Vet gives thanks for kindness

I have had the privilege of living in Meridian for most of my 82 years on this earth. I have always been amazed at the kindness of strangers. 

On two separate occasions, my wife and I have had our meals paid for by complete strangers because of the Korean Veteran hat I wear. Recently we went to Red Lobster for their king crab legs and the manager of the restaurant came to our table and cracked all of the crab legs for me. Once again our meal was paid for by a stranger.

I would like to take this opportunity to say “thank you” to all of you kind people who didn’t have to do anything nice for an old man and his wife but chose to do so. You made our day!

Joe Nicholson

Meridian

Advice to the returning student

College students, make use of the available resources provided at your institution of higher learning. So after studying, please make it your duty to participate with at least one social club, establish networks with colleagues, and study abroad if possible.

To the secondary students, remember that we live in the information age and there should be no excuse for you not attempting to excel. You have a plethora of scholarly information right at your disposal. So use your technology devices as an instrumental learning aid instead of an instrument to just socialize petty trends.

Cedric Ruffin

Meridian

Hate doesn’t resolve differences 

It’s shameful to know that there are people who are so full of hate when there is always a better way to resolve our differences in a peaceful non-violent way.

When you use violence to get your point of view across it defeats what you are trying to say, because people remember how violent you were along with your rage. Hateful words hurt more than non-hateful ones and have a longer lasting effect. Violence solves nothing, it only causes more problems.

Changing state flags, or getting rid of Confederate statues, and monuments, or simply covering them up just to make some people who are upset with the violence that happened in Charlottesville, Va. is not the answer either. I’m upset with what happened there, too, but doing away with the statues or anything to do with the Confederacy is not going to solve the underlying problem that has been going on for years.

A lot of people are busy playing the blame game, and labeling things that have nothing to do with the problem, as being the problem, or the source of the problem, which is untrue and not fair to anyone. We all need to stop, take a breath, and look the problem square in the eye. We need to put the blame where it belongs on the people who are committing such hateful acts of violence against those who aren’t like them.

Our state flag, the Confederate flag, Confederate statues, and monuments aren’t to blame for what a radical group of people are foolishly doing. They cowardly hide behind a mock-up of the Confederate flag. The real Confederate flag doesn’t have any writing on it. The ones complaining about the Confederate flag and our state flag ought to take a closer look at the mockup version, and then look at the real one to tell they’re not the same. Shameful! Just shameful to think otherwise.

Roger Burt

Lauderdale