Government officials cannot be trusted today

About 70 years ago, if I came home from school and told my father lies and half truths about my day in school, he would take my hand and lead me out behind the barn and administer discipline to my backside with a willow switch. Today, our would-be government officials think nothing of lying and spinning tales about their opponents, commonplace and acceptable to some, but to me it marks a low point where integrity is just a word and accountability is to be avoided at all cost. I am lost as to what to do, my word is still my bond, but it means nothing today.

— Dale Borland,
Salisbury 

Vote no to Morrow as school superintendent

School’s in session. Sit up and pay attention. Our schools and our school children are in danger. We are at risk of electing someone as state superintendent of public education who doesn’t believe in public education.

Michele Morrow has no history with public education; she home schooled her own children. To educate them, she took them to the Stop the Steal that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection and called for federal troops to keep Trump in power. She calls public school indoctrination centers and encourages parents not to send their children to them. She has advocated public execution of President Obama and imprisonment for President Biden, Hillary Clinton, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Senate leader Chuck Schumer among other “traitors.”

The superintendent of public instruction is responsible for recommending policies and academic standards updates to the state board of education, which votes on them. The department manages the distribution and tracking of more than $13 billion in state and federal funding. Morrow supports cutting off North Carolina’s federal funds for schools and isn’t convinced that North Carolina schools need any more resources. She wants to reduce non-academic programs, presumably vocational programs that serve thousands of students.

Morrow’s opponent, Mo Green, is a former superintendent of Guilford County Schools and administrator in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. He is a lawyer by training. He has demonstrated his commitment to public education. He is running on working for more resources, teaching students good character, fostering increasing respect for teachers, advocating and improving academics by focusing on offering services that can meet the varying needs of each student. He lists parents and community support and safe, secure learning environments among his top priorities.

I was shocked when I read that this contest is a dead heat. How can that be? Why would anyone vote for someone who has only disdain for public education to lead the state’s education system? I can only hope that the sound of the last bell ringing will wake them up.

— Nan Lund,
Salisbury

Letter to America

Divisions in America have always existed, maybe not to the extent we see today. But it’s not too late to heal the hurt and find common ground. The election in November is focused on two candidates resting on their party loyalist, while middle America, the moderates from both parties and unaffiliated voters, struggle with these choices. Extreme liberalism is not healthy and neither is extreme conservatism. While both parties are fundamentally correct, the extremes try to extinguish the other’s good parts. Moderation is the key.

The choices today between candidates trying to buy support by making promises they cannot keep on their own are not good for America. Having a choice between selfish candidates, selfish for their own interests, is not a choice for America’s future. Let’s save this country from this mess and write-in a team of fundamentally center-right moderate leaders and end the immature banter and extreme concepts neither of which focus on keeping our country safe — the primary role of the federal government.

I decided to write-in Nikki Haley for president and Ron DeSantis as vice-president. If the roughly 1/3 of American voters registered as unaffiliated plus the moderates of both parties went this route, we could end the hype and focus the country on a road to stability.

I know many of you have been struggling with the current choices for a long time. Choosing between not casting a vote, flipping a coin or wasting my vote on a write-in, my conclusion is simple — let’s do this together.

— Rick Flowe,
Kannapolis