Symphony a thrill for teacher, students
        
What a thrill it was to hear the North Carolina Symphony performance last Friday evening at Catawba College. Conductor Tonu Kalam helped deliver a wonderful evening of orchestral music for me, several of my music students and the entire audience.
My favorite selection was “Overture to Der Freishutz” by Weber. All four selections were masterfully performed with the powerful horn section and oboist Melanie Wilsden being particularly good.
I am so pleased to be a small part of a community that supports the arts in our schools and other organizations in so many different and exciting ways.
– Sam Kyzer
Davidson
The writer is the band director at Knox Middle School and is a member of the Salisbury Symphony board.

Romney likes fees
 Gov. Mitt Romney insultingly dismisses 47 percent of the American voting public which includes service men and women, a struggling middle class and, retirees like myself.
People should be clear on what will happen when and if Romney gets elected.
The state of Massachusetts raised $500 million in new revenue during Romney’s first year in office from fees, more than any other state surveyed. Romney proposed 33 new fees along with increases in 57 existing fees, resulting in higher costs for birth certificates, new car purchases, driver’s learning permits, firearms permits, professional licenses and billboard advertising, as well as for many state services.
He also increased the state gas tax, generating about $60 million per year in additional revenue.
Many of the fees posed a hardship on those who could least afford them, such as fees for the state to provide certification of blindness and a photo identification card for the blind. The proposal also called for a $50 fee for tuberculosis tests and a $400 fee for those who tested positive. The cost of putting a loved one in a nursing home was increased eight times by Romney.
Romney sugar-coats his record, and cherry-picks his facts and figures to paint a very rosy picture of his accomplishments. The Fact Checker has given him multiple Three Pinocchio ratings and even a Four Pinocchio rating (the worst) for some of his claims.
Romney and Ryan won’t address what they will cut. And, they won’t tell you that the middle class will have their home interest deduction lost as well as other fees added that affect those who can least afford it. Oh, what fate awaits the middle class.
– David Carroll
Mocksville