12/26 Letters: We need infrastructure repairs, not a wall.

Sens. Burr and Tillis should help President Trump keep his campaign pledge to create a trillion dollar infrastructure program.

Roads are in disrepair; bridges in every state are unfit for traffic; I-95 is a nightmare to travelers, despite widening projects! In Mississippi, 50 local bridges have been closed, endangering the lives of American citizens by more than doubling the time for an emergency vehicle to get to a rural location.

We need hundreds of billions of dollars for infrastructure projects not a border wall along the Mexican border. Again, help Trump keep his campaign pledge that Mexico will pay for the wall, not our tax dollars.

Lou Giglio

Raleigh

Beyond either/or

2019 means a fresh start. We are at an American divide; tradition with blinders on versus angry change for change’s sake. Can there be only only absolute winners or absolute losers. Is there no common ground?

The faculty, students and their supporters need to have some perspective on Julian Carr’s speech. Carr was the last of five speakers. The main speaker was Governor Locke. His words are, unlike Carr’s, barely known: ”Ours is the task to build a State… that demands justice… for… all her people…whose awakened conscience shall lead …a new social order, with finer development for all classes of our people.” If Silent Sam only goes away or back up, will we have moved forward on racism, or just left lingering anger to ignite again? It must be something beyond “either/or.”

Creativity takes over… a holographic Silent Sam? A virtual reality lunch counter sit-in? McCorkle Place designated as a place of peaceful, thoughtful discussion of racism and non-violent protest? Who knows?

Lester Levine

Chapel Hill

In this together

Let’s downshift from Trump, Silent Sam and other news, to a verse from Stephen Grellet.

“I shall pass through this world but once,/Any good thereof that I can do, or any kindness that I can show,/ Let me not defer or neglect it,/ For I shall not pass this way again.”

We have many differences; young, old; fortunate, unfortunate; right-wing, left-wing; well-off, struggling; religious, not religious, but at the end of the day, we are all in this together — people passing through, people with choices and opportunities to better ourselves, but others, as well.

George Brooks

Raleigh

UNC exception

The Board of Governors has saved UNC-Chapel Hill from one its worst decisions. Displayed anywhere on campus, Silent Sam would stir anger, protest, and demonstrations. The likelihood of vandalism and danger to life and limb would increase over time.

The solution is for the legislature to grant UNC-Chapel Hill an exception to the law prohibiting the relocating of public memorials. There are pressing reasons to do so immediately.

After this year’s controversies, which metastasized while the university dithered and opposition grew, the legislature has little choice. If Silent Sam returns to be displayed, it will forever associate our great university with Jim Crow, racism, and rebellion. Over time, many desirable scholars and teachers will hesitate to join our faculty. Many outstanding students, particularly African Americans, may make the same choice. The presence of the statue would, over time, politicize the university and alienate it from many citizens. Respect for the university will decline as its quality and reputation diminish.

Having created this problem, the legislature can solve it to preserve the quality of the university, for their own children, and for all North Carolinians.

Richard H. Kohn, UNC Professor Emeritus of History and Peace, War, and Defense

Durham

Investigation needed

On Dec. 17, supporters of the North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture (NCCIT) delivered citizen petitions to Attorney General Josh Stein. The petitions ask him to take action on the commission’s recommendations to investigate Aero Contractors, the CIA-affiliated company based at the Johnston County Airport. With flights originating from that public airport and the Global TransPark in Kinston, NCCIT documented Aero’s involvement in kidnapping 49 persons for rendition and torture (see www.nctorturereport.org).

We cannot allow this practice in our state nor can we remain complicit. Our president boasts that waterboarding is acceptable. He appointed, and the Senate confirmed, Gina Haspel as CIA Director despite her having overseen a secret Thailand site known for subjecting detainees to waterboarding. Silence and inaction puts our state in jeopardy.

Despite the president’s assertions, torture is illegal, immoral, and ineffective. On a practical level, it breeds more terrorists, puts our own troops in harm’s way, and undermines our foreign policy. No individual or agency is above the law. Stein and Gov. Roy Cooper have the power and means to hold entities such as Aero accountable so our state will never again be associated with senseless and sadistic torture. They must act now.

Curt Torell

Carrboro