt of SYNEVA Economics.
Dulcimer fans and aficionados will gather for the annual Mountain Dulcimer Weekend held Jan. 9 through 12 at Lake Junaluska, put on by Western Carolina University’s continuing education program.
The conference will offer more than 50 hours of instruction on the mountain dulcimer, hammered dulcimer, guitar and autoharp. Participants may take classes that focus on multiple instruments and a variety of topics will be presented, including music theory, tab reading/writing skills, improvisation and advanced dulcimer ensemble skills.
Winter Weekend instructors will include Tennessee natives Larry and Elaine Conger, Butch Ross, Sarah Morgan and Jim Miller, along with North Carolinians Steve and Ruth Smith and Anne Lough. Evening activities will include staff performances and a music-sharing session. Miller will lead jam sessions throughout the conference.
Registration for the conference is $159 and does not include meals or accommodations.
www.dulcimeru.wcu.edu or 828.227.7397.
Balsam Range’s annual “Winter Concert Series” will continue with John Driskell Hopkins at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 4, at the historic Colonial Theatre in Canton. Hopkins is a multi-award winner and founding member of the Zac Brown Band.
Christmas is a time to recycle many things: bows, wrapping paper, gifts . . . and cooking oil.
The Haywood County Solid Waste Department accepts used cooking oil at all 10 convenience centers around the county and at the Materials Recovery Facility in Clyde. Used cooking oil is collected and sold to Blue Ridge Biofuels, which produces and distributes biodiesel fuel.
In fiscal year 2012-2013, Haywood County collected 1,068 gallons of used cooking oil, up from 900 gallons during the previous fiscal year.
Solid Waste Director Stephen King said that recycling cooking oil helps extend the life of sewer systems and landfills. To recycle used cooking oil, pour it into a clean plastic container with a lid, such as an empty cooking oil bottle or milk jug. King said the best containers to use are ones with a handle and a tight-fitting lid, such as a clean, empty cat litter bucket.
The cooking oil container should be kept separate from other recyclables and handed to an attendant at the convenience centers. For optimal use in converting to diesel fuel, King recommends that citizens bring in their used cooking oil frequently instead of letting it collect for a long time.
“For health and safety reasons, it’s better to bring in used cooking oil about once a month,” King said.
828.627.8042 or www.haywoodnc.net.
A new taekwondo school had opened in Clyde offering classes for preschoolers through adults.
Kids can hitch a ride to and from Cataloochee Ski Area after school with the Waynesville Recreation Center.
Western Carolina University’s new Health and Human Sciences Building has received gold LEED-certification for its comprehensive energy-efficient and environmentally friendly features.
Jacob Flannick • SMN Correspondent
Jonathan and Abby Landry don’t limit the spirit of giving to the holiday season. For this couple, giving is a way of life. And their gift of choice is eggs.
They share them with friends, neighbors and colleagues, rarely leaving home without a few eggs on the back seat to bestow on whoever they might run into that day. Their philanthropy in the egg department doesn’t go unnoticed.
To the Editor:
I love this time of year. Cold, crisp days remind me of the days I spent with my dad and our beagles chasing rabbits. Now it means it’s time to share a blind with a wet retriever or float a river when no one else is on it to see if any wood ducks are still here or if mallards have come down from up north. Now my 40-year-old son hunts and fishes with me. I love the time I get to spend with my son afield. We hunt and fish on the public lands and public waters that we are blessed to own with other Americans.
Unfortunately these resources and all wildlife habitats are under attack. In recent years our duck hunting has suffered because ducks are just not coming down from the north like they use too. We are finding trout streams that are warming to a point that cold water fish can’t survive. We have witnessed damage from salt water incursion in national wildlife refuges that kills fresh water marshes as sea levels rise.
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) just completed four reports on the impact of a warming world on wildlife habitats:
• “Swimming Upstream: Freshwater Fish in a Warming World.”
• “Shifting Skies: Migratory Birds in a Warming World.”
• “Nowhere to Run: Big Game in a Warming World.”
• “Wildlife in a Warming World.”
You can find all four reports at the on the NWF web site at: www.nwf.org/Sportsmen-/Climate-Change.aspx
Whether you are a hunter, fisherman, birder, or simply enjoy kicking around outdoors, I believe you will find these reports compelling.
G. Richard Mode
Morganton
To the Editor:
No doubt 2013 was a much better year for Western North Carolina than was the previous year.
The unemployment rate has dropped down to 7.4 percent in November from 8.9 percent when the year started. Every county in North Carolina had lower unemployment rates. Financially the state is slowly recovering from where it was.
Every major group in the state — from colleges to the DOT to the public and private schools — all need more money to operate. Jobs are the key to adding revenue to the state, and Gov. Pat McCrory is doing his best to make that happen. Nationally, North Carolina’s unemployment rate has dropped us down to number 35 from Number 49 just 11 months ago.
With New Year approaching, I would like to suggest a New Year’s resolution to everyone for the coming year. Buying products that are made in the USA or at least in North America would be a big help. Working people in the USA are the people who spend their money here. Buying stuff made in China or other Asian countries does not do a lot for our economy or North Carolina.
I saw where the chicken from China is coming to the USA. I think we all can get along fine without buying chicken from China for a lot of reasons. Supporting local businesses is a great way to help improve the economy in our state. People who work here spend their money here.
Too many of our people have been out of work for more than a year. Supporting our local businesses will do more to help the poor and unemployed people than anything else. Income inequality will never be solved with welfare checks and foods stamp cards. I hope we can agree that jobs are the best way to overcome income inequality.
Let us make 2014 the year we get our unemployment rate down to 6 percent or below.
Jim Mueller
Glenville
To the Editor:
After the Clinton administrations’ efforts to get a universal health care bill passed back in the 90s, guess what group was next to propose sweeping health care legislation? No, not the Obama administration. It was the Heritage Foundation, the arch-conservative think tank in Washington. In those days, the Heritage Foundation believed that health care for everyone was important, and authored the bill in Massachusetts for then-governor Mitt Romney. When Romney signed it into law in 2006, members of the Heritage Foundation were right there for the signing, alongside liberal Sen. Ted Kennedy.
That Massachusetts law eventually became the model for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that has been the subject of national debate for the better part of Obama’s term of office.
Here’s the first twist in the story: It has been the Heritage Foundation that has turned on their own concept and led the fight against the ACA. They have made the wildest claims imaginable about it … that there will be “death panels” to advise people on Medicare how to end their lives … that the ACA will cut Medicare benefits, causing elderly people to die … that there is a secret White House security force that are being taught to use syringes as weapons. Whew.
Unfortunately, the rollout of ACA was an act of falling down stairs, and did a lot to make the ACA look more like an Edsel than a Jeep. But poor business management of the rollout doesn’t make the concept of everyone in the country having affordable health care a bad idea. With it, doctors are more accessible to everyone, regardless of income. Low-income people no longer have to get health care from emergency rooms, care for which they can’t pay. All at once, the how-am-I-going-to-pay-for-medical-care panic is lifted.
Opponents say it won’t work, but it already is working in our biggest state. That’s the second twist in the story. Jerry Brown, the then-and-once-again governor of California, has latched onto the ACA concept and is using Medi-Cal (the state’s Medicaid program) to enroll low-income Californians. Through this venue, more than 107,000 Californians are already enrolled in the program through November alone — 23 percent of the total U.S. sign-ups.
So, what does this do for us in North Carolina? What help has Gov. Pat McCrory offered Tar Heels to get signed up? Nothing. He wants nothing to do with the Affordable Care Act and has taken the state out of participation in it. So Tar Heels are left to sort their way through the federal website to get this health coverage. So far, only 9,000 had done it through November, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.
There were those who used to think of Jerry Brown as a quirky sort of guy. One writer even nicknamed him “Governor Moonbeam.” But Jerry Brown has chosen to be a help to the people of his state. By contrast, Pat McCrory has chosen to be an obstructionist for the people of North Carolina.
Rick Bryson
Bryson City
To the Editor:
I do not understand why so many Republican congressmen support voter I.D. laws when it has been proven over and over that voter fraud is extremely negligible and does not warrant the cost to implement and make voting more difficult. But then on the other hand they strongly oppose requiring background checks on all gun purchases. Too many gun purchases are made by people that would never have passed a background check and so many innocent people are being murdered daily.
Oh by the way, my Republican friends have been telling me repeatedly that Medicare B premiums would go up well over $200 monthly starting in 2014. Well, I just read monthly premiums will not go up in 2014 but will remain the same as 2013 at $104.
Up until five years ago I was a staunch Republican, but have since changed my affiliation to Independent. I now read the issues, impacts, ignore the scare tactics and vote for who I think will be best for the 95 percent.
Ron Rokstool
Maggie Valley
Doug Wingeier • Columnist
Some years back I spent the Christmas season in the Land of the Holy One. (It is not the land that is holy, but the One who was born, lived, died, and rose there.) This was one of my several sojourns in Israel/Palestine over the years. My strongest impression at that time (and conditions have only gotten worse since) was of the oppression my Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters — along with their Muslim neighbors — were enduring under the Israeli occupation. I was struck with how similar this was to the Roman oppression of local inhabitants in the time of Jesus.
