Pruitt, Trump have problems
The final call to save red wolves
To the editor:
Some of you may have read my red wolf letter to the editor published in early May. So, I will keep this simple.
The last red wolf population in the wild exists solely in eastern North Carolina. The red wolf has faced increasing political pressure in the last few years from landowners in the red wolf range and the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission. Pressure from these sources led the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to passively watch as gunshot mortalities became the main cause of death during the last several years. The red wolf population dropped from more than 130 wolves to less than 30 known individuals in less than four years.
Instead of rectifying their agency’s apathetic approach to red wolves by helping them regrow their population, the USFWS has instead moved forward with a proposal that will effectively doom the red wolf. The proposal includes shrinking the population by 90%, pulling many red wolves into captivity, and allowing any remaining red wolves who wander off federal lands to be shot. Scientists have already stated that the red wolf will go extinct in the wild within a decade under this plan.
As North Carolinians, we deserve better than to have the rarest canine go extinct in the wild in our state. Please voice your opposition to the USFWS proposal by submitting a comment by July 30th to regulations.gov using the red wolf docket number FWS-R4-ES-2018-0035.
Christopher Lile
Waynesville
A scurrilous attack on a fine lawyer
To the editor:
Recently I received in the mail an unsolicited 11 x 14 card that says, in large caps it was PAID FOR BY THE NORTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN PARTY. The full-color card consisted of a personal attack on Anita Earls, a lawyer who is running for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. The card consisted in part on pictures of the faces of 18 men, 4 of whom had the word “MURDERER” stamped on their pictures and 2 had the word “RAPIST.” The text referred to Ms. Earls as DANGEROUS“ and stated, among other things, that if she “HAD HER WAY THESE GUILTY, DANGEROUS CRIMINALS WOULD HAVE BEEN RELEASED BACK INTO OUR NEIGHBORHOODS.
Ms Earls, a graduate of Yale Law School and a former Justice Department official, has apparently devoted much (if not all) of her professional life coming to the aid of people who need help –EVEN IF SOME OF THOSE PEOPLE ARE GUILTY, DANGEROUS CRIMINALS. That is reason to support her, not to condemn her. In an ideal world, every person accused of wrongdoing will receive the services of a competent attorney who will devote his or her time, skill and energy on behalf of the accused person. Doing so represents the highest duty a lawyer can perform. Her career-long pursuit of justice for condemned people looks like a good reason to vote for her as the next Supreme Court Justice.
John Vanderstar, Harvard Law School
Waynesville
Hostility toward immigrants is heartbreaking
To the editor:
The Trump administration’s outright hostility to immigrant populations is terrifying. Recent news of the "Denaturalization Task Force" is yet another step towards genocide against vulnerable immigrant populations.
Naturalized citizens took an oath of allegiance to the United States, declaring they will “renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen.”
This means they no longer have citizenship in any other country. If the United States revokes their citizenship, they then become stateless people, and rendering people stateless is among the last things necessary to undertake a genocide.
I call on my elected representatives, Rep Mark Meadows and Sens. Thom Tillis and Richard Burr: Do not be on the wrong side of history. Fight this with everything in your power. Prove that you are a better human being.
Jill Huntsberger
Waynesville