Congress, the budget comes up every year. Why can’t you do your job? | Opinion

Dear Congress,

Why can’t you do your job? Why can’t you pass a budget by the deadline? You know it has to be done. It’s done every year. It’s not a surprise. So, why do you play this childish game with the budget?

Stop this insane fight for power. You are there to cooperate, not battle. Put aside the sandbox behavior and do the job you were elected to do!

Rick Wingate, Mooresville

Undermining voters

The General Assembly supermajority must think no one is paying attention to their underhanded efforts to subvert the will of the people.

A small number of lawmakers developed S.B. 382 in secret, under the guise of support for Western North Carolina. This 131 page bill is couched as hurricane relief. Oddly enough, only 12 of those pages are related to minimal hurricane support. The rest is a massive power grab to deliberately undermine the results of the 2024 general election.

North Carolinians expect decency and transparency from our elected officials. The supermajority has not received that message yet.

Sheila Womack, Salisbury

School shootings

At least thirty-nine school shootings have caused injuries and deaths so far in 2024. Yet the headlines are about drones that don’t seem to be harming anyone. Congress, government officials and social media are on fire about the drones. No mention of the school shootings.

Bill Lane, Polksville

Trump’s picks

Robert Kennedy Jr. wants to deny us many vaccinations, including Polio. Tulsi Gabbard is a big fan of the Assad dictatorship and Vladimir Putin. Pete Hegseth’s main qualification to run the biggest department in our nation is being a Fox News propaganda host who praises President-Elect Donald Trump as if he was Abraham Lincoln.

Don’t we want people with real qualifications and experience? All these people have in common is they constantly praise Trump. This is all Trump wants — total and complete personal love and loyalty. We need better for these cabinet positions.

William Reaves, Charlotte

Belichick

The UNC athletic department has finally come out of the closet. With the hiring of former NFL Coach Bill Belichick, who has never coached college football, to the tune of $50 million, the university revealed what many of us have feared.

Carolina sports is now a business and no longer an avenue of honest, intercollegiate competition. From the university’s greedy perch, the benefits are manifold. Recruits will see a clearer path to lucrative professional careers, greater exposure and name, image and likeness income. The university can live on Belichick’s fame to gain attention, richer TV contracts and maybe improved ticket sales.

It’s not about winning and losing anymore. It’s about money. It’s a sad day.

Mike Hoyt, Raleigh

Shooting

The media is sensationalizing the shooter with television specials and having his name on the airways constantly. The media needs to stop putting this guy in the news all the time. What he did was outrageous.

The media is making him a real hero and there are many others that want the same notoriety and will do the same to get their mugs in the news. That’s what they want — their mug and name in the news so they can brag about it to their friends.

C. Ryder, Charlotte

Climate change

In many traditions the winter holiday season is about hope for the future. This year we have much to hope for — the return of peace in war-torn countries, economic stability and international cooperation. A key effort in cooperation — the U.N. climate conference — ended just before the holiday season began. For the 29th year, countries came together to discuss climate change solutions.

An old but true saying is “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Last year, countries agreed to transition from fossil fuels, but a year later there is little evidence of progress. Excuses for inaction are political, procedural and financial. All stem from a lack of will.

Hope is not enough. We must act with resolve. It’s up to us to make the needed changes through our government representatives. Let them know what they need to do.

Lynn Dransoff, Charlotte