Is Obama the real deal ó or work of fiction?
I’ve been following the candidates, both Republicans and Democrats, for the past year.
One person has captured my attention more than the others combined ó Barack Obama.
He is charismatic, captivating and spell-binding. He goes beyond gender, race, religion etc. He has quickly risen to become a world-known figure.
The rise of Obama makes me think of the fictional “Left Behind” series. The books contain both fictional as well as biblical properties.
As the saying goes, you can’t judge a book by its cover.
Americans are intelligent, and I hope they think before they vote, because a vote based on what they believe is correct could leave us with an inexperienced wolf in a sheep’s coat.
ó Ralph Lambe
Salisbury
Another tax bite
City officials are so intent on adding taxes to maintain revenue, look at where the tax windfall of the past few years has been spent. Property taxes have overwhelmingly gone to wages, pensions and health care for employees.
Now we are about to be taxed twice, not only by the city of Salisbury but Rowan County as well.
Please tell me what better coverage could we folks living along N.C. 150 expect to receive that we are not already getting from Rowan County and the state of North Carolina.
One could not ask for any better law enforcement protection than we get from the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office and the North Carolina Highway Patrol.
Locke Fire Department is very professional, and the other services we receive are all top notch. This is just greed on the part of the city of Salisbury.
City Council, you need to revisit your budget and look at some of the high salaries being paid out to high-ranking officials and, yes, do a little belt tightening like other cities have had to do.
ó Bill Fortune
Salisbury
More laws won’t work
In response to Rene Coker’s Feb. 22 letter to the editor:
More laws are not the answer. It is already a violation of Rowan County Ordinance “Sec. 5-36. Restraint of non-vicious animals” to allow a dog or a cat in heat to remain unconfined. This is to prevent unintentional breeding. We already have laws, ordinances and regulations on the books to control the pet population. Passing more unenforceable laws only increases red tape and provides no solutions. The violators of the leash law will become violators of the mandatory spay/neuter law.
Mandatory spay/neuter ordinances that have passed in cities and counties in other parts of the country have in many cases resulted in those cities and counties being burdened by lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of this sort of legislation.
Perhaps a part of the solution would be to provide the Rowan County Animal Control enough resources to enforce the existing restraint ordinance. Most objective research points to education and no-cost or low-cost spay/neuter as the most effective way of reducing shelter populations, not implementation of socialist mandatory spay/neuter legislation.
The only breeding such legislation would stop is that of law abiding, responsible, pure-bred hobby breeders. If you’ve ever enjoyed the ownership and companionship of a pure bred dog or cat, please know that you may never again have that satisfaction should this sort of legislation come to Rowan County.
ó E.P. Ratledge
Spencer