… Salisbury Police Chief Collins stepping down

Chief Collins’ retirement is the right choice for the city and I wish him well in the future. Whoever replaces him needs to be supported by everyone in the city and given some breathing room to make changes at SPD. Unless his replacement has already been selected, I hope the city manager considers John Noble as either the interim or full-time replacement for Chief Collins.

— Pete Hoffman

Who can blame Chief Collins? A fine man, no longer willing to deal with the crybullies.

— Tim Deal

… ‘My heart just fell apart,’ Parisian says

Thanks for your perspective, Annick Nurisso. If you let terrorists stop you from doing what you love, then they have won.

— Robin Franco

France is lucky. Both the US and France have socialist presidents, but Holland is a leader. Obama is clueless.

— Stephen Owen

My heart broke for you!

— Sue Smith

… Rowan’s prayer lawsuit shifted focus

Open the meetings the same way the U.S. Congress does for God’s sake. Appoint a chaplain to say the opening prayers, get on with county business, and stop wasting tax payer money over nonsense.

— Reginald Brown

Why do Christians fight for a religious rather than secular government? Where does Jesus or the Bible direct such a practice? Religious practices are personal. Prayer is a worshipful activity. What part of government is worshipful and warrants prayer?

I’ve been a Christian all my life, but I’ve never felt that our government was in any way connected to my personal relationship with Christ. I equate a religious government with Islam, where one must pray and practice as some religious authority dictates.

— Cathy Mahaffey

… Bruce LaRue: Simply raising my hand

Can we agree that Bruce LaRue is not a climatologist and does not know more about climate science than people who have spent their whole lives studying it? Can we agree that it is pretty conceited for Bruce LaRue to suggest that he knows more about the effect of the sun on climate than people who have doctorates in meteorology? Can we agree that Bruce LaRue has very little interest in what science is, and how it works?

— Luke Hamaty

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/climate-change/special-issue/

— Karen Puckett

It is the greatest conspiracy in the history of man. Hundreds of scientific organizations, tens of thousands of papers, all wrong. All those scientists with their magic decoder rings and secret handshakes, going to hidden meetings to plan what doctored data to use next.

— George Roberts

… Editorial: Where should refugees go?

They should stay in their own country and fight for what’s theirs. When our own Civil War broke out, did Americans flee to Syria and other Muslim countries to escape the violence? Of course not.

And don’t forget, the Obama administration, the liberal media and liberals in general were in full support of that whole stupid “Arab Spring” fiasco to start with, and now that it’s failed (as we said from the beginning that it would), liberals want to bring them all into our own country.

—Steve Pender

Muslims should stay in their own country or go to another Muslim country. Young male Muslim men coming here as refugees? Maybe children and old folks, but not young fighting age males. This is an invasion.

— Larry Wright

… “In God We Trust” motto goes up in China Grove town hall

No offense intended to the writer of this article, but if the media would quit making such a big deal out of things like this, the atheists would not start campaigns to stop them. Now just watch them come in and try to take this off the walls of all city buildings. … The media causes most of the problems….

— Edie Edie

Why is this OK? Aside from its your past and your belief why is it OK? Would it be OK if it said in Allah we trust? Or in Athena we trust? Or in Odin we trust? That would never happen, because the majority of people do not follow the path. I don’t either but I can see from the sidelines how I feel this is unfair.

— Chris Barringer

It’s not OK as far as I’m concerned.

It’s OK as far as the courts are concerned because they have ruled that “the motto has no theological or ritualistic impact” (Aronow v. United States, 1970), and is therefore immune to First Amendment scrutiny.

No, of course that doesn’t make any sense. However, the court knew that if they acknowledged the obvious religious character of the motto, they would have to declare the motto unconstitutional. Presto, change-o! “In God We Trust” doesn’t say anything about anybody trusting in God, because the court said so, so the First Amendment can go jump.

— Scott McKellar

All for it; now find a place for the Ten Commandments.

— Diane Karriker

How about this, if you do not live in China Grove, don’t worry about it.

— Jerry Garrett

… Hudson’s refugee bill attracts attention, veto threat on Capitol Hill

The citizens of the United States do not want the refugees in our country period,Mr. Hudson!

— Phillip Bradshaw

… After 5 motions, school board approves dedication plaque

The seven-member Board of Education (BOE) had long and deep discussions on the issue of who should or should not be on the plaque in the Central Office Building (COB).

Believing that Mrs. Kay Norman deserved recognition for her 20 plus years of service on the BOE, I made a motion to add a stand-alone plaque with her name and tenure. When my motion failed, I joined three others and voted for what I believed to be the next best thing — the multi-board members option.

Many argued that “since there were so many others who ‘fought for the COB’, it would not be fair to exclude them. Therefore, only the names of the current board should be displayed.” I challenged this assertion.

While it is true that previous boards, over many years, “talked about” the COB and its importance to downtown Salisbury, it was not until the members of the 2012-2016 board took action, despite my resistance, that shovels were finally put in the ground.

… We now need to move on to more important school issues.

— Chuck Hughes

… Old Beatty Ford Road exit close to being funded

An “exit to nowhere.” Beatty Ford Road is narrow and twisty and unsuitable for heavy traffic. I guess it will “spur economic growth” much like the “growth” at Webb Road and Peach Orchard Road.

— Ron Turbyfill

This is a potential economic boost for southern Rowan County that is likely to substantially stem the current retail leakage to Cabarrus County. Kudos to the State and local officials who have pushed for this economic boon!

— Jeff Morris