Dear Editor,
I am 70 years old and I don’t recognize the America I live in anymore.
I am a member of the silent majority (possibly minority). I am a Christian, white, middle class and working business man. I have been working since I was 17 years old and I have never taken welfare handouts from the government.
I am saddened by the fact that 50% or more of our fellow Americans have fallen into the trap of somehow depending on the government to take care of them.
I grew up in the mill village and I never knew but one family that was on welfare. We had a neighborhood policy back then that when the main provider for a family became sick or injured, the people in the neighborhood would do a pounding, which was a term for collecting food and money from neighbors for this family until the breadwinner was able to go back to work.
We now have people that accept this pounding system from the government as a way of life and have done so through several generations.
This is not an option for me.
I would pick up cans beside the road and eat grass before I would become a servant to a socialized government. We used to live in what was known as the Bible belt; but now we sit around in our churches with our heads hung down while our Bible and our Christian beliefs are being assaulted from every direction by this current administration.
This current administration wants to control every phase of our life. I personally do not want to become part of a socialized world governed system that tells me what to say in church, what to say in public and takes my money that I worked for to give to someone that has never worked.
I also stand firm on the Second Amendment. I will never give up my guns or my Bible. I can’t imagine living in a country like Greece where the government is broke because there is no more free money and where people throw rocks and bottles at government troops.
I believe that we only have one more chance to save our Country and we had better get it right in November when we go to the voting booths. I would suggest that you take your Bible into the voting booth with you this time and vote your conscience and common sense.
We can no longer vote like daddy and granddaddy voted. This is a scary time and our freedom is being snatched away from us by crazy laws and executive orders issued every day.
Jerry Gattis
Rockingham
How in the world did you get from a story about mill villages to the "Torah"?
Mr. Gaddis is no fool, he applied himself to a life-time of work and tasks, he did it honestly and was and is very successful and also very deserving of his success and I agree with him in what he said, people have sold their pride for a monthly check and don`t really have or need any ambition and they have no shame in the fact that they are dead-beats and a burden to all of us.
Sometimes the truth hurts but it needs to be said.
louis b long et al
I assume because you speak sooo fondly of the good days on the mill-village you want to return to where the wealthy control your church and food, and heat and rent. I for one don't wish to recapture this sorrid period of our lives. I bet you even eagerly awaited the promised bag of fruit and candy, wow what a treat!
and doing chores is qualified to do the same for someone else for pay.Its a shame that a person will take the working peoples tax money but yet refuses to accept a job on a farm because he feels he is over qualified.Just because a person has a degree has nothing to do with me having having to help feed hin or her or them .One Apostle said I labored more than they all and never asked for anything,he made tents.He sowed the word and he reaped many to the cause of the Messiah,we always reap what we sow .The Messiah said to sow the word so most unemployed believers should start sowing the word instead of listening to the word ,people being saved will feed us.After all he said our body is the temple of the set apart word (1ST>cor.6-19&20)so we are all called to sing out the good news and preach out the word that is stored in our minds,THE WORD OR THE MESSIAH IN US.SOW THE Hebrew not the Greek or Latin .Thank you Sir for working as we all should if he gives us health and strength ,he rewards the good and hates the evil.