W.O.T. Fleming ó one nice man
I sat at my kitchen table this morning at 7:30 a.m. getting ready for my first day “back to school” with my part-time program, The Second Step Program, which I take into K-1 classes. I was as excited as kindergarten students on their first day, and then I glanced down at the paper.
I saw W.O.T. Fleming’s picture and the news of his death, and I honestly cried.
Mr. Fleming was my first principal in the Salisbury City School System in 1977. I had moved here with my husband and first son in 1970 , and it was time to go back to teaching. My youngest son was 5, and I was eager to get back into the classroom.
Little did I know then that my new principal would become a life-long friend. He was wonderful to all of us ó students and teachers alike. He will be greatly missed by many people, and I know, personally, I will never forget him.
My thoughts are with his family today.
ó Lea Silverburg
Salisbury
Defend our jobs
For the past couple years, employees at Freightliner Trucks were lied to and manipulated, and we will not stand for it any longer. We had been told that there was no Mexico plant. When people found out months later that they had started building one, we were told that it was simply to help backfill orders that the local plants could not build even with three shifts. Now it appears that potential customers are being told their trucks must be built in Mexico even as they attempt to have them built locally. There is even a YouTube video about how proud they are of their new Mexican facility.
Contracts have been signed to help preserve our jobs, and Freightliner did not care. The trucks that we have provided in the local market are some of the best in trucking, and it appears that they do not care about that either.
The impact on our communities and this country do not matter to these people apparently. It is about saving money. Those jobs also help boost our economy by putting people to work and generating tax dollars in the community. Thank you to companies who care and try to keep them here, like Coca-Cola.
I am writing today not to sound bitter but to call for those who want to help preserve the pride of the American workforce to speak up and be heard. I miss working there even though it appears they don’t miss me. Let’s band together and show them that we will not stand by and continually lose our jobs without a fight.
Contact your representatives, media outlets and corporations to ask them if they have enough American pride to help keep jobs in this area and help our economy boom once again.
ó Chuck Fiello Jr.
China Grove
Cost of living
Well, I guess we can now lay to rest the worn out myth that the Republicans want to do away with Social Security. Lo and behold, the Democrats now control both houses of Congress, the presidency and all the federal agencies. Black, brown, white, red and yellow seniors will not receive a cost-of-living increase in their Social Security checks for the next two years. Consensus is that there had not been enough inflation to warrant an increase.
I work for a food manufacturer, and our prices have risen at least 15 percent this year. Either they have had their heads buried in the sand or the millionaire liberal elites who send their butlers, maids or chauffeur to buy their groceries could care less.
How they can envision what will happen in two years is ludicrous. Perhaps they should apply some of the billions of dollars they are spending like drunken sailors towards Social Security instead of bailing out auto manufacturers, banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
It is the Democrats who for the first time in 40 years have decided not to give seniors a cost-of-living increase. To thousands of senior citizens in this county, this is their only source of income.
It is being asserted that next year all households will pay up to $1,400 or more for electrical power due to cap and trade legislation passed by the House. Duke Power supposedly will in the future be required to derive 12 percent of its power by windmill.
They are doing this in the face of the fact that seniors vote more than any other age group. One thing is for sure: Next November when you enter the voting booth, you can extract retribution.
ó Lee Jacobs
Salisbury
No more taxes I don’t know where our governor gets the idea that raising our taxes will help. There are people out there who don’t even have a job. There are people who have lost their homes. There are people out there who are hungry because they have no job or money to buy food.
Come on ó where do you think this is going? Think of these people before you do anything else.
We are in a very poor economy right now. This decision to raise our taxes is very depressing. North Carolinians pay more tax now than any other state in the nation.
ó Diane Urban
China Grove