Student says bullies are bad news

Student says bullies are bad news

I am a high school student, and I am writing this letter because I have been deeply concerned about the incidents of bullying that I have witnessed at my school.

To me, bullying is a sign that someone needs to feel superior over the victim. Whether or not the bully thinks they are superior, it is no way to treat someone. So why do they do it?

As an example, one day a kid in my class, who has been picked on for his size, walked up to a group of guys just to join in on the conversation. Another student about twice his size pushed him to the ground for no apparent reason. I was so shocked I didn’t know what to do or say, and I wish I had done something.

I know now that the best thing to do is stand up for the victim. It makes me sick to think about how badly some kids get picked on and how just one bully can change another person’s life drastically. Someone’s words or actions could cause suicide to happen.

It doesn’t matter where you come from, who your parents are, or the way you look, nobody deserves to be bullied. In most cases, the bully thinks they are superior and popular.

But, in my book, being popular means being nice to everybody, having the best personality, and not caring what other people think. You don’t have to be mean to be popular.

If you are being bullied, you should walk away and tell the school counselor or your parents. Many students would help if they know what’s going on. As students, what we have to remember is we are just kids trying to get through life and be happy, and I think everyone deserves to be happy. Bullies are bad news, so let’s take a stand.

Hailey Underwood

Hickory

Disagreement with editorial

I generally find myself in agreement with the “Our Voice” opinions of the Hickory Daily Record, and when I do not, I usually still find the opinions to be well reasoned and researched. I was, therefore, surprised and disappointed by the “Our Voice” which appeared on Dec. 6 discussing the issue of the extension of the payroll tax cut proposed by President Obama.

The editorial has several significant errors of fact which unfortunately serve to confuse rather than to illuminate this question. First, the Bush tax cuts which, in fact, are a series of tax reform measures passed between 2001 and 2006 do not contain any major provisions affecting the payroll tax. Instead these tax cuts initially (in 2001) provided for a phased-in reduction in income tax rates and an eventual repeal of the estate tax. The 2002 tax cut focused on temporarily reducing taxes on new business investments.

In 2003, taxes on capital gains and dividends (which mostly affects upper income earners) were reduced. Changes made from 2004-2006 primarily sought to make most of the 2001-2003 tax cuts permanent except that the major income tax cuts were rescheduled to expire in 2010. None of the Bush tax cuts were “offset” in any way resulting in a massive increase in the overall federal deficit, aided, as well, by the Bush administration’s prosecuting two wars without paying for them. One looks in vain for another time in U.S. history where taxes were significantly cut during wartime.

As most knowledgeable citizens know, all these tax cuts were extended in 2010 in an agreement between the Republican dominated Congress and President Obama. The 2010 deal is where the Democrats got a one year payroll tax reduction in exchange for a 2 year Bush tax cuts extension. The President got an approximately $1000 a year middle class tax reduction so the wealthiest Americans, on the average, could keep hundreds of thousands in tax breaks.

On another point misrepresented in the HDR, the President’s proposal to extend the payroll tax for an additional year came with a specific means to pay for it: a small 3.25% surtax, not on income above $250,000 but on income above $1million! It’s not that the payroll cut is not paid for, it’s how it is paid for that bothers Republicans. Furthermore, the President’s tax cut plan would reduce payroll taxes for 98% of businesses as well. Indeed, despite Republican claims to the contrary, President Obama has cut taxes for small businesses at least 17 times since becoming President.

Admittedly, accurate information on tax cuts and tax policy is not all that easy to get right. Any assertion on this front can and will be challenged. What is indisputable though, is that over the last 10 years, the highest income earners have gotten enormous tax breaks and have overall made enormous gains. Working class and middle class income earners, on the other hand, have fallen further behind.

We are still waiting for that “trickle down” effect the Republicans constantly promise but never seem to deliver.

Cliff Moone

10th District Democratic Chair

Hickory, NC

Editorial was right on one point

A disagreement with the "Our Voice" editorial of Dec. 6 was published recently with complaints about it's accuracy. 

It included the comment "As most knowledgeable citizens know, all these tax cuts were extended in 2010 in an agreement between the Republican dominated Congress and President Obama." Actually, as knowledgeable citizens know; the Congress in 2010 was dominated by Democrats, not Republicans.

The landslide election of Republicans in November 2010 did not change the make up of Congress until 2011. Since the Democrats had control of both Houses of Congress plus the Executive Branch, they could, and did what they wished.

Art Patton

Hickory

Misinformation in critical letter

Cliff Moone, 10th District Democrat County Chair, is engaging in a little disinformation in at tacking the HDR ("Disagreement with editorial"). 

In and of itself, this is not unusual from members of The Regime, but I expected better math.  The 3.25 percent surtax on millionaires Mr. Moone lauds would hit 388,000 individuals making an average of $2.7 million with revenue to the government of $21.437 billion, nowhere near enough to pay for the $265 Billion payroll tax reduction the Democrats want. 

The result would be an i ncrease to the deficit of $234 billion per year (read "borrowed from the Chinese") and a resulting decrease to funding for a Social Security system already running in the red (something to which we seniors should pay attention).

This is pure class envy, an Obama campaign trademark, and it ignores reality.  Further, Fact Checker says Mr. Moone's touted 17 Obama tax cuts to small business are limited, targeted, and of little impact.  Look at 2013 and the Obamacare Sword of Damocles and you will understand why small business isn't hiring.

Stepping back to look at the big picture, the dance between the Republicans and Democrats over how to pay for spending is just that, a dance, for the benefit of the ignorant masses. We are teetering on the edge of an economic disaster brought on by big government spending and intrusion into the economy by both parties. 

Until they both pull back from business as usual, we shall remain vulnerable to the same catastrophe now facing Europe.

J.V. Fitzsimmons

Hickory

CVCC day care school worth fighting for

The sudden and totally unexpected closing of the daycare center is a blot on the name of CVCC. Catawba Valley Community College has always signified an umbrella of stewardship and integrity that encompasses the entire community, enriching and strengthening all the citizens in the area—from the infant years to the golden years.

Stewardship is the responsible overseeing and protection of something worth caring for and preserving. The CVCC Daycare Lab School is worth caring for and preserving. This is a five-star facility that positively affected our citizens’ children in the most impressionable stages of life.

Integrity is the adherence to moral and ethical principles. Integrity calls for the continuation of the CVCC Lab School. It is wrong to interrupt the lives of people of all ages. So many people will be negatively affected by this heedless, inconsiderate move. Children, parents and daycare employees have been blindsided.

A five-star day care is an expensive undertaking. Expenses can be interpreted as problems by average people. However, intelligent stewards with integrity and ingenuity look at expenses as opportunities — to do the right thing for the community.

It is not just the decision that is destructive; it is the timing. CVCC has given no time to readjust and recover. Teachers are scrambling; parents are scrambling; children are being scrambled.

The irony is that the very people who have demonstrated integrity and leadership, to earn the five-star designation, are the very people who have been victimized the most. My question is this: Are the people who are not demonstrating integrity, stewardship, and leadership tucked away safely, blanketed by political maneuvering?

This decision is worth reconsidering.

Carlene W. Jackson

Conover

Details are in the dollars

During this election year, class warfare and the theme of "fair share" wealth redistribution is in PC fashion. I would more than agree that it is past time to go beyond standard arguments and get to the basics. 

Who owns the money you have in your bank account? I do not care if it came from a retirement fund, manual labor or investments. It belongs to you, not society or the government. Who has the right to determine how much more of your money you should pay than some other person?

Wealth redistribution is a basic concept of socialism and a fundamental of the progressive federal income tax. It assumes the federal government controls who should pay and who are the deserving to receive. 

We do need tax reform and we need it now. We need it for individual and corporate. We need to stop confusing the two when we discuss them. Corporate: we need a flat tax, no loop holes that would keep our jobs home and bring the corporate money back into the states. Individual: flat rate top to bottom. 

Now I know this will hurt some PC feelings but I want you out of our personal check books. Everybody needs to have skin in the federal income tax. Are we not all in this mess together? 

"Death tax," a PC all-time favorite. The government steps in and says we had our shot at the money all your lifetime and now we are going to take what we could not get then because we have others who deserve it more than the ones you wanted. 

This is right out of the Marxism play book. It is legal larceny and should be stopped. Capital gains, investments into business (you know the people who give us jobs). This money has already been taxed one time and sometimes twice before it goes into the investment. 

Profits are hit at 15 percent. That is when a profit is made. If you are in a retirement account it most likely has investments.  If you purchased the same investments as an individual you would be subject to possible capital gains tax. We should encourage investment in our economy not chase it away.  Leave the capital gains tax alone. Spending must be placed at 2008 budget level and watch the income flow. Congressman, I await your call.

Robert Earl Hutchinson

Conover