Opinion
Hands off our parks, our foreign guests and our narrative
To the Editor:
In compliance with Executive Order 14253, an official sign has now been posted in the Oconaluftee Visitors Center of our beloved (and already beleaguered) Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and, I presume, at all of the hundreds of other sites overseen by the National Park Service.
FRL director is a devoted librarian
To the Editor:
I am a former employee of Tracy Fitzmaurice and I'm writing in support of her work as director of the Fontana Regional Library and Librarian of Jackson County Public Library.
Harassing public officials is wrong
To the Editor:
Does Jackson County want to be a place where some citizens publicly harass and intimidate elected officials with whom they disagree? How long before harassment becomes vandalism and even assaults? Too often, far-left individuals who, when they do not win at the ballot box or in the arena of ideas, resort to these types of behavior and worse.
July 4 in a polarized, politicized era
Can my patriotism be politically neutral, separated from my country’s actions if I disagree with those actions? Can it be separated from those who call themselves patriots but who don’t embrace the ideals I think this country stands for? Yes, it can, and I can call myself patriotic while still yelling the loudest when I think this country has gone off track.
Celebrate our country, not the president
Growing up, my family spent every July Fourth at Ocean Lakes Campground in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We had a little blue and white camper on a permanent lot. It wasn’t much, but it was ours, and years of special memories were made on that little piece of property.
Senators should stand tall for USA
To the Editor:
Neither the President’s omnibus budget bill nor the House’s abysmal substitute warrant the approval of sens. Thom Tillis or Ted Budd. The senators should stand up for our country and North Carolina in a time of great need.
A vote for the OBBB will harm Americans
To the Editor:
This is a letter I sent to Sen. Thom Tillis:
Because you had the courage to create and make that presentation to the Senate on what war criminals and enemies of freedom Putin and the Russian regime overall are, I hold out hope that you will vote against — or abstain from voting — for the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” or the Senate version of the House budget reconciliation bill with its sneak attack on our republic.
We should fear Trump’s rogue agents
To the Editor:
On June 12, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made the following statement during a news conference regarding about 4,700 U.S. military troops in Los Angeles: “We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”
RFK Jr. promotes dangerous vaccine misinformation
As a retired physician assistant who devoted a long career to public health in Macon County, I am deeply concerned by the misinformation about vaccines being spread by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his appointees.
