Several letters have been written about Jim Sides and his personal agenda for Rowan County. I agree with each of them, except W.F. Owens (Saturday, April 19). Mr. Owens states that “only Jim sides and Joe Coladarci deserve our votes for commissioner.” Mr. Owens could not be more wrong. Jim Sides has done more to harm this county than he has good.
Remember Sides accusing Salisbury of damaging some trees on property he allegedly owned and filing a lawsuit for $2,000 and demanding a jury trial? How about Sides costing the merchants of Rowan County thousands of dollars when he stopped the Smoke Out Motorcycle Rally at the fairgrounds, also costing motel owners thousands? He stated that he had never attended the Smoke Out, but he had been told about “stuff that goes on” at the rally. He also publicly stated that he does not believe in offering incentives to get companies to come to Rowan County. He has cost this county’s unemployed hundreds of job opportunities with this stance.
He stopped the building of a new school administration office in downtown Salisbury because he didn’t want it there. Where is it now, Mr. Sides?
Now for the real clincher! The Salisbury Mall. This is going to be a huge “white elephant’ when everything is said and done. Mr. Sides has his own personal agenda for this county, and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants.
I hope the Republican voters will get out on May 6 and put Jim Sides out of office. We can’t take much more of him and his pal Craig Pierce. Too bad Pierce isn’t up for election this time.
— Bruce Owen
Salisbury
Even though I am officially on spring break, the teacher in me is always present. I recently read a letter to the editor from Rick Johnson (Monday, April 21). He was letting Tripp Edwards know he did know his history about the “La Resistance.” At the end of his letter, he referenced three websites and said, “Here are some references for your personal study.”
The first was Wikipedia. As a teacher, my internal alarm went off. Please know that Wikipedia is a fine place to start when you are not familiar with a topic. I admit, when I am curious about something I do not know, I search for it on Google. Often, Wikipedia is the first result. I then look for websites that end in .edu (education), .gov (government), or .org (non-profit organization) for additional information on the topic. Please know that Wikipedia has a disclaimer that states, “Please be advised that nothing found here has necessarily been reviewed by people with the expertise required to provide you with complete, accurate or reliable information.”
Because of Mr. Johnson’s letter, I went to the first referenced website, Wikipedia. To my shock, his letter plagiarized the first three sentences of the website. As a teacher, I question his true understanding of the topic.
To me, this has nothing to do with the upcoming election and the “La Resistance.” As a teacher, I felt it was a “teachable moment.” It is an opportune time to teach people how to use the Internet to gather facts. Vive la resistance.
— Crystal Turney
Salisbury