Hardin right on accountability

Kenneth Hardin hit the nail on the head in his Sunday’s article, “Keeping It Real About Those Committing Crimes.” All criminal offenders — regardless of race, age, socioeconomic status or whatever — must be held accountable and face the consequences of their choices. Having retired as a high school teacher, I found that parents who bailed their kids out of trouble didn’t solve the problem, they escalated it. It’s like my mother warned me, “If you can’t listen, you can feel.”

— Linda Merrell,
Rockwell

‘Staycation’ for Rowan County Property owners

So, if you are like me and got your 2023 and 2024 Rowan County property tax notice, you will find that they are 70 percent to 105 percent inflated from the 2022 and earlier years. I couldn’t imagine that I would be the only one paying an additional $440 per month for the rest of my life to pay the property taxes on my home. Of course, that could change again next year. But I did take some time to “browse” the tax records of everyone that I know and found that they were also inflated, especially when the Federal Reserve is trying to “keep inflation at or below 2 percent,” our conservative county manager and commissioners have found another way to get the funds they want to “entice” those deep pocket corporations” to “come to Rowan County” where we are in the “best location between Charlotte and Greensboro” to do business.” Of course, we have had that exact location for over 250 years, but it seems to work for them now. Of course, 250 years ago, my ancestors had a “revolution” over unreasonable taxes with the “previous government,” I believe it was.

Anyway, since I don’t have the money to take a vacation anymore due to paying an additional $440 per month on my property taxes, or go to church, pay club dues, or go out to eat, I did buy a CD of “ocean waves” and got my folding lawn chair and umbrella, and went down to the Rowan County landfill on Campbell Road, where they have hundreds of seagulls. You can sit back, close your eyes, listen to the ocean waves and seagulls there, and take along a sandwich and your favorite beverage. It’s only about three miles out Woodleaf Road if you’ve not been there.

— Steven Arey,
Salisbury

Wishing Harris was a radical leftist

Let’s lay to rest the false notion that Kamala Harris is a radical leftist. Take it from me: Harris is a moderate centrist who occasionally sounds left-leaning.

I say, “Take it from me” because I am a radical leftist, a democratic socialist who’s actually studied Marx and understands his relatively benign criticism that unbridled capitalism inevitably leads to shameless social and economic inequities — which it has.

I only wish she were a radical leftist. If she were, she would indeed ban fracking and constrain the expansion of all fossil fuel production. But she won’t.

I wish Harris wanted to give us Medicare-for-all and cap prices on all medications. But she won’t.

I wish she’d treat education as an investment in our future by making it free for everyone, Pre-K through PhD., and eliminating all student debt. But she won’t.

I wish Harris would respect the Second Amendment’s original intent and concern for a well-regulated militia (i.e., sounds like our National Guard) and ban all but muzzle-loading flintlock muskets. But she won’t.

I wish Harris would establish an actual living wage, tax the rich at 95 percent, and concentrate on uplifting the poor, not just the middle class. But she won’t.

And I wish Harris would guarantee all people absolute control over their own bodies and clarify that our Constitution affords such rights only to those born here (or naturalized), not clusters of fetal tissue and certainly not corporations. But she won’t.

Let me be clear: I will still vote for Kamala Harris, but only because I could never support a racist, homophobic, misogynistic, convicted felon, who is also an insurrectionist wannabe dictator.

I only wish Kamala Harris were indeed a radical leftist or even a leftist. But at least she’s a truly decent human being and that’s enough for now.

— Stephen Pocklington,
Salisbury