Regarding “2 more GOP senators oppose health bill, killing it for now” (July 18): Thanks are due to U.S. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., for not supporting the passage of the GOP health care reform legislation that was roundly criticized by physician groups, medical insurers and hospitals as potentially disastrous for the country. With so many of their Republican colleagues in the Senate apparently ready to vote for this bill regardless of its many flaws, I have to wonder if North Carolina Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis were at the ready to support it as well.

Is their party more important than the people they represent? The complexity of health care reform requires a bipartisan and careful approach for successful change, not politics as usual and maneuvering for advantage in the next election cycle. The quality of leadership in the senate is in question. I would suggest to those who would act as sheep that the shepherd might well be the wolf.

Leave UNC Center alone

Regarding “5 alternatives for changes at the UNC Center for Civil Rights” (July 9): The alternatives offered to the UNC Center for Civil Rights make one thing abundantly clear: These are tactics aimed at shutting down the center, not finding ways to help it survive. None of the proposed “alternatives” allow the center to operate as it currently does while also satisfying critics. Opponents argue that the center’s courtroom work doesn’t align with the education mission of UNC.

The UNC mission reads in part: “We invest our knowledge and resources to enhance access to learning and to foster the success and prosperity of each rising generation.” It seeks to extend its services “to enhance the quality of life for all people in the state.” In 2013, the center brought a class-action suit on behalf of parents of students over racial segregation in schools in Pitt County. I fail to see how litigation like this does not comport with the university’s mission to “enhance access to learning.” The university’s ultimate mission? “To improve society and to help solve the world’s greatest problems.” I would think a center which aims to secure social, economic and environmental justice for low-income and minority families would fulfill the university mission perfectly.

Rev. Barber a ‘troublemaker’

Regarding “NAACP’s Rev. Barber says praying for Trump ‘borders on heresy’” (July 18): Rev. William Barber is not doing God’s work if he thinks people should not pray for their leaders. He shouldn’t call himself a minister if he is spewing hate. He should quit hiding behind the robe and just say what he really is: A troublemaker.