The furor is over. An A.P. biology teacher, mentor for many and role model for Chinese biology high school teachers, now teaches A.P. environmental sciences elsewhere, a course not generally accepted for advanced college credit.

The other teacher, one my 40-year-old daughter remembers for exceptionalism from her Chapel Hill High School days, also acquiesced to changing her school and course.

Who has won? Turmoil is reduced as an inadequate previous principal and assistant principal are long gone. Teacher morale cannot be exceptional. Those leading the struggle to get rid of bad administrators are also inconvenienced. Despite that, CHHS had a 90 percent graduation rate. Have summer and volunteer programs been established to address the lost 10 percent? Or was our new superintendent charged by our derelict school board to just shake things up a bit?

Perhaps he should stick to running the elementary/middle schools and have independent high schools’ tenured faculty elect from their own ranks their next principals for maximum four-year terms at regular principals’ salaries. Frankly he doesn’t seem to have a good feel for the needs of the next generation of CH-C student excellence. One online critique from his earlier job was weak communication and feedback from parents. That is consistent with his first-year performance here.

It would be nice to know which school board members supported the resolution to move these dedicated teachers against their consent. They certainly would not get future support from this former PTA president and early Thrift Shop remodeler.

Robert R. Reeber

Chapel Hill

A wonderful visit

I have just completed a wonderful visit to your town.

As I was driving west on Rosemary Street in a residential neighborhood, though, I turned to the right on Hillsborough Street and almost struck a young girl who was walking in the street. She apparently was heading to a bus stop to join her mother.

This area is an accident waiting to happen, as there is no sidewalk leading to the bus area. A passenger has to cross the street mid-block or walk down the roadway just to get to or from a small bus loading area. There would seem to be a simple solution to this danger – there is an intersection where I turned, only a short way back, where there are crosswalks and a concrete standing area served by a stop light. I hope you will consider relocating the bus stop to this area and avoiding a tragedy.

Jonathan Walker

Washington, D.C.

Absurdly simplistic

I had not seen the bus sign until it appeared on the front page (CHN, Sept. 15) The proposal (ending military aid to Israel) is absurdly simplistic – not “simple” as in easy, but simplistic as in naïve.

It is as ineffective as the Presbyterian Church’s policy of product divestment and some universities policies of academic divestment. What are the probable consequences? Withdrawing financial aid for Israel will assist Israel’s enemies in destroying her. If Israel disappears, the surrounding Arab countries will be without a scapegoat and will target each other and the U.S. on a much larger scale than they have previously. A new standard for misery will be set.

Withdrawing financial aid to Israel subscribes to the statement “It all started when Israel fired back.” This mentality doesn’t address the region’s history, resources, governments, culture, money flow, or the present state of reality in the area – who is living in misery and why. Although this war uses religious terms, like all wars it is about power and money. It is not a Palestinian/Israeli problem. This problem includes the surrounding Arab countries.

I agree with Ms. Freeman’s commentary and the Presbyterians in their call to study and pray for peace. That is the role of a religious institution. Through their “Peace Committee” they have undoubtedly discovered the many grassroots organizations in Israel that work locally with all cultures toward a nonviolent reconciliation. Better to financially support those organizations than to fund political statements on the sides of busses.

Susan Salzberg

Chapel Hill

Missing Dollar

Ernie Dollar, executive director for the Chapel Hill Preservation Society, has left his post in Chapel Hill, and he will be missed by those of us in local tourism.

Ernie would often drop by our Visitors Center reminding us that “preservation and development don’t have to cancel each other out.” From donning Civil War regalia and serving as a re-enactor at local historical events, Ernie enjoyed entertaining and educating our visitors. But as fun as he was, he always left us a serious and important message: as we encourage more people to come here, let’s work hard to make sure there is a here here.

Ernie’s vision hinged on the hope that when people visit they’ll see that who we are is a function of not only who we were, but who we will be.

Ernie was always able to see our world through the lens of history, knowing that we must take equally great care to maintaining the past as we do pursuing the future.

Thank you, Ernie.

Laurie Paolicelli

Executive Director

Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau

Merchants’ message

Over the last few months I have worked to register voters in Orange County. We receive training, and station ourselves in areas with pedestrian traffic, to ask individuals if their voter registration needs to be updated. Anytime you move, your registration must be updated in order to vote in the next election.

Voting is a civic duty. However, for those who work full time, or have no transportation, offering voter registration at stores and other locations, on weekends is an aid to allow them to exercise this duty.

I have been appalled to find out that some store owners not only do not encourage us to provide this service, but actually force us to leave the premises. Note that we are outside, we have clipboards that clearly identify us as registering voters. We do not aggressively pursue individuals, only ask them politely if they need to update their registration. While the vast majority of Chapel Hill and Carrboro voters are already registered, they still thank us for doing this when we ask them about their voter registration. For those who wish to update their registration, or register for the first time, they are very grateful to be able to do this on a Saturday, when they are running their other errands.

What leads to this difference in reaction? In my hometown, Carbondale, Ill, the stores set up tables and chairs – inside the store – when volunteers come to offer voter registration.

I suggest that Chapel Hill merchants take a look at the message they send when they prohibit volunteers from registering voters. I know that my family will not longer shop at locations that prohibit this, and I imagine that others who have experienced this feel the same way.

Teri Brooks

Chapel Hill

Consider this

Dear Angry, Militant Carrboro Pedestrian,

Here's something to consider: Perhaps that driver who is not slowing down to stop for you at the cross walk is not a selfish, carbon-emitting jerk. Perhaps he's a good person on his way home after a long day at work. Perhaps he's not ignoring your healthy, natural, non-driving greatness, but rather simply can't see you because of the headlights coming from the other direction and the incline of the road.

Perhaps you are very fortunate that, instead of a college student or visitor new to the area, he's a long-time resident who's aware that there is a crosswalk in the middle of nowhere (and the visibility issues with it) and is therefore prepared for the possibility that some judgmental idiot might try to “teach him a lesson” by darting out into road.

Or perhaps he is just a jerk that needs to learn his lesson by having to live the rest of his life with the knowledge that his selfishness left you paralyzed or dead.

Keith Cooper

Chapel Hill