After battling brain cancer since April 2016, Western Carolina University Chancellor David O. Belcher announced Nov. 27 that his treatment is no longer working. He will go on medical leave and does not expect to return to his position.

True or False? “Processed foods are bad” – Not Necessarily - Processing means taking a food from an inedible state and changing it to something that’s edible. Certain processing methods may also make vitamins and minerals more available or help preserve an item so it’s safe to eat.

After 18 hours of snowmaking, Cataloochee Ski Area opened for the winter on Monday, Nov. 20.

Ongoing efforts to revitalize the Franklin River District gained momentum this week when Mainspring Conservation Trust purchased a polluted site in the heart of the area.

Reconstruction has begun to replace the wooden roof of the historic Wayah Bald Fire Tower, which burned up in the Camp Branch Fire during last year’s prolific wildfire season.

Conservation of 147 acres at Stevens Creek, a quiet cove on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Haywood County, will provide further protection for the nation’s most visited national park and the wildlife that calls it home.

A $3,000 grant from the Duke Energy Foundation will help the Highlands Nature Center support its robust school outreach program.

Unleashed dogs have become a safety issue in the Bent Creek Area of the Pisgah National Forest, prompting the U.S. Forest Service to remind forest users that a leash law is in effect there.

In a book on the nature of state legislatures, the journalist Frank Trippett coined the term “true constituency” to explain why so many politicians act as badly as they do.

To the Editor:

Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis stand poised to vote for the current Republican tax bill in Congress. But their past public pronouncements clash with its provisions.

Recently Sen. Burr said that “middle-class Americans can keep more of their hard-earned dollars.” But economic research indicates that proposed elimination of deductions for high mortgages, state and local taxes, and large medical expenses could actually raise taxes for many working families.

Sen. Tillis insists that “one of the greatest threats to the U.S. economy and national security is our national debt.” Yet the GOP plan, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), would increase the debt by $1.7 trillion.

NC Policy Watch reported that, “In North Carolina, analysis shows that 50 percent of the federal tax cuts would go to the richest 5 percent of residents and 13 percent of households would face a tax increase, once the bill is fully implemented.”

If this Republican “wealth transfer” plan passes, the CBO also notes that Medicare would be cut by $25 billion. The Senate bill would also eliminate the Affordable Care Act individual mandate, raising premiums and likely forcing 13 million people off their healthcare insurance.

Current polls indicate less than 25 percent of voters favor this bill. Once again, however, Burr and Tillis talk “tax reform” but support unpopular policies that make their constituents’ lives harder.

Frank L. Fox

Asheville

The holiday season is upon us and shoppers are crowding malls and discount stores to buy the latest gadgets and find the best deals.

Investigators with the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office are seeking the public’s assistance with identifying a person who broke into Bethel Elementary School in evening hours of Monday, Nov. 13.

Nominations for this year’s Southern Trout Legends of the Fly Hall of Fame include several anglers from the Smokies region, two of whom are in Western North Carolina.

The Pisgah National Forest logged the most volunteer hours of any other national forest in 2016, earning Pisgah the Volunteer Award at the 2017 Regional Forester’s Honor Awards ceremony this month.

Robbinsville resident Dick Evans received the Benton MacKaye Trail Association’s highest honor at the organization’s recent 2017 Annual Meeting.

For the first time, vehicles can drive the entire 16-mile section of the Foothills Parkway from Walland to Wears Valley, Tennessee.

A recent purchase of 149 acres by the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy has added to a contiguous block of protected lands surrounding the Sandy Mush community in western Buncombe County.

To the Editor:

It really upsets me when I hear that the economy is doing good and the unemployment rate is down. Sure, people are working, but it means nothing if they still can’t afford housing. The cost of living goes up continuously, but wages don’t.

I live on Social Security and right now I pay over half my income on rent. And that’s without a kitchen. My health needs are such that I can’t eat the way I should without a kitchen. I’ve been approved for section 8, but can’t find a place that rents as low as section 8 now allows and meets my health needs (no stairs, no smokers, etc.)

I have a friend who loaned me money for a car so I could look for work. My health won’t let me work enough hours at minimum wage to make a difference. I have a master’s degree and the experience to find a part-time professional job that would make a difference. But even though I’ve been applying for work every day, I’ve not even been called for an interview.

I owe a fortune in debt to the “for-profit” hospitals in the surrounding three counties, so I’ve not been able to get the medical care I need. I’m a skin cancer survivor who hasn’t seen a dermatologist in years, and I’ve had five eye surgeries, need more but haven’t seen my ophthalmologist either. And when I had asthmatic-bronchitis recently, I had to make my way to the nearest Mission Hospital (non-profit) some distance away.

I wonder how many people realize that the “for-profit” hospitals can and do turn people away who owe them money. I can’t even get lab work. (they do have to stabilize you, before turning you away, if you come in by ambulance). I have been personally escorted from the campus when I tried to get labs drawn on tests that were paid 100 percent by Medicare. By the way, few things are 100 percent paid for my Medicare these days. My cornea transplant in one eye was, I’m guessing, about three times what it was in the other eye because in the one year since, Medicare quit paying for the cornea tissue, the greatest part of the cost.

I’m totally alone and don’t know what is going to happen to me. I hate that I’ve had this car for three months and haven’t been able to send any money to my friend who helped me get it. And you know what? I am far from the only one in this situation! This is the new normal.

Connie J. Conklin

Whittier

To the Editor:

Government and taxes are common complaints among conservatives, even though they benefit from both. Opinions in our local papers complain property taxes are too high, but our small western counties are among the lowest rates in North Carolina; at commissioners’ meetings, citizens demand the committee “prune” its budget for serious cuts to our public services. Mention taxes in most of the United States, and you will get a negative response; and people often vote for whoever will assure tax cuts, a frequent conservative agenda. Since before our revolution, taxes have incited resistance; yet much in our quality of life depends upon those terrible taxes.

Aside from the everyday costs of government, taxes have afforded us public schools (also Head Start, Pre-K, GEDs, job training, etc.), postal service, public libraries, public community parks and recreation programs, national parks and preserves; government subsidies for agriculture ( a lifeline for small farmers), public elections, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; our transportation systems like highways, bridges, transport hubs like airports, subways, railways, buses, ferries; they supply and support our utilities, our police forces, our military, our national defense programs; social support systems, like unemployment and disability, public health clinics, hospitals and so much more; the quality of these services and the necessary maintenance are assured by the taxes we pay: the more we pay, the better our lives.

Sure, bad governance wastes our taxes but that should be handled in fair elections for all; public officials, unlike private companies, can be held accountable: taxes are our lifeline to a better future, and when they are continually cut, maintenance and infrastructure become degraded and unsafe.

In the 1930s under the New Deal, the CCC put hundreds of thousands to work in national parks and forests, all supported by taxes; the Federal Emergency Work Act: again, taxes; Tennessee Valley Authority: taxes; Rural Electrification: taxes; Social Security: taxes.

The top wealth tax rate at that time was 79 percent, rising to 90 perxcent during and after the wars. New dealers believed that heavy taxes on the wealthiest were a moral imperative. Eisenhower continued these New Deal programs to insure a good life for all. Under Eisenhower, the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 was paid for by taxes. Our space programs, NASA: taxes; Refugee Relief Act: taxes. Taxes gave access to healthcare for older Americans: Medicare was the flagship of a highly concentrated, three-statute endeavor.

The GI Bill transformed the college student body by removing the major hurdle to higher education for returning veterans: again, paid for with taxes. As a result, lower socioeconomic groups were finally represented on campus. The number of college students nearly doubled in the 1940s, from 1.5 million in 1940 to 2.7 million in 1950, as veterans swelled the ranks. Veterans’ benefits: again, taxes; Workman’s Compensation: taxes.  However, the tax rate dropped seriously in the 1980s and is currently at 39 percent for the wealthiest, before deductions.

I have missed many, under-stated more, but my intent is to call attention to the multitude of public services that income taxes, at the national, state, and local levels, provide; and to remind you that these many programs are being continually diminished by our foolish reluctance to increase taxes on the wealthiest. With increased taxes, restoring existing programs and infrastructure would create jobs and restore quality to these valuable American assets, especially in small towns and rural areas where taxes subsidize local farmers and businesses, fund public social services like our schools, our library and post office, our senior center, recreational facilities, infrastructure, and other county government services we have come to depend on: we all enjoy a better life when the quality of life is better for all.

Ruth Ballard

Hayesville

Several residents have notified the Town of Waynesville that they have received calls from someone posing as a town representative and threatening disruption of electric service if a bill is not paid.

In its 40th anniversary year, the Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) received a $4,500 grant from the Fund for Haywood County to engage a marketing firm to update their organizational identity. Now, following months of work with 7 Ton Co., the HCAC is proud to share its new look with the wider community.

What new foods and beverages will you be seeing on shelves as we move into 2018?

Dr. Anne Garrett has announced her retirement as superintendant of the Haywood County Schools effective March 1, 2018.

To the Editor:

As I read this week’s (November 1-7) Smoky Mountain News and the article entitled “Swain library project hits roadblock,” I was interested in the similarities that I saw between the perspective of the county commissioners in Swain County and those exhibited by the Haywood County commissioners when the updating and renovation of the Haywood County Library in Waynesville was being discussed. I may be oversimplifying, but it seems that the commissioners in both counties are showing extreme fiscal conservatism when the subject of libraries is in front of them.

Commissioners, libraries are important! I realize that we live in a time of limited resources to do all that needs doing in each of our counties, but you cannot relegate public libraries to the level of the unimportant without realizing the long-term cost our society. Libraries are centers of literacy. They are gathering place for the citizens of the county, they provide programs to educate, they teach the children, and they help the citizens who are not otherwise connected when job applications need to be submitted on-line.

The University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science, working in conjunction with the South Carolina Association of Public Library Administrators, recently published a study titled “An investment that pays,” in which they they described the investment in libraries as important to “quality of life,” “education,” and as an “economic engine” for the state.

In that study, 92 percent of citizens polled said that libraries “contributed to the overall quality of life;” 76 percdent of respondents said “they used it when searching for a new job;” 38 percent said “it attracts new businesses.”

I realize that these might be viewed by some citizens and the commissioners as platitudes with no real substantive value, but what is a key part of this discussion that even the most frugal can appreciate is that the same report found that the ROI  (return on investment) for dollars that the state spent on libraries was 350 percent.

Said another way, “For every $1 expended, the return is $4.58.  The state of Florida found in 2013 that their ROI for library expenditures was “$10.18 to $1” (“Return on Investment and the Economic Benefits of Public Libraries,” completed by the Hass Center for Business Research and Economic Development, at the University of West Florida).

So, the challenge to the county commissioners of Swain County (and Haywood County) is to get out from behind the dais, go visit your library, and really talk to the citizens that are there using the library and think about their needs with an open mind.

And to the argument that “not everyone in the county uses the library” which is always used to argue against library funding, well not everyone uses the fire department, or the sheriff’s department, or even the school system, but ….

Thanks, Smoky Mountain News for covering this important topic. If we keep talking about library needs, someday soon the purse strings might get loosened to support these important institutions in our counties.

Kent Stewart

Haywood County citizen

To the Editor:

If you elect Phillip Price to Congress, he will work toward some moderate, common-sense policy shifts that the overwhelming majority of Americans supports: expanding background checks, coming to the aid of women who seek protection from abusive partners with firearms, combating illegal gun trafficking, and improving the background check system with better records reporting. Phillip Price will stand for these values and also uphold the right to bear arms established in the Bill of Rights. We can do both.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Asheville, casts his votes for the benefit of the NRA. They both want to turn our country into an armed camp. The NRA is a trade association that’s more focused on corporate profits than the rights of gun owners. Mr. Meadows continues to support NRA instead of discussing crucial gun control issues.  Can’t we agree on a few simple rules about gun ownership that honor the Second Amendment while protecting Americans from random gun violence?

Michelle Price (wife of Phillip Price)

Nebo

To the Editor:

Bravo to CeCe Hipps! As a former Haywood County Chamber of Commerce employee years ago, I have worked with CeCe and watched her overcome many obstacles in heading a chamber, from a small staff to funding shortages. She led on in spite of economic hardship that really hit our country hard a few years ago. Thanks to her and many others here in our local government and business community, we have fared better than many other small towns.

Cece has always had the same vision to move Haywood County forward while cherishing our small-town flavor and beautiful mountains. But progress will come and we are becoming more and more of a bedroom community to Asheville. It is truly innovative of her to make this union with their economic resources and ours to better our future growth.

I personally hope our small town never gets to big, but better to steer the bus than be run over by it. Everyone can benefit by supporting and joining your area Chamber of Commerce, and Haywood County is damn lucky to have Ms. Hipps steering our bus!

Mylan Sessions

Waynesville

To the Editor:

By whatever authority you use one thing is clear: Donald Trump’s presidency is unraveling and accelerating faster than we can logically follow.

When Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) likened the Trump White House to an “adult day-care center,” he was only parroting what people close to the president have been saying from the beginning.  Despite his aides’ best efforts, insiders describe Trump as “increasingly unfocused” and “consumed by dark moods,” the very same mental picture painted of Nixon at the end of his presidency.

Unmistakably, Trump is in way over his head and, in my opinion, would be wise to remove himself from office. Otherwise the Republican leadership must take the necessary steps in addressing the common belief that Trump is not psychologically or morally equipped to be president and remove him from office.

Unfortunately the present Republican leadership seems far more absorbed and committed to dismantling Obama’s legacy than attending to the business of governing and holding in check our responsibilities here and throughout the world.

Given that invoking the 25th Amendment to remove a president requires a two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress (and Republicans enjoy a majority in both Houses), that remedy is presently impractical and therefore ill-advised.

That does not however, negate the fact that President Trump, by his own words and deeds, daily (in my view) proves himself incapable of adequately performing the complex duties of his office. As Michael Cohen in The Boston Globe eloquently phrased it, Trump is “an unbearable, infuriating, enraging, and draining presence in our national life.” Amen to that.

David L. Snell

Franklin

MountainTrue and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy are partnering to ensure that the emerald ash borer doesn’t cause the majestic ash tree to go the way of the dodo.

Sunny Point Café in Asheville is joining forces with Friends of the Smokies to raise money for radio and emergency communications upgrades in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

North Carolina set a record low for number of unhealthy ozone days with the close of the 2017 season Oct. 31.

Frosty temperatures Sunday night into Monday, Oct. 30, brought the first snow of the season to high elevations in the Smokies. In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the highest elevations received 3 inches of snow. NPS Road Crew photo

A slate of upcoming community forums in Bryson City, Cashiers and Sylva will give residents a chance to learn about new services and quality ratings at Harris Regional Hospital and Swain Community Hospital.

By Kurt J. Volker • Contributing writer

In recognition of Veterans Day 2017, the Macon County Art Association will conduct its sixth annual Veterans Portrait Presentation Ceremony at noon Saturday, Nov. 11, at the Uptown Gallery on Main St. in downtown Franklin. The portraits have been on display at the gallery since Nov. 1.

First of all, EDTA (calcium disodium ethylene-diaminetetraacetate) is a really long name for an ingredient! But don’t let that scare you. EDTA is used as a perservative in many food like dried and canned beans, mayo, and cooked canned seafood to preserve flavor and color. Using preservatives also reduces food waste.

As fall arrives in Western Carolina we know that there are fewer locally grown fruits and vegetables available but you can still support local at Ingles all year around by looking for these fresh local items at your Ingles store.

Paul Willis, 96, a World War II veteran from Canton, was awarded the French Legion of Honor by the French Consul General, Louis de Corail, at a recent ceremony in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Paddling legend Bunny Johns was inducted into the International Whitewater Hall of Fame this fall for her sport-changing facilitation of how the process, technique and safety of whitewater paddling instruction are taught and shared across the USA.

Highlands Biological Station Director James Costa recently traveled to London to receive the silver Alfred Russel Wallace medal recognizing his contributions to the study of the 19th-century naturalist.

A dozen students studying everything from mountaintop forests to river basins are currently living at the Highlands Biological Station, enrolled for the semester through the UNC-Chapel Hill Institute for the Environment.

Swain County commissioners recently held a dedication ceremony to officially rename the Old N.C. 288 Park after David Monteith.

Years ago... I got the flu (influenza). It wasn’t fun. I was miserably sick and ran a high fever for about 3 days. I ached all over, had no energy, no appetite, nothing tasted good and I couldn’t sleep.

To the Editor:

Will Americans allow the symbol of “liberty and justice for all” to be more highly regarded than actual liberty and justice for all? Have the flag and the national anthem become more important than our written Constitution?

Some people are saying that wealthy athletes should not protest racial injustice during the playing of the national anthem. Then where and when should protesters protest? Do we not all have the right to protest the injustices we see around us? When Walmart wants to sell us something they place the item where we are very likely to see it.

How many people actually agree with famous football coach Mike Ditka when he opines that there hasn’t been any racial oppression in the last one hundred years? Come on, coach! Would Ditka recognize Martin Luther King’s photo if he saw it? Dr. King lost his life over the struggle for equality in America.

According to the King James Bible, when Cain killed Abel he asked God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Will Americans choose to be their brother’s keeper? Or will we opt to deny our brothers (and sisters) the liberty and justice that all people want? Will we harden our hearts to those among us who are a different color? Then what will we do with the millions who are racially mixed already? In spite of what some want there is no way to turn back the hands on the clock.

Bob Dylan told us, “The times they are a’changin’. You can google that fact or call him up on your rotary telephone (if you still have one).

Dave Waldrop

Webster

By Norman Hoffman • Guest Columnist

Some time ago a cartoon had Donald Trump’s press secretary and Kelly Ann Conway dressed as Burger King employees under a banner “Home of the Whopper” and Conway saying, “Do you want lies with that?” Lies seem to be the staple of the Trump administration.

Like placing a bandage over a deep wound and hoping it will just go away, opiate painkillers are prescribed to a growing number of Americans each year. Unfortunately, these medications do not address the true cause of the pain and often lead down a dark path.

More than 900 young spruce trees were planted in the Black Balsam area of the Pisgah National Forest this fall, thanks to dozens of volunteers and members of the Southern Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative.

The first project of the Town of Waynesville Arboretum has celebrated its first full year of growth and blooming, with the new Serenity Garden now complete in the Waynesville Recreation Park next to the new bridge installed along the path between the skate park and the dog park.

Haywood County Special Olympics held its first Fall Games Celebration Saturday, Oct. 14, at the Waynesville Recreation Center, honoring the 25 athletes who participated in golf, soccer, bocce and basketball over the past six weeks.

The Haywood Community College Lumberjack Team placed first out of 10 teams in this year’s John G. Palmer Intercollegiate Woodsmen’s Meet, held at the Cradle of Forestry in America Oct. 7.

Waynesville native Christopher Lile is on his way to Madagascar for three months following his graduation from Gardner-Webb University this year.