Salisbury-Rowan needs a win. We’ve gone too long without a major boost to our economy. We’ve had scant new jobs and little new money coming into our communities.
Salisbury was handed a big win on a silver platter in the form of the “Sleepy Hollow” filming. By most accounts, the pilot filming was a positive experience for our community. However, a few squeaky wheels have received ink and airtime, claiming limited space downtown and loss of revenue.
Let’s talk revenue. The North Carolina Film Commission year-end totals show productions had direct, in-state spending of more than $376 million and created more than 4,100 well-paying crew positions. In all, productions created nearly 20,000 job opportunities, including talent and background extra positions for North Carolinians.
We deserve — and need — a piece of that revenue locally, and we should be doing everything we can to get it. It’s now time for those who see the positive impact film production brings to step up and get vocal.
BOLD has been working on marketing for a feature length film shot in South Carolina, and we have witnessed firsthand the economic impact a project can have on a community.
Let’s tell all film producers, including 20th Century Fox and K/O Paper Products, that the welcome mat is out in Salisbury. Let’s tell our story in hopes we can help tell theirs. We offer an incredible array of beautiful, historic backdrops throughout the county and we need to expose them to all.
Please join me in saying this community supports the return of “Sleepy Hollow” and letting the entire film industry know they are welcome here.
— Patrick Pearson

Salisbury

Pearson is VP/general manager of BOLD Communications Group.

I agree with Cal Thomas’ comments (May 22) regarding the “Infernal Revenue Service.” My mistake — I meant the Internal Revenue Service.
Thomas states that the IRS is unconstitutional, and it is. It was created by President Woodrow Wilson, who also reinstated the central bank, or as we know it, the Federal Reserve System. Both acts were never properly ratified by the states, but Wilson was not the most ethical president. He also lied about our troops going to war to save Britain and France in 1917.
Today, the IRS is the most powerful government branch, and it is absolutely unconstitutional.
The Federal Reserve is not a federal bank. It is owned and controlled by 12 private banks. They are ruining our economy by printing paper money. Before 1971, we had silver and gold backing our money, so the paper money had intrinsic value.
We have a serious problem with a president who is not adhering to the laws of our land, our Constitution. It’s almost as if he is saying, “I dare you to try to do something about it, because I want to take care of the people.” But he has divided the people in his failure to lead properly. The Constitution has served our great nation well for more than 235 years, but now he wants to disregard it. I’m so angry, I believe he should resign and Vice President Biden, who’s a joke, should also resign.
Any thinking person should realize how the Constitution was established. It took many patriotic citizens more than 40 days of discussions in Philadelphia to pass this great instrument of our government. Let us have our president be the president of all the people and stop the situation happening in Washington where our freedoms are being taken away.
Let us rally around our great flag and country!
— Victor S. Farrah

Salisbury

After reading Sen. Kay Hagan’s May 25 op-ed, I’m trying to figure out what she was trying to say. She said, “The Department of Defense recently released a report estimating that more than 26,000 service members were sexually assaulted in 2012. And equally alarming, just 13 percent of incidents that occurred in 2012 were reported.” She either seems to be saying that 26,000 was 13 percent of the actual number, putting assaults at approximately 200,000; or she is saying that approximately 3,200 assaults were committed, and that some genius at DOD plucked the 13 percent (creating the fairy tale 26,000 figure) out of the air, stating that only one in eight rapes were reported.
Senator Hagan, before we send the grim reaper out to start beheading hundreds of soldiers, why don’t we decide which of these ludicrous statistics is more full of hot air? Political correctness — a mainstay of liberals and in no short supply under the Obama Administration — is no way to control problems.
Why don’t we try to determine how many of these are actual assaults and how many were winks or a misspoken word at an inopportune time? During 20 years in the military, I witnessed far more incidents of this nature than actual “sexual assaults.” I also saw far more “special favors” bestowed upon superiors to incur promotions and favorable work assignments than actual assaults. We can only hope Hagan will temper decisions affecting great numbers of soldiers, families and unit readiness with forethought and common sense, and not stoop to being a lap dog for this liberal government run amok.
No one believes more strongly than I do that real sexual assaults should be severely punished. It’s not wise, however, to throw out the baby with the bath water. Please call Hagan (202-224-3715) and ask her to proceed cautiously in this very important matter. Also, please call Senator Burr (202-224-3154) and tell him how much you appreciate his never ending support of our military. Another staunch supporter of our men and women in uniform is Rep. Richard Hudson (202-225-3715).
— Randy Biggerstaff

Kannapolis

Editor’s note: The numbers cited by Hagan come from two Department of Defense reports. The military officially recorded 3,374 sexual assaults in 2012. The estimate of 26,000 assaults comes from a separate military study in which a confidential survey was sent to 108,000 active-duty service members. Of those responding, 6.1 percent of women and 1.2 percent of men said they had experienced sexual assault in the past year, which the survey defined as everything from rape to “unwanted sexual touching” of genitalia, breasts, buttocks or inner thighs. Based on the confidential survey results, the Pentagon extrapolated that 12,100 of the 203,000 women on active duty in 1012 and 13,900 of the 1.2 million men on active duty had experienced some form of sexual assault.