Opinion
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Cut the junkets
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Published: July 20, 2009
Earlier this month the Social Security Administration spent $700,000 at an Arizona resort to "help relieve stress" to its staff members who are receiving threats to them from the American taxpayers. Maybe if it would cut junkets like this, the American taxpayer wouldn't be threatening it quite as much.
Seems funny that it could tell this past May that Social Security recipients wouldn't be receiving a cost-of-living increase for the next two years but it couldn't foresee how a stunt like this would anger taxpayers.
DAVID KLEYLEIN
Germanton
Ignore the critics
My advice to the police officers who shot the bear ("Bear posed a threat, chief says," July 15) would be: Be confident that you did the right thing, move on and ignore the critics. There will always be those with 20/20 hindsight looking for a cause to vocalize on. The main thing to remember is that a bear that has lost its fear of humans and has become accustomed to the urban setting with no apparent danger to itself can become a problem at any split second. Wildlife authorities call them "problem bears."
Suppose you scared the bear back into the woods and the next day it mauled a small child. You would have even more critics with 20/20 hindsight and they probably would be some of the same ones who have just criticized. I say again, good foresight and ignore the "rebels without a cause" because in a few days they'll find a new cause.
STEPHEN W. HAUSER
King
Not aggressive
It is with great sadness that I write this letter about the bear that was killed last week lurking about looking for food and generally minding its own business ("Bear posed a threat, chief says," July 15). As residents described him, he was not aggressive.
While God gave mankind dominion over all the earth, including wildlife, he did not intend for us to abuse or neglect those who need protecting. This bear had a right to live and should not have been killed. He should have been tranquilized and removed to another location (Asheboro zoo? The mountains?). I would have taken a tranquilized bear myself in my own car had I known it would have been killed.
The Winston-Salem police are a great group of people, but that was a decision made with very poor judgment. As professionals, they should not be so "gun-happy." It was a shameful incident.
ANNE DeHART
Tobaccoville
An ethical issue
I could not have agreed more with Tom Waltrip's July 11 letter to The readers' forum ("Conflict of interest") responding to Winston-Salem City Councilman Dan Besse's comment on his obvious conflict of interest (aka his "appearance issue") when he twice pocketed campaign money from Billy Prim and then voted on back-to-back funding of the baseball stadium in 2007 and 2009.
This is an ethical issue, not an ideological issue, that crosses party lines. Any upstanding Democrat, Republican or Independent voter should see that a politician taking money from someone who is about to financially profit from his or her vote is ethically repugnant. That Besse is unable to understand this is yet another reason why the residents of the Southwest Ward should vote him out of office this November, taking away his ability to profit off his own legislative power.
MILES BUMGARNER
Winston-Salem
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