Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010

Your Letters

Library supporters

So, Wake County is proposing to close the library in Garner. A library that serves the needs of many people south of the capital, some of whom are low-income. However, the county will maintain libraries in other, more affluent areas.

Does Wake County wish to promote the idea that people with middle-to-low incomes should be illiterate as well as financially destitute? Do they wish to take away an invaluable community resource that is loved by all who use it?

I am so glad that taxpayers of southeast Wake County know that their hard-earned money is paying for the rest of the county to enjoy their libraries.

Alana Duckworth

Raleigh

Garner folks fled

On Jan. 4, Wake County school board member John Tedesco told magnet school parents that he didn't care that his neighborhood-school plan would create high-poverty schools, "not if we have the achievement." Now we learn from the Garner-Clayton Record that Tedesco does see schools with high levels of poverty as a problem -- if they are in Garner. The Feb. 3 article reads as follows:

"But Tedesco said the magnet program has been a 'double-edged sword' for Garner. As schools like Enloe High attracted magnet students, the school system had to bus non-magnet students to Garner, Tedesco said. Garner schools became crowded and had high numbers of poor students. Many Garner families chose to send their children to schools outside of town.

"To help fix the problem," Tedesco said, "the school system put magnet programs in Garner to lure students."

I am not sure why Tedesco believes that creating schools in Wake County with 80 percent or more poor children wouldn't be problematic, while he does contend that schools with high numbers of poor students were a problem that caused middle-class flight in Garner.

Lisa Morrell

Raleigh

Horne pastor says thanks

Thank you, Johnston County. Without your help, it wouldn't have been possible to raise more than 56 tons of supplies and more than $64,000 for Haiti earthquake relief. The effort started in Clayton at Horne Memorial United Methodist Church but grew quickly. We received donations from all over the region and calls from across the United States.

Thanks goes out to: everyone who donated supplies and money; volunteers who helped package the supplies; media that covered the effort; CGP, which donated its warehouse; area restaurants that donated food for our volunteers; businesses that donated products; people who coordinated transportation for supplies; Ray Hales and Hales Company; and Jim Lee and the Clayton Rotary Club for making the relief flights a reality.

Thanks also to Stop Hunger Now, Compassionate Alliance and Clean the World.

You touched our hearts with your generosity -- from groups coordinating food drives, to the man who drove all the way from West Virginia with supplies, to a group of girls who held a bake sale benefiting the Ryan Epps Home for Children.

In a country ravaged by a terrible earthquake, you touched lives and made a difference. Thank you.

Dr. Alan Swartz

Pastor, Horne Memorial United Methodist Church