Herald-Sun captures milestone in history

I want to thank Matthew Milliken, Christine Nguyen and all of the staffers who helped to make the Sept. 2 edition of The Herald-Sun a historical keepsake. The articles provided the readers with a bird's eye view of the events that led to the first phase of school integration in Durham 50 years ago.

I appreciate the way the articles and the photographs connected the beginnings of integration in 1959 to the landmark lawsuit for equal educational opportunities in 1949 and to the merger of the city and county schools in 1992. Thanks for including the famous Jim Sparks photo that etched the "walk up" to school integration into the collective memory and history of Durham.

Having read the online comments about the articles and photos, I was extremely impressed by the entry posted by Patrice Vickers. She mentioned the pride that she always feels when she looks at that 1959 photo of her father, Henry Vickers, walking toward equality with the Floyd McKisssick family.

Bob Ashley's column on Sunday, added icing to the birthday cake that you baked and served to the Durham community on the 50th anniversary of Durham school integration.

Thanks again for sharing history.

EDDIE DAVIS

Durham

Fairness for all

The news that Gov. Beverly Perdue is going to China and Japan at the taxpayers' expense at the cost of $82,000 makes me furious and sick to my stomach. Was the N. C. budget cut to provide for such as this?

We, the North Carolina retired senior citizens, did not get raises this year and some of our retirement checks were cut as of June 2009. The money we put into the retirement system was for us to have to live on when we did retire and was not intended for expensive trips for the governor nor any other political figures in the state.

We are struggling enough to make ends meet on our checks as it is. We don't have our heads in the sand and very clearly see what is happening with our tax dollars. It's time to make things fair for all taxpayers in North Carolina.

C.R. COOK

Chapel Hill

Burial a disgrace

If Ted Kennedy was a "great American," as the media have attempted to canonize him, then I am Osama bin Laden.

Beginning with his being expelled twice from Harvard University for cheating, his four reckless driving charges while in law school at the University of Virginia and his responsibility for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, neither case in which he received any punishment, the list of improprieties of this unconscionable, anathematic coward is endless.

His burial at Arlington National Cemetery is a national disgrace, and desecrates the sanctity of those truly great Americans interred there. Ted Kennedy's burial should have been overlooking a sewer which would quintessentially characterize him, his life and his legacy.

Maybe this pariah can liberalize Hell -- he most definitely will be residing there.

FRED TYREE

Orange County