Â鶹´«Ã½ speaks up: Letters to the editor for the week of Jul. 4, 2025
- Updated
Our weekly round-up of letters published in the Â鶹´«Ã½ News Herald.
- Updated
People’s humanity has been stripped
Â鶹´«Ã½ Editor,
I know there are good, kind, thoughtful people who are Republicans. I know them as friends. How they can be a part of or support what their party is doing to our country is beyond my understanding.
The Republican Party supports and reinforces a president who is morally corrupt, vile, vulgar, has no integrity, honor, lies constantly, normalizes breaking the rule of law, corruption, cruelty, and self-interest above all else.
America has stood for individual dignity, the rule of law, and each individual’s right to due process. No more. People’s humanity has been stripped from them. They are “poisoning our blood, murderers, rapists, gang members, eating our pets, horrible people.†So, people can be snatched from our streets with no rights and put in horrible gulags in Central America. Students who protest Trump’s actions can be forcibly taken off the street and put in prison. State sponsored torture and inhuman treatment is normalized.
The Republican Party supports denial of climate change as affecting our planet. “It is a hoax.†“Drill, baby drill.†The party supports destroying the EPA, repealing clean air and clean water regulations, turning back renewable energy, electric vehicle progress, and making it easier for big oil, big coal, to destroy our environment. They have no care for the future of our children. Trump promised oil executives deregulation of environmental restrictions in return for contributions.
Republicans support unconstitutional punishment of universities that do not do Trump’s bidding, accept MAGA restrictions on what is taught, who is hired, or refuse to eliminate any mention of the concepts of equity or diversity. Republicans support Trump’s use of the power of the presidency to punish — destroy law firm’s ability to represent clients he does not like. That is denial of the right to legal representation — a right, until Trump, cherished by Americans.
The Republican budget bill — Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill†— according to the CBO will raise the deficit by 2.4 trillion dollars and increase the debt by nearly $3 trillion. It is the largest upward transfer of wealth in America’s history.
It benefits the wealthiest Americans by cutting Medicaid by billions, resulting in 13.7 million low-income families losing health care insurance. It cuts $300 billion from Supplemental Nutrition for low-income families, resulting in 2.7 million households losing nutrition support and millions of children going hungry. Low-income households will lose more than $1,600 a year while the top 1% will gain nearly $12,000 a year, according to the CBO.
The Big Beautiful Bill cuts funding for Job Corp, which provides job training, housing and jobs for low-income young people. It cuts funding for AmeriCorps, which provides idealistic young people with volunteer opportunities for U.S. communities. It cuts funding for Pell Grants, Tenant-Based Rental Assistance and Low Income Housing Energy Assistance.
The Big Beautiful Bill requires the sale of 3.3 million acres of public land plus 258 million acres of public land over the next five years, all without hearings, debate or public input. It gives Trump the power to revoke National Monument protection, resulting in another 13.5 million acres of protected land up for purchase.
Republicans support of defunding — destroying — USAID has resulted in more than 80% of U.S. Global Health Awards being terminated, leading to a collapse of U.S. programs for HIV, tuberculosis, reproductive health care, disease outreach response and malnutrition. The result in human terms is more than 103 children an HOUR dying of starvation — about 300,000 dying so far — 1,500 babies a day born HIV positive and an increase in infectious disease in starving children.
Loss of USAID means life or death for millions of children. Save The Children reports cholera outbreaks in Africa. Doctors Without Borders report that the Trump administration has “taken a wrecking ball completely destroying the infrastructure, the ability to follow up and availability of resources to the world’s most vulnerable.â€
The Big Beautiful Bill moves money upward and into the White Nationalist project of expelling immigrants, cutting federal policies and agencies that serve the American people.
Republicans in North Carolina want to enable 18-year-old youth to carry concealed handguns with no vetting, no firearms instruction, no restrictions. They are starving public education by making public education funding — vouchers — available to parents sending kids to private schools which have no oversight on curriculum, teacher qualifications, can discriminate based on religion, disability, gender, race. So far, 80% of the vouchers have gone to parents with kids already in private schools and 40% to families in the top two income levels.
N.C. Republicans are defunding and destroying public education, calling our public schools indoctrination centers for Socialism, Communism, where grooming children to be gay or transgender is rampant. Public schools are accused of exposing children to pornography. These lies, garbage, are the rationale for denying teachers a living wage, restricting mention of anything touching on equity/fairness or including marginalized children.
It is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume and vulgarity of all Republican tactics. That is the point. Being overwhelmed means we can’t discern truth from fiction, right from wrong, good from evil. These tactics lead to citizens becoming so mired in moral chaos that we are no longer able to stand up for our values or comprehend the disasters happening all around us.
John S. Flood Jr.
Â鶹´«Ã½
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People’s humanity has been stripped
Â鶹´«Ã½ Editor,
I know there are good, kind, thoughtful people who are Republicans. I know them as friends. How they can be a part of or support what their party is doing to our country is beyond my understanding.
The Republican Party supports and reinforces a president who is morally corrupt, vile, vulgar, has no integrity, honor, lies constantly, normalizes breaking the rule of law, corruption, cruelty, and self-interest above all else.
America has stood for individual dignity, the rule of law, and each individual’s right to due process. No more. People’s humanity has been stripped from them. They are “poisoning our blood, murderers, rapists, gang members, eating our pets, horrible people.†So, people can be snatched from our streets with no rights and put in horrible gulags in Central America. Students who protest Trump’s actions can be forcibly taken off the street and put in prison. State sponsored torture and inhuman treatment is normalized.
The Republican Party supports denial of climate change as affecting our planet. “It is a hoax.†“Drill, baby drill.†The party supports destroying the EPA, repealing clean air and clean water regulations, turning back renewable energy, electric vehicle progress, and making it easier for big oil, big coal, to destroy our environment. They have no care for the future of our children. Trump promised oil executives deregulation of environmental restrictions in return for contributions.
Republicans support unconstitutional punishment of universities that do not do Trump’s bidding, accept MAGA restrictions on what is taught, who is hired, or refuse to eliminate any mention of the concepts of equity or diversity. Republicans support Trump’s use of the power of the presidency to punish — destroy law firm’s ability to represent clients he does not like. That is denial of the right to legal representation — a right, until Trump, cherished by Americans.
The Republican budget bill — Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill†— according to the CBO will raise the deficit by 2.4 trillion dollars and increase the debt by nearly $3 trillion. It is the largest upward transfer of wealth in America’s history.
It benefits the wealthiest Americans by cutting Medicaid by billions, resulting in 13.7 million low-income families losing health care insurance. It cuts $300 billion from Supplemental Nutrition for low-income families, resulting in 2.7 million households losing nutrition support and millions of children going hungry. Low-income households will lose more than $1,600 a year while the top 1% will gain nearly $12,000 a year, according to the CBO.
The Big Beautiful Bill cuts funding for Job Corp, which provides job training, housing and jobs for low-income young people. It cuts funding for AmeriCorps, which provides idealistic young people with volunteer opportunities for U.S. communities. It cuts funding for Pell Grants, Tenant-Based Rental Assistance and Low Income Housing Energy Assistance.
The Big Beautiful Bill requires the sale of 3.3 million acres of public land plus 258 million acres of public land over the next five years, all without hearings, debate or public input. It gives Trump the power to revoke National Monument protection, resulting in another 13.5 million acres of protected land up for purchase.
Republicans support of defunding — destroying — USAID has resulted in more than 80% of U.S. Global Health Awards being terminated, leading to a collapse of U.S. programs for HIV, tuberculosis, reproductive health care, disease outreach response and malnutrition. The result in human terms is more than 103 children an HOUR dying of starvation — about 300,000 dying so far — 1,500 babies a day born HIV positive and an increase in infectious disease in starving children.
Loss of USAID means life or death for millions of children. Save The Children reports cholera outbreaks in Africa. Doctors Without Borders report that the Trump administration has “taken a wrecking ball completely destroying the infrastructure, the ability to follow up and availability of resources to the world’s most vulnerable.â€
The Big Beautiful Bill moves money upward and into the White Nationalist project of expelling immigrants, cutting federal policies and agencies that serve the American people.
Republicans in North Carolina want to enable 18-year-old youth to carry concealed handguns with no vetting, no firearms instruction, no restrictions. They are starving public education by making public education funding — vouchers — available to parents sending kids to private schools which have no oversight on curriculum, teacher qualifications, can discriminate based on religion, disability, gender, race. So far, 80% of the vouchers have gone to parents with kids already in private schools and 40% to families in the top two income levels.
N.C. Republicans are defunding and destroying public education, calling our public schools indoctrination centers for Socialism, Communism, where grooming children to be gay or transgender is rampant. Public schools are accused of exposing children to pornography. These lies, garbage, are the rationale for denying teachers a living wage, restricting mention of anything touching on equity/fairness or including marginalized children.
It is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume and vulgarity of all Republican tactics. That is the point. Being overwhelmed means we can’t discern truth from fiction, right from wrong, good from evil. These tactics lead to citizens becoming so mired in moral chaos that we are no longer able to stand up for our values or comprehend the disasters happening all around us.
John S. Flood Jr.
Â鶹´«Ã½
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