Make an impact; help us fund Rachel’s Challenge
It’s time that we make a change within our community, and there is a program that does just that. We need to change our culture and how we look at each other, but most importantly, we need to make that change within our youth. When our youth have an opportunity to see each other from a different perspective, then they may be less willing to pick on or bully others.
Rachel’s Challenge is a program designed for our youth. It is based off of the writings of Rachel Joy Scott, the first student killed on April 20, 1999, during the Columbine tragedy. The discovery of her writings and concepts by her parents led to the creation of “Rachel’s Challenge.”
Rachel had challenged her classmates to start a chain reaction of kindness. For a 17-year-old to be thinking and acting in those terms is amazing.
There is a void within our community that is being filled with bad news, negative media and violence. Social media is an epidemic. You name it, they’re seeing it. We must get ahead of the power curve and change the culture of our schools. We need to fill that void with kindness, respect for others, self-respect and dignity.
Rachel’s Challenge does just that. East Rowan High School has experienced Rachel’s Challenge, and we are seeing the results. We have felt so strongly about this program that we are attempting to bring it back and, we’d like to see it brought to all of our middle schools.
We are starting with Corriher-Lipe Middle School and need your help. The three-day program costs approximately $12,600, and it is worth every penny. Please consider donating money to First Reformed Church of Landis or directly to Corriher-Lipe or East.
For additional information, please contact me at boardmanlc@rss.k12.nc.us or 704-298-8223.
— Chris Boardman
Salisbury

Lessons for City Council
A is for accountability.
Be more aware next time.
Can you get my money back?
Don’t hire a consultant.
Everybody else didn’t get a raise.
Fibrant isn’t going to make it.
Get on the bus or take a hike with the hush.
Hold public hearings, listen and then decide.
I told you so.
Just pick up the dime bags along the streets.
Keep the Civic Center and Police Department open.
Let someone else take the blame, maybe the county.
Make it a crime to have an affair.
No more water bill added fees.
Obama can’t fix this.
Participate in arts and city events.
Question other city employees about their productivity.
Resist name calling and finger pointing.
Severance pay is not an option.
Tourists don’t pay property tax.
U could always resign now.
Voters hopefully have a brain left.
Where is the mayor when we need him?
Xamine city real estate and sell it.
You try to find someone at city hall.
Zzz- don’t sleep thru meetings.
— Clyde
Salisbury
Questions for the city
The city of Salisbury accumulated at least a $7.6 million surplus in the water utility. We know this because they loaned it to Fibrant. The loan is at 1 percent, unsecured, with no payback scheduled, and with a downgraded credit rating which suggests a higher interest rate. Will it ever be paid back, and when? If there is no need for these funds in the foreseeable future, have the water customers been overcharged to accumulate this large amount?
These water funds could be used to purchase government bonds today yielding about 3 percent, or 2 percent more than Fibrant is paying. This amounts to $152,000 per year. Therefore, water customers are subsidizing Fibrant at the rate of $152,000 per year. In 10 years that amounts to $1,520,000.
Water is a necessity for which the city has a monopoly. To add insult to injury, water rates were increased this month. Is this for more subsidy?
How much and why are we paying rabbits to guard our cabbage patch? What used to be considered public servants are now politicians, and politicians are like diapers; they need to be changed often and for the same reason.
When can we get answers to these questions?
— Charles L. Sowers
Salisbury
Sowers is a former member of Salisbury City Council.

My VA experience
This letter is not meant to belittle any of the care furnished by the medical staff of the VA hospital here in Salisbury.
However, I submit this experience which indicates what can happen when a bloated federal government agency takes on something as large as health care.
Several years ago my father-in-law, a WWII vet, asked me to drive him to the VA hospital in Salisbury for a flu shot. I said OK and called for an appointment. They gave me one and, since I was also a veteran, I asked if I could also get one. They said yes if I would bring along my DD 214 form.
So, we went, and after telling them who we were and the purpose off our visit, we’re told that my father-in-law would have to be examined by a VA doctor before he could get the flu shot. Then they said I would have to pay for mine. I asked for a supervisor to provide some sort of explanation for this fiasco. A young lady appeared and led me into a large office. I proceeded to chew her and the apparent system out.
I then immediately left, hopefully never to return. Both my father-in-law and I were fortunate enough to have very good private health care.
Later, after this hopeless experience, we got in the car, drove to the Cabarrus County health department, got in line, put our bare arms out the windows and received a free flu shot.
Some, if not all of the stuff said to be going on in the VA system is probably true.
— Clinton Sechler
China Grove
Like a good neighbor
On Tuesday, July 15, at approximately 3:30 p.m., a sudden rain storm with high winds descended on our area.
Greg Edds, a local insurance agent and recently nominated candidate for county commissioner, was at his best. Greg lived up to his company’s motto.
As life has its many spills, a gentlemen in a wheelchair was trying to beat the storm, but fell unexpectedly into the street on Statesville Boulevard. Greg saw this misadventure from his office window, bolted across the street, stopped traffic, and came to the man’s rescue in a driving rain.
Now you voters know what kind of man you’ve nominated. A quick thinker, a take-charge guy who cares about his fellow man. Surely, as he extended a hand to another person, all who saw this will walk more steadily along their road of life.
— Gene Hayden
Salisbury

Enjoy the world’s beauty
Have joy in your life. Thank the Lord first thing for another day.
Take a ride into Eagle Heights from Old Mocksville Road. Go all the way thru to Sells Road and turn left. As you go around the sharp curve, slow down and see what the lady in the house there has done. She made a beautiful garden in the curve.
Continue to U.S. 601, turn right and go to the 601 bypass toward Isenberg School. Check out the beautiful field of sunflowers that Scotty Shaver works for us and the birds.
Let’s enjoy the beauty in this troubled world.
— Mona M. Eagle
Salisbury