To the Editor,

I read with interest the article about people changing plans to visit because of his views on Obamacare. There was another article on page 2 that decried this reasoning by saying that Griffith had nothing to do with why people should or should not visit.

As a fairly new resident of Surry County, and someone who has traveled a great deal, I have to dispute that article.The city of Mount Airy and Mayberry and Andy Griffith are so intertwined that to most people outside of North Carolina they are all one and the same.People see the tv show, and Griffith as the sheriff, and they are transported back to a time where living was easier, and life a whole lot less complicated. They don’t think of him as someone who has this alien way of thinking.

What he is enspousing I don’t agree with either, but that is the beauty of America, you CAN say it. But to people who have watched that program all their lives, you cannot seperate the two no matter how much you’d like to.To the people outside of our state, they are one and the same, and their hero has betrayed them by going off on this contingent that to them is totally foreign. And to even consider visiting his hometown is even more foreign to their way of thinking.

Is it right? I honestly don’t know. But through the years, I have listened to people gush and ooh and ahh when I tell them where I live, so I realize how betrayed they feel. My personal thoughts are that all celebrities should keep their political opinions to themselves and stop trying to sell the rest of us a bill of goods. As adults we can decide for ourselves who or what we want to support. I sincerely hope Griffiths ads are short lived and he does as little a damage as possible, but I don’t think it will be so.Thank you for your time.

Sylvia D. Belton

Pilot Mountain