Dear Governor Perdue:

Before you simply pass this letter on to the NC Department of Transportation, please take a few moments to read it. To ask that agency to handle a change of this type and expect results would be like putting your two-year-old daughter into the alligator pen and asking the alligators to raise her to adulthood for you.

Last night a large contingent of DOT folks traveled from Raleigh to the mountains of Macon County to hold a “last hearing” on the fate of McCoy Bridge, one of the few remaining truss bridges still in service in the state. We appreciate the DOT’s effort to bring their expertise to our community, however it was evident from the start that a DOT-initiated alternative had already been chosen and once again community opinion had been ignored.

On Saturday April 9, Macon County FreedomWorks sponsored the John Locke Foundation speaker Dr. Terry Stoops. He spoke out against centralized (public) education and in favor of charter schools. Most revealing was his stance against cultural awareness.

According to the April 14 edition of the Macon County News, Stoops stated that a minimal national curriculum “…would incorporate many of the things our kids don’t need to know, like the multiculturalism, like the cultural awareness and those sorts of things that really divert a child’s attention from being able to read and write as they should.”

As a senior, how wonderful it is to have a young helpful gentleman at the Otto recyling center. He is always smiling and most helpful and the place has never looked cleaner. I just hope he stays and it lasts.

What a delight to now go to the recycling center.

Glenda Lynn — Franklin, N.C.

I was totally aghast last week to read an article concerning newly elected Senator Jim Davis’ contention about how much it was costing the State to have low income persons be able to procure free fishing licenses.

I was social worker for the Blind for 12 years, serving the five western counties of North Carolina. At that time it was possible for me to obtain free fishing license for blind or visually impaired clients. I would be interested to know where Senator Davis gathered his information, printed in the article, that it would cost the State from $12 to $15 to procure each license. I noted that Buncombe County stated it would only cost $3.60 in that county.