To the Editor:

As a woman who is active in Indivisible and has protested the decisions of our government since the inauguration, I find myself waking each day thinking “What can I do? What should I do?” 

It had been a warm spring day that finally gave way to twilight of cobalt-grey, sharpening the flashing red and blue police lights slashing through dusk restless and unyielding. Demonstrators waving signs and banging rhythmically on locked glass doors, their chants pulsed through the cool evening air. 

“Save our democracy.” 

On a holiday meant to honor the nation’s presidents — past and present — demonstrators in Jackson and Haywood counties joined others who gathered in cities across the country to protest what they describe as a dangerous concentration of power under Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk. 

Despite the hell Asheville and greater Western North Carolina have gone through since flooding caused by Hurricane Helene last fall, as well as the recent terror attacks on large crowds during New Year festivities around the country, passionate protestors showed out for the People’s March in Pack Square on Saturday, Jan. 18. 

At his Aug. 14 rally in Asheville — billed as an opportunity to deliver remarks on the economy — former President Donald Trump didn’t have much in the way of specifics, but he may have finally found his voice on the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris. 

EBCI Tribal Council has reversed its decision to ban “hemp shops” not “wholly owned by the tribe … or one of its wholly owned subsidiaries.”

Perhaps the only true statement in a June 7 Down Home North Carolina email is that the fight against jail expansion in Haywood County is far from over, but given the rest of the email’s misleading content, it’s no longer clear if the nonprofit activist group has the credibility to remain part of that fight. 

Last summer, the tiny Haywood County tourist town of Maggie Valley was rocked by not one but two  peaceful “Black Lives Matter” marches that quickly became heated and confrontational, while also disrupting traffic and commerce. 

A routine housekeeping measure intended to clarify who, exactly, can declare a State of Emergency on behalf of the Town of Waynesville — and, for what reasons — devolved into a disruptive shouting match over a non-existent “mask mandate.” Town officials, including Mayor Gary Caldwell, attribute all the fuss to a sensationalized story containing multiple inaccuracies.

Around 30 demonstrators affiliated with a group called Sunrise North Carolina showed up to a congressional forum held by Southwestern Community College in Sylva on Sept. 9, but they weren’t there to watch — they were there to sound off against the environmental positions of Republican candidate Madison Cawthorn.