To the Editor:

I recently read Boyd Holliday’s letter to the editor about the environmental damage our senators are doing to Western North Carolina. I know that Sens. Richard Burr, and Thom Tillis, are choosing to deny support to legislation that will improve the environment because they think doing so is more likely to improve the economy, but I’m not sure they recognize the repercussions of making those choices. But, I do know for certain that they will never act differently if we, as constituents, don’t tell them to.

As Holliday stated, WNC is founded on its environment’s health — it helps feed the tourism industry (which supports the economy that our senators care so deeply about) and it helps keeps WNC citizens happy and healthy.

We’ve all heard about how economically strong places like China are, and how environmentally unhealthy they are. The key to creating the best possible situations for N.C. citizens lies not in focusing on one aspect of a healthy state, but finding a good balance between all aspects. And if our senators are not putting in enough effort into supporting the environment, then our state as a whole, and especially WNC, will suffer.

I implore readers to take action and ask Sens. Burr and Tillis to take action and protect Western North Carolina by supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate, Air, and Energy Research, refusing the major cuts proposed by President Trump. Call them at 202.224.3121 and ensure that our communities have a better future!

Jordanna Swartz

Swannanoa

The Carolina Mountain Club was awarded the Blue Ridge Parkway’s 2017 Enduring Service Award, recognizing the efforts of the club’s 150 members to build and maintain trails on Parkway land.

In sharp contrast to the blazing wildfire season of fall 2016, December 2017 drew to a close with only one fire over 1 acre reported in the Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest.

The Waynesville Recreation Center logged a record attendance for the second year running, with 180,611 visits in 2017.

The American Museum of the House Cat needs donations to continue operating.

No matter who takes the helm at SRCA, the new director will no doubt have his or her hands full with a number of issues. The school is struggling with low test scores, debt from building a modular campus and deciding whether it’s the right time to expand into high school grades for its students.

Mountain rescue teams, local rescuers and an aircrew from the NC Helo-Aquatic Rescue Team (NC HART) worked together early this morning to rescue a camper in Linville Gorge who was suffering heart problems.

Haywood County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested two individuals who were believed to be involved in a shooting incident Tuesday night and are continuing the search for a third person.

By Martin Dyckman • Guest Columnist

This is a letter my wife and I sent to President Donald Trump:

I write with no expectation of influencing your administration — except, perhaps, to prompt scornful laughter from any minion who happens to read it — as you have proved yourself immune to public opinion. We intend, rather, to inspire others to speak out and to add to the documentation by which history will judge how Americans coped with our greatest national crisis since the Civil War.

By Will Studenc

To the Editor:

The League of Conservation Voters keeps a “scoreboard” that rates our congressional representatives and senators on their support for conservation and the environment. I was curious, so I looked up the people representing Western North Carolina: Sens. Richard Burr, R., and Thom Tillis, R., and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Asheville. I was deeply disturbed by what I found out.

Sen. Tillis earned a score of 10 percent. Sen. Burr got 8 percent. Representative Meadows got a score of 0 percent. Zero.

Now even a lazy student that sleeps through class and never opens the textbook can get 25 percent on a multiple choice test just by marking random choices. You really have to work to get zero.

Of course, there is an explanation. These Republicans are just obeying orders from the Koch Brothers and other industries who get their bucks by extracting resources regardless of the damage to the air, water, or soil. The justification always offered for anti-environmental voting is that it is needed to protect the “job-makers,” the people who build up our economy and put people to work.

But here in WNC, the quality of the environment is our economy and the source of many of our jobs. Anti-environmental votes are votes against the tourism industry, the owners and employees of hundreds of motels, restaurants, shops, and other businesses that rely on people coming to enjoy our beautiful mountains, clean air, and trout-filled streams. In fact, it’s fair to say every job-maker and worker in WNC is touched either directly or indirectly by the tourist economy.

And it’s not just the tourist dollars at risk. We who live here do so in part because of our love of our natural heritage. We, too, love to hike, swim, boat, fish, hunt, and partake in all the other outdoor activities that depend on having a clean environment.

Every “anti-environment” vote is really a vote against us, the people of WNC. It’s high time we send people to Washington (and Raleigh) who get it.

Boyd Holliday

Lake Junaluska

To the Editor:

I always enjoy reading your fine publication with its in-depth articles about local news. Today, Dec. 30, I finally had time to read the year-end edition and was deeply disappointed. In the same paper in which Editor Scott McLeod's column bemoaned the fact that the President and the country were sinking into a low standard of vulgarity, staff writer Cory Vaillancourt sank us a little further down. I have never seen a reputable newspaper use “shit” or “BS” in print.

Mr. Vaillancourt was not quoting a vulgar low-life. He decided that only those words could convey his meaning. My mother taught me that only people with small vocabularies had to resort to cuss words. I am sure The Smoky Mountain News can do better.

Beth G. Johnson

Maggie Valley

To the Editor:

“You can’t debate with someone who repeatedly traffics in blatant lies and counterfeit bluster,” wrote Smoky Mountain News Editor Scott McLeod about Donald Trump in his December 27, 2017, column.

There are just so many ways that demonstrats the hypocrisy of Scott McLeod. I only have time for a few.

Surely, we never heard Scott say such things about President Barack Obama, whose “blatant lies and counterfeit bluster” were legion, such as:

• Better health care for more people for less money.

• If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor.

• If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.

• The most transparent administration in history.

• The Cambridge police acted stupidly.

• “My position hasn’t changed” on using executive authority to address immigration issues.

• “Most young Americans right now, they’re not covered” by health insurance.

• “We’ve got close to 7 million Americans who have access to health care for the first time because of Medicaid expansion.”

And Scott continues to believe that the Haywood County Republican Party did not bring charges against the Haywood Five for “party disloyalty,” despite being shown both evidence that they did and evidence that it could not have happened any other way.

Paul Yeager

Waynesville

A $7,500 donation from SmartBank will help underserved kids experience the beauty of the Smokies through the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont’s educational programs.

A program designed to help preschoolers have fun while developing sports skills is now open for registration at the Waynesville Recreation Center.

Cataloochee Ranch, the well-known Haywood County vacation destination on top of Fie Mountain, will make its national debut on HGTV in January.

Vaya Health has received statewide honors for its work to prevent fatal opioid drug overdoses throughout western North Carolina.

Buncombe County is taking a crucial step toward holding accountable the companies responsible for dumping millions of dollars’ worth of prescription opioids into the community by filing a public nuisance lawsuit against the drug manufacturers and wholesale drug distributors that made the opioid epidemic possible.

With the arrival of 2018, the time to submit applications for 1% partnership funding for July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2019, through the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority is right around the corner.

Haywood Regional is ringing in 2018 with the year’s first bundle of joy. Weighing 7 pounds and 12 ounces and measuring 20 inches, Baby Donna was born Monday, Jan. 1, at 6:22 a.m.

Collaboration between Mission Health and Macon County leadership, with support from the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital Foundation, Mission Health Department of Philanthropy and community donors, has resulted in the fully funded purchase of a much-needed, brand new ambulance for emergency patient transport in Macon County.

The summer before Christopher Lile graduated from Gardner-Webb University, he spent five weeks studying small mammals on the Broad River Greenway and the surrounding area.

Western Carolina University faculty members Kelly Kelley and David Westling have learned a lot about assisting individuals with intellectual disabilities as they transition into the world of work and independent living over the past decade through the University Participant Program that they co-direct on campus.

Myth: We should only eat food with a short (4 or 5) list of ingredients.

Waynesville Police Department is looking for any information from the public that might help them with a recent suspicious death investigation.

To the Editor:

After 29 years as a pediatrician in Western North Carolina, with over 120,000 patient visits under my belt, I can say that I have never felt so disheartened and, frankly, disgusted by the action and inaction of our elected representatives as far as the health of our children and many pregnant women are concerned.

I have a young patient with a rare, probably lifelong and potentially life-threatening infection. His medication costs thousands of dollars a month. He has Health Choice (CHIP) insurance, funded mainly by the U.S. Congress. Congressman Mark Meadows, R-Asheville, assured me on Oct. 24 that CHIP would be funded within a week or two at the most! It has NOT been funded and 9 million children in the richest country in history are about to be thrown to the wolves.

Our local state representatives: Rep. Mike Clampitt, R-Bryson City, Rep. Michelle Presnell, R-Burnsville, and Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, have as far as I know said nothing about the hundreds of families in their district about to be affected. Will our elected representatives step up and pressure Congress to get this done?

And I also ask congressmen Meadows and Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-Gastonia, to publicly pledge that they will oppose any attempt to pay for the tax cut by cutting Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP or Social Security!

Stephen Wall, MD FAAP

Waynesville

To the Editor:

How can anyone call themselves a Christian and support President Trump and his Republican cronies in Congress who are willing to send thousands of people to their deaths?

There are two places these “warm-hearted, compassionate, family-value, evangelical” hypocrites need to visit. One is the Duke Children’s Hospital located in Durham, North Carolina. The other is the Brenner Children’s Hospital located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Are these cold-hearted people saying they don’t have any problem putting these pitiful, sickly, beautiful children under a gravestone?

Thanks to the grace of God, good doctors, and great staff members at these two hospitals, our family now has a healthy 10-year-old.

Thank God and the Democrats for Medicaid.

Charles Miller

Waynesville

To the Editor:

My daddy served in the U.S. Army. My oldest brother retired from the U.S. Air Force. One brother served 10 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. His twin brother served three years in the U.S. Army. I served four years in the U.S. Navy.

Who, then, merits admiration when I study two prominent men in America today? One is Donald Trump. He either could not or would not wear a uniform during the Vietnam War. Instead he stayed at home and amassed a fortune off the fat of this great land.

The other is Robert Mueller, a U.S. Marine Corps officer during the Vietnam War. Mueller also served our country as Director of the FBI from 2001-2013 (under George W. Bush and Barack Obama).

Now the world is witnessing the concentrated effort by Donald Trump to discredit Mueller as special counsel whose duty is to discover the truth regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election as well as the possibility that members of the Trump Presidential Campaign colluded with Russian operatives.

Neither Trump nor Mueller is un-flawed. Neither are you and I. But, if I had to hunker down in a foxhole in defense of our democratic republic I would pick the man who has already served over the one who audaciously claims he is serving us now.

Now, how would you choose your man?

Dave Waldrop

Webster

Winter volleyball is starting up in Waynesville, with options available for pickup and team play alike.

A bill to extend authorization of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area by four years has been filed in the U.S. Senate under the name “Blue Ridge National Heritage Area Reauthorization Act of 2017.”

An eight-week training course for anyone interested in operating an agriculture-based business will kick off Tuesday, Jan. 9, at Southwestern Community College in Sylva.

Third-grader Emily Prince, of Fletcher, won the North Carolina contest in the National Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program when she grew a 32-pounds cabbage this summer.

A nine-minute tour of the 1,175-mile Mountains-to-Sea Trail is now available from the comfort of any couch within reach of an internet connection.

Angela Gee, district ranger on the Cheoah and Tusquitee Ranger Districts of the Nantahala National Forest, has left the position after accepting a job on the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests in Colorado.

Haywood County Sheriff’s Office detectives continue to investigate two deaths that occurred in the Fines Creek area last week.

The search for a ceramic Christmas tree led Sharon Frizzell of Canton to a $200,000 lottery win.

North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission Chairman Zander Guy met with Principal Chief Richard G. Sneed and other representatives of the Tribal Council of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians during a Dec. 4 visit to Cherokee.

Western Carolina University announced the appointment of a 21-member search committee that will recommend a successor to Chancellor David O. Belcher.

A plan is in place to re-open N.C. 28 in Graham County by the end of February.

Myth: Processed foods are bad!

Myth: Gluten-free products are healthier and if you eat them it will make you lose weight.

District 50: Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain Counties

December 14, 2017

Dear Senator Davis:

Perhaps relations between the two political parties would improve if their leaders were to apply the Golden Rule: Do unto others what you would have others do unto you.  Please ask your Republican colleagues on the judiciary committees how they would respond if they were the minority party: if Democrats barred them from meetings to change the law for selecting state judges, what would they be telling the press?

We are indignant that a North Carolina General Assembly group is meeting in secret, excluding all Democrats and reporters as well, in violation of our individual rights as citizens to know what our elected officials are doing.

We are even more indignant that the Republican supermajority has been holding those meetings to change the process for selecting state judges to appointment by the NCGA.  It is an insult to all the people of North Carolina that NCGA Republicans are stealing individual voters’ power to weigh the merits of candidates for judgeships.

We expect you to do your duty to protect North Carolinians from this flagrant, un-American power-grab, which takes away every voter’s rights and freedoms as individual citizens to elect the most qualified people for judgeships.

We would appreciate a reply telling us what you are doing to keep this despicable action.  Please do not write to rationalize taking voting power from citizens because we have done research enough to know that it is an untenable position.

Stephen B. and Mary Jane Curry

Waynesville

To the Editor:

Kudos to Smoky Mountain News Staff Writer Cory Vaillancourt on his story, “Homeless in Haywood for the Holidays.” Cory came out of his comfort zone to see what it was like to live on the “fringe.”

As the wife of a pastor and member of one of Haywood’s many churches, it warms my heart to hear that Cory had meals to eat and a bed to sleep in. I especially appreciated Cory’s observation, “Aside from some very small grants given to some of these organizations by some municipalities, the entire time I was out there the vast majority of the assistance that kept me alive came directly from the hearts and homes of Haywood County churchgoers.”

I have lived in Haywood County for the past 10 years, having lived in many other places prior to that. I became involved in and volunteered for several projects for the needy and homeless, mainly through churches I have been a member of. I honestly don’t know how our community organizations would survive if not for the generous donations of time, food and money from so many of our local churches. Haywood County residents and church members are a special kind of people — warm, caring, generous. I wouldn’t live anywhere else.

It is very hard to put yourself in the shoes of a person who has no permanent home, or is living on public assistance and just can’t seem to break the cycle. The majority of people in these situations have the biggest hearts and would give you the shirt off their back. If we — just for a day or two, as Cory experienced — would walk in their shoes, we would learn a whole lot and maybe change our attitude and way of thinking when it comes to those who find themselves in a tough situation. I hope Mr. Vaillancourt’s story has opened the eyes of those who look through the homeless and disadvantaged as if they didn’t exist.

Rose Rich

Waynesville

Tips are needed related to a human-caused fire that resulted in damage to cabins in the Elkmont Historic District of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

A proposal to reauthorize prescribed burning on 19,038 acres in Jackson, Macon and Swain counties is open for public comment through Jan. 19, 2018.

Environmental groups across Western North Carolina got a boost from this fall’s Pigeon River Fund Awards through the Community Foundation for Western North Carolina, with grants totaling $347,000 in funding toward water quality projects in Haywood, Buncombe and Madison counties.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has released the final versions of five game land management plans, including the plan for the 5,000-acre Needmore Game Lands straddling Swain and Macon counties.