I usually enjoy Randy Molton's art, whatever he's poking fun at. I was dismayed to see him use the wonderful community program, Honor Air, and an image of a veteran in his cartoon to help Rep. Heath Shuler win re-election [Molton cartoon, Jan. 20]. Jeff Miller spearheaded Honor Air, something that all of Henderson County is very proud of, whether they are a Republican or a Democrat. It was completely funded by donations, and it was an incredible leap of faith to provide the "greatest generation" with a chance to see the World War II memorial, at no cost to the veterans. Rep. Shuler and Mr. Miller can both rest on their accomplishments, and let the voters decide.

— Barbara Hughes
Hendersonville

David Forbes' Jan. 13 article, "Despite Ban, Hookah Bar Still Smoking," and the accompanying photo, made smoking a hookah (water pipe) look like fun, exotic and safe. The article is full of double-talk. It says the smoking bar features a nontobacco, tea-based "shisha." Then it says "shisha" is a tobacco product. Tea can be any brewed substance. What is their tea? If it is not tobacco, why would the Department of Health and Human Services be involved in trying to help them find a way to continue their operation? And the last sentence says that they want to continue to serve tobacco.

Smoking a water pipe is not safe. According to a 2005 report by the World Health Organization Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation, water-pipe tobacco smoking is associated with many of the same risks as cigarette smoking, including cancer, despite popular belief to the contrary. The study group determined that using a water pipe to smoke tobacco poses a serious potential health hazard to smokers, with a typical one-hour-long water-pipe smoking session involving inhaling the volume of smoke that a cigarette smoker inhales consuming 100-200 cigarettes.

Nicotine provides pleasure and reward, but quitting tobacco use is the single healthiest thing a smoker can do. In the U.S., 70 percent of smokers want to quit and 44 percent attempt to quit every year. Unfortunately, only 4 to 7 percent are able to stop smoking on their own. Tobacco dependence is a chronic medical condition and often requires repeated attempts to stop.

With appropriate counseling and medication, 40-60 percent of smokers can quit successfully. Good resources for quitting are the Web sites http://www.ffsonline.org and http://www.smokefree.gov. Also helpful is the North Carolina Tobacco Use Quit Line 1-800-QUITNOW. This is the national "quitline" and callers are automatically directed to their local state program.

Hopefully, many smokers will resolve this year to quit and ask for help if needed. This would be good for the individual and help reduce the approximately $97 billion spent on health care each year attributed to smoking cigarettes, cigars, pipes and hookahs.

— Michael Schwartz
Swannanoa

Editor's note: Thank you for providing the information on smoking cessation. Regarding the shisha used at the Hookah Bar, we apologize for any confusion, but the article did explain that while shisha is traditionally made of tobacco and other substances, the substance smoked at the Hookah Bar is tea-based and contains no tobacco.

Brian Postelle's excellent article about Asheville City Council's search for more revenue ["Splitting the Check," Jan. 27] left me with a nagging sensation about the city government's priorities and my quality of life as a resident — not a tourist.

Mayor Terry Bellamy is quoted as saying, "If we woke up tomorrow and said we're not going to sweep our streets, you can't tell me that won't affect tourism." Well, excuse me, but I didn't know the city had actually been sweeping the streets in the first place, and that affects me, a resident and taxpayer. In my neighborhood and in neighborhoods all over the city, the gutters (where they exist) are clogged with leaves, trash and debris. I work at home and, in two years, have seen a street sweeper come by exactly once. Our far-flung city streets are a mess, kudzu and other weeds grow rampant, and untended vacant lots are marked by broken walls and sidewalks and littered with rusting scrap. That's unsightly, demoralizing and, ultimately, unsafe.

Yes, everyone should be responsible for his or her own property, but in a city this size there's a lot of common space that no one individual is going to clean up. That takes city muscle. I get tired of the emphasis on tourism when I see so little evidence that the city is giving residents the same level of attention our visitors get.

The mayor also said at that meeting, "We are the product people sell." Sort of. We're also a municipality where the government's primary job is the safety and welfare of its citizens.

— Nan Chase
Asheville

I am excited that newly elected Asheville City Council members will have an opportunity to make good on their campaign-trail promises at the Feb. 9 Council session as they address domestic-partner benefits for same-sex partners. There are a plethora of reasons I support such benefits. However, right now, the main reason is not that they are fair in a country that was founded on equality, that they advance the civil-rights movement, or even that they are just plain inevitable.

During these stressful financial times, we should be thinking practically.  When we embrace domestic-partner benefits for same-sex partners, the city of Asheville will profit economically. Studies, including those conducted by social and economic theorist Richard Florida, have resoundingly shown that gay-friendly cities are more resilient when weathering recession and more prone to economic growth. With so many of our citizens out of work or struggling from paycheck to paycheck, how can we say no to desperately needed stability and wealth-building?

— Amanda Rodriguez

Alli Marshall's article Jan. 23 article, "Classical Music (No Tuxedo Required)," was a great survey of some of the wonderful classical musical opportunities in Asheville. She makes us aware that besides the Asheville Symphony, Asheville Bravo Concerts and Asheville Lyric Opera, this town is resplendent with classical musicians and the folks who love to listen to them in all kinds of venues, from the concert hall to college recital rooms to churches. Who knows, maybe an adventurous entrepreneur will try a classical concert with a sound and light show at the Orange Peel!

Your headline, "No Tuxedo Required," suggests you have to dress up and spend a lot of money to come to the Asheville Symphony. Not true: For every concert, there's a student rush 15 minutes before the show, with tickets costing only $6. Bring a student I.D. And definitely don't bring a tuxedo or fancy clothes. Come as you are!

— Steven R. Hageman
Executive Director
Asheville Symphony

As is most often the case, America again turns her attention to the people of Haiti because of profoundly tragic events. The massive earthquake … has devastated an entire community. Complete families have been lost outright. The whole infrastructure of the Haitian government, ordinarily fragile, has been decimated. Once more Haiti, one of our closest neighbors, has need of our support and encouragement. And once again an unrelenting question emerges: How is it that Haiti has suffered so deeply and for so long?

Having lived in Haiti on several occasions, I would like to offer a rather specific answer. I will ask the readers' pardon in advance for attempting such foolishness, since, truly, the question regarding Haiti's long history of despair is well beyond my expertise. However, my concern for and love of the Haitian people requires me to offer my opinion in this matter.

Just hours after the earthquake, Pat Robertson, compelled by his infamously rash and predictable malice, pointed to supernatural causes for the Haitians' plight. In a statement of palpably obscene coldness and banality, Robertson claimed that the deadly event was the punishing work of God, because, as he went on to explain, 300 years ago there occurred a "legendary" account of Haitian leaders entering into a covenant with Satan as a means of throwing off the oppression of their French slave masters.

There's absolutely no shred of historical evidence for Robertson's wholly mythological story. I refer to it however to emphasize one crucial point regarding the real reasons surrounding Haiti's long struggle with oppression: It has always been convenient for thoughtless people to blame the Haitians for the entirety of their own dilemma, though nothing could be further from the truth.

I am not suggesting that the Haitians themselves bear no responsibility for their own troubles. Most Haitian leaders of the 20th century were despots and murderers. The systemic violence of the leaders against their own people is certainly the foundation of much of Haiti's misfortune. But I am making two additional basic claims: that Haiti's crisis is wholly man-made and that her corrupt rulers could not have succeeded without the direct assistance of powerful American influences.

Let me focus briefly on a singular set of facts to make my point. At most American retailers you can purchase cute children's clothing with Disney characters printed on them. Some readers may have made such purchases themselves. Most of these products are manufactured in Port-au-Prince by some of the largest and most well-known American corporations by means of Haitian labor, and most of the workers are paid less than $1 or $2 per day. …

American business interests would not want it to become general knowledge that they practice such dishonorable business in the "poorest country in the Western Hemisphere." It is worse than scandalous. However, such abuse of the Haitian people has been the norm since the French first brought them on merchant ships to the once-pristine island. The people of Haiti have been the pawns of unscrupulous lords for centuries, and America has participated in this activity wholeheartedly.

So Americans may ask once again in this recent news-making crisis, "How is it that Haiti has suffered so deeply, and for so long?" The answers to these related questions are in part quite uncomplicated.

— Jeff Powers
Asheville

When the global-warming hoax is finally exposed, there will lay the roots: acid rain, and all its illegitimate junk-science children.

But the most recent announcement, that the glaciers in the Himalayas are really not melting away nearly as fast as reported earlier, should remind those of us who are still not completely politically correct that the huge quake in Haiti might have been predicted, except that our scientists were busy poring over and interpreting wrong data. Or, dare we say, while our media filled airtime with garbage. Geologists had thoroughly mapped where the unstable plates lie in the entire Caribbean.

Instead, an expensive adventure was devoted to firing a rocket at the moon. Oh, what fun!

We could have helped those poor Haitians accumulate supplies, water, etc. for an emergency such as this one. But a society focused on security, military strength and nation-building will ignore warnings (like the ones preceding 9/11), and our "help" will be like our disgrace in New Orleans after Katrina. A brief review of the silly history of FEMA and its neglect, beginning in Princeville, N.C., should convince any skeptic that we Americans are fussy and selective, not to mention racist about who and how we help. Just ask Pat Robertson.

— Allen Thomas
Asheville