Football should be banned ‘for anyone younger than 18’

Regarding “Fedora says football under an ‘attack’ that could hurt country” (July 19): I believe it is time to end the sport of American football. I played football for a number of years and was lucky enough to pursue other sports before I incurred major brain trauma.

I also was fortunate enough to suggest my son not play football because of the chance of numerous injuries, before we learned about the risk due to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).

Parents should recognize the major risk of CTE. They should ensure their children do not play football; it is clearly not worth the risk to their children.

I also think we should consider legislation to ban the sport for anyone younger than 18 years old. No middle school or high school student should be exposed to the potential brain trauma from football.

Transparency problem

I recently experienced exactly what Colin Campbell describes in his excellent commentary “Here’s how to fix the General Assembly’s transparency problem” (July 16).

In a late-night vote in April 2017, the state Senate suddenly passed SJR 36, a North Carolina request for Congress to call an Article V “convention of the states.”

Without notice the vote was slickly accomplished at the midnight hour by fast-tracking SJR 36 through a rapid sequence of three closed-door committee meetings. They were scheduled so quickly that the public had no time to become informed, attend, testify or adequately respond.

One day before the last day of the session , a House Judiciary Committee meeting on SJR 36 was held with less than 24 hours’ notice to the public. One minute was allowed to me and to those few North Carolina citizens who, through constant vigilance, managed to make it to the meeting to speak to the issue.

The question of calling an Article V convention to alter or abolish the U.S. Constitution is the most critical issue in American government. Yet the sovereign people who created their state legislature were left in the dark or intentionally prevented from fully participating, as they are on so many other issues.

‘Helsinki truth’

Regarding “Trump shows he is a sad, embarrassing man” (July 18): You can’t “walk back” from Helsinki. Eyes of the world watched Trump put America last. In not challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denial of electoral interference, our president more than trashed his intelligence guardians; he betrayed his political base, the Republican Party and all the rest of us.

An astonished world learned the U.S. chief executive cannot be relied upon to serve, protect and defend the U.S. nor its long-term allies. Somebody’s got to do more than just try to figure out why President Trump has subordinated himself to Putin – we must deal with the fact that he has.

Isn’t our fate now up to the U.S. Congress? Shouldn’t Congress demand to know what Russian “priorities” the U.S. President single-handedly may have pledged us to in the Putin secret summit? Will the Senate assert its war and peace and trade powers and reach out to heal recently insulted UK, Canadian and German leaders?

Rather than beat up our judicial branch and security services to protect a flawed chief, why doesn’t the House urgently engage all counties and relevant experts to build across America a cyber wall against a 2018 repeat Russian invasion of our voter data and mechanisms? There’s no hiding from the Helsinki truth. Congress, our national security now depends on you.

‘No confirmation’

Regarding “Trump names Kavanaugh as Supreme Court pick” (July 10): How can Sen. Thom Tillis and Sen. Richard Burr justify voting to confirm the Supreme Court nominee of a president whose campaign and associates are under criminal investigation?

Moreover, I hope they abide by McConnell’s ‘rule’ which delays Supreme Court confirmations until after the upcoming election, so the American people can have a say as they select new Senators in some states.

Approving a Supreme Court nominee at this juncture, when Republicans denied a confirmation to a president in 2016 whose campaign was not under active investigation with multiple indictments, would prove a complete lack of integrity.

No confirmation until the new Senate has been seated in 2019.

This story was originally published July 19, 2018 at 12:02 PM.