To the Editor:

Millions of people tuned in to the debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on June 27. What did we see? No one could deny that we saw a president clearly diminished cognitively.

I know that many people are so upset with the state of politics and division in our country that they struggled with the idea of celebrating the Fourth of July this year. Patriotism is and always has been a slippery and problematic thing. We’ll get back to that. 

I was raised in a rural, conservative-leaning county with two working parents and six busy kids. My mother was a nurse and public heath educator and my father worked in insurance and real estate before serving three terms as our Republican State House representative and later as a lawyer and court judge.

To the Editor:

Donald Trump persists in declaring himself “an innocent man.” Yet, juries of his peers believe otherwise. In the E. Jean Carroll case. The New York civil fraud trial. And, the Stormy Daniels hush money trial.

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.

To the Editor:

Politics Trumps responsibility.

I apologize to readers for the terrible pun, but I could not help myself. In recent days, we have heard much criticism from all over the political spectrum of President Biden’s recent executive order concerning capping the number of daily asylum seekers accepted at our border.  

To the Editor:

“How is it possible, what has lobotomized people who cheer and celebrate the most transparent fraud, the most outrageous liar, the most straitjacket-ready psycho ever visited on the body politic?” Those are the words of Hal Crowther, longtime journalist and essayist. 

Hoping to build on the momentum of a successful off-year election cycle, even amid violent threats, members of Western North Carolina’s LGBTQ+ community are wary of what might happen in the General Election and are calling for the codification of rights already enjoyed by other Americans. 

To the Editor:

Recently Donald Trump spoke at the NRA convention and promised to roll back gun control measures enacted under Biden and fire the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

To the Editor:

I’m writing in response to the “Democrats try to scare voters” letter in the May 8 edition of your paper. That idea is totally preposterous considering that the standard bearer of the Republican Party is a fear master.