Nursing center residents like me are suffering. NC must change visitation restrictions.

Change NC nursing center restrictions

I am a resident of Village Care health and rehab in King, N.C. My husband comes to visit when he can, but always through a glass partition or on the phone. I haven’t had a visitor in the building for five months.

People on the outside are not doing what they need to do. As a result of careless gatherings, the virus has spread even more.

I understand what is going on, but others don’t. They wonder what happened to their families. Depriving people of contact with their loved ones is just as dangerous as a virus.

If the CNAs and nurses here get their temperatures taken before entering, so can my husband. One visitor is what we each need to help us go on.

You still go about your lives, but we are the forgotten. We are sad, depressed, lonely and trapped. This is not the quality of life we deserve.

Delores Somers, King

Stores must do more to enforce masks

I live in a multi-generational household. My mother is 70 and in the higher risk category for COVID. I am shocked by how many people in local stores still refuse to wear masks. I am equally disappointed in the stores’ unwillingness to enforce their own mask-wearing policies.

Stores have provided specific hours for the elderly. Perhaps a few hours a week when masks are strictly enforced could be a solution for those of us needing or wanting a safe way to shop for our families.

A small gesture of increased safety would go a long way for those of us trying to protect our families. I, for one, would shop faithfully at such a place.

Beth Pratt, Mint Hill

DeJoy is a bad pick for postmaster

Regarding “Greensboro businessman draws fire in postmaster general job,” (Aug. 9):

The new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, owns stock in companies in competition with the U.S. Postal Service. The USPS is a public service, part of our infrastructure, and a businessman seeking to run it like a business will run it into the ground. It has already been hampered by being required to fund retirement to 75 years for its employees, a burden it should not have to be saddled with.

The USPS is part of the interwoven fabric of this nation, and after 250 years it is not going anywhere unless we cease to exist as a nation. Putting DeJoy in charge of the post office is no different than putting a fox in charge of a hen house.

William MacMonagle, Charlotte

Trump should make certain cities pay

While providing financial relief for the lockdowns, I hope the president will consider assessing states that have restrictive lockdowns for the costs of providing relief to that state’s citizens. Let each state government bear the cost of its decisions.

Christopher Hollins, Charlotte

Nichols overlooked a few GOP moves

Regarding Sonja Nichols’ “To Mr. Nichol: I’m a Black Republican. Here’s why,” (Aug. 10 Opinion):

Sonja Nichols lists some N.C. Republican programs she is proud of. Unfortunately, those successes pale when balanced against the terrible national policies of the Trump administration.

Can she be a proud Republican and still support separating immigrant kids from their parents and putting them in cages? Refusing to adequately address COVID-19 or climate change? Ignoring issues of racial bias in the court system, police departments and society? And so many others.

She could be a proud Republican by condemning the cruel and criminal policies of Trump Republicans and supporting long-standing Republicans like those who created the Lincoln Project, which is trying to remove him from office and get back to traditional Republican values.

Dean Kluesner, Charlotte

NC woman’s claim trivialized genocide

Regarding “North Carolina woman calls Confederate statue removal ‘ethnic genocide’” (Aug. 8):

Removing Confederate statues is not fatal and it certainly is not genocide.

If someone captures you and others in your ethnic group, splits your families apart, and works you to death as slaves, or puts you to death in gas chambers, then you can claim genocide. Meanwhile, please don’t trivialize the millions of real deaths caused by actual ethnic genocide with this overly dramatic characterization.

Steve Benkosky, Boone

Why not take a knee after the anthem?

Several recent Forum letters expressed concern that the action of taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem is so controversial. It seems to me that the point of that symbolism could be effectively made with a whole lot less controversy if players took a knee for five or 10 seconds after the anthem is over.

Phil Clutts, Harrisburg