How disheartening to see that President Trump still has support in Congress

Trump’s support

The truest thing ever uttered by President Trump was in the 2016 campaign when he said he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and his supporters would still support him.

How sad it is that after showing his utter contempt for the democratic process and institutions, there are many people, including members of Congress, who still think he deserves to be president of the United States.

His insistence that the election should be overturned is tantamount to calling for the death of democracy, and anyone who supports his delusional behavior is aiding and abetting in that death.

Gene Kavadlo, Charlotte

Preventing spread

Regarding Jay Ambrose “The problem with shutting restaurants,” (Dec. 23 Opinion):

Jay Ambrose presents a false dichotomy when he argues that shutting restaurants is pointless because most New Yorkers contracted coronavirus at home. None of those households cultivated the virus in isolation; it was introduced from somewhere else. Limiting contact apart from those we live with is our best means of reducing the spread of the virus. Preventing spread within a household is likely impossible.

David Fahey, Charlotte

Thank scientists

The notion that Donald Trump should be credited with saving Joe Biden’s life (Dec. 23 Forum) because Biden received a vaccination is absurd.

When the scientists at BioNTech were hard at work last winter exploring cutting-edge genetics to create a vaccine, Trump was busy lying to the public, telling us that COVID-19 was just a flu even though he knew otherwise.

And when BioNtech was forming a partnership with Pfizer in order to speed up research and testing, Trump was telling us that “the coronavirus is very much under control” and that churches would be packed again by Easter.

By the time that Operation Warp Speed was officially announced on May 15, vaccine research by the private sector had been underway for months.

We should be thanking the brilliant scientists who performed these medical miracles, not lying politicians.

Barry Jordan, Charlotte

The press

Sometimes we need to look at the past to bring today into reality.

Joseph Pulitzer wrote: “Our republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. The power to mould the future of the republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations.”

When will all of our national press start reporting the news and stop promoting an agenda? I just want the news and there is really no place to get it anymore without a political statement by either the reporter or the anchor. Where is Walter Cronkite when this country needs him most?

Jim Best, Morganton Writer

Same-sex wedding

Regarding Wedding venue refuses to host gay couple’s ceremony,” (Dec. 23):

So much for tolerance. We Christians who believe that marriage is defined as a union of a man and a woman are supposed to tolerate it and suck it up if we don’t agree. But the members of the LGBTQ community and supporters are allowed to bash and possibly ruin a business that politely refused.

This is not my America anymore.

Rita Rasmussen, Denver

Tears of hope

Sometimes tears are our best teacher. They remind us of the depths of human grief, but also the enormity of life’s truest joys.

As a pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, I recently met with a man in crisis. He was feeling loss and pain: physical, spiritual, emotional, economic, and familial. I had little to offer besides prayer, so we bowed our heads. I prayed that God’s love might break into his life in the same way it broke into a fractured world over 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem.

He wept, and so did I. These tears were not tears of lament, nor of joy. Instead, they were tears of hope. In them, we were reminded that the hope of love, forgiveness, redemption and transformation is always present.

As a difficult and painful year draws to a close, my prayer is that we all might embrace this kind of hope. Amidst our pain and fear, amidst illness and suffering, amidst change and division, may we all remember that it is never too late for love to break in.

Rev. Ian Clark, Charlotte

Belated thanks

Fifty three years ago, I was based at Phù Cát Air Base in South Vietnam for the first of two Christmases there.

The Observer published my name and address, as well as those of many others in the military. That Christmas I received many cards from unknown people who took the time to write and wish me well.

Those cards went a long way toward helping make up for my first Christmas away from home. I never thought to thank the Observer for its great gesture or thank all those who sent cards.

So, I belatedly say “Thank You” to all who made that Christmas so much better.

Ronald Honeycutt, Mount Gilead