Daily Planet front-page news: “Reparations approved for local blacks” — so how will a “local” be determined to be eligible?

If one has the features of Barrack Obama, they are a “shoe-in,” but what if they have the features of Alexander Hamilton? Both are “mulatto.”

Will there be a minimum “Black African” DNA racial percentage requirement in order to qualify for a reparation? 

If so, how will that percentage be determined?

I have a few assumptions... I am assuming we are talking about descendents of Sub-Sahara Black Negro African slaves — and not immigrants after 1865. 

I am assuming a recipient’s name and the amount or type of taxpayer reparation will be made public, as will how a recipient was determined to be eligible.

I would think the citizens of Asheville/Buncombe County would want their representatives to step up to the plate and have the City of Asheville/County of Buncombe provide for the cost of the DNA-testing of all current residents of Asheville/Buncombe County.

Newest Beaverbrook project opposed because of traffic, erosion concerns

We have lived on Beaverbrook in the Sherwood Height area of North Asheville since 1987 and raised our family here.  

We’ve enjoyed beautiful panoramic views of the mountains and minimal traffic problems, but that could be changing, and soon.   

Like many homeowners in Asheville, we feel overly aggressive development needs to be limited. Of great concern, is the access to these developments on steep mountain roads such as our Beaverbrook.   

A previous development atop Killian Mountain within the town of Woodfin was withdrawn in 2016, but another developer has proposed a new development on a remainder parcel that is even denser: 110-multi-family condos and single family homes on 16 acres of land.

They are asking Woodfin to approve the project atop the mountain with Beaverbrook Road as the single access to the development. The project is known as Robinhood Residential Community. RRC is adjacent and is similar in scope to Reynolds Village, in that it consists of multi-family units and single family homes.    

While for many of us on Beaverbrook Road (the greatest concern being traffic), there are also concerns about storm water effluent from construction, landslides, environmental degradation, and property devaluation. RRC is also located on a steep slope (there are no restrictions on this 16-acre project as the developer was who purchased the property in 2018 was grandfathered in by Woodfin) accessible by steep winding mountain roads with very little visibility, no guardrails and tight turns.  

Increasing the traffic flow more than five-fold increases the potential risk for unavoidable accidents and collisions with other vehicles, even bicyclists, not to mention the danger to local residents and visitors from out-of- town who walk or drive on Beaverbrook Road daily.  

Steep mountain roads similar to Beaverbrook are not designed to handle heavy traffic of this nature. Situated down-slope of the proposed project, Beaverbrook is a steeply narrow switchback road; under normal traffic conditions it can be a hazard. Add another few hundred cars and trucks to daily traffic — and you have a traffic situation fraught with danger. In winter, snow and ice just adds to the risks.  

The development would be accessible only by Beaverbrook Road to enter the newly proposed gated community on top. The traffic engineer for the City of Asheville said that the additional traffic load on Beaverbrook Road, based on the size of the development, would be an added traffic load of 40/cars per hour or roughly of 400 to 500 cars more a day in a 12-hour day.  

Can the city traffic engineering or development group for the City of Asheville do anything to mitigate the hazards to our neighborhood?   Is a single access road like Beaverbrook even feasible?  

Why not compel the developer to construct an additional access road.  

We will have the chance to hear more about the project on Tuesday, October 4th at the Woodfin Planning Board meeting at the Woodfin Town Hall. The meeting is open to the public, so please come and express your views.

It’s time for U.S. to stand on the ‘word of God,’ reader says

My original title to this letter was “Will America Stand on the Word of God?” 

That idea came to me after listening to our distinguished president say that if the Republicans won the November election and passed bills against abortion, he would veto every bill!

Others have been saying that Democrats will win the election by pushing the so-called “woman’s right to an abortion.” Even the head of the RNC is worried that too much money is being sent to the Democrats for the coming election — because of the abortion issue.

When the Supreme Court voted in favored of abortion in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, it showed they did not stand on God’s Word. Then Congress followed suit and did nothing to overturn that ungodly decision.  

So, they too, did not stand on God’s word.

Future Supreme Court decisions extended the original 12-weeks to up till the time babies were born. 

Even now, after America has spilled the human blood of live babies by murdering around 65 million male and female babies, Americans still want to continue the horrendous mass murder of babies.  

Sick! Sick! Sick!

Some would question why I call them human babies, when they prefer to call them fetuses, or other names. But the word of God is clear that God, at conception, puts a spirit into the fertilized egg, giving it life, as tiny as it might be, and then He starts forming the baby. 

Obviously, only God could have formed each unique person like you and me!  

'America has become so ungodly, as we know, that we Americans have done a terrible job, when it comes to standing on “The Word of God.” 

Supreme Court judges are just one example. When they could have easily said we have to stand on the word of God —  and He said, “Thou Shall not Murder” innocent human beings. 

Wonder where those foolish souls are, that used to say, “It is the Law of the Land” every time the Supreme Justices made ungodly decisions, such as abortion, and evicting God out of schools and government places?

God still is waiting to forgive those who have taken part in the murder of those babies. Jesus can cleanse you of all sins — if you seek Him.           

‘I regret to inform you....’ Gen. Milley spoke truth in his resignation letter, California reader claims

In case you haven’t read General Mark Milley’s resignation letter directed to Donald Trump, here it is, and I couldn’t have said it better:

“I regret to inform you that I intend to resign as your Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Thank you for the honor of appointing me as senior ranking officer. The events of the last couple weeks have caused me to do deep soul-searching, and I can no longer faithfully support and execute your orders as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is my belief that you were doing great and irreparable harm to my country. I believe that you have made a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military. I thought that I could change that. I’ve come to the realization that I cannot, and I need to step aside and let someone else try to do that.

“Second, you are using the military to create fear in the minds of the people—and we are trying to protect the American people. I cannot stand idly by and participate in that attack, verbally or otherwise, on the American people. The American people trust their military and they trust us to protect them against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and our military will do just that. We will not turn our back on the American people.

“Third, I swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States and embodied within that Constitution is the idea that says that all men and women are created equal. All men and women are created equal, no matter who you are, whether you are white or Black, Asian, Indian, no matter the color of your skin, no matter if you’re gay, straight or something in between. It doesn’t matter if you’re Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jew, or choose not to believe. None of that matters. It doesn’t matter what country you came from, what your last name is—what matters is we’re Americans. We’re all Americans. That under these colors of red, white, and blue — the colors that my parents fought for in World War II—means something around the world. It’s obvious to me that you don’t think of those colors the same way I do. It’s obvious to me that you don’t hold those values dear and the cause that I serve.

And lastly it is my deeply held belief that you’re ruining the international order, and causing significant damage to our country overseas, that was fought for so hard by the Greatest Generation that they instituted in 1945. Between 1914 and 1945, 150 million people were slaughtered in the conduct of war. They were slaughtered because of tyrannies and dictatorships. That generation, like every generation, has fought against that, has fought against fascism, has fought against Nazism, has fought against extremism. It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order. You don’t understand what the war was all about. In fact, you subscribe to many of the principles that we fought against. And I cannot be a party to that. It is with deep regret that I hereby submit my letter of resignation.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Pickering noted at the end of his letter that he is a candidate in the Nov. 8 election for the Humboldt County (Calif.) Board of Education and that “you can find out more about me and my widely published writings by clicking on the link: https://muckrack.