Christmas Day at 3 p.m. water started to bubble up in multiple spots on our street, creating a torrent of sandy brown water that poured along the curbs of the homes on Heath Place.
Neighbors made estimates on how many days we might be without water, but the Durham Water Department repair crew rushed out a backhoe, two dump trucks and a tool truck in less than an hour. We went on with our Christmas plans while they dug and repaired multiple spots to finally stop the flood.
Well past midnight and not having taken time for dinner, they got the job done and slipped away as quietly as Santa's sleigh. On behalf of the residents of Heath Place, thanks for being there when we needed you guys.
JOHN DINYARI
Durham
Vote them all out
Where is outrage from citizens?
I'm perplexed. I cannot understand why fellow citizens are not outraged over the recently exposed political shenanigans in Congress.
Our senators and representatives, it seems, now tolerate and imbibe legislative bribery as an acceptable process.
Although we have often tolerated the little leaks of absent integrity frequented by our elected few, the dam has now burst.
Can nothing stop this senseless stream of congressional toady obedience? We are at the brink of fiscal destruction and hellbent on maintaining the course.
Congress, in robotic self-serving sequence, lines up blinded and brainless to rubber stamp the party line without consequence or condemnation and obviously without conscience or compassion for present or future generations of constituents.
How can we stop this fiscal hemorrhaging; this congressional insanity?
Well, this rotten-to-the-core den of thieves and demagogues must go! Vote them out! All of them! Institute term limits! Do it now!
ERNIE WENDELL
Durham
Rights endangered
I ask others to join me in urging Rep. David Price and senators Kay Hagen, and Richard Burr to speak out publicly about the danger to our rights as citizens created by a very recent and unknown Presidential Order.
President Obama's order amends the 1983 order by President Reagan which gave permission to the International Police Force, Interpol, to work with our government. But Reagan's order spelled out that Interpol was not to be immune from having their archives searched and where necessary removed by U.S. government authorities. President Obama has now reversed this sensible protection and granted that immunity.
Why? It will mean that information gathered by Interpol, even if gathered in a manner contrary to our privacy laws, is not allowed to be discovered or forcibly erased. What secret pact is being honored by this relatively obscure order which has not been reported in most newspapers? Please contact our elected representatives if you are also concerned.
ROBERT GUTMAN
Durham
