Alumni weigh in on Silent Sam controversy

As a 1971 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, I have been interested in the future of Silent Sam.

I have spoken with hundreds of UNC graduates about it. Those who have been out for 30 to over 50 years mostly hold tight to their passion for the history of the university. However, it is those who are still there or who have been out just in the last five to 10 years, who feel passionately about what this says to our country and our university.

This controversy has harmed our school. A vast majority of these students and recent graduates want Sam removed. Their future is now and Sam is an embarrassment.

Luke DeCock’s commentary in the sports section last week is as far out of line as any thing I have ever seen in my history of reading the Observer. For him, as a sports writer, to suggest that the UNC basketball players join together and boycott a game to show that they have the power to influence, for whatever the reason, is way over the top.

I have no problem with each and every player offering his opinion on an issue but to threaten to boycott a game would do unprecedented damage to the UNC basketball program and to the sport in general.

The winner of a marathon consciously runs outside the designated course to shorten the distance. Their cheating is later discovered, they are disqualified and the second-place finisher is declared the winner.

The winner of a high school president race wins because friends vote multiple times. The cheating is discovered and the runner-up is declared the winner.

A candidate from North Carolina’s 9th District may have won because ballots were possibly compromised by a person the candidate knew and hired who was tainted by previous election fraud. The cheating is discovered and there’s a possibility of a “do-over”? That makes no sense.

Do we need photo ID to stop people who are not citizens from voting? No. People registering to vote must provide the last four digits of their Social Security number or a valid driver’s license number according to the Help Americans Vote Act.

Does it solve long voting lines? Voting machines that change votes? Russian tampering in elections? No. It just makes voting more difficult for people who can’t get a photo ID.

Thank you, Governor Cooper, for vetoing the bill passed requiring a photo ID to vote. Thank you for standing up for all voters. Thank you for standing up to the Republican legislature, which is trying to make it harder for citizens to vote by putting this on the mid-term ballot.

I watched George Stephanopoulos salivate as he interviewed President Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, on Good Morning America.

I have mistakenly been under the impression that any attorney with the stature and experience of Mr. Cohen would surely know the law and if asked by a client to negotiate an illegal contract, he would immediately decline such an unethical request.

Cohen’s claim of naive devotion to Donald Trump (he would take a bullet for him) is a joke. It’s obvious he was responsible for the illegal acts because it suited him financially.

President Trump saying he’d partially shut down the government until the $5 billion wall funding was approved was a promise, not a tantrum.

The liberal left has criticized Trump’s wall as stupid, ineffective and too expensive. The fact is that there are walls throughout the world that are very effective in preventing unwanted intrusion.

We would all be better served if the liberal left presented a more effective alternative to prevent illegal immigration and not simply criticize the wall as “expensive,” “ineffective” and “stupid.”

Last month I was in Germany and visited the remnants of the Berlin Wall. If we are to build a wall, why not learn from the communists and have two walls, with a “kill zone” in between to trap those who dare try to cross? I’m sure that would be the perfect solution to everyone’s problems around this subject.

All jokes aside, no matter how the Trump wall is built, it too is destined for failure, just like the one in Berlin.