Letters to the editor — Monday (4-7-2014)

Published 12:00 am Monday, April 7, 2014

Let’s have some climate control
I am writing fervent plea to the man in charge of the thermostat for the Rowan School System. Turn on the air! I have children getting sick from the heat. They can’t concentrate when the temperature is above 75 degrees.
We have asked and complained but, the central office says, “not until the Monday after spring break.” You see, we can no longer control our own thermostat at our location. That is handled off-site.
Also, we are not allowed to have small appliances (meaning fans) in our classrooms. We can not open any windows because there are no windows that will open. We can not open the doors because of a security issue. These are all the suggestions that we were given to solve this problem.
So please, turn on the air!
— Diane Taylor
China Grove

Be an organ donor
The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) was founded in 1986 when residents of Bloomington, Ind., rallied around a toddler who needed a life-saving liver transplant. In less than eight weeks, the community raised $100,000 to place the boy on the organ waiting list, but the child died before an organ became available.
Those community volunteers, along with his parents, turned tragedy into triumph by using the funds they raised to help other transplant families. That was the beginning of COTA.
Since that time, COTA has assisted more than 2,000 patients by helping to raise funds for transplant-related expenses. COTA has built extensive volunteer networks across the nation in an attempt to ensure that no child or young adult needing an organ or tissue transplant is excluded from a transplant waiting list due to a lack of funds.
COTA needs your help to make sure that tragedies, like the one that was the catalyst in founding COTA, are not repeated.
Every day 18 people die waiting for an organ transplant here in the United States. April is National Donate Life Month. Please register today to become an organ donor.
Then, encourage your friends, family members, neighbors and associates to take two simple, life-saving steps: register as an organ donor at www.donatelife.net or your state’s license bureau, and express your wish to be a donor to your family members.
You can do more. Find out how you can help a COTA family living nearby who needs your help by visiting www.cota.org. Please log on today to see how you can give hope and make a miracle in your community.
— Rick Lofgren
Lofgren is president of The Children’s Organ Transplant Association, headquartered in Bloomington, Ind.
Just wondering
I’d just like to ask the people who make up all these rules and regulations — why are they so down on tobacco and not mentioning how dangerous and how much trouble alcohol causes?
There’s a whole lot more dangers involved with alcohol, even beyond drunk driving. It can affect your home life and everything else.
I’d like to talk to that CEO at CVS. He was on television awhile back, talking about how they were going to pull cigarettes out of their stores. If he is so blasted concerned about people’s health, why doesn’t he get rid of the big one — get rid of all that beer and alcohol? If he really wanted to have a health store, get rid of that stuff.
What they’re trying to do with tobacco is what they tried to do with alcohol during Prohibition. It won’t work. If people want to smoke, they’ll smoke.
— Leroy Earnhardt
Kannapolis