01/12 What you’re saying: Bob Woodruff, Kurt Becker, and Stephen Berg

Incomplete ‘Toon’

Your “Our Toon” in Sunday’s paper was incomplete. The political cartoon showing three people “waiting for trickle down” from Reagan, Bush and Trump failed to show someone with their hands facing the ground and saying “I’m waiting for the Obama trickle up.”

Many people quote the Biblical phrase “All things come to those who wait.” What they fail to quote is the second half which should be “… but only if you work like the dickens while you are waiting!”

Let cool heads prevail

For 63 years, the superpowers of the United States and the People’s Republic of China were unwilling to allow the political and military division on the Korean peninsula to change. China did not want an American military presence at its border. The United States needed to keep its influence in South Korea. It was hoped that the North would economically implode.

The regime in the North, fearing for its survival, used all of its resources to strengthen its military, culminating in nuclear bombs and intercontinental missiles. It is unrealistic to expect that North will give those up. There are no good solutions, but there is a very bad one and that is to use military force. In a war, millions of Koreans will die, but it will not end there. The war will come to our cities too.

Let the South and the North start talks and ease tensions first. Lets stop threatening each other and suspend military exercises. Quiet diplomacy and cool heads are the best course of action.

Are we better off?

As we head into 2018 we need to reflect if we as voters in North Carolina are better off than we were in 2017. In 2017 Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis refused to hold public hearings on health care and tax reform, both voting to support those two bills that a majority of North Carolina residents are against.

The Republican-controlled state legislature tried to reduce the governor’s authority while fighting to keep unconstitutional gerrymandering in place. National publications have depicted North Carolina as a microcosm of the country in that Republicans have radicalized it.

North Carolina has gone from a progressive Southern state to a regressive state. North Carolina voters need to agree that many North Carolina families are not better off than we were last year, and come November, we need to tell those legislators “we have had enough.”

This story was originally published January 12, 2018 at 6:00 AM with the headline "01/12 What you’re saying: Bob Woodruff, Kurt Becker, and Stephen Berg."