COVID cases are spiking in NC. That can mean only one thing for the state fair.

Cancel the fair

North Carolina’s daily new COVID-19 cases have spiked dramatically. We’re now averaging a new reported case every 13 seconds, and another COVID death every 26 minutes. The last thing we need is an 11-day super-spreader event. So, as much as I hate admitting it, it’s time to cancel the state fair.

Dave Burton, Cary

GOP and vaccines

It appears that pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine folks fall along party lines. The chart published in the N&O Sept. 10 of COVID-19 patients in Charlotte area hospitals clearly demonstrates that science and vaccines work. Of the 933 people hospitalized currently, 92% are unvaccinated. Of the 126 people currently on life support, 97% are unvaccinated. I am struck by how some Republican leaders in this state and nationally continue to resist and even protest mask mandates and mandatory vaccines. They are killing their own constituents.

Lynn Cole, Raleigh

Texas abortion law

The Republican Party has done a good job of trying to paint all Democrats as socialists and communists. We now have an example of the pot calling the kettle black. To enforce the new Texas abortion law, the Texas legislature has taken a page out of the Communist Chinese playbook: Turn your neighbor in and be rewarded. In this case, it’s $10,000 if you sue someone who aided a woman to get an abortion and win the suit. The Texas legislature has chosen to enforce this law in the same fashion as a totalitarian state. We cannot let this happen in North Carolina.

Kristine Garrity, Calabash

Abortion in NC

An opportunity for our N.C. legislature to show Texas what “leadership” really means: Use all of the brainpower, money and passion currently put into trying to make abortion illegal and instead, focus it on making abortion unnecessary.

John Marlow, Raleigh

Afghanistan

There is much criticism of the Afghanistan war itself, even before the botched exit. But what was the alternative to the position the U.S. faced after 9/11? Surely, no one would suggest we chalk the event up to a bad day and go on with life.

Assuming that we sought to make al-Qaida pay for its crime by invading Afghanistan where it sheltered for years, what was to be done once bin Laden and his associates slipped over the border to Pakistan? Withdrawing at that point would have made no sense, for he likely would have crossed back into Afghanistan in short order.

The only realistic thing to do was to remain in the country for a period to prevent that. During that period, trying a bit of nation building seems like a sensible undertaking. I am not defending the many mistakes we made during that process over the last 20 years, but the critics of the war should recognize the Hobson’s choice we faced.

William Conner, Cary

Sen. Danny Britt

Republican Sen. Danny Britt is displeased with N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein, who has been collecting opioid settlement money, rightfully owed to the N.C. taxpayers, while at the same time trying to keep properly convicted criminals in jail. (Sept. 5)

Soon after I started work at the N.C. Department of Justice in 1977, then Attorney General Rufus Edmisten explained my duties with incarcerated criminals: “Police and sheriffs find ‘em, district attorneys prosecute and juries convict ‘em, and judges put ‘em in jail. We keep ‘em there.” That hasn’t changed. Unless they convince an appellate judge to have the process repeated, criminals do their time. That’s the payoff for taxpayers.

I challenge Britt to spend less energy seeking political advantage and more in support of Stein’s cost-effective approaches for keeping criminals off the streets and for guarding taxpayers’ pocketbooks against the wrongdoing of corporations.

Douglas Johnston, Raleigh

Wake GOP event

On Saturday, the Wake County GOP held a misguided fundraiser dubbed “‘Under the Oaks’ Hero’s Dinner.” You might think this is laudable, except the keynote speaker was Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is trying to undermine the state’s pistol purchase permit law. If that wasn’t bad enough, they raffled off handguns, an AR-15 style rifle and ammunition. This is unconscionable in light of the two recent high school shootings in Winston Salem and Wilmington resulting in the death of one student. If one considers that there have been only 15 high school shootings in the U.S. this year, with two of them in our state, North Carolina clearly has a gun control problem. What are the Wake County GOP and our lieutenant governor thinking?

Katherine Hayes, Raleigh

Congress

It’s easy for Congress to get side-tracked in Washington. Some lawmakers have directed their attention towards antitrust legislation targeting technology companies. It is concerning that this is at the forefront of their agendas when there are clearly other issues that need immediate attention — climate change, infrastructure, public health, just to name a few.

There is certainly a time to discuss technology policies, but we should do so when there is adequate time. We should all hope to see our leadership in Washington keep their eye on the ball.

Cameron Thomas, Raleigh