Letters: Tenants also have a role in evictions

With respect to the opinion piece on evictions (“We have an eviction crisis in NC”, Sept. 21), it is well documented the city of Raleigh has an affordable housing problem. My brother and I are shutting our rental business down after 10 years of service providing middle class and section 8 housing to lower income people. The court system is in favor of people who don’t pay their rent and you can’t conduct business that way in the affordable housing market.

A few bad apples do indeed spoil the bunch. Let’s not vilify people who really are in business to help others but absolutely have to make money to afford repairs, upgrades, taxes and insurance. For those that are unfortunately evicted, take a hard look at what happened. I don’t know many fellow landlords who have evicted tenants who were experiencing temporary hard times or medical problems if the tenants communicated and worked out a plan with their landlord. If the city wants more affordable housing, they need to get into understanding the business of renting.

J.D. Howard

Raleigh

Tillis and Kavanaugh

As a woman who was sexually assaulted as a 12 year old (and who never reported), I have been watching with emotion this past week as Tillis and most other Republican senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee have closed ranks around a Supreme Court nominee who very well may be an abuser. Tillis has seemed totally uninterested in how Brett Kavanaugh’s behavior “back then” very much might reflect on whether he deserves to sit in the most honored of American seats. And now, I see that Tillis says that the “Democrats never supported a fair process.” This is gaslighting. Tillis seems to be saying that it is not President Trump or the GOP’s fault that they nominated a man who seemingly has/had a significant drinking problem and little respect for women (nice yearbook!), but instead it is the Democrats who dare to bring it up. Shame on Tillis. He knows this man is not worthy for this job. I urge him do his job and say we deserve someone better!

Rebecca Showalter

Raleigh

Fake news

How could Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh be such a lush and wind up being first in his class in high school and graduate from Yale? He is a good man, a good judge, a good husband and father. Stop trying to destroy another human being’s life. I do, now, believe our president is correct about “fake” news. The news reporters of yesteryear are gone. Just no morals or ethics anymore.

Joanne Boyle

Raleigh

Monumental truth

On a recent visit to the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS, I came across a plaque placed at the base of their Confederate statue. Bearing in mind that Ole Miss are the “Rebels,” and that the Mississippi state flag incorporates the Confederate battle flag, this plaque is particularly poignant.

It states that “these monuments were often used to promote an ideology known as the ‘Lost Cause’ which claimed that the Confederacy had been established to defend states’ rights and that slavery was not the principal cause of the Civil War… Although the monument was created honor the sacrifice of local Confederate soldiers, it must also remind us that the defeat of the Confederacy actually meant freedom for millions of people… Today, the University of Mississippi draws from that past a continuing commitment to open its hallowed halls to all who seek truth, knowledge, and wisdom.”

The university has similarly placed interpretative plaques at other locations on campus. Other southern universities, such as the University of Virginia, are memorializing the role of enslaved peoples in their history. There is much that the UNC system and its campuses can and should do in a similar vein.

H. Christopher Frey,

Raleigh

The writer is a professor of environmental engineering at N.C. State University.

Nonnative plants

It’s hard to know where to begin after reading the September 11, 2018 N&O article (“Wake County wants residents to avoid nonnative plants”) about new Wake County properties being restricted to using only native plant in landscaping. The article mentioned diversity, yet the entire focus was about restricting diversity.

I find it fascinating that our society promotes diversity when it comes to humans and edible plants, but decries the absolute need to restrict diversity when it comes to ornamental plants. City, county, and state borders are geopolitical…they have absolutely nothing to do with plant nativity or adaptability.

Secondly, plant nativity is not a place, but a place in time. To call a plant native, you must consider nature as static (never changing), and then pick a random set of dates that you consider to be “ideal”. Most of the plants currently considered native to Wake County today, actually became distinct species tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years ago. The current conditions are nothing like the conditions then.

Tony Avent

Raleigh

The writer is the owner of Plant Delights Nursery and a former garden columnist for the News & Observer.

This story was originally published October 2, 2018 at 2:03 PM.