When it comes to the toppling of Silent Sam, enforce ‘rule of law’

Regarding “Board gives UNC leaders deadline to have ‘lawful and lasting’ plan for Silent Sam” (Aug. 29): The statue should be reinstalled, but not on its former pedestal which should be left and preserved as it stands. Sam should be conspicuously placed in a building frequented by students during the day and locked and secured at night. The lobby of Wilson Library might be considered.

The vandals who pulled the statue down should be prosecuted in court, fined and/or jailed. Student participants should be expelled from the University, or at least suspended.

The rule of law must be respected and enforced. To do otherwise will only encourage more unlawful protests and anarchy. The history of student involvement in the Civil War, the “War of Northern Aggression,” should be highlighted. Student soldiers (like Sam) did not fight to preserve slavery – they fought to protest the unlawful invasion of their homeland. It is educators’ responsibility to reveal and publicize historical truth.

‘Time to act’

We write in response to the toppling of Silent Sam on the UNC campus on August 20th. We support the nonviolent actions of those who took the statue down. Those of us in this community who believed that he did not belong in a public place on this campus have been frustrated by the inaction of UNC officials over the past months.

What is it like for African American members of the UNC community to be reminded regularly by Silent Sam of the history of racism – slavery, promise of freedom, Jim Crow, lynching, Civil Rights Era, re-segregation and mass incarceration? Racism is still not eradicated in this day.

We, members of a Chapel Hill faith community, seek to follow a man named Jesus who, at every turn, identified with the outcasts and spoke truth to power. He did not wait until a convenient time to speak or act. We believe it was time to act in ridding the UNC campus of a very public Silent Sam.

We pray that protests over the statue will be non-violent in the future. We support placing a placard in place of the statue, reminding us of what once stood there and what it stood for.

Stop abuse

I was horrified to read “Abuse of migrants in US detention centers has to stop” (Aug. 27). The treatment the author describes is something one might expect in some third-world country. It is unimaginable that we in the U.S. are committing such horrific abuses of men, women and children of all ages.

No one should be treated in these ways, regardless of ethnicity, criminal history or migrant status. And all of this in the name of protecting our borders.

It does indeed have to stop or we can no longer call ourselves the “land of the free and home of the brave.”

Pass LAMP

In North Carolina, too many small and mid-size farmers have difficulty getting their food to buyers, such as grocery stores, schools, restaurants and even directly to consumers.

As policy director at the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, I’ve seen how the farm bill can boost or crush efforts to build a local food supply chain. Food grown and sold locally is good for farmers, consumers and the environment, so I support a critical program proposed in the 2018 Farm Bill: the Local Agricultural Market Program (LAMP).

Recent farm bills have made small financial investments in the local supply chain. As a result, Triangle residents have more farmers’ markets accepting SNAP and doubling the value of SNAP dollars at farmers’ markets. Entrepreneurs have started or expanded food hubs that aggregate fresh food from many small farmers to meet demand with the help of farm bill programs. Our schools serve local food because the 2014 farm bill helped small and mid-size farmers get the food safety certifications schools required in order to serve students their food.

If LAMP is included in the 2018 farm bill, we could continue to see improvements in access to healthy, local foods. However, if it’s left out, it could gut major investments in our local supply chain – from farmers to transporters to consumers.

Local farmers are a necessary component of a strong economy . Without LAMP, our local food supply chain will suffer. Help me shine a LAMP on local food by calling your congressman on September 4 to make sure LAMP stays in the 2018 Farm Bill.