I served time for a nonviolent offense. Now the NC Supreme Court wants to take away my right to vote. | Opinion

Voting rights

Despite having endured harsh consequences related to my nuclear weapons protest, including almost a year in prison, two years of wearing an ankle monitor while under house arrest, and three more years of supervised probation, I now face losing my right to vote thanks to a cruel decision by the N.C. Supreme Court.

The primary purpose of incarceration in the U.S. is punishment, and the state Supreme Court has decided to add insult to injury by meting out additional punishment for people who’ve already served their time. Since the court’s ruling that anyone on parole or probation can no longer vote came the same week as the court’s reinstatement of voter ID and allowing race-based redistricting to stand, it seems clear the conservative justices are trying to prevent as many people of color, poor people and former prisoners as possible from accessing the vote. The indignities never seem to end for those Jesus calls “the least of these.”

Patrick O’Neill, Garner

Concealed carry

While House Bill 189 is now on hold, if it ever passes anyone over age 18 could carry a concealed gun without a permit or possibly even training. We’ve seen a disturbing trend of young people carrying out shootings. The shooters in Buffalo, Uvalde and Parkland were all under age 21. Allowing more gun access to those under 21 mocks victims of these tragedies. Beyond that, it simply defies common sense. As a former gun owner with a concealed carry permit, I know these regulations are already flimsy at best. Removing them entirely is dangerous. Even the N.C. Sheriff’s Association spoke out against this bill.

James Kornegay, Rolesville

School vouchers

The universal voucher program is giving Democrats major headaches. The real problem is that in recent years Democrats have politicized curriculum, gotten away from basic education, and bowed to the teachers union. They demand millions more in funding each year while test scores stagnate. Their solution to vouchers is to take away your choice. Public schools need to offer a solid basic education, free of lefty politics, for a reasonable cost. If they did, we wouldn’t need private schools.

Lee Hortman, Raleigh

Medical ethics

The bill that would allow N.C. medical professionals to decline to provide care based on their beliefs (HB 819) is bad medicine. Personal beliefs should never enter into decision-making on whether to treat a patient. Exceptions based upon personal ethics are fraught with potential harm to patients. Let’s suppose I’m an ER physician presented with an injured politician whose policies I consider “unethical.” Would he or she want me to deny them life-saving treatment because of my ethical beliefs? This legislation is bad for all of us.

Tom Zimmerman, Raleigh

Voting districts

Voting districts at every level should be constituted so that every citizen’s vote has equal value. The notion that it’s OK to construct districts that give an advantage to one party or another is patently unfair and violates the spirit of the law of the land. The N.C. Supreme Court should hang its head in shame after its recent ruling that is likely to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians. It has ignored precedent and bowed to raw partisanship.

E. T. Malone Jr., Warrenton

Abortion bill

The Republican legislature bypassed its own procedure to rush its repressive abortion bill through both chambers last week. It was never exposed to open debate that would have allowed North Carolinians to consider and understand what the bill actually means. It bans abortion after 12 weeks, but is loaded up with so many obstacles that patients and doctors are heavily burdened by medically unnecessary red tape. Many first trimester abortions will be blocked by those obstacles.

We are helpless against the new Republican supermajority. I urge voters to look to 2024 and work hard to unseat enough Republicans to get below the supermajority threshold — with a stronger cushion this time so defectors like Rep. Tricia Cotham won’t disrupt the balance.

Julie Welch, Chapel Hill

Honor Berryhill

The writer is a UNC-CH professor emeritus of pathology.

The 1970s Berryhill Hall medical education building at UNC-CH is being replaced by a modern building — that won’t be named for former Dean W. Reece Berryhill. He was appointed medical school dean in 1941. During his 23-year tenure, UNC’s two-year school became a four-year MD-granting school. In 1952, patients were admitted to the first of UNC’s now five hospitals. The first med school class graduated in 1954. Since then, faculty in the medical, dental, nursing, pharmacy and public health schools and elsewhere on campus have achieved national and international recognition, including two Nobel Prizes. Patients in the state and across the world have received care from the thousands of physicians, PhD biomedical scientists, dentists, nurses, pharmacists and public health professionals educated at Chapel Hill.

Berryhill’s unique and unselfish contributions must never be forgotten. UNC should honor him by naming its medical school the Berryhill School of Medicine.

William McLendon, Chapel Hill