The statement by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, calling president of the United States Barack Obama "a liar" while the president was addressing a joint session of Congress on Sept. 9, is unacceptable and a disgrace to the moral fabric of this country.
While Rep. Wilson did offer an apology to the president, I believe he should resign from Congress or be thrown out. The facts submitted by CNN's Rick Sanchez indicate that the president was right in every respect, looking at the defeated amendments as well as the current version to the bill.
According to CNN, never in the history of this country has a sitting president been called a liar, especially when he is addressing a joint session of Congress. A similar situation occurred in Great Britain while Margaret Thatcher was prime minister and the member was thrown out of Parliament.
While I am not trying to compare the United States with Great Britain, I believe that in order to preserve, protect, defend and respect the presidency and to serve as a deterrent, Rep. Wilson should resign or be thrown out of Congress.
JEROME H. DIGGS SR.
Durham
Mystery fee
We, too, received our stormwater runoff bill. We have an 1,800-square-foot house with no garage and an unpaved driveway. However, we have been billed for 4,000 square feet of impervious surface, plus an "initiation fee" pulled out of thin air for $15. Go figure. Has anyone else been billed for an "initiation fee"?
AGNES D. POWELL
Durham
Choosing sides
Here's an idea. Let's elect a president, and if Republicans win, everyone has to agree that person is commander-in-chief. We Democrats will agree to "respect the rank, not the man." That's what we do. We just suck it up, don't we?
However, if a Democrat wins, let's have everyone demonize the person, just like we did to Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and now Barack Obama. Let's do really mature things like draw Hitler mustaches on his face. Let's make sure he fails.
Let's invent outlandish conspiracy theories and if we're lucky, we'll get a "patriot" like Timothy McVeigh to create violence and havoc against our "evil" federal government. You know, the same one that runs the Post Office, the IRS, the VA and Medicare.
Last week, the state of South Carolina fired another shot against a more perfect union. Rep. Joe Wilson, a colonel in the South Carolina National Guard, that state's militia, sassed off at our sitting president during a live speech.
From bin Laden to Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin, America's enemies must feel comforted. Wilson didn't simply boo or roll his eyes, he verbally assaulted us with a "You lie!" All that was missing was the "boy" afterwards. How dare we have an "uppity" president, Joe!
I want to ask Obama haters this question: If our nation is attacked again like it was on 9/11, whose side will you be on? The United States of America's? Or the Republican Party?
TONY MADEJCZYK
Durham
Rev. Young on film
I was vacationing when I saw the obituary of Rev. Robert Young in the News & Observer (the only near-local paper I could get.) His picture looked so familiar, but I couldn't place it until I returned and read the same story in The Herald-Sun.
Then I remembered that he was a movie star, with a bit part in the 1983 movie "Brainstorm" (Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood and others). Naturally, he played a minister.
That brief scene atop the Duke Chapel tower in the sunset was strikingly beautiful, and a good way to remember him.
PHIL LAWLESS
Durham
Keeping us safe
Another year has passed and we have paid remembrance to those who were so brutally murdered in the attacks upon our great nation. I am grateful that we have had eight years of no further attacks.
I attribute this to the great jobs done by our Department of Homeland Security, our military and all those other entities that have kept us safe these past years.
Many of your readers are not aware that we have averted numerous attack attempts by terrorists' organizations on our sovereign country. These are often not reported by the TV, media or print. Those "silent" personnel are never acknowledged for their services. They ask for no kudos, they just do their jobs. I would like to thank them all for their service to our country.
WILLIAM N. GUILL III
Hillsborough
Illness and ruin
In his speech to Congress, President Obama was right on topic. I especially liked it when he said that no one in America should go broke because they get sick.
Our family did not think illness could risk our financial future until I was told I had multiple sclerosis. What is worse than the uncertainty of an incurable, crippling illness is the fear of financial ruin from out-of-pocket medical costs, which just keep rising.
ALEXANDRA O'CONNOR
Durham
Party of low
The Republican party has the title of the party of no. Now they are on a course to become the party of low, with the help of South Carolina's governor and a very rude congressman. When you disrespect the president, you disrespect the country.
I did not like George W. Bush, but I did respect the office of the president. If I were a member of the Secret Service, on the day that low-life threw his shoes at Bush, that man would not have gotten that second shoe off because I would have shot him.
A Republican state senator from California was into spanking a lobbyist and bragged about it before an open mike for all to hear.
The Republican party is no longer the party of strong family values. This happens when you allow blowhards like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter to be the spokespeople for your party.
J. ALBRIGHT
Hillsborough
Two throwers
It was interesting to see on the same page, adjacent to one another, stories about people who have publicly insulted a U.S. president: Congressman Joe Wilson, of "You lie!" fame, and Muntadhar al-Zaedi, the famous Iraqi shoe-thrower.
Al-Zaedi still defends his action as a protest against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. He claims that he is a marked man -- marked by U.S. secret agents. But al-Zaedi is a very fortunate man. How long might he have survived had he thrown just one shoe at Saddam Hussein? Ten minutes?
Wilson's outburst represents all that is wrong with political dialogue. Indeed, as the House voted, his conduct was a "breach of decorum and degraded the proceedings of the joint session [of Congress], to the discredit of the House." While I admire his rapid apology to the president, I believe Wilson also owes the American people an apology. After all, he insulted our Congress and our president.
At the very least, on the occasion of the next presidential address to a joint session of Congress, someone should take his shoes away.
ROBERT G. HARRISON
Durham
Deer must go
The survival of humans is more important than survival of deer. Deer in Durham need to be captured and relocated to national forests, or killed.
Deer eat almost everything in our gardens. They eat tomatoes, green peas, green beans, blackeye peas, lima beans, corn, blueberries, lettuce and other greens. They eat the tips off your plants before they even produce. They also eat rose bushes, azalea bushes and other shrubs.
Quit feeling sorry for deer, and feel sorry people who need to grow food in gardens.
DOROTHY D. STANLEY
Durham
