Tell how Neighborhood Outreach Connection helps in unique ways | Letters
Speaking on behalf of the field staff that works at the six after-school programs run by Neighborhood Outreach Connection, we were deeply disappointed in the unfairly negative coverage of NOC in your Jan. 9 article.
No mention was made of all the good work NOC does in under-served communities in Beaufort County with the help of teachers from local public schools, dedicated volunteers, and parents.
Our after-school and summer programs are free and offer a safe place for Beaufort County students to receive help with their homework and tutoring in reading, math, and language arts.
We provide healthy snacks and enrichment activities. We see students’ happy faces when their homework is completed and when they do well in school.
Standardized tests, administered by the Beaufort County School District, show that these children are making progress academically.
Beaufort County Bookmobiles visit our six sites on a regular basis to be sure students have reading materials.
NOC collaborates with Beaufort Memorial Hospital’s mobile van to offer free health screenings in low-income neighborhoods. We partner with many churches and nonprofits to help those who need it the most.
This is our story over the past 10 years. We give hope to the children we serve, children who have limited opportunities and constrained by lack of transportation.
The Island Packet article had a “sensational” headline, with very little substance and no reference to the greater good being done by NOC. We found this very disappointing – we expect more balanced coverage of this wonderful organization.
Jill Torre
NOC field director
Hilton Head Island
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber brings a lot of success
Does your columnist Liz Farrell seriously believe that if the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce completely opened its books to Skip Hoagland he would be satisfied and go away?
Of course he wouldn’t. He would simply move on to nitpicking every line item. Mr. Hoagland says he wants the sun to shine in on the public’s right to know. He claims he craves transparency. What he really craves is controversy.
Whether it’s their “secret sauce” or not, the chamber must be doing something right as the Town of Hilton Head Island’s Designated Marketing Organization. It’s seen in the record number of visitors to Hilton Head, record accommodations tax revenues, and the acclaim as the No. 1 island in the U.S. by the most influential travel and tourism publications and web sites.
Any other destination in the brutally competitive international travel industry would kill to earn such distinctions. Advertising you pay for, publicity you pray for.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Mr. Hoagland has substantial resources and a high energy level. He might consider channeling these impressive attributes into more constructive ways of supporting the community he purports to be serving with his personal crusade.
Steve Napoli
Hilton Head Island
Better to face threat of Iran head-on
Has President Donald Trump awakened a sleeping beast, or has he hastened the inevitable?
Twenty years ago, Iran was a second-rate nation, with no military potential ... but it had military ambitions.
They were researching nuclear weapons and everyone knew it. During the Bush presidency, controls were imposed, which were blatantly ignored. Then, the Obama era began, and still we did nothing to deter Iran from its progress. In fact, the Obama administration saw us giving Iran access to over $50 billion in previously frozen cash (without congressional approval), along with $360 billion of our military-designated funds ending in Taliban hands, as reported by Gen. David Patraeus on Aug. 16, 2011.
Now Trump has inherited the duty to face a threatening nation whose nuclear capabilities are considerable. Yet, at this time, it is apparent that Iran hasn’t yet perfected the ability to “deliver” nuclear-armed weapons over a great distance.
Is it possible Trump isn’t continuing along the “do-nothing” approach that his predecessors followed, which would give Iran time to perfect its long-range delivery plan and would put the United States in firing range? It’s better to face an obvious enemy before he gains the upper hand.
Donald Fredericks
Bluffton
America must stand for more than Trump’s personal agenda
I, for one, understand how Iran’s Qasem Soleimani has been a huge thorn in the U.S.-Iran conflicts and that of many countries. I understand the need to rid the world of men like him. But I also feel that the timing and potential results on this was perhaps questionable, and that it has not made our world “safer.”
There are plenty of terrorists, experienced and up-and-coming, who will fill the void, and Iran cannot and will not let something as large as this pass without an even bigger response in terms of bodies.
My biggest question was the president’s threat to target Iranian cultural sites. This is to the limit of desperation. It is not showing how tough we are as a country but how low we will go with our threats to hope that the Iranians will back down.
To me, it would only achieve more anger from the Iranian politicians and populace. It is another sign that our president does not think through all the results of his actions, leaving our young military members and innocent civilians to potential grave harm. This is against all UN and other world institutions’ charters.
It also shows how our president will go against all moral and ethical reason to achieve what to his mind is his power. We, as a country or as a man, are more than the superpower. We have until recent history stood for much more, and I hope it is not too late to regain much of what has been disregarded.
Susan K. Hansz
Sun City Hilton Head
America must stand in unity
With respect to our current situation with Iran, we need to show a united front. Regardless of whether or not you agree with the president, we have troops in harm’s way.
The nation needs to be united in its support of these brave men and women. We also need to be united against an enemy that chants “Death to America” and death to our closest allies.
As a Vietnam veteran, I can tell you that war is no fun. Not to have support from home is devastating.
If you are an American, this support is mandatory. We need to keep politics out of the equation. We were right and justified in taking out the murderous general.
Please stand in unity against our enemies.
Alan Richter
Bluffton
Trump a danger to world peace
Donald Trump has made a mess of U.S. foreign policy. He has alienated our most loyal European allies, even threatened the existence of NATO. He has cozied up to Russia and North Korea, our most dangerous enemies. He has gifted Northern Syria to the Russians, betraying our courageous Kurdish allies. He has invited foreign hacking and attacks against our electoral system. His trade war with China has been a failure and his new trade deal with Canada and Mexico is just NAFTA 2.0. The list goes on.
Now With his killing of an Iranian general, he has escalated tensions in an already unstable Middle East, prompting Iraq to throw us out and Iran to threaten widescale terrorist attacks. You may recall that he reneged on the international deal that halted Iran’s nuclear weapons development. That about-face led to escalating conflicts with that country. Now Iran says it will also step up nuclear arms development.
Trump carelessly and recklessly rejects the advice of diplomats and generals. He creates division at home and chaos around the world. He’s unfit to be president. He’s dangerous to world peace.
Mitchell C. Siegel
Bluffton
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