Scout honors veterans

On July 26 at Whitley Softball Field at Catawba College, I was at the American legion softball game (Rowan vs. Davidson), helping escorting vets and telling them where they needed to go, as it was also a night they recognized veterans at the game.

I was also tasked with giving the veterans a card to fill out. When the vets went on the field, they gave the announcer the card. He would call out four things: their name, branch, rank and what conflict they served in as written on the cards.

As each vet was called out, they were escorted by one of the players. They were followed by the color guard and the playing our national anthem.

As a 12-year-old Boy Scout, I thought it was awesome to see the veterans being recognized in such a special way by the two teams. I also thought that the coach coming to where the veterans were at and personally thanking them for their service was pretty cool.

I hope that the American Legion girls Softball Tournament becomes a bigger and better event in the future.

— Lucas Douthit

Boy Scout Troop 443

Duke should reduce power outages

  The storm last night was not out of the ordinary, if we had not lost power for nearly 12 hours. But what was consistent was the frequency of Duke Power’s outages over the last 35 years of living here. In our lifetimes we have lived in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Vermont, Missouri and Michigan. In all those years, in all those states, we experienced only three power outages in total.

Duke Energy is a monopoly. It is a force to be reckoned with. It is joined at the hip with our state legislature and has an incestuous relationship with most of its members. I know that Duke Energy has a PR department that presents an image of progressive achievement in providing clean energy and dependable service, but that is inconsistent with their past pollution records and stonewalling private solar buy backs and frequent outages across the state.

I have little tolerance for “well, folks just love their trees.” It’s akin to the NRA saying “our thoughts and prayers go out to the families.” Bury the lines!

North Carolinians are a tolerant and forgiving people but deserve better!

— Bill Bailey,
Salisbury

No one is above the law

A group of everyday Americans, fulfilling their civic duty by serving on a grand jury, reviewed mountains of evidence and determined there was enough proof of wrongdoing to bring four criminal charges against Donald Trump, including conspiracy to defraud our country and impede on our right to vote.

There can be no more serious crime than a conspiracy to overturn the foundation of our democracy itself. It’s shameful how many MAGA Republicans are now rushing to defend Trump instead of standing up for our democracy and our freedom to vote. Many of them are trying to rewrite history, so it’s important to understand what Trump is accused of and why it matters.

According to the indictment, Trump deliberately lied about voter fraud and pressured local officials to illegally overturn election results and manufacture fake slates of electors. When Vice President Mike Pence refused to toss out the legitimate results and count fake electoral votes, Trump incited an attack on our Capitol in a last ditch attempt to stop the certification of the election and cling to power.

These are serious charges. Our elected leaders of all parties must allow the trial to unfold without political interference and let a jury of everyday Americans do their job. No one is above the law, and Trump should be treated like everyone else and held accountable for his crimes against our country.

— Kate Murphy,
Salisbury