By Martin Dyckman • Guest Columnist

Do politicians read their mail? It depends.

A recent New Yorker article on Christopher Steele, the British espionage expert, scored a direct hit on Lindsey Graham, the senior senator from our neighboring state to the south. Steele, you may recall, put his livelihood and perhaps his life at risk in helping to alert our intelligence agencies to Russia’s covert — and continuing — subversion of our election process. Among other things, Steele wrote the memo that raised the question of whether the Kremlin has seriously compromising information regarding Donald Trump’s personal conduct during a visit to Moscow.

More than $25,000 in scholarships is available for kids interested in attending Youth for Christ Outdoor Mission Camp in Maggie Valley this summer. 

Completion of a solar energy project in the Cades Cove area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will result in an annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 23 tons and a $14,000 savings in annual fuel costs. 

Rehabilitation work in the Elkmont area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has started up again, with work crews beginning to remove 10 structures March 12. 

Jeremiah “Jerry” Wolfe, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ Beloved Man, passed away Monday at the age of 93. 

By Virginia Jicha • Guest Columnist

I was in the process of writing about the need for school nurses when the Parkland school shooting happened on Valentine’s Day. As the President of the North Carolina Parent Teacher Association and an educator, I know that we have too few nurses per students — leaving many schools with a nurse one day a week or less and with teachers and administrators needing to respond to health emergencies and manage the daily needs of our children’s many chronic health needs. Each school nurse in the state serves an average of 1,112 students, serving far more students than the federally recommended ratio of one nurse per 750 students.

To the Editor:

I would like to add some additional comments to Martin Dyckman’s guest column in the Feb. 21 Smoky Mountain News. It is true that the National Rifle Association executives and official “spokespersons” drive the debate on common sense gun regulation.   

However, it is a sad commentary on the quality of leadership of the NRA and the politicians they have “bought” that the most irrational opinions on how to prevent another mass shooting in our schools were made by Wayne LaPierre, NRA president, and other spokespersons for the NRA. 

It should be particularly embarrassing to the 66 percent or so of the rank-and-file members of the NRA that support common sense gun regulations that the most articulate and common sense comments have come from the teenagers who survived the latest incident at Parkland School, and not their organization’s leadership. 

It is clear that the leadership of the NRA speaks for the gun manufacturers and not the majority of sportsmen who make up the rank-and-file membership. It is also clear that our congressional delegation also votes the money and not the wishes of their constituents.

If you believe in the Second Amendment, you believe in sensible gun regulation, just like the Founding Fathers who wrote it did. Here is the full text of Second Amendment as written in our Constitution: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” (look it up if you think I am lying). Clearly, the authors of this amendment thought that having regulations did not “infringe” on your right to own guns. Even Justice Antonin Scalia, like the Founding Fathers, believed the “right to bear Arms” was not limitless. 

If you are a hunter of any sort, you also believe in sensible gun regulations. All states have rules that regulate hunting in the interest of public safety, safety for those hunting and for sustainable game numbers so future generations have something to hunt. All states have rules that regulate:

• The time of year, the time of day, the places you can hunt and the daily limit you can have in your possession and the type of license you must have.

• The type of weapon you can use to hunt various game, the number of rounds in the gun and the type of bullets you can use-no military type weapons and exploding bullets.

• How you can use dogs in the hunt, what type “call” can be used to lure game and what if any type of “baiting” can be done.

If you duck hunt for example, you can only use a shotgun with a limit of three shells in the chamber at a time, the pellets in the shell have to be non-toxic and there is a daily limit of six birds in specific combinations. Extended magazines or exploding bullets are not permitted for any game. Has anyone come to take your gun because of these rules?

My question for NRA sportsmen is why are you willing to follow these regulations for things like ducks and deer but you are not willing to give our children the same kinds of protective regulations? Why does LaPierre freak out if anyone mentions regulations on assault style weapons as a violation of the Second Amendment rights but does not say a word about hunting regulations infringing on your Second Amendment rights? 

I know why LaPierre does it. He speaks only for the gun manufacturers’ money, but uses your membership to claim he is speaking for all NRA members. He is usurping your votes to leverage power for the gun makers while turning your NRA organization into a fringe element.

If you are a member of the 66 percent of rank- and-file members supporting common sense gun regulation to protect our children and public safety in general, there are three things you need to do right now to support the latest teenage victims’ call to action.

First, you need to begin today to organize the 66 percent to take back your organization from the executives owned by the gun manufacturers.  Vote anyone supporting manufacturers out of office and elect executives that will take the NRA back to its original mission of promoting responsible gun ownership, gun safety for all, education and responsible shooting sports, many of which are Olympic events. 

Sixty-six percent is a two-thirds majority of the membership, which should be enough to vote the current executives out but you need to speak out and get actively involve. How many more children have to die to move you to action?

Second, you need to be calling your state and federal senators and representatives at least weekly demanding they vote for common sense gun regulations to give your children and grandchildren at least as much protection as ducks and deer. Remind them that you are part of the 66 percent of rank-and-file NRA members who want common sense gun regulations and will only vote for people that support those measures. Tell them to quit going for the money and do their jobs of representing the will of their constituents. Show up at town halls and visit their local offices and tell them the same thing.

Third, you need to follow the voting record of both your state and federal representatives in government. We have known at least since Columbine that our representatives talk a lot and offers prayers and sympathy but they only vote the money. Follow how your representatives vote and ignore what they say. It is how they vote that gets action. All votes have to be recorded and are public record. You can look them up the Senate and House websites. Do the work to be informed about their actions not their newsletters and photo ops and promise to hold them accountable in future elections. Vote your conscience, not your fear, for the safety of all our children. Most of all vote! It is the most powerful thing you can do to protect our children.

Jane Harrison

Haywood County resident and former social studies teacher

To the Editor:

Our state’s senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, have consistently opposed event he most modest form of gun reform. As reported in The Charlotte Observer, Burr received nearly $7 million from the National Rifle Association while Tillis received $4.5 million. Only one other U.S. senator received more from the NRA than Burr. Only three, including Burr, received more than Tillis. Both have A+ ratings on legislation supported by the NRA. These are our guys in the Senate. Bought and paid for.

Robert Michael Jones

Sylva

To the Editor:

In reference to a recent article I read in The Smoky Mountain News, maybe if you took time to listen to Fox News it would educate you some. Common sense, instead of fake news, would help you realize President Trump loves our country, our flag and bringing back companies to America for jobs.

Liberals like yourself must be out of touch with reality. Trump will drain the swamp. It’s a disgrace what has happened to our country that we are so full of hatred to each other. Sad. We are living in a lost world because of Washington, D.C., liberals. Shame on you, too.

Nan Smith

Waynesville

A proposal to add two weeks to the bear-hunting season in North Carolina’s Mountain Bear Management Unit didn’t pass muster during an N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission meeting held Feb. 28 in Raleigh. 

A missing person search along the Blue Ridge Parkway last weekend ended when Jackson County emergency responders found the body of Ralph Brady, 55, of Bryson City, about 30 yards from the Parkway near Waterrock Knob. 

Three area organizations landed a collective $6,000 to support youth environmental education following an online voting contest hosted by Diamond Brand Outdoors, of Asheville, in partnership with Patagonia. 

A new meditation pier that will extend more than 40 feet into the water and seat eight people is under construction at Lake Junaluska on the south end of the Memorial Chapel parking lot. 

In keeping with the long tradition of women within indigenous cultures crafting fermented beverages, Seven Clans Brewing is born. 

Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., introduced legislation to supplement counties that have expended local taxes on federal land for services like fire protection, police cooperation, or longer roads to circumnavigate federal property. Counties are not allowed to tax federal lands. 

Cars lined the sides of U.S. 19 in Bryson City Monday night as people tried to find their way inside the small Swain County Board of Elections office to attend a public hearing regarding Sheriff Curtis Cochran’s eligibility for office. 

Regional

Three-term incumbent Congressman Mark Meadows, R-Asheville, has a number of challengers this year, including one from his own party. Buncombe County Republican Chuck Archerd says he’s only running in case Meadows accepts a job in the Trump administration. 

Thursday, March 15th • Ingles Markets, 29 Tunnel Rd., Asheville, 3-6 p.m.

To the Editor:

I grew up in a small, rural community, one not unlike many of the small towns in Western North Carolina. Growing up in an active outdoor recreation, hunting and fishing culture was an experience I cherish to this day. And it’s why I love these mountains. Part of that experience was being around, and using, guns. My family had shotguns and rifles which were used both for hunting and target practice. 

They were also on hand for personal safety, which fortunately was never necessary. We had a couple of really old guns too; the gun my grandfather has used in the 1800s, and a pistol we’d found on an abandoned railroad bed. 

As a teen, I spent many hours at the rifle range, and although I wasn’t old enough to hunt then, was very aware of hunting in my community. One took it seriously and one respected the power of a gun. It wasn’t something to take lightly. 

When guns weren’t in use, they were locked up safely and only my father had the keys. We never thought of guns they way they are perceived today, as a thing to collect and obsess over and to back up one’s beliefs about government. 

We trusted our government and our law officers to protect us. There were no regular mass gun killings or school killings and the first mass killing with a gun that I remember was at a McDonald’s in California, thousands of miles away. The thought of a gun as a killing machine used against innocents was the furthest thing from my mind then. 

I wish I could say things stayed that way, a time when respect for guns was firm, but without the worship of guns and the mass killing we have today. At that time, the NRA was active as a lobbyist for hunters, a far cry of what it has become. 

So what happened? Did we suddenly decide to become a blood-thirsty people? Did the government become so threatening that we all had to take up arms? Or did the gun industry mutate into something that, in order to grow, had to create false enemies and dangers? 

I get the idea that we have a right to bear arms and that it’s our Second Amendment right. But, is today’s gun culture what our forebears had in mind? Did they foresee the changes in technology that would result in guns that can kill dozens in seconds? Did they see kids collecting assault rifles to use against their fellow students? Did they see grown men raining bullets down on a crowd of innocents, killing them as if in a video game? Did they foresee the rise of extremist politics that would demonize our own government with conspiracy theories to the extent that many gun owners are fighting some imaginary enemy? Did they foresee the mass production of weapons? I doubt it.

Guns today have mutated from what I experienced as a kid to an industry that seems hell bent on tearing America apart. The gun industry and the NRA have completely tainted and poisoned what it is to be a gun owner. And, lest we forget, guns are an industry and all industries must grow. 

So, the more guns, the more profits. Every time there is a mass killing today, the NRA calls for more guns. It’s a maddening thought, really. If something is causing tremendous pain and destruction, do you call for more of the same? Or do you step back and look at the bigger picture. More guns, more violence, is this what we want for the future and for our kids? I’d hope we can do better.

John Tripp

Waynesville

To the Editor:

The White House budget for 2019 seems designed to hurt the elderly and people born with disabilities. An article in Forbes, a respected, traditionally conservative business magazine, titled “What Trump’s Budget Would Mean For Seniors” delivered this heart-rending news, ironically, on Valentine’s Day. The author takes the following facts from the White House budget. After each part of the budget he cites, I’ll say why I think it is morally wrong. The quotations are from the Forbes piece.

First, his budget would kill the current Medicare “cost-sharing for seniors with very high prescription drug costs.” Only in the U.S. among all “developed” nations do people have to pay huge amounts of money for medicine and medical devices. I know this for a fact because I’ve lived in the United Arab Emirates and have friends who live in Spain, France, Britain, Italy, Canada, Thailand, Vietnam, New Zealand and Australia. The exact same medicines, many from the exact same pharmaceutical companies as U.S. meds, cost them a few dollars while we pay $90, or thousands.

Current example: an American friend in Spain, a retired Air Force officer, is being treated for a cancer of the blood that isn’t curable, but thankfully is containable. Paying about $130 a month, he gets meds and blood tests — no questions asked, no co-pays, no waiting for the insurer to OK any procedure. No added stress. 

In sharp contrast, a relative in Alabama with a bone cancer that’s also containable, but not curable, is being treated with a medication that’s been on the market since 2015. Cost per month: $10,000. She’s terrified something will happen to force her to stop working. She has always saved much of her salary, her house in an upper-middle-class area is paid for, her kids have good jobs. But even she could go bankrupt— only in America. 

And she’s one of the few people I know who’s always exercised a lot, eaten healthful foods, maintained an ideal weight, gone to church and otherwise been a paragon of living right. 

Second under the President’s budget, people with limited income but high “out-of-pocket expenses” would have to pay even more before getting their prescriptions free. Millions of older people would be spending over $8,000 in a year for medicines alone if hit with a catastrophic illness. Should they have to go hungry or lose their homes because life circumstances are such that they cannot pay the U.S. drug companies’ exorbitant costs? I don’t think so. 

Third, the President’s budget will slash “$236 billion over 10 years” from Medicare compensation to “doctors, skilled nursing facilities, and other providers.” As someone who visits a relative’s nursing home numerous times a year, I can testify that it is clearly making do with too little already — it especially needs more nursing staff. 

Fourth, the author explains that the President’s budget allows only “very small increases in some areas, including nutrition programs such as Meals on Wheels, and would cut funding for others, such as falls prevention, elder rights support, and chronic disease self-management. The budget would cut funding for disability programs by about 30 percent.” 

Clearly some Republicans in Congress are comfortable with old people getting fewer nutritious meals; with their breaking bones leading to being bed-ridden and dying slowly and painfully. I believe that most Smoky Mountain News readers are not that heartless or vengeful.

Fifth but regrettably not last, the President’s budget would also slash “food stamps” — really, a debit card program known as SNAP, which ensures minimal food for older people with low incomes. About 75 percent of SNAP recipients live alone or have a disability. The President would also force the elderly to take half their SNAP benefit in generic canned food. Imagine the indignity as well as the danger to old people with diabetes or another disease requiring a special diet.   

Clearly, Haywood County is full of caring people who volunteer or work to help people in need of all ages, including the homeless, as Smoky Mountain News Staff Writer Cory Villancourt’s December series on homelessness shows. Let us hope that enough people ask themselves if they could bear to look themselves in a mirror, or call themselves religious, if they were to do nothing to let our elected officials know that the President’s budget is just plan immoral.

Mary Curry

Haywood County

To the Editor:

Politicians love the photo op with veterans. We celebrate the wounded warrior, but seldom praise the system that cares for him/her — the Veterans Home Administration.

The VHA cares for over 9 million veterans at 1,243 health care facilities, including 170 VA Medical Centers and 1,063 out-patient sites.

The VA may have its flaws, but its center in Oteen [East Asheville] is considered one of the best in the country. Vets come to Asheville from all over the Southeast for treatment.

Many people don’t realize the VA is essentially “socialized” medicine, whereby the government provides and pays for health care, including negotiated price controls on drugs. Congressional leaders who claim that socialized medicine is not viable in the U.S. are being disingenuous.

Congressman Mark Meadows, R-Asheville, does not support a “single payer” health care system, which is not socialized medicine. Some would also call this “Medicare for All,” where health care is publicly funded but privately delivered. Patients retain control over which physicians to use. 

One recalls the American Medical Association vehemently opposed Medicare in 1965, when it was introduced by President Lyndon Johnson and ratified by Congress. Things change. There was a paradigm shift, and Medicare is now embraced by most Americans.

Even business leaders are now saying the current health care system is unsustainable and harmful to the bottom line — 17 percent of payroll is now consumed by health care dollars, and 62 percent of American household bankruptcies are due to medical expenses.

I would encourage Rep. Meadows to leave his comfort zone and listen to his constituents. Our nation is undergoing another paradigm shift — 60 percent of Americans now favor Medicare for all. Can North Carolina be that far behind the national trend on health care?

A real leader would be open to broadening the discussion on health care; perhaps even attend a forum on “Healthcare for All: Good for Busine$$,” at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27, at AB-Tech Ferguson Auditorium in Asheville. The keynote speaker is David Steil, former Republican Pennsylvania legislator and mid-size business owner who supports health care for all and a single payer system. Mr. Steil will describe his personal journey to embracing single payer.

Perhaps our Congressman could learn something from Mr. Steil. Perhaps we could make America great again by providing health care for all our people, and no longer be the only industrialized democracy notto guarantee health care to its citizens. Imagine that and vote accordingly this November.

Roger Turner

Asheville

The Commission for a Clean County has announced the winners of its 2017 Community Pride Awards, which recognizes people and groups who have gone above and beyond in their commitment to a clean environment in Haywood County. 

Tim Petrea, program supervisor at the Waynesville Recreation Center, has been elected president of the Haywood Waterways Association. 

Prolonged warm temperatures have prompted Cataloochee Ski Area to cancel night skiing for the rest of the season. 

The Landmark Outdoor Educator Semester will return with classes May 9 through June 28, a 51-day program that yields a total of seven nationally recognized certifications for its students. 

How do I know the rotisserie chickens are safe to eat? How long are they left out?

To the Editor:

Try as hard and I can, I just can’t make myself believe someone would write such as editorial “Trumps detractors are the hypocrites.” Maybe she can’t understand what she reads or why bother to even read what else is out there. It is much less stressful to get her education from FOX News. Why go any place else because all other news is “Fake News” anyway. 

Or would her knowledge have come from the “swamp” her hero promised to drain? After all, when any swamp is drained the frogs have to go somewhere. Maybe one of them dropped by her place.

I would go farther, but if she hasn’t caught on by now to what Trump really is there is no hope. Why waste the time?

Tom Boyd

Ironduff

By Peter Nieckarz • Guest Columnist

The Trump administration in mid-February unveiled its proposed federal budget for 2019. The proposal calls for the total elimination of federal appropriations for public broadcasting. The present level of funding to public broadcasting ($445 million) represents a microscopic portion of federal spending, but the impact this proposed cut will have on public broadcasting will be anything but small, particularly for public radio and the countless communities served by it. Federal budgets may seem abstract and not immediately relevant to us, but as the old saying goes, “All politics is local.” With respect to this, it is important for us in Western North Carolina consider the impact that a defunded public radio could have for our region.      

Mike Wolfe, Frank Fritz, and their team are excited to return to Western North Carolina to film more episodes of the popular television show “American Pickers.”

As The Smoky Mountain News wraps up an ongoing series on the state of mental health in North Carolina, state lawmakers were asked to weigh in on funding cuts and their thoughts on what the General Assembly can do to improve the flailing system.

Candidates have until 5 p.m. today, Feb. 28, to sign up to run for office.

By Dale Neal • Special to The Smoky Mountain News

Evangelist Billy Graham — a spiritual guide to generations of American evangelicals, a globe-trotting preacher who converted millions to Christianity, and a confidante to presidents — died today at the age of 99.

Graham personally preached the Christian gospel to more people on the planet than any other evangelist in the 2,000 years of Christianity.

Myth: The numerical code on the sticker on fruits and vegetable is put there for consumer information.

A new trail in the budding Upper Hickory Nut Gorge Trail loop has been completed, getting the system one step closer to its planned 20-mile expanse. 

Incentives aplenty await those who sign on to join The Plunge in support of environmental education 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17, at the brand-new Canton Pool. 

An upcoming attempt at the 70-mile Georgia Death Race could mean a boost in assistance for Southwestern Community College students who find themselves in need of financial help. 

By Will Studenc

The Jackson County, North Carolina Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) wishes to communicate its position regarding the existence of monuments that glorify the cause of the Confederacy, white supremacy, and the soldiers who fought in the Civil War. 

To the Editor:

I appreciated Cory Vaillancort’s story “Unseating Mark Meadows” describing the candidates running against the now-millionnaire incumbent representing the 11th Congressional District. We need a candidate who knows first hand what the middle class needs to thrive and grow in WNC. Phillip Price is that candidate. 

To the Editor:

Have we lost our sanity? A military parade is an unconscionable waste of national resources, particularly galling as Congress is voting to pass a budget that will greatly increase our national debt. Trying to pass it off as an effort to “honor veterans” reveals a real disconnect about what veterans really need and want: improved benefits and improved health care at VA hospitals.

To the Editor:

When I think about the purpose of industry, it is that our children would have good lives. That it would be of benefit to all our lives. Toxicity from industry is a problem that is increasing, on a huge scale. Weighed in the balance, much industrial production is endangering the lives of children through cancer and nervous system disorders, in exchange for products that may make life more convenient but have little real value. We are trading true benefit for ourselves for material goods. It is naive to believe that industry can continue this way. 

To the Editor:

First, I want to thank Rep. Mike Clampitt, R-Bryson City, for holding this latest town hall meeting. Unfortunately, I left the meeting wondering why even have one if the focus is entirely on the past.

To the Editor:

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Asheville, seems to be having a bout of selective amnesia instead of working for the people he represents in the 11th District.

By Todd Vinyard • Special to The Smoky Mountain News

Western Carolina University head basketball coach Larry Hunter’s team had beaten Samford 88-71 on Feb. 3 for a significant Southern Conference victory, and he had become one of only 40 other NCAA men’s basketball coaches with 700 career wins. Despite the milestone, Hunter followed his postgame routine of 46 years in coaching — finish the work of game day and prepare for the next game.

With the sign-up period now underway, candidate are throwing their names in the hat to run for various local and state offices. 

A southern gothic love triangle set in the age of Trump? Or maybe J.D. Vance’s bestseller Hillbilly Elegy as a postpunk concept album? How about a singer/songwriter coming off a ten-year hiatus, provoked from a peaceful period of dadhood into sounding his barbaric yawp over the roofs of rural Appalachia and the rest of “the solid south”?

Taste of Local — Thursday February 22. Ingles Markets, 301 Long Shoals Road, Arden NC. 3-6 p.m.