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In response to “County’s high-tech tool finds tax delinquents” (July 17):
Now let’s go after drivers who never register, get N.C. tags
I agree that Mecklenburg County needs to collect all it is due to help provide the services it renders; the $9 million could go a long way.
Now let’s do something about all the newcomers who refuse to register their vehicles and get by with it. I’m on the road daily and see cars, from BMWs to Fords, with out-of-state plates and bumper stickers that say things like “I’m a proud parent of a student at Matthews Elementary.”
Wonder how many millions of revenue are lost there statewide?
Rick Ramsey
Charlotte
In response to “Please, Mr. President, quit with the outsourcing demagoguery” (July 18 Forum):
Outsourcing isn’t only way to survive unpredictable economy
I find it ironic that in a nation with 8 percent unemployment, companies find it necessary to outsource. Business feels the way to increase profit is to reduce labor costs, as if there are no other areas to examine.
In management, I spent years “surviving” erratic economies by listening to employee feedback. At last check the company had 92 consecutive months of positive earnings. The company? McDonald’s. Creative leadership is the answer.
H. Eric Anderson
Harrisburg
In response to “Misrepresenting the Civil War” (July 14 Viewpoint):
Evangelical religion played role in Civil War, no denying that
The writer is a professor of history at UNC Charlotte.
Temper tantrums rarely enlighten, and Ann Lee Bressler’s attack on my Op-Ed piece and my book, “America Aflame” is a case in point.
My book attributes both the origins of the war and its horrendous costs to both sides. This challenges the prevailing view of the war as a conflict between the Republic of Virtue (the North) and the Evil Empire (the South). The political system disintegrated primarily because northern evangelical religion invaded the political process eroding the center and empowering extremists.
The message of my article, and even more of my book, is that we too often rush to war enveloped in the passions of patriotism and piety. That’s not a political agenda. That’s history.
David Goldfield
Charlotte
In response to “Instead of deafening roars of anger … silence on black vote” (July 15 Opinion):
Yes, poll taxes were obstacles, but voter ID laws are not
I am puzzled by Leonard Pitts’ angry rant against voter ID laws, charging that they discourage minority voting.
The principle of “one man, one vote” is at the heart of a viable republic.And no voter fraud? Does Pitts not remember ACORN’s 2008 voter registration antics or James O’Keefe’s video of a young white male being handed a ballot at a D.C. polling place after telling them he was Eric Holder?
While poll taxes and literacy tests were very real obstacles to voting, photo ID laws are not.
J.V. Fitzsimmons
Hickory
Time for UNC system to release records on faculty publications
The writer is a Professor of Public Policy Emeritus at UNCC.
Although academic fraud related to athletics at UNC Chapel Hill does “grate on the ears” of taxpayers, issues of transparency and possible additional academic fraud may be far more pervasive.
In 2010, Jay Schalin, a Pope Center for Higher Education analyst, was rebuffed by Chapel Hill’s administration on his request to see faculty publication records to use in a study of their productivity.
The University counsel declared professors’ publications to be confidential! Publications are the chief measuring stick of faculty performance; salaries and advancement are based on the books and professional papers produced from research.
It is astonishing for the university to assert that these products can be hidden from the public.
Jack Sommer
Charlotte
Working-class ignored in today’s political conversation
Why is it politicians constantly talk about the middle class?
Occasionally reference is made to the 1 percenters, but never a single word about the great bulk of the population – the working class and outright poor. Are they pretending these people don’t exist?
Right up until World War II, I was one of those people – and I would be still were it not for the G.I. Bill. I think about them all the time. Why don’t politicians – except on Election Day when they need their vote?
Bernie Hargadon
Charlotte
In response to “Romeny lacks empathy, his NAACP speech proof of that” (July 18 Forum):
Black voters must recognize what GOP has done for them
When a group has spent every election voting 90 percent for Democrats, why show empathy? An honest, to the point message is what they should get.
The Democratic party has not improved Blacks’ living and working conditions. Heck, Republicans freed the slaves and made sure the Voting Rights Act passed.
Let’s be honest, Blacks need to wake up.
Larry Cook
Charlotte
