1/4 Letters: Our governor opposes offshore drilling, and we have to listen to him.

The Trump administration, which received generous financial support from the fossil-fuel industry, approved five companies to harass marine mammals from New Jersey to Florida in order to conduct dangerous seismic blasting in search of oil deposits in the Atlantic. This is the first step toward opening our coast to offshore drilling and it flies in the face of years of opposition from coastal states whose economies rely on clean and healthy beaches and waters.

A bipartisan group of East Coast governors, including Gov. Cooper, sent a letter to the administration on Dec. 20 urging them to deny all seismic permit applications and to exclude the waters of the East Coast from the five-year oil and gas leasing plan.

Listening to governors when drawing up this plan is not just smart policy: it’s the law. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act says that granting of leases shall be based on eight factors, including: “…laws, goals, and policies of affected States … specifically identified by the Governors of such States as relevant matters for the Secretary’s consideration…”

And all but one governor on the East Coast has publicly opposed offshore drilling. It’s against the law to ignore them.

Paul Smith, Environmental Lawyer

Wilmington

Foreign affairs record

I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in neighboring Honduras when General Efrain Rios Montt became dictator/president of Guatemala in a 1982 coup. I gather from the Jan. 1 article that Congressman Pittenger supported this dictator (“Pittenger won’t run, even in a new 9th District primary”). It makes me wonder what the gatherings he organizes on security and terrorism really mean. While in Central America, the local newspapers printed a lot of articles on the massacres and murders occurring in Mayan villages by the Rios Montt government. Montt was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, but the conviction was overturned on technicalities. He died during his retrial in 2018. This history of US supported dictatorships and ongoing violence continues to be a reason Guatemalans continue to flee their homes seeking shelter in the U.S.

Loren Hintz

Chapel Hill

Backwards focus

One might question how the current occupants of the UNC campus assume they are the sole owners of that property? Seems that we as citizens of NC have some claim to ownership of the statue Silent Sam.

Regrettably, some of these current occupants have elected to make this statue a symbol of racism. In no way can their focus be seen as an effort to improve race relations! To the contrary, it seems to be detrimental to the very idea! It was only when some person of questionable intent resurrected a long forgotten speech by Julian Carr that they applied the stigma of racism to Silent Sam.

Removal of Silent Sam will not change the past. Surely it is time we move on to endeavors that will seek to improve the lot of those of us living today. Focusing on symbols of the past will not bring about positive changes in the present that we, hopefully, should all desire.

Dave Turnage

Elon

Institutionalized racism

Re: “Easing suspensions risks school safety,” (Dec. 2). Columnist J.. Peder Zane believes that racism is at most a minor factor in the 10 to 1 ratio of black vs. white school suspensions. Does he also believe that racism is a minor factor in the similarly unbalanced ratios between blacks and whites in accumulated family wealth, health care outcomes, incarceration, prison sentences for the same crimes, and imposition of the death penalty? Could it be that racism is more than a minor factor in his willingness to dismiss strong evidence of institutionalized racism?

Richard Kevin

Cary

Spine

I applaud Sen. Mitt Romney for telling it like it is. Although Romney supports conservative policies, he chastised President Trump for his behavior. Trump has become the laughing stock of the world, and our country has lost our position as the world’s finest example of democracy. If only other Republicans would have the spine to stand up against our embarrassing president.

Robert D. Brown, Ph.D.

Cary

An agent’s tenacity

The recent rejection of the N&O’s appeal regarding the six million dollar libel lawsuit won by SBI Special Agent Beth Desmond speaks volumes. The scathing findings by the Court of Appeals reflects that the evidence from the trial “tended to show that the primary objective of the defendants (The N&O) was sensationalism rather than the truth”. The Court of Appeals upheld the rights of citizens, including law enforcement officers, to protection from character assassination. Those looking for role models for women need to look no further than Agent Desmond. She possesses courage and tenacity, she faced uncertainty and intimidation and did not yield.

Curtis L. Ellis

Raleigh