12/6 Letters: Gerrymandering remains under current NC plan. That should upset voters.
Gerrymandering
Our congressional seats used be gerrymandered 10-3 in favor of Republicans. Now they’re gerrymandered 8-5 in favor of Republicans. Voters should be upset that everyone seems to know how the election will go long before candidates have filed and voters have voted.
Free and fair elections should mean that outcomes are not predictable, that candidates win or lose based on their ideas, their character and their campaigns. If there are no cliff-hanger elections, then we still have gerrymandered districts.
Becky Harper, Cary
GOP partisanship
Partisanship has been blamed for creating an unfair impeachment process as Democrats fall in line against the current occupant of the White House. But why doesn’t the same argument apply to Republicans who mindlessly queue up on the opposing side despite all evidence and rational thought?
It is a far greater disservice to our country to deny, deflect, and defend these incredible actions by a president. Are we to believe that Republicans would tolerate this litany of bad behavior if the parties were reversed? From the people who chanted, “Lock her up!”?
Elizabeth Austin, Durham
Duke’s solar plan
Regarding “Solar energy,” (Dec. 4 Forum):
Hmm, world-class spin from Duke Energy’s Stephen DeMay. Duke is foot-dragging on grid modernization hoping we’ll all support their plan to keep us tethered to fossil fuels piped in to their brand new generation plants fueled by “clean” “natural” gas.
Let’s all remember their bad faith in the merger with Progress Energy. Let’s also not forget their abysmal performance in the mismanagement of coal ash. But now we’re supposed to trust them?
Here’s an idea for North Carolina: Why don’t we just invest in solar directly. If Duke can’t figure out how to do it, let’s use our tax dollars to find folks who can and will.
Vonna Viglione, Raleigh
Renewable energy
Regarding “As the climate change looms, NC is losing ground on renewable energy,” (Nov. 25 Opinion):
I think the challenge in pressuring privatized utility companies into making the switch to renewable energy lies directly in the hands of consumers.
If you don’t like Duke Energy’s fossil-fuel intensive model of running business, start communicating with your municipality and county governments to start looking into options of bringing the grid back under their control. This strategy has worked in Boulder, Colorado and is making its waves across the nation.
Our country needs an overhaul in how it handles energy production and consumption. Consumers need choice in how their energy is created. The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act won’t answer all of those questions but it will provide a sustainable economic model that can be improved over time while decreasing our dependency on non-renewables.
Casey Johannesen, Cary
Senate inaction
I agree with the author of “Wasted tax dollars,” (Dec. 4 Forum). Congress is spectacularly ineffective, but I see a stark difference in root cause.
The House has passed over 400 bills since January 2017 and a mere 70 of them have even come to a vote in the Senate. Depending on your perspective, these bills may be good or bad but they achieved a majority of support in the House and it would certainly be useful to hear the rationale of senators behind a vote for or against each bill.
However, we are denied that because they’ve not been given the courtesy of a vote. The Senate majority leader, elected by a majority of the 3 million eligible voters in Kentucky, gets to dictate the entire legislative process for 190 million voters in America. Wasted tax dollars, indeed.
John Marlow, Raleigh
Silent Sam
Having lived my entire life below the Mason-Dixon Line, I take a back seat to no one in my Southern heritage, but it seems past time to give up the mythologized “Old South.” If the UNC System board wanted to bestow the Silent Sam statue on some organization dedicated to preserving the myth, well so be it, but how much could have been accomplished by spending the money on some university need?
Perhaps the board could give itself the gift of a reality check. They might be better off for it.
Charles Murphy, Durham
UNC endowment
I am an alumnus of the UNC-Chapel Hill (Ph.D. 1973). The university system can now be assured that I will not be donating anything to its endowment fund.
The UNC System board has decided to use the interest on that fund to set up a trust to give $2.5 million to the N.C. Sons of Confederate Veterans to buy a site, build a structure to enshrine Silent Sam, and build its own headquarters.
I want no part of that.
Leslie G. Carr, Chapel Hill