It’s official: Increased numbers of middle and high school students are choosing to experience personal and spiritual renewal at Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center’s Winter Youth Retreats.

Women of Waynesville, a nonprofit organization that supports the needs of women and children in Haywood County, invites all interested women to attend an open house and membership drive event.

One lane of U.S. 441 South has been closed between Sylva and Franklin out of precaution due to a recurring long crack.

Haywood County NAACP is making a pilgrimage to Montgomery to see the new Legacy Museum: Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice honoring victims of lynching. 

Everyone wants to live in a beautiful and litter-free place, and six winners were recognized for their efforts to that end in Haywood County with the 2018 Community Pride Award, bestowed Feb. 27 by the Commission for a Clean County. 

To the Editor:

North Carolina is one of 14 states that has chosen not to expand Medicaid, which provides health care insurance to lower-income citizens. Ninety percent of its costs are covered by the federal government.

Gov. Roy Cooper, in his recent “State of the State” address, has asked for the expansion of Medicaid, whereby federal dollars could revive struggling rural communities by keeping local hospitals open. According to UNC’s Rural Health Research Program, there have been 83 rural hospital closures in the U.S. (2010-2018), mainly in states, not expanding Medicaid. North Carolina hospitals in Blowing Rock, Mocksville, Yadkinville, Scotland Neck, and Bellhaven, no longer provide in-patient services.

State Sen. Phil Berger (R, Eden),  President Pro Tem of the N.C. Senate, tells us “Obamacare Medicaid expansion is wrong for North Carolina.” Despite the fact he represents largely rural communities in Rockingham, Caswell, and Stokes counties, he argues expansion will cost too much, is unsustainable and thus overburdened; and will not improve health outcomes for those who gain coverage.

A growing body of research shows that Medicaid expansion’s benefits extend far beyond coverage and access to care — it also saves lives, reduces family bankruptcy, and increases access to opioid treatment. Nationally, 62 percent of all personal bankruptcy is due to medical expenses. 

The Republican Party has become the Party of “No,” except when shutting down the federal government or depleting the federal treasury through tax “reforms” that benefit the upper 1 percent. Perhaps Mr. Berger has it wrong; perhaps he is wrong for North Carolina. Or he can always cancel his own publicly-funded health insurance coverage.

Roger Turner

Asheville

To the Editor:

Unbelievable that Rep. Mark Meadows (R-Brevard) chose to use a black female HUD employee as a token, cheap prop to demonstrate that Trump cannot possibly be racist. He should be ashamed and apologize for portraying our district as a bunch of backwards thinking hillbillies.  

Trump has proven over and over that he is a racist, and if Rep. Meadows refuses to believe it then he needs to take one of the dozens of vacant jobs in the White House and let us be represented by someone else.

And shame of her for agreeing to participate with him, unless she had no choice.  

Mylan Sessions 

Waynesville

To the Editor:

Like Andrew Morgan (see Mountaineer, Feb. 25, Guest Columnist), I too am alarmed by the rhetoric from the anti-jihadist who spoke at the local Republican Party Headquarters. Unlike Mr. Morgan, I am not a Muslim. I have, however, lived in Muslim countries for several years and lived in Muslim homes. You do not need to fear Muslims. True Muslims, like true Christians, are striving to follow a high moral code and lead a spiritually guided life. The people you should fear are those who believe that they have cornered the market on truth.

One example of misinterpretation in Mr. Gaubatz’s article regards the Muslim call to prayer, which is heard five times a day. It is a reminder to the faithful to reaffirm their spirituality through prayer. It does not mean to drop everything they are doing at the moment and pray. The prayer can be five minutes later, an hour later, or if on the job, whenever the person has a break. 

I wonder about such fear-mongering. Fear is a very powerful motivator and is often used to control people, especially those who react instead of thinking through “hot button” issues. Could this talk possibly be politically motivated since we have a major election coming up next year?  The message that hardened criminals are pouring across our southern border has been repeatedly fact-checked and proven false. Since that “fear” has been debunked, it is no longer as effective. Is it being replaced by stirring up a fear of Muslims?

Seems we always have to have an “us against them” bogeyman in an attempt to sow fear. There is more strength in unity than in division, and our nation desperately needs that strength. Like Mr. Morgan and Mr. Gaubatz, I am a patriot. I was deeply moved by the words of John Harris recently as he talked about thinking of his children at the time of making a major political decision. “We have got to come up with a way to transcend our partisan politics, and the exploitation of processes like this for political gain. That goes for both parties, Democrats and Republicans. And Libertarians,” he said. “I’m just left thinking that we can all do a lot better than this.”

We must do better.

Joanne Strop

Waynesville

Traditionally, the title of Beloved Man or Beloved Woman was reserved for Cherokee people who had proven themselves valiant warriors in battle but had grown too old to fight anymore. They would come home to an honored place in their tribe, serving their community in new ways, off the battlefield. 

Macon County nonprofit organizations have until March 29 to apply for county funds allocated in the county’s current fiscal year budget, through the Macon County Community Funding Pool.

The North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC) is a statewide grassroots organization dedicated to implementing harm reduction interventions, public health strategies, drug policy transformation and justice reform.

The inaugural Leadership Cashiers class recently launched its seven-month program with an opening retreat at Mountaintop Golf & Lake Club. The Cashiers Area Chamber’s new community engagement initiative is based on a development model used by many cities across the country to prepare and motivate participants to offer quality community leadership.

Thanks to the hard work and prudent fiscal decision making of both elected officials and administration, Haywood County’s been rewarded with a slightly higher bond rating by 160-year-old financial services agency and credit bellwether Standard & Poor’s. 

Macon County Public Health has confirmed an outbreak of meningitis.

A slide on the westbound side of U.S. 74 on Sunday morning in Jackson County temporarily diverted traffic just west of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Cleaning a rockslide on Interstate 40 near the Tennessee State lane will require the N.C. Department of Transportation to keep the interstate closed about one week for the safety of contract workers and those who would be driving in the area.

To the Editor

The socialists are coming, the socialists are coming! Hide your cows and pickup trucks! The green new deal promises to end life as we know it. Karl Marx is on the 2020 ballot!

OK, that was a little over the top, but not by much. If you listen to Fox News and President Trump you would think that the party that brought you Social Security, Medicare, child labor laws and food stamps is about to endorse a Venezuela style government. It is not. Many candidates are having  an honest debate about how to invigorate the middle class, provide affordable health care, and the help the working poor share in the prosperity currently enjoyed by “people of wealth.”

This country was founded on capitalist principles, but as they say, moderation in all things. Pure capitalism, an oligarchy, is where a few wealthy businessmen control all the levers of power. Think Russia. Pure socialism or communism is where the government controls all the levers of power. Think China. Both countries are dictatorships, supported by wealthy elites, who brutality suppress democratic ideals.

As a democracy the United States has always looked for ways to improve the living standards of the majority of our citizens: Social Security, to help the elderly; Medicare to help the sick; child labor laws to protect the children; food stamps to help the hungry. All these social programs are now woven into the fabric of our lives. But the world is changing and we face new challenges to our way of life.

How do we provide quality health care to all our citizens? How do we prepare for the changes to our climate? How do we prepare for a world where more and more work is done by robots? How do we close the wealth gap to stabilize our economy? All these question and many more must be answered. All will require programs agreed to by a democratic society.

Calling anyone who is trying to answer these question a “socialist” is a way to ignore the questions. It sounds to me like those now in power like things just the way they are, and calling people names is a good way to change the subject.

Louis Vitale

Franklin

To the Editor

Cory Vaillancourt created a powerful, informative and moving piece of journalism (“Face to face: local homeless remain elusive”) which touched me as a former features journalist, columnist and creative writing teacher.

Diving into this elusive fringe, often forgotten sub-society living in our midst, Cory put flesh on the bones and brought to life issues that must be dealt with.

Thank you for superlative news reporting and for piercing this dark blot on society and offering hope for future success in conquering the mountain of problems.

Carol McCrite

Whittier

To the Editor

I am not stupid and neither are most people I know. However, numerous politicians, pundits and officials seem to think we are. 

The Green New Deal created and detailed by a New York district Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a congresswomen in office a little over one month, is an attempt to fundamentally change our culture, economy and way of life in the name of the supposedly deteriorating environment due to carbon emissions. The plan calls for ending use of oil and natural gas for any applications and to substitute solar and wind power, converting all transportation, businesses, homes and buildings to meet those requirements. 

As a bonus, the Green New Deal allows government to fund and control health, education, industry and welfare for those unable or unwilling to work with a 70 percent tax rate collected by the federal government from those workers willing to work. 

Ordinarily such nonsense would be the laughing stock, but not so now. At Ocasio-Cortez’s announcement Democrats lined up behind her grinning and nodding their heads, “yes.” Any time in Congress or anywhere spent debating this baloney is what is stupid, not those of us who see this as balderdash.

It is also not stupid to support a border wall to stop millions of migrants marching thousands of miles to bust over our border into our country. These migrants are illegals seeking unlawful entry into our country utilizing a bogus statement of asylum. Criticizers of a border wall say we are a country of immigrants. That is true; however, immigrants who came to this country in the early 1900s who helped build this country came in legally, were vetted and turned away if unhealthy or with no local support. Since then immigrants have waited in line for years to enter legally. 

What we have today is an invasion of lawless individuals including those who are criminals, drug carriers and human traffickers. Stupid is to deny this condition is a national emergency and to limit any and every method — walls, drones, electronics, troops and  border patrol — to curb this assault and criminal elements. Politicians are forewarned that the American people are not stupid.

Carol Adams

Glenville

The Jackson County Public Library in Sylva will be starting craft therapy. This get-together will be the first Tuesday of each month from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. It will take place in the Atrium at the library.

In partnership with the Appalachian Women’s Museum and the Jackson County Public Library, Western Carolina University’s LIVLAB Artist Collective will be hosting two town hall meetings to gather local stories of women who have built, nurtured and sustained local communities and the region.

A pavement preservation project is underway on Little River Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, expected to result in weekday, single-lane closures and traffic delays there for much of the year. 

A relay race set to debut this year will offer teams of four the challenge of traveling from Asheville to Cherokee over the course of a single day — Saturday, Nov. 2. 

In the midst of an exceptionally warm, dry winter, a wildfire erupted on Mount Lyn Lowry. About 170 acres when first reported to 911 at 10 a.m. Monday, Feb. 18, within two days the fire had destroyed roughly 60 homes and ballooned to an estimated 2,500 acres — and growing. 

Muddy Sneakers, an outdoor science education program based in Brevard, recently won two awards in a Blue Ridge Outdoors voting contest. 

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park set a new visitation record for 2018, welcoming 11.4 million visitors to its 816 square miles last year. 

A $1 million grant will allow the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville to expand its innovative K-12 science education programs to all 100 North Carolina counties. 

1678 Brown Ave., Waynesville. Thursday, March 7 • 3-6 p.m.

By Martin Dyckman • Guest Columnist

The North Carolina General Assembly is where good bills go to die. So it is a sign of progress when one of them gets so much as a hearing. That’s why it made news when House Speaker Tim Moore said that there will be one for House Bill 69, to establish a nonpartisan redistricting commission. 

To the Editor:

As the undeniable scientific evidence of climate change and its causes and consequences mount, it is unfortunate that extremist conservatives denounce any mention of a proposed Green New Deal. New leadership and a common national purpose that can rise to this great challenge are needed. The president and Republicans are failing us.

 When Franklin Delano Roosevelt assumed the presidency in 1933 the country faced a crisis that is hard to fathom today. My grandparents never forgot it nor did their children. One quarter of the country was unemployed, there was no social safety net  —no Social Security, no Medicare, no Medicaid, few agencies to regulate banking, commerce or public health. The Dust Bowl was destroying the “bread basket of the world.” Many were hungry and afraid. Fascism was on the rise. Totalitarianism appeared to be an attractive alternative to capitalism and democracy. It was a global crisis of unprecedented proportions. 

In spite of the daunting challenges FDR had unwavering confidence in the American people and in himself. The New Deal, while not perfect, saved the country and placed the United States in a position to help save the world from tyranny.

Roosevelt, crippled by polio, did it all from a wheelchair. “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” he confidently reassured the American people. Quite a contrast to the current state of leadership in the country.

Conservatives fought President Roosevelt every step of the way, accusing him of socialist policies, communism and worse. They included his wife, Eleanor, in their criticism, an important American herself and our greatest First Lady. Even today, strong women pose a threat to some of our male politicians. The same fear mongering will be used against a proposed Green New Deal.  

Bold action and leadership with great vision will be needed. Many will cry hoax and scream that it’s all a socialist takeover.  Absurd. We must come together. As Lincoln foresaw, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” The crisis is upon us and it’s not going away. Citizens of all political persuasions ought to able to rally around sustainable solutions to a national and global crisis. The social, economic and environmental benefits could be tremendous.

“Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men.” – FDR

Jeff White

Waynesville

Five local farms are among the 39 businesses awarded a total of $216,000 in this year’s WNC Agricultural Options grant program. 

The U.S. Senate voted Feb. 12 to permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, an important funding source for conservation projects nationwide. 

A recent 1,500 acre land purchase by the Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina and North Carolina State Parks marked acquisition of the first chunk of the new Bobs Creek State Natural Area in southeastern McDowell County. 

Donations are wanted to help create a display set for the Fly Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians and Appalachian River Aquarium in Bryson City to be used at events and trade shows. 

The Shelton House in Waynesville is proud to announce that it has been awarded an anchor position on the new Blue Ridge Craft Trails. 

To the Editor:

When it comes to health insurance, North Carolina has the sixth largest uninsured population in the nation. One in five Jackson County residents under the age of 65 is uninsured, nearly twice the state average.

Who would benefit directly from Medicaid expansion? People who work one or even two jobs but don’t make enough money to afford health care or qualify for Medicaid under North Carolina’s eligibility rules; or earn too little to purchase coverage plans using subsidies from the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). That would include at least 2,488 people in Jackson County, 2,549 in Haywood, and 833 in Swain. In North Carolina, half a million people!

More than 40 percent of N.C. residents have annual incomes below $17,236 for a single household or $29,435 for a family of three. By expanding Medicaid, our communities could bring health benefits to fast food and restaurant employees, retail workers, cleaning and maintenance workers, production workers, construction laborers, veterans, our friends, our neighbors, ourselves.

 Passing CLEAN Medicaid expansion legislation, a plan currently being considered in Raleigh (HB5 and SB3), would not only help those who are currently uninsured, it would strengthen our communities through better health care. For example, Medicaid expansion would help fight the opioid crisis by expanding and/or maintaining access to addiction treatment. North Carolina had the second highest increase in overdose deaths in the country in 2017. And our rural hospitals would get a financial boost. Five rural hospitals have recently shuttered their doors and eight more are at risk of financial distress.

 New businesses would become more interested in investing in our communities. Estimates tell us that Medicaid expansion could create 305 jobs, bring in $103 million in business activity and $668,000 in new tax revenue for Jackson County. In Haywood it could create 115 jobs, $55 million in new business activity and $767,000 in new tax revenue. In Swain it could create 833 new jobs, $11 million in new business activity and $61,000 in new tax revenue.

 Ninety percent of the funding for expansion would come from taxes we have to pay to the government. The cost of expansion would almost immediately be recouped by the jobs produced, by decreasing uncompensated costs to hospital emergency rooms, and by increased business activity and tax revenue. We could lower costs even more and help more people if we also reduce unnecessary administrative hurdles such as excessive reporting requirements by passing the CLEAN Medicaid Expansion bill.

Join in

Please join DownHome NC of Jackson County and Indivisible Common Ground WNC at a nonpartisan rally to support CLEAN Medicaid Expansion on Febgruary 14 at 4:30 p.m. at 500 Mill St  in Sylva. Additional information may be found at www.ncjustice.org.

Joan Parks

Whittier

To the Editor:

I am opening The American Museum of the House Cat at a new location in April. I want to make this a landmark that will continue to bring the people who like cats to visit Sylva and the surrounding area. Since the museum opened in 2017, more than 12.000 people have visited. I have a person who has asked if I will be open in June. She is coming to the area from Amsterdam. The museum has become a place of interest to the world. 

Together we can make it even better. There is a lot of open space at the new location. I’d like to offer this space to artists who will put something there that relates to the cat. It could be a sculpture, a painting on the outside wall of the museum. Anything that would cause “cat people” and any others who are interested and are driving along U.S. 441 to stop.

Once they visit the museum, we will urge and direct them to other attractions. We could use help inside the museum too. I am enlarging the mock carousel that we have. It carries eight antique carved carousel cats. These will be placed in a circle under a carousel top, which will have eight rounding boards. These are about four feet long and two feet high. Each has a 16-by-20-inch frame in the middle.

I want to put paintings in each that will depict scenery and other attractions in our area. This would include: the courthouse, the Smokey Mountain Railroad, the Blue Ridge Parkway, local waterfalls, and anything else. I want local artists to paint these. I have matching frames. These will inform and attract interest. I could use a carpenter to help me built the carousel itself. There are others needs. Just ask what you can do to help promote northern Jackson County. 

Are you interested? Want to display your art? Contact me by email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 828 476 9376. 

Harold Sims

Cullowhee

The Dogwood Alliance released a new video series on wetlands for World Wetlands Day, which was Feb. 2. 

The city of Pigeon Forge is gaining national attention for its work to safeguard the community against wildfires, having recently received the Wildfire Mitigation Award — the highest honor a community can get for outstanding work in wildfire risk reduction. 

Haywood Community College President Dr. Barbara Parker announced her intent to retire, effective Dec. 31, 2019, at the college board meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 5.

Haywood County Schools officials at Canton Middle School learned that a threatening message (bomb threat) was written on a restroom wall at school.

Haywood Community College President Dr. Barbara Parker announced her intent to retire, effective Dec. 31, 2019, at the college board meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 5.