If we agree to “think globally,” it becomes evident that riveting attention on GROWTH could be a grave mistake because we are denying how economic and population growth in the Town of Chapel Hill cannot continue as it has until now.

Chapel Hill’s resources are being dissipated, its environment degraded and its fitness as place for our children to inhabit is being threatened. To proclaim, as the CHN does on 5/20/12, that “the meat of Chapel Hill 2020 is, of course, growth” fails to acknowledge that the Town of Chapel Hill is already “built out,” and also “filled in” with people. If the quality of life we enjoy now is to be maintained for the children, then limits on economic and population growth will have to be set. By so doing, we “act locally”.

More economic and population growth are not sustainable because there are biological constraints and physical limitations on human consumption, production and population activities on the surface of Earth, including Chapel Hill. Inasmuch as the Earth is finite with frangible environs, there comes a point at which GROWTH is unsustainable. There is much work to done locally. But that effort cannot begin without limiting economic and population growth.

To quote the CHN again, “We face a wide-open opportunity to break with the old ways of doing the town’s business.” That is a true statement. But the necessary “break with the old ways” of continous growth is not what is occurring. There is a call for a break with the old ways, but the required changes in behavior are not what is being proposed. What is being proposed and continues to occur is more of the same, old business-as-usual overconsumption, overproduction and overpopulation activities, the very activities that appear to be unsustainble.

More business-as-usual could soon become patently unsustainable. Think globally while there is still time and act locally before it is too late for human action to make any difference in the course of unfolding events both in our planetary home and our town.

Steven Earl Salmony

Chapel Hill

Tribute to surgeon

This letter is written in tribute to Walter Woodrow Burns, Jr., M.D., who retires May 3t, after 37 years of service. Dr. Burns was Chapel Hill’s first community surgeon.

True, we had many other superlative surgeons before him at UNC Hospitals but Woody was the first to brave the elements and enter the private practice of surgery in Chapel Hill. This was no small step. It took courage and perseverance to begin and maintain a surgical practice in an environment dominated by two large teaching hospitals.

He succeeded by virtue of hard work, excellent surgical skill and judgment and understanding of his patients and their needs. I am grateful to him for always being at the ready when my patients needed a surgeon and for always taking good care of them. You could count on Dr. Burns to do the right thing.

Medical school classmates remember Woody as the “elder statesman” of our class as he had served six years in the U.S. Navy before matriculating to the UNC School of Medicine, while most of us were fresh out of college. He was a quiet leader, respected by all for his kindness, good humor and incisive intelligence. We all looked up to Woody, though most of us were slightly taller than he.

We are sorry to lose Dr. Burns’ surgical talent and experience, which are at the highest level, but we are thankful for his dedication to his craft and to his patients over the past four decades. May he carry into his retirement an understanding of the contributions he has made to his community, colleagues, friends and patients.

Thank you, Woody.

G. Patrick Guiteras, M.D.

Chapel Hill

Blessed service

We are truly blessed in Chapel Hill for having EZ Rider. Through this free service for those who are unable to drive, are able to be transported free of limitation and free to shop and to keep health care appointments and socialize. The drivers are caring and happy to serve us even if the job is difficult and can be trying at times. Many personal relationships have been formed.

We are very appreciate of the community which makes the quality of life so special We are grateful and thankful for this service.

Jeanie Arnel

Chapel Hill

Not the answer

I am the parent of a student in the traditional education program at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School. My fourth grader will start Culbreth Middle School prior to the redistricting process and will not feel the ramifications of the dismantling of Frank Porter Graham’s (FPG) community should the dual language proposal pass. However, I have a 4 year-old daughter, and she will be affected.

We moved to Carrboro in 2008, and our family has been very involved at FPG. Caroline has been at events at FPG since she was 8 months old. Some may ask, “why don’t you put her in the dual language lottery”? Caroline has a pragmatic speech delay of 2 years. She receives great services through Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools’ Early Intervention Program, but the chances that she would be ready to learn a second language starting in kindergarten are slim. Therefore, she will not be eligible for the lottery nor would we want to take the place of a child that would benefit from a dual language program.

While we know she will receive a great education in the school system, we chose our neighborhood to be close to our schools. We’ve worked hard to improve FPG, and under the tremendous leadership of Dr. Rita Bongarten, Ms. Crystal Epps, and our dedicated faculty, our school is in better shape than ever. We were encouraged by the school district and school board to stay at FPG, and we stayed at FPG when we were given other choices. Now we may be evicted from our school by the same district that urged us to stay.

Elementary school 11 is scheduled to open in 2013. This seems like a natural time and place to open a new magnet school. Instead of disbanding a school, move the minority of students from FPG and the other schools that have CHOSEN the dual language program to a new facility. Move just a few teachers instead of distributing the majority of a faculty. Redistricting is stressful enough, so careful consideration should allow for the least disruptive plan possible. A dual language magnet school may be an answer to our district’s needs, but making FPG the magnet school is not THE answer.

Sally Goodnight

Carrboro

Marvelous essay

I simply want to register my appreciation for Bob Wilson’s piece in the May 20, issue of the Chapel Hill News. Bob is a neighbor or mine, and keeps our community, Falconbridge, alive as a member of the Board of Directors. But I have known him for many years as a gifted writer – in my mind, in the spirit of H.L.Mencken – one of the most noted essay writers of the last century. His piece, “Power, Penn Warren and Peanut Butter Pie” is a marvelous piece of journalism. If you haven’t discarded this issue of our newspaper, pick it up and read it – twice.

Vincent Daddiego

Chapel Hill

Mystery map

Re the discovery of John White’s map and possible fate of The Lost Colony.

I am not convinced. the patch solves the mystery of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, are you? What does the John White’s map prove? Was it not John White who reported the colonist slost? If he found them in what is now Bertie County, doesn’t it stand to reason that he would have let someone in England know.

If he failed to tell anyone that his colonists were safe in another part of what is now North Carolina, Granddaddy White was a charlatan. And, we have another mystery on our hands. Why would he do such a thing?

Where did this map originate? Did John White find it all marked to identify where they had gone when he came back? Imagine that map lying around waiting to be discovered. Reason dictates that if he did find the map and believed they had gone there, he would have gone to find them before returning to England to never see them again. He would have gone to Bertie County himself to find his daughter and her family – to find Virginia Dare, his only granddaughter. We would not have been left under this illusion for all these hundreds of years.

Well, we have another mystery on our hands! Perhaps Bertie County was where they first planned to land. Now that would explain why the patch was covered up, because that is not where they landed, but on the north end of Roanoke Island.

Sybil Austin Skakle

Chapel Hill