Honor Guard represented North Carolina well

This past Aug. 25-29, I had the honor of taking a drill team from the Rowan County Veterans Honor Guard to Ohio to defend our national title in advancing and retrieving the colors. Although we lost to California by eight-tenths of a point, we can hold our heads high for representing the state of North Carolina.

I could not have asked for a harder-working, more dedicated team. In addition to conducting 299 funerals last year, we were asked to present colors at Catawba football, Carson football and graduation, post colors for the American Legion State Convention and three games of the Legion World Series in Shelby. We still carved out time to practice, beginning in January, for the national competition in August.

Team members consist of Charles Cauble, Charles Quinn, James Douglas, Harold Andrews, Lewis Reid, John Pharr and myself.

— Bill Lane

Salisbury

Nearing time to act

If you have not been watching TV (there may be one person “high on a top in Tennessee”), let that lone uninformed soul know that a presidential election campaign is burning the ears of the populace, but that populace must make a decision to choose America’s leader for the next four years.

Our planet is in a world of hurt, so our new leader will face a mess, in America’s geopolitical and domestic situations. Our chosen leader will face all the actions all the previous presidents have left us to solve, especially the last two administrations, for example the $8 trillion borrowed and spent with no plan to pay it back to our debtors (guess we will have to give all our national parks to our creditors). Woe is me.

Both leading nominees have a  bad set of baggage that goes with the candidate. Hill has bad baggage that dates back to the days of Arkansas land deals, as well, high dealings; her failed work to get legislation through Congress for health insurance. She was a New York senator who did nothing, a secretary of state who messed up there, including loss of several thousand e-mails (many classified, more on that later) and lost four Americans in Libya who could have been saved (later on that).

Ole Don is no saint either — big mouth, easily makes enemies, has big plans. It seems only Don knows how to fix the problems. He cites problems that need fixing and those problems may be too big to fix. Like the idea Don has no political bureaucratic experience.

Hill had too darn much political bureaucratic experience. Give Don a chance to try something different. He cannot be worse than what we possibly face — a 12-span political train wreck.

— Tyrus Cobb Jr.

Salisbury

NCAA shows hypocrisy

China, a country with a record on human rights that is on par with some of the most hateful groups in world history, is a place where the NCAA pushes hard for games.

According to a human rights report for 2015, China not only punishes peaceful protests, but also has arrested and interrogated attorneys and activists of human rights. The Chinese government has labeled these advocates of democracy as criminals.

Yet, the same NCAA — not to mention the NBA — that sanctioned a game in China and has been pushing for more games in the country will both pull championships from North Carolina yet stay completely silent on China’s record.

What does this tell you about the NCAA? They will stay silent in order to make money. Liberal hypocrisy at its finest.

— Lucas Beam

Salisbury