6/5: Wakefield High School vandalism questioned in the face of history

Regarding the May 31 news article “Teddy bear hung, stadium and baseball field damaged”: It is difficult for me to understand the why behind the swastika spray painting and the teddy bear hanging at Wakefield High School. America fought a civil war, with thousands of young men – some of them probably the age of these Wakefield High students – fighting against slavery and the hanging of black men against their civil rights.

Americans also fought in World War II to defeat the Axis powers who were against free people of the world , signified by the swastika. This was the German regime guilty of the mass killing of millions of Jews in the Holocaust. Again, young men not much older than high school boys were drafted or enlisted in the military to help stop such cruelty that had come into this world. This symbol is an evil sign of an evil way of life. There is no place for it in this land. What caused this ignorance of our past history? Did high school history classes not teach about these two evils? I assume they did, so were these young people disinterested in classes about American history, and failed to grasp what they were doing? I would hope that they didn’t pick up these ideas from parental remarks.

I don’t know whom to blame for such actions. I would hope that these young people will take some time to really study history. If they do, I cannot imagine they would ever again do such terrible and unthinking acts. I am 90 years old, and I was a GI in Wold War II. I hope that the factors that led up to such acts of war will be no more.

‘First in gerrymandering’

Regarding the May 23 Under the Dome article “High court affirms 2011 N.C. districts race-based”: The Republican leadership in the General Assembly continues to put forth highly gerrymandered districts. And then the GOP blames the courts for not specifying the definition of illegal gerrymandering.

Calls for proposals to set up a nonpartisan panel go nowhere, despite have bipartisan support. So North Carolina just continues with the system it has had for centuries – with more taxpayer dollars for attorneys in court cases and appeals. Like most voters in North Carolina, I do not want gerrymandered districts from any party. But state Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore do not seem to want democracy. Their actions speak far louder than their words; they want the GOP in power forever. Perhaps they will all approve of a new license tag, showing the shape of one of our finest, snake-like districts. Yes, I advocate for a new license tag: “North Carolina: First in Gerrymandering!”

This story was originally published June 4, 2017 at 6:00 PM with the headline "6/5: Wakefield High School vandalism questioned in the face of history."