NC Democrats must honor their pledge on redistricting reform. It must be nonpartisan.

Redistricting

Regarding “Is a top NC Democrat iffy on redistricting reform?” (Oct. 29 Opinion):

As far as I am concerned, this issue is not up for discussion. Members of the Fearrington Democratic Club met with the Democratic leadership in Raleigh about five years ago and they all assured us that when the Democrats gained control of the state legislature, they would change the redistricting procedure to be a fair and nonpartisan event. I know that this is not an easy task, but they must honor this pledge.

Ted Dunn, Pittsboro

Trump rallies

All of those who attended President Trump’s N.C. rallies are to be congratulated for exercising their right to attend. They also must be held accountable as a direct threat to the health and well-being of their families, close associates, and the people of North Carolina.

The majority in attendance did not wear masks and ignored social distancing. As a result, they are now a potential COVID-19 spreaders. The right to assemble and express your political opinion is fine with me, but choosing to be a threat is not.

David Pesapane, Durham

Joe Biden

The article, “Joe Biden: We can restore the soul of our nation” (Oct. 29 Opinion) occupies almost a fourth of a page and basically repeats Biden TV ads where he blames Republicans for society’s ills, real or imagined, and makes pie-in-the-sky promises to solve virtually every issue facing society today.

He claims to have a plan for everything, but has done little to provide details, especially the costs. In addition, he assumes the American people are gullible enough to believe these things can be accomplished without high cost to Americans with low or medium incomes.

Eric Hinesley, Raleigh

COVID testing

The president has frequently claimed that we have so many COVID-19 cases because we do so much more testing. Earlier in October we finally exceeded 1 million tests per day, a rate promised by early September.

It’s good to know that at this new high testing rate it’ll only take about a year to test everyone in the country once!

The concept that we have so many cases because we test so much is interesting; I wonder if the pregnancy rate would also be lower if we did less testing. And just think, we could finally have fewer cancers if we tested less!

Ken Schlecht, Durham

COVID surge

I am not qualified to answer the question of why there is a surge in COVID-19, but here is what I observed Tuesday while in a local paint store. There were two employees. Only one was wearing a mask in a correct manner. While I was there 10 to 15 customers came in. Not a single one was wearing a mask at all. I was the only customer wearing one. There is debate about whether masks work, but this is a fact: Masks will not work if they are not worn.

John Kelly, Sanford

Cal Cunningham

It figures Cal Cunningham would use the Bill Clinton/John Edwards defense of private life. To me he lost that right when he made his sex life public by sexting his lady friend and exposed it to the world of hackers. As a senator, could he ever be trusted not to do the same with sensitive or classified material he might be privy to?

John E. Bishop, New Bern

The Middle East

Regarding “Deal between Sudan and Israel focuses on economic ties” (Oct. 25):

The deal between Sudan and Israel will allow economic and trade deals, but the immediate tie is one between Sudan and the U.S. arms industry.

Sudan will buy weapons, and Israel, our best arms customer, will get weapons upgrades. Israel also gets another country that will have an incentive not to call it a rogue state for its violations of international law in its treatment of the Palestinians.

The new government of Sudan gets alienated from its people’s will, and the Palestinians get another blow from the U.S. government which cut funding to the United Nations organization that feeds it and runs its schools.

The Middle East gets more deeply militarized. A step towards U.S. arms industry profits is not a step toward peace in the Middle East or peace in the world as a whole.

Judith Ferster, Chapel Hill