Letters to the editor - Wednesday (5-14-08)

Seniors don't need another tax bite

Regarding the city of Salisbury's proposed budget (May 7 article):

Please, City Manager David Treme and City Council — don't take another bite from the arms of us fixed-income seniors. We've been bitten up to the elbow already. I understand some of your reasonings, but not in regard to water-sewer-recycling services. I (one-person household) now pay more for one month of service than my parents (seven-person household) did for three months' service. And, with five children, there was a lot of laundry and baths. Have our water sources dried up and moved away? God is still supplying us with precious water, isn't He? Thank you, Lord!

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D.G. Martin: What would your graduation speech say?

By D.G. Martin

"What if I hadn't shown up today?"

I asked this question to the graduates at Wingate University last Saturday as I began the commencement address that Wingate President Jerry McGee had invited me to deliver.

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Editorial: Undocumented and uneducated

In terms of avoiding judicial scrutiny — and conflict with state legislators who wield power over the purse strings — North Carolina's community college system may have done the smart thing in deciding to reverse its policy of admitting illegal immigrants into degree programs. But it may not be smart in terms of the state's best longterm interests.

The groundwork for the community college decision came last week, when the state Attorney General's Office issued an advisory opinion recommending that the community college system drop an open admissions policy for illegal immigrants it adopted last year. That policy, implemented in November, superceded a 2001 policy that had allowed illegal immigrants to enroll only if they were high school students taking college-level classes, or if they took only non-college classes such as GED courses, or if they qualified for federal benefits to victims of extreme cruelty or battery. From its interpretation of federal guidelines, the state AG's office said the state legislature would need to pass a law to allow the more open admissions policy, although federal immigration officials have said that isn't necessary and states can do as they please. In other words, the federal bureaucracy's guidance here appears as hazy and indifferent as it previously has been regarding border enforcement or curtailing the use of fake Social Security numbers.

If you believe that all illegal immigrants are created equal, there's little debate necessary. Under this view, anyone here illegally is a criminal, regardless of whether that individual happens to be a 25-year-old serial deportee who drives drunk and otherwise creates mayhem or a 19-year-old woman who was brought here by her parents five years ago, excelled in high school and now sees college as a path to a better future and eventual citizenship. In this view, any potential benefit, such as the possibility of a college education for one's children, becomes an incentive that encourages more illegal immigration.

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Editorial: Taser should spark fear

Some people are interpreting the Salisbury Police Department's purchase of four Tasers as a sign, and it is — a sign that the department is being cautious. While thousands of law enforcement agencies have used Tasers for years, Salisbury has been slow to add the device to its arsenal. Police should be very selective about the Tasers' use.

Unlike most stun guns that have to touch a person to deliver their punch, the Taser works up to 35 feet away. It shoots small probes carrying electrical pulses, delivering an incapacitating jolt. A number of highly publicized deaths have followed Taser use. In public safety circles, however, the device is considered far safer than other methods of subduing dangerous, combative subjects, such as gunfire or hands-on force. If the officers who carry them are well-trained in Taser use, the devices can protect officers and suspects from serious injury.

The Rowan County Sheriff's Office has been buying a few Tasers a year for the past four or five years and now has about 16 of them, Sheriff George Wilhelm says. They are assigned to officers on the Special Response Team, at the Detention Center, in the courts and on patrol. So far this year, Wilhelm says, officers have deployed Tasers seven times in the Detention Center and three times on patrol.

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Letter: Neighborhood has come a long way

Neighborhood has come a long way

I feel compelled to comment on the article in Sunday's paper concerning the loud noises, etc., on the 400 block of Carolina Avenue ("Calling all Spencer residents").

I know that Forrest Clanton feels strongly about what he is doing, but he has no idea how far we have come in the last five to eight years.

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