12/4 Letters: Let Confederate group have Silent Sam, but not a cent of public money
Silent Sam
So, the North Carolina division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans wants Silent Sam? Let them have it — but not a cent of public money.
It’s despicable for any university funds to go toward preserving and displaying a monument that glorifies the Confederacy’s attempt to maintain slavery.
If Sons of Confederate Veterans wants the statue displayed so badly, let them pay for it from their own pockets and with donations from like-minded defenders of slavery.
Peter Aitken, Chapel Hill
A piece of history
Regarding “Tunnel vision trips UNC system leaders,” (Dec. 1 Editorial):
I’m not arguing that Silent Sam should have ever been returned to the UNC campus, as it had become a lighting rod for controversy and it made no sense to continue to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into protecting and repairing it. However, to say it should have been “hauled off for recycling” is really just another example of how out of touch this newspaper is.
The monument is a piece of N.C. history that represents a very divisive period in this state and nation. History is history and you can’t change it, but you can learn from it.
Will all the Civil War monuments and battlefields in this state be removed because some people don’t want to acknowledge the war ever happened?
Jeff Hill, Bahama
Wasted tax dollars
I am writing to complain about the waste of our tax dollars on investigating President Donald Trump.
Didn’t we also elect Congress to do its job — create bills, programs, etc. that benefit the wishes and needs of constituents? I haven’t seen anything positive come out of Congress since Trump was elected, probably even longer. Congress has been obsessed with investigations instead of providing leadership and support.
When will they begin doing what we, the American public, elected them to do? Stop wasting our tax dollars. I’m fed up.
Ron Flitcraft, Cary
Thom Tillis
Sen. Thom Tillis claims that impeachment is a political exercise to “distract” from all the great things President Trump has done and from results North Carolinians care about.
I am a North Carolinian, and I care about corruption in the White House. I care that Tillis does not see the blatant corruption going on right before his eyes. Now is the opportunity to get Trump out of office and try to right all these wrongs.
Does Tillis not believe the credible witness accounts from career ambassadors? From war veterans? The emperor has no clothes and if Tillis continues to let things go on like this, I pray he’ll soon be out of office too.
Holly Rollins, Durham
Solar energy
A recent column by Ned Barnett asserted that North Carolina is losing ground on renewable energy and blamed the state’s regulated utility framework. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
No other company has done more than Duke Energy to bring solar power onto the grid. Duke has already connected more than 3,000 megawatts of solar in the state. This number will more than double in the next few years under legislation that will advance solar development at competitive rates to benefit customers.
More than 13,000 solar facilities are connected to our grid and we’ve also distributed more than $17 million in solar rebates to 3,500 customers for rooftop projects. These numbers will only get bigger.
As a result, North Carolina is No. 2 in the nation in solar capacity after California. Not bad for a regulated electric utility.
We believe the state’s regulatory model could always be improved to allow for the significant grid investments needed to coincide with the addition of renewable energy resources. However, this model along with pro-renewable energy policies and collaboration among stakeholders made North Carolina No. 2 in solar. Our goal is to continue this important work to ensure that N.C. remains a leader in renewable energy for years to come.
Stephen De May,
Duke Energy’s N.C. president
Thanksgiving history
I read with frustration “Some NC schools changing the way they teach Thanksgiving” (Nov. 27).
It seems Lauryn Mascareñaz of the Wake County school system thinks today’s children should not grow up “thinking that Native Americans and Pilgrims sat down at a table together and everything was fine.”
I’m sorry, but even a cursory look at original accounts tells me that’s exactly what happened at Plymouth Plantation in autumn 1621 when 50 surviving Pilgrims feasted for three days with 90 Native Americans. It’s painfully true that later that century when settlers flooded New England, they stole land and crowded out Native American tribes. But revising the history of the Pilgrims to suit the agenda of the United American Indians of New England doesn’t seem to be a good way to educate our children.
Allen J. Riordan, Raleigh