Unfortunate

By: Letters To the editor | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: September 04, 2010

In regard to the unfortunate wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you would think human beings would have something better to do than kill each other.

EARL SAMS

King

Renewal

To renew, or not to renew -- that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous liberals ... and renew ... or to take action against a sea of their ramblings ... and not renew. (Apologies to Shakespeare.) My newspaper subscription invoice arrived and I'm struggling with that decision.

The local TV news usually covers the same subjects. Anything really new was reported on the evening news yesterday. The opinion section is nothing more than reprints of the New York Times and Washington Post. I read those yesterday on the Internet. Most letters to the editor are from the same writers each month, saying the same things over and over 12 times a year; blasting Republicans, conservatives and the tea party as the scourge of the earth.

Oh well; there's still the sports section, the comics, a crossword puzzle and the TV listing. I guess it's worth $3.32 a week.

Thank God for Fox News and the Internet. Oops. I guest that labels me as a racist, bigot, homophobe, religious extremist and gun-totin' redneck. So be it.

ROBERT H. REED

Advance

A suspect position

Your Aug. 24 editorial ("Mail-order wine") was right on the mark with its two conclusions about the negative impact on small wineries. What you failed to mention was the fact that U.S. Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC 6th District, who co-introduced the bill) has been the recipient of $27,500 from the Nation Beer Wholesalers Association PAC since 2005.

According to OpenSecrets.org, the NBWA donated $7,500 during the 2009-2010 campaign cycle, an amount 50 percent higher than the next nine contributors. Among those remaining nine was the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America, at $5,000. So Rep. Coble received a total of $12,500 from the beer, wine and liquor industry during that same period. That fact alone makes his position suspect in my mind, and would be one reason he has taken a position that would create a severe hardship on our local wine industry as it struggles to survive by controlled shipments by common carriers who deliver only to adult recipients at the destination address.

I believe this bill is a blatant attempt on the part of the wholesalers to dip their hands into the flow of money for themselves, and at the expense of the wineries and mail-order consumers.

BOB HODGE

PROPRIETOR, YADKIN VALLEY WINE TRAIL (YVWT.COM)

Pinnacle

Open and tolerant

Re: the recent furor over the Muslim religion: I will be open and tolerant toward Muslims when there are no more "honor killings," when there is no more genital mutilation of Muslim women, when there are no more burqas or head scarves, when Muslim women who have been raped are not told they have disgraced their families and should therefore commit suicide, when Muslim women everywhere can freely drive cars, vote, go to school, be treated by male doctors, have the same rights under the law as men, and when they are accepted by their religion as fully equal human beings and not just breeding stock who exist to serve men.

CLETA MARSHALL COVINGTON

Rural Hall