The Readers' Forum: Thursday letters

Other 'selfs'

The Jan. 16 Journal featured an article on the front page by Michael Alison Chandler on self-esteem, "Empty praise said to make students less likely to excel." After reading this article, I said a big "thank you." For years, I have worried that parents and teachers were so focused on self-esteem that a number of other "selfs" were being neglected. I hope that parents and teachers will read this article and remember that there are many other "selfs." Some of them are self-respect, self-responsibility, self-control, self-reliance and self-motivation.

I believe that by focusing on some of these "selfs," we will be able to create an environment for our children that will encourage them and teach them how to become more productive students and citizens. I believe that we can lessen the impact of the current environment that tends to foster unrealistic expectations and create one in which children will understand that an occasional failure is part of life. They will learn how to cope with it, learn from it and move on. They will have the opportunity to take genuine pride in their true accomplishments.

BARBARA WATKINS DAYE

Boone

Abuse of power

House Speaker Thom Tillis has admitted that he got legislation enacted as retaliation against teachers who oppose Republican cuts to education. This is an admission of blatant abuse of power. Government is not a tool for legislators to settle grudges or to punish legitimate dissent. Because we have rights, one of which is freedom of speech, his actions to suppress this right were also unconstitutional.

Another of Tillis' sneaky tricks is to hold midnight voting sessions. Their purpose is to keep any opposition in the dark and allow only the "right" people to vote, thus ensuring passage of the Republican agenda. It appears that Republicans believe their ideas cannot stand the light of day nor be subjected to free discussion. If this is the case, how good can these ideas really be?

Democracy is all about people coming together with many differing ideas, listening, discussing, then compromising to get the best for all the people. Apparently Tillis doesn't understand that.

What we have here is not democracy; it is political thuggery. North Carolina deserves better.

ELIZABETH L. SANER

Kernersville

Politics as usual

My, my. It seems as if columnist Chris Fitzsimon ("A confirmation, not a surprise," Jan. 14) wants us to believe the N.C. state legislature is possessed by demons, stating: "It's a radical, out-of-control crowd of ideologues who will do anything to ram their right-wing agenda through." He implies that "The unannounced special session, held at 12:45 in the morning with one Democrat in the hospital and two others absent for health reasons" was a horrible idea. (Personally, I'm glad to see the boys working so hard.)

I believe our past honorable governor, Mike Easley, did the same thing to pass the state lottery (one Republican was in the hospital, another on a honeymoon) by a slim margin; touché! This lottery, by the way, was to boost education, so don't blame the Republicans; blame the gamblers for money shortfalls.

As for all the other items mentioned, good or bad, we must have money to pay for them. The people sent a clear message in 2010 to stop the spending and live within our means. If we don't have the money, then we have to allocate our resources as best we can.

I can see that Fitzsimon (probably a Democrat) and I (an independent) probably won't agree on this, and that's OK. If we did, we'd both be wrong.

JAMES R. CRAWFORD

Rural Hall

Finish the Thought

Last Saturday we asked readers to complete:

"A president should only dump his vice president in favor of a new running mate if …"

"… it enhances his chances of being re-elected, which I surely hope it doesn't!"

FRANK SCISM

"… he feels strongly that due to negative public opinion of his vice president, his re-election chances would be substantially lessened. However, in the case of this president, his followers would re-elect him even if it was found that he was a Martian raised by immigrant parents from Venus."

RICK STEGALL

"… the decision is made only for strategic reasons — to make room for a promising presidential prospect in 2016."

BOON T. LEE

"… the vice-president is Joe Biden, Dick Cheney or Dan Quayle."

DAVID STOCKMEISTER