Letters to the editor: Good move on historic restoration tax credit
Commissioners right to increase tax credit for historic restoration
To the editor:
I am delighted to read the news recently about the Washington County Board of County Commissioners approval of the increase from 10% to 25% tax credit for restoration of historic structures. This increase will make a significant difference to those people considering restoring and/or maintaining our priceless historic homes, barns, mills and other structures that make our county so unique. I thank the commissioners for this support; their actions are greatly appreciated.
Also, I know this would not have occurred without the hard word and efforts of Meghan Jenkins and Jill Baker, along with others in the Planning Dept. I'm extending my thanks to them as well.
Tom Clemens
Keedysville
Bird flu in cows a scary development
To the editor:
The deadly flu virus is not just “for the birds” anymore!
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has just decreed that dairy cows must be tested for the deadly bird flu, which has already killed millions of chickens in the U.S. The unprecedented transmission of the H5N1 virus to cows has drawn public health concerns because cows are mammals, just like humans.
Although the precise cause of the outbreak remains uncertain, the horrendous conditions in today’s factory farms make egg and dairy production extremely vulnerable to disease outbreaks. Sick, crowded, highly stressed animals in contact with contaminated feces and urine provide ideal incubation media for viruses.
Indeed, 61% of the 1,415 pathogens known to infect humans originate with animals.
These include Asian flu, dengue fever, Ebola, bird flu, HIV, West Nile fever, yellow fever and the more recent COVID-19 pandemic.
Each of us can help end animal farming and build up our own health by replacing animal products with delicious, healthy, cruelty-free, eco-friendly plant-based meats, cheeses and ice creams offered by our favorite supermarket. These foods don’t carry flu viruses or government warning labels. They may have been the preferred fare in the Garden of Eden.
Zander BrittainFrederick, Md.
Take an honest look at Donald Trump's record
To the editor:
If people will take an honest look at Donald Trump's four years in office, they will see why historians voted him the worst president ever.
James Griffin
Waynesboro, Pa.
Aaron Brooks is a source of Hagerstown pride
To the editor:
Thank you for your continued coverage of Hagerstown’s Aaron Brooks. His successes on the wrestling mat should be a source of pride for this entire community.
Over the last few months he won his fourth Big Ten Conference Championship, his fourth National Championship (one of only seven wrestlers to accomplish this feat in history), and the Dan Hodge Trophy (the Heisman Trophy of collegiate wrestling), all while helping Penn State University secure its 13th NCAA Wrestling Championship.
Just a few short weeks later, Brooks qualified for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Wrestling team by defeating reigning World and Olympic Champion David Taylor 2-0 in a best-of-three series.
These accomplishments are the stuff of dreams for most world-class athletes; however, Brooks achieved all this in just March and April of this year. Truly remarkable.
As a Penn State alum and wrestling fan, I’ve had the pleasure of following Brooks’ storied career and I admit to a bit of local pride every time the announcers list him as being from Hagerstown, even if they don’t always pronounce the town’s name correctly.
However, that pride isn’t just a result of his on-mat accomplishments. Brooks’ many post-match interviews over the years reveal that he has remained humble, crediting his success to his faith. He doesn’t appear to be caught up in his achievements, even though he’s certainly earned the right to do so. He’s grounded and an excellent role model.
Aaron Brooks is someone all of Hagerstown should support and embrace. Later this year, I suggest we do just that. While wrestling doesn’t often get high-profile coverage on Olympic broadcasts, we should all seek out our hometown hero as he represents our community and country while battling the best in the world for gold in Paris.
Gregory M. Yost
Hagerstown
Family man Donald Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records
To the editor:
This is the first criminal trial of a former president accused of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. This was done so information of his sex scandals would be hidden ahead of the 2016 presidential election. It was election fraud, pure and simple.
The family man, Donald Trump, who’s just like you as his lawyer described him is all alone. No Mel, no Jr., no Eric, no Ivanka, no Tiffany, no Barron and no pro Trump protestors filling the streets. Where’s his Christian buddy, Franklin Graham? He should be out on the sidewalk flailing and crying about the injustice of it all.
Maybe his wife should wear her “I Don’t Care Do You“ jacket while sitting in the front row listening to her husband’s sordid sexual encounters with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal during her pregnancy. His family man defense was dead on arrival.
Patricia Taylor
Williamsport
Hagerstown newspaper, columnist show bias against Trump
To the editor:
Y2K and “Four More Years, Pause”
With a heavy heart, we observe our local Hagerstown newspaper, now owned by a syndicate that appears out of touch with our local opinions and lifestyles. The change in Tim Rowland, a reporter who once brought a unique sense of humor to his work, is particularly poignant. His current style seems to mirror the narratives of the corporate media's propaganda machine, a stark departure from his previous approach.
I can count on one hand, one finger actually, the number of yard signs and flags supporting Joe Biden, who is so inept that he can’t correctly use the most common presidential slogan in history. Recently, he was scripted to say, “Four More Years,” but as a testimony to his sense of decline, he read it as “Four More Years, Pause.”
Thanks to Joe Biden, we have two raging wars that could turn into a world conflict, 7% inflation, an open border that allows lethal drugs to flow unimpeded into our country, and a surge of military-age men who can easily plan a terrorist attack. These are Biden's policies, which directly result from his lack of leadership, yet no one in the corporate media addresses them.
Instead, the clowns at MSNBC, CNN, and sadly, you, Tim, report the Trump trial as some show, focusing on how he walks, looks, talks, etc. How many times have we heard the number of indictments against Donald Trump? How many was Biden charged with?
Not once did I hear the number of counts he was accused of. Bias, bias, bias.
Unlike the former president, no senator can take classified documents from secure locations, yet Biden did numerous times, and the evidence was found in his possession. He was clearly guilty, yet not prosecuted because he was such a pathetic old man.
A competent reporter would analyze the elements of Donald Trump's trial. He is charged with a misdemeanor that is 10 years old and well past the statute of limitations.
The new (Democrat) charge ties this with a new charge, making it a felony. However, that charge was not identified on the fourth day of the trial. How unfair, unjust and incompetent. From you, we got crickets.
Ironically, you view community service as the worst punishment Donald Trump could receive, but that’s only because you view him with the same biased lens as your Democrat propagandists. You villainize him because he threatens the corrupt government, we all endure.
People who work with Donald Trump daily attest to his kindness and love of the country, but you are not allowed to say that. I suggest you drive around Washington County, and when you find a Biden sign or flag, make it headline news.
Joseph Byers
Hagerstown
Trendy academics are helpless before great problems of our time
To the editor:
Our fast-food, high-tech, computer culture is bankrupt — our only leaders those who have chased fame and success, worshiping the false gods of money and power.
No wonder the pundits and arrogant filmmakers and best-selling novelists and trendy academics have nothing to say — are helpless before the great problems of our time!
Everything they say is calculated for a response and whether their words will gain them the approval of their peers or cast them into the outer darkness of cultural opprobrium here in the realm of empty popularity, fame, money and all those things that have replaced real achievement, real courage, real character, real patriotism, and the honesty and humility that would unite a people.
Like Diogenes, we are searching for an honest man. Will we find one — or have the honest people, all of them, been bought off with beach-houses and cars and a seat at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, their words bought and sold by politicians of both parties — to the hollow applause of the ambitious and corrupt?
Only time will tell. In Rome there are a few stone ruins to remind us of what cultural dishonesty costs.
Sam Cuthbert
Hagerstown
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Letters to the editor for Sunday, May 4
