To the Editor:

The new Congress just kicked off, and already Republicans like Chuck Edwards in the House are betraying the voters. When they aren’t too busy fighting among themselves, the new MAGA leadership is pushing harmful policies like cutting Social Security and Medicare, giving tax breaks to the rich, gutting the office that oversees ethics requirements, and criminalizing women’s health care.

It’s also clear that Kevin McCarthy (and the right-wing extremists that he cut a deal with to become Speaker) will spend the next two years sabotaging President Biden rather than getting anything done. Americans deserve a Congress that works for us, not just for themselves and their wealthy cronies.

Betsy Swift, Sylva

Not enamored with new leadership

To the Editor:

I hope those who voted for our new sheriff and county commissioners are happy. I see trouble ahead.

The new sheriff didn’t have the guts to personally fire employees that he no longer wanted in his new administration. He went about it by inviting those he wanted to stay to his swearing in ceremony. If you didn’t get an invitation, well you knew your fate. And it came during the holiday season. A true leader would tell the employee in person.

Concerning the newly elected commissioners, some of them don’t seem too informed. One new commissioner questioned whether the school superintendent intended to use funding to put litter boxes in schools for students who identify as animals as the Transylvania County school board supposedly voted to. Surely he knows litter boxes in schools is a social media rumor and our neighbors in Transylvania did no such thing. Elected officials need to research issues and get their facts straight and not believe everything they hear.

The new commissioners also don’t seem to keep up with what the town of Sylva is doing. When town officials presented their request for a municipal grant to fund some new art projects, some commissioners seemed to think upgrading Bryson Park was more important. Yes, that is an important project, but the mudslide above it has affected the upgrades. The town now has over $5 million to address the mudslide and the park upgrades. It has been covered in local newspapers for quite a while now. Apparently, they don’t take the time to read about local issues. And then they go so far as to say that art projects need to be “family friendly.”

There are different kinds of family structures, and art means different things to different people. Apparently they want our town and county to exclude some.

Do we really want leaders like this? Think about it next election.

Betty Dishman, Sylva

To the Editor:

The other day I reread the Second Amendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State …” Those words are the opening clause. I wondered why the word Militia was/is capitalized. What was meant by the words “well regulated?” What is the significance of the word “necessary?” What did the writers mean by “the security of a free State…?”

When I see a bumper sticker or window decal purporting to support the Second Amendment I wonder if the owner knows the first clause. Does he/she support the entire amendment or merely the second part “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”

Why has Congress never set up a “well regulated Militia”? If it was deemed “necessary” in 1791 why is it not still necessary? What “Arms” were citizens given the right to keep and bear? How could they have envisioned AK-47s and AR-15s that people currently have the right to keep and bear?

What would the constitutional framers say to those who have been murdered with rapid-fire weapons? To their parents who grieve? To relatives and friends? To you and me? Where would they see a line separating “the security of a free State” and the need for individual security to go to school or feel safe in a house of worship? Would they suggest we merely throw up our hands and claim there’s nothing we can do/we must protect the right to own any weapon?

Is it not high time we look at the Second Amendment and use the provision for a “well regulated Militia” to work for the security of all Americans? At the moment we seem hell bent on guaranteeing some the right to “keep and bear Arms” when that right clearly endangers others. Are we helpless? Let’s make the Second Amendment work in the 21st Century!

No, I am not suggesting that we confiscate people’s guns. I own five. None are rapid-fire. Yet, we could use the amendment itself to work for the security of all. We need a “well regulated Militia” in this century.

Dave Waldrop, Webster