1/5 Letters: We already bought the land. Why are we talking about selling it?

The Capital Group of the Sierra Club strongly supports retention of the South Wake Park Project (SWWP) property, purchased last summer by the Wake County Board of Commissioners, to provide a much needed park and open space in the south Wake area. It is our understanding that this park also has support of the mayors of Fuquay-Varina and Holly Springs, the Conservation Fund, and the Wake County Open Space and Parks Advisory Committees. We oppose selling this land a few months after it was bought by the Board of Commissioners.

The SWWP offers numerous benefits to Wake County citizens as a park: 4.5 miles of walking trails, old growth trees, ponds and streams, scenic bluffs and wetlands and a variety of habitat. Without the Board of Commissioners’ quick action last summer, the 143 acre property would have been lost forever in this rapidly developing portion of our county.

We encourage Wake County citizens to let the Wake County Commissioners know that you support preserving this already purchased property by e-mailing commissioners@wakegov.com or calling them at 919-856-6160 before they meet January 7th to consider this issue.

Harvey M. Richmond, Conservation Chair, Capital Group of the Sierra Club

Apex

Important distinction

Sha’arei Shalom in Cary, a member of the Union Messianic Jewish Congregations, was recently a victim of deplorable anti-Semitic violence. The admitted perpetrator should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, and, as a human being and a rabbi, my sympathies are with the victims: nobody should be made to feel afraid to practice their faith in our society.

Those statements are all true, and so is this one: the attack was on a church, or a messianic synagogue, not a synagogue. According to its website, the congregation is comprised of “devoted Jews, devoted to Yeshua” (aka “Jesus”); such a statement is an oxymoron. This is one (and perhaps the only) thing about which there is zero Jewish debate around the world and for the past 1,700 years of Jewish history. Labeling the congregation a “synagogue” (“Cary woman charged with vandalizing synagogue” Dec. 28) only magnifies ongoing Jewish pain caused by deliberate misappropriation of Jewish identity that is part of a long history of anti-Jewish proselytizing.

Daniel Greyber, rabbi of Beth El Synagogue

Durham

Protect our borders

Protecting our southern border is important to many Americans. However, porous walls and no walls makes it easier for illegal immigrants, drugs, gang members, and human trafficking to enter America.

Thousands are welcomed into America legally. However, those recently at the border have displayed arrogance and entitlement by trying to break our laws and force their way into America. Hundreds stormed the Tijuana/U.S. border. This rebellious attitude and disrespect for America’s laws is concerning.

We can’t allow people into America undocumented and “before” people waiting to come here legally. Border walls/fences have proven to help reduce illegal entry. Tell politicians to stop putting politics ahead of our safety, security, and rule of law. Tell them to compromise, as President Trump has already done, and fund the wall.

Diana Gilbert

Niceville

Any effort at all

In 2019, I call on Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis to do a better job — any job, really, just any amount of effort at all — at calling out President Trump on his many brazen lies and working to make our government operate on the basis of facts instead of talking points. For two years, Republicans have let their president get away with saying anything and everything. The silence on the part of Republicans is deafening. No one will forget this. I certainly never will.

I don’t do New Year resolutions, at least not in the sense of quitting something bad, but I do commit myself to focusing my energies somewhere I’ve neglected. In 2019, that’s going to be more outspoken activism and more holding my elected representatives accountable.

Michael G. Williams

Durham

Not only criminal

A recent letter writer (Impeachment) thinks that the constitutional prerequisites for impeaching a president — treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors — are all and only criminal activities. If this were true, one must explain why ordinary felonies are not included, while petty crimes are. The answer lies in the meaning of misdemeanor. Merriam-Webster tells us that in the eighteenth century, when the Constitution was written, more than today, it meant “evil conduct, misbehavior.”

So the real question then is: what constitutes misbehavior on the part of a president? The answer, of course, is pretty much what Congress can make stick. Sometimes they take it seriously, as during Watergate, and sometimes more frivolously and in a partisan manner, as they did with Bill Clinton. We shall see whether the Republican Senate takes their responsibilities seriously this year or merely circles the wagons.

David D Peterson

Durham

This story was originally published January 4, 2019 at 10:04 PM.