I have never written a letter to the editor. Maybe I have never felt this passionate before, but after attending Moral Monday, I feel compelled to.
It’s not that I didn’t agree with what was being said. I absolutely do. The fact that North Carolina legislators need to do more for their citizens is more than apparent. Teachers and students need adequate funding. If not, their difficult jobs become even tougher. I should know since I am a teacher.
Medicaid is a social service that keeps people from falling through the cracks of the healthcare system.
Fracking is a threat to us all. When explaining what fracking is to my 7-year-old son, his reply was, “Don’t they (oil companies) know that they have to live here, too?”
The list of concerns/grievances can go, but one solution to these problems was not mentioned: hemp! Hemp is a sustainable agricultural source that could empower farmers, bring back industry and create revenue. I have been following the progress of other states after the passage by Congress of the 2014 Farm Bill, and they are achieving results regarding hemp that are leaps and bounds beyond North Carolina.
I recently got to see hemp growing in Kentucky this summer. Some of our closest neighbors — Tennessee and South Carolina — have approved legislation that will get hemp growing in their states next year, and those are just two examples. I could go on and on.
The point is I want legislators in North Carolina to stand up and become champions for hemp and the positive potential it has for our state.
Hemp should not be added to the list of why North Carolina could do better.
Claudia Townsend
Black Mountain
Scarey. Your child’s response reflects your indoctrination.
Hemp and the long list of products – superior products – is the issue/threat here. Not to the farmer or consumer, if growing hemp was legalized across the country, we would be the winners. The losers will be the fossil fuel and chemical industries along with the makers of cheap plastic/synthetic crap from China. Industrial hemp growing and the manufacture of hemp products is one reason that legislatures across the country are “debating” or refusing to legalize hemp’s cousin marijuana…. if marijuana is legalized then the arguments against hemp (which were bogus from the beginning) will finally be moot! For more info read: The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer – he has left us but his vast knowledge of this issue/subject lives on!