To the Editor:

I read with understanding and sadness the article about people leaving the cities and moving to Western North Carolina because of the fresh air and space. Before long they will turn Western North Carolina into exactly what they are trying to get away from. It won’t take long. It’s already happening.

Janice Workman

Bryson City

To the Editor:

Like government and business leaders across the country, I am continually looking for ways to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our county. So when I discovered new research that could detect traces of COVID in wastewater, I felt compelled to try and replicate it in Jackson County. 

To the Editor:

To counter the recent assertions from some suggesting that this past election was fraudulent and illegitimate, I would like to put out the following arguments:

By Steve Wall • Guest Columnist | On Sept. 10, 2020, Donald Trump greeted a cheering crowd in Freeland, Michigan, with these exact words: “We brought you a lot of car plants, Michigan! We brought you a LOT of car plants. You know that, right!”

This was greeted with excited cheers. So I have to wonder — did many of the people in the crowd realize there were no new car plants built in Michigan during the Trump administration? Were any aware that over 3,000 workers in the Michigan auto industry had lost their jobs since 2017?

By Boyd Allsbrook • Contributing writer | This year’s post-Thanksgiving weekend of shopping holidays will be unlike any other. This should come as no surprise when one considers a market made unpredictable in the wake of a global pandemic, large swaths of the consuming public now reticent to venture outside and their consequent move to the safety of purely online vendors. 

The National Park Service announced it is partnering with the U.S. Forest Service on a project that includes a proposal for additional access to the Graveyard Fields trail system from John Rock Overlook at Milepost 419.4 on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  

District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch announced that she has breast cancer and is undergoing medical treatment.

A Ghost of Christmas Past, femme-forward adaptation of Charles Dickens' ‘A Christmas Carol’ adapted by Ashlee Wasmund will premiere virtually this Thanksgiving. 

Eliada works hard to make the holidays a special time for the children in our care. This year, due to the pandemic, children and youth need support more than ever.

Allegiant recently announced a new nonstop route to McCarran International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas from Asheville Regional Airport beginning March 4, 2021. To celebrate, the company is offering one-way fares on the new route as low as $79.

Western Carolina University assistant professor Amy Stringer has been named North Carolina College/University Physical Education Teacher of the Year by NC SHAPE, the state’s professional organization for health and physical education educators.

Haywood County Health and Human Services is reporting its 38th and 39th COVID-19 deaths. 

The Haywood County Health and Human Services Agency has identified a COVID-19 cluster among Haywood County Detention Center staff. The cluster of cases was connected to a detention officer certification training event, held at Haywood Community College from Oct. 5 - Nov. 12.

Western Carolina University students will be allowed to request grades of satisfactory or unsatisfactory for 2020 fall semester classes following a split-vote approval of a resolution of the Faculty Senate Wednesday, Nov. 18.

Macon County Public Health has identified a COVID-19 outbreak at Drake Cottage, a congregate living facility. Three individuals have tested positive for COVID-19. All are well and isolated from others. 

Question: My friend thinks that brown eggs are better for her. Is that true?

By Laura Lauffer

During the Thanksgiving season, we often recognize and appreciate the farmers in our community for the abundance of food on our tables. Three women farmers in the region shared their farming experience during this challenging year, what it means to them to farm as women and how they continued to grow and distribute their goods to the community in the challenging times of COVID.  

To the Editor:

Joe Biden won, period. Biden won by the same “landslide” of 306 electoral votes as Trump declared in 2016. The difference is that the margins of victory by state tend to be larger than Trump’s but, unlike Trump, Biden also won the overall popular vote.

There was no widespread voter fraud other than the Republican attempts at voter suppression by limiting voting places and other tactics to suppress votes. The so-called “Stop the Steal” is just another one of Roger Stone’s dirty tricks warmed over for another pass at sowing discord.

What is most distressing are the elected Republicans who are placating Trump’s ego by denying Biden’s clear victory. Trump’s mental illness makes him unable to face reality, but senators and representatives don’t have that excuse. Their failure to accept reality and deal with the COVID-19 pandemic is costing thousands of lives.

The Trump administration long ago gave up trying to do anything constructive about the pandemic. That “do nothing” strategy and adherence to the fantasy that it will “just go away” are now costing thousands of Americans to die each day. The Republicans in Congress also are doing absolutely nothing. The only thing Mitch McConnell cares about is getting another ideologue appointed to a lifetime judicial appointment. They don’t seem to understand that we need to address the pandemic to get economic recovery. The apparent ignorance is staggering.

With newly elected Republicans it does not look like things will get better from their end. Our local congressman seems to think he is going to Washington to fight the “libs” instead of working for the overall interests of the district, such as broadband and economic development. The new Republican senator in Alabama could not correctly identify the three branches of the federal government and claimed we fought World War II to defeat socialists instead of the white-supremacist Nazis. When someone brings up socialists or socialism, it typically means the person doesn’t know what he or she is talking about.

Norm Hoffman

Waynesville

To the Editor:

It sickens me — a 72-year-old, seven-year U.S. Air Force and Vietnam veteran — the depths to which this GOP administration and GOP members of Congress are descending. It has always been clear that their interests lie solely in personal power and personal gain. To believe in this GOP administration, and to support their actions and goals, requires massive ignorance or nefarious calculation of personal benefit. This GOP administration and GOP members of Congress constantly display lack of character and amorality. This GOP administration has no interest in the progress of America and the world, and seeks simply and nakedly to ignore reality in favor of their twisted mindset, that only they are to be believed, that every fact illustrating their malfeasance must be fake news.

The most difficult part of governance is actual good management. America desperately needs our elected representatives to spend our money to good effect by employing personnel with provable expertise. This GOP administration has made no pretense, since the 2016 election, of having such a goal, similar to GOP administrations since the election of Reagan, who in his initial inaugural address of January 20, 1981, said, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” In fact, bad government is the problem, and the GOP excels in bad government.

This GOP administration and Congress are now engaged in tremendous lies about the American election with no apparent goal except diversion and distraction, as well as fund-raising to help pay the President’s massive debt, and firing up their base at whatever cost to America. Attorney General William Barr has unleashed his Justice Department minions in support of this farce, and Emily Murphy, a Trump appointee and former Republican staffer on Capitol Hill, now the General Services Administrator, refuses the obligations of her office to the incoming President. Meanwhile, they continue, under the radar to most people, their destruction of protections of the American commons, so their overloads are free to extract and abuse as they see fit.

We are better than this. I’m probably misquoting someone, but we all do better when we all do better. That can only happen when the GOP drastically changes its mindset, and begins to work for their boss, the American people, who hired them.

Bil Aylor

Bryson City 

To the Editor:

I hope all the idiots who voted for Biden are happy. Our country is going down the tubes.

Welcome to socialism: all our taxes will be higher, unions will take over, small businesses will close, we will have open borders, and all of our jobs will be shipped to China.

Then they will declare Biden unfit to be president and then Kamala Harris will be president and she will pick Hillary Clinton as vice president. The country will be in a shambles and it won’t take four years for the Democrats to do it.

Greg Brom

Waynesville

The fourth annual Cades Cove Loop Lope has raised $70,000 for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park despite having to take place virtually this year to prevent spread of COVID-19. 

Friends of the Smokies and its supporters have raised $89,000 this year to fund search and rescue efforts in the Smokies.

This year Junaluska Woman’s Club members have crafted plans for wonderful, supportive projects and fundraising events that, during the pandemic, have had to be canceled again and again. 

By Todd Vinyard • Contributing writer | Each athletic season has its challenges, but the 2020-2021 season has more obstacles than usual as teams try to play on safely during a pandemic.

By Boyd Allsbrook • Contributing writer | There were many things I expected to experience as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic — stress, isolation, illness, etc. Absent from that list was what I had the pleasure of tasting this weekend — quite simply, the finest liquor I’ve ever waxed poetic about. 

The new Hayesville Primary School opens Monday to students and teachers, providing a brand-new place of learning in Clay County for the first time in 40 years.

Haywood County Health and Human Services is reporting its 37th COVID-19 death. The individual died at home and COVID-19 was listed as the primary/immediate cause of death. 

Emergency personnel were called to a residence in the North Hominy/Canton area in reference to a structure fire with entrapment around 3:48 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 15.

By Tom Fiedler • AVLWatchdog.org | For the Rev. Franklin Graham, the scathing editorial in Christianity Today last year calling his friend Donald Trump “a leader of grossly immoral character” and urging that Trump be “removed from office” was heretical.

Haywood Community College (HCC) and Lees-McRae College (LMC) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a Guaranteed Admission Program for all HCC students who meet certain academic requirements to transfer and complete a Bachelor’s degree at LMC. In addition, HCC students who qualify will receive New Horizon Transfer scholarships in amounts up to 60% off annual tuition.

Melissa Metcalf Le Roy believes her father, the late Oscar William Metcalf Jr., would have been the first to apply for membership in Western Carolina University’s new Veterans and Military Alumni Society. 

By Naema Pierce

When we hear the words birth control, usually the mind goes to The Pill. Somehow the term birth control has become synonymous with any hormonal birth control, when in fact birth control reaches far beyond that of hormonal methods. It also consists of condoms, diaphragms the copper IUD and fertility awareness methods. And let me just say, these are perfectly reliable methods even if you have been told your whole life otherwise.

The Haywood County Commissioners have decided to move forward with a long-term plan to expand the existing jail at the cost of $16.4 million dollars with an added 145 new beds.

It is incredibly frustrating that our commissioners are more than willing to greenlight millions for incarceration but flat out refuse to discuss harm reduction, homelessness or treatment programs for community members. As a matter of fact, a former commissioner who is now a state representative made it his mission to degrade anyone who inquired about these issues.

By Dr. Tara Hogan D.C.

When I was in college getting my period meant I was about to lose all my energy, become an anxious basket case, and generally feel like crap. This was not convenient, especially as an athlete. I can remember trying to sneak naps in between class and practice only to wake up more tired.Then it was off to sprint practice to feel utterly…slow…

Question: What Can you do with a Can of Pumpkin?

North Carolina has launched a new initiative to help the state prepare for the impacts of climate change while reducing damages from future natural disasters. 

Usually, the K-8 Trailblazers group at Mountain Discovery Charter School in Bryson City can be found venturing out to trails and canoes on group wilderness expeditions. COVID-19 has made such expeditions challenging, so the students are going to space instead — virtually, that is. 

The annual Winter Lights event at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville will be a drive-thru experience this time around. 

Approximately 689 acres of fields in the Cades Cove area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will be burned between Nov. 7 and Wednesday, Nov. 25. 

A $4,000 grant from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy will help the Great Smoky Mountains National Park practice proactive bear management in the year ahead. 

Haywood Community College registration for spring semester is now open for both new and continuing students. 

Families observing Thanksgiving this month will be following a tradition that arose several hundred years ago from events in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The “First Thanksgiving” took place in the fall of 1621 as Pilgrims celebrated their successful first harvest with local Native Americans.

By Boyd Allsbrook • Contributing writer

Before the Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns gutted U.S. commerce back in March, the Canton Consolidated Metco manufacturing plant was thriving.

By Quintin Ellison • Special to SMN

John Hindsman Jr. leaves his civilian job this week for his military one, transforming from local assistant district attorney into Maj. Hindsman, U.S. Army Reserve judge advocate.

Do you want to make a crafty project with friends, but don’t have the materials, space or know-how? CRE828, a new workshop and studio in Waynesville, will allow you to do just that.

The town of Franklin will soon be home to SECU Hospice House of WNC. This new facility will provide hospice inpatient and respite care, helping to ensure the people of our rural mountain region receive compassionate, loving care during their final journey and their loved ones receive the help they need to stay well.

November is Native American Heritage Month and events adhering to pandemic protocols have been scheduled for Western Carolina University.