Having returned from vacation last week, I looked at High Point and the surrounding area with new eyes. I felt a warmth and vibrance in Thomasville, even though the “Big Chair” doesn’t stand for what it used to (much like the “World’s Biggest Bureau.”)

Driving through the Chair City on N.C. 109 to N.C. 62, I saw a club with live music, a farmer’s market, people walking around. In downtown High Point, the only people were at a bank, a utility company, the post office or jail.

There’s a couple of good restaurants in downtown High Point, but I didn’t see anyone walking to or from them, even though it was lunch hour. High Point doesn’t have a heart or soul downtown – we don’t even have a “downtown.” All bets have been on the furniture market, but most of those bets were placed when we made furniture in High Point. Then the market grew and the manufacturing jobs dried up.

That was the big draw for the market – it was made here and our pride showed. Now, all the baskets are loaded for one market and it’s going to gradually go away. What will we do then? If you want to give incentives to companies coming to the area, I think we should give the incentives to locals to open a jazz club on Washington Drive, a large farmer’s market at Market Square and specialty shops that reflect who we are now.

Don’t tear up the countryside for businesses catering to the airport. Look what Forsyth did for Dell and see how many empty warehouse and business parks line Union Cross Road. Let’s get some heart and soul into our city and the people will come.

Deby Simmerson

High Point


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Allowing gay marriage reinforces commitment

How sad that Carlton Boyles does not support marriage equality for gay Americans (Your View, Aug. 25, “Support marriage amendment to our U.S. Constitution”). The same-gender marriage ban represents hatred, injustice and persecution. One day the world will look back with shame at how gays were barred from marriage just as we now view the past ban on interracial marriage.

Boyles thinks that desecrating the Constitution with prejudice and discrimination will “return us to being a people that God will honor.” Religion should promote love and justice, not intolerance, hatred and oppression. Imagine a realm of God where people of all sexual orientations love and care for each other. Imagine God’s delight to see us all living harmoniously together as the body of Christ.

Social conservatives who perceive gay people as sexually promiscuous and a threat to society should be delighted that gay people want commitment, monogamy and a public declaration of their love.

Allowing gays to marry rather than forcing them to “live in sin” actually reinforces the importance of commitment and would strengthen the institution of marriage. The world would be a healthier and happier place for all if love, sex and marriage went together.

Love between same-gender couples is no different than love between heterosexuals and deserves the same respect. I invite those who oppose marriage equality to get to know me and my partner of 35 years. Then look us in the eye and tell us that we are less deserving of rights and protections than other Americans.

There is no greater personal freedom than the right to marry the person one loves. Barring gays from marriage is cruel and unfair. It is time for our country to live up to its highest ideals of liberty and equality under the law.

Cris F. Elkins

Greensboro


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Pay taxes and tithe for beneficial health care

The health care issues have put fear and distrust in people because of the lack of knowledge in “Jesus the Christ.” God so loved the world (people) that He sent Jesus, that whosoever believes in Jesus, should not perish (lack any good thing) but have life with abundance, accounting for “truth.”

Samaritans are people of mixed races (typically poor) who desired the same health care plan that the Jews (customarily rich) received, but were denied. Philip, an apostle, deacon, evangelist, preached Christ (Christianity) to the Samaritans, Greeks, Ethiopians and Nathanael (apostle) to receive and produce drafting of other races, nationalities, make, female, illegal immigrants, aliens, etc.

Americans, Christians, must pay “taxes” and “tithe” for maximum beneficial health care. People are not trying to come to America because it is the greatest nation of power through wealth, military might or the constitutional government of man, but for its “outward appearance” of moral justice, liberty, freedom, without sacrifice, to serve obediently the “true” and “living God” who created the one for all, and all for the one, “Jesus the Christ.”

The Good Samaritan (Jesus Christ), commands the law of God, love God with all your heart, (spirit of man) your soul (desire of man), your strength (power of man), your mind (will of man), and your neighbor as yourself (human mankind). A certain man traveled one city to another (tax payer) , and was robbed of his clothing, beaten and left for dead (Democrats and Republicans). A corrupt priest (religious), and Levite (government), likewise left him to die. A “good” Samaritan (neighbor) saw him, had compassion, bandaged his wound (E.M.T.), placed him on an animal (Ford F-150) took him to the innkeeper (Holiday Inn) and paid for his room.

We do not need our country back; we need to let God back in our country.

JAMES R. RICKS JR.

Trinity


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How about efforts to limit medical mishaps?

If the medical establishment is so concerned that litigation lawsuits are taking uncontrolled monetary advantage of them for their medical mishaps or derelict professional skills, should one expect a concentrated effort to reduce the annual hospital fatality rate that hovers around 190,000 patients? Why is it that a majority of malpractice claims are settled out of court?

As we proclaim that we have the best health care providers and medical system in the industrialized world, a system that lacks the effort to perform good preventive medicine, but is notably the most expensive with the most highly compensated professionals on the planet, and all of this without a universal health care system.

Why do the medical community, private insurance providers, and the Republicans accept and defend the status quo of the present health care system that is bankrupting the country? Why, it is the dollar ($$) symbol that is left out of the Hippocratic Oath.

William T. “Nick” Smith

Wilson