Regarding “Conservative center may be model for UNC” (Dec. 10): The Republican-dominated UNC Board of Governors is at it again. First, the board terminated the work of two progressive centers in the School of Law, one on poverty and one on civil rights. Now the board is looking to establish the conservative-leaning James Madison Program in American Ideals at UNC-CH.

The board members euphemistically say they want to bring intellectual diversity to UNC-CH. What they really mean is that they want to shift the mindset of students to a more conservative way of thinking. No wonder the Republican-led Board of Governors seems to want to tamp down points of view not shared by it. Just look at the election results in Virginia and the senatorial race in Alabama. The young and the college-educated voted for the Democratic candidate(s) in large numbers. Mark my words, the Board of Governors will do whatever is possible to embed its conservative point of view in the curriculum at UNC-CH.

‘Stay out’ of CDC

Regarding “Experts alarmed by CDC ban on certain words” (Dec. 18): Every morning I wake up and wonder what Donald Trump and his administration has done to either endanger or embarrass the citizens of the United States. When I found out yesterday that the administration had banned the Center for Disease Control from saying several crucial words in budget documents such as “science based” and “evidence based” (among others words) I was both embarrassed for our country as well as frightened for the safety of our citizens.

The CDC should not have the vocabulary it uses in official documents monitored and censored by people with no knowledge of their purpose and subsequent needs. Of all the scary things that Trump’s administration had done to date, this one really takes the cake. Communication is crucial among humans so that we may seek to avoid misunderstandings that may ultimately lead to war on a grander scale. Leave it to the trained educated scientists to decide which words they should use. The Trump administration needs to stay out of this picture.

Where is justice?

The terrible Amtrak derailment awakened Donald Trump to the need for more federal spending on infrastructure. But instead, Republicans in Congress, including Sens. Thom Tillis and Richard Burr, decided to pass tax-cut legislation that will add $1 trillion to our national debt. That is $1 trillion in public funds that could have been used to repair our country’s failing infrastructure.

The main beneficiaries of the tax cuts are people who are very wealthy. Those with incomes over $733,000 per year will receive an average tax cut of $51,000. Multi-millionaires and billionaires will receive much more than that. Where is the justice in giving more wealth to the already wealthy while millions of American workers have difficulty providing food and shelter for their families?