Letters to the editors

TaleSpin deserves better attendance

For the fourth consecutive year, my wife and I spent an entertaining and enlightening Mother’s Day weekend in Chattanooga. Again we wondered why so few locals joined us. We were at TaleSpin, which brings the cream of the storytelling crop to your city. This year we heard nine outstanding tellers, including four “regional” talents. We saw friends from Georgia and met folks from throughout Tennessee and beyond, but the festival venue (Miller Plaza pavilion) was never full.

While the event’s dedicated sponsors (Chattanooga Downtown Partnership, Fletcher Bright Realty, and others) are committed to its success, TaleSpin is unlikely to survive without a larger audience. Civic pride alone should bring out overflow crowds, but the real reason you should be there is that you will have a ball. Good storytellers are more than talkers. Many are multitalented musicians; all make you think and laugh a lot and cry sometimes. Most important, they touch your heartstrings and help you remember your own stories — those people, places and events that make you who you are.

TaleSpin is a worthy addition to Chattanooga’s attractions. Don’t risk losing it! We are already planning to be at TaleSpin 2010. Join us — and bring a friend!

WYNN MONTGOMERY

Atlanta, Ga.

Obama didn’t ‘ignore’ the Day of Prayer

My dictionary defines “ignore” as follows: 1) to take no notice of, 2) to disregard, 3) to refrain from acknowledging.

In the name of Christianity, some choose to mislead if not outright lie concerning President Obama and the National Day of Prayer.

He issued a National Day of Prayer Proclamation. He asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which claims the day violates the separation of church and state.

What he did not do was have a big blowout at the White House as some predecessors did. But he did not “ignore” the day.

SHERMAN GIBBS

LaFayette, Ga.

Tennessee needs tornado warnings

As one who moved out of “tornado alley” to sheltered Chattanooga, I was shocked to read in the Times Free Press that Tennessee has the highest rate of deaths from tornadoes in the United States. I think I know of a contributing factor. In most states, as soon as there is a tornado warning the sirens start wailing, giving people a chance to flee to safety. Why is there silence in Tennessee?

BEATRICE S. NEALL

Ooltewah

Ethanol in gasoline just promoting fraud

We drive four-cylinder cars that react badly to 10 percent ethanol, missing and lacking power. Our area in the Georgia mountains only has six gas stations and all claim they are forced to supply it. A government-mandated 9 million gallons a year.

I asked Mobil-Exxon about this. They also hate the stuff because it can only ship by truck, corrodes pipelines, works best with a blending agent and adds costs besides being a lot of trouble.

When I asked what it did to 87 octane gas I got an odd answer about combustible BTUs in ethanol and that it reduces the octane. This was useless information.

I now buy my gas secretly at a non-ethanol station. At one point our state had the gas stations post a sticker on the pump “GAS MAY CONTAIN 10% ETHANOL” which was more useless information.

You mentioned Sunday that someone now wants to expand the business by raising the percentage contained to 15 percent and that station owners are worried about liability claims for ruined engines.

Is this a great country or what? Having all these people living amongst us promoting fraud and criminal acts and telling lies just so a corn farmer can make a buck.

R.B. BRYANT

Hiawassee, Ga.

Use capitalistic system to improve economy

Everyone is interested in economics lately. Economics has spiritual and political aspects. Our economic philosophy has a profound effect on our personal and societal well-being.

The Consumer Confidence Index stands at 39.2 (1985=100), up from 26.9 in March. The Present Situation Index increased to 23.7 from 21.9 last month. The Expectations Index rose to 49.5 from 30.2 in March.

Our ability to get wealth is from the Creator God (Deuteronomy 8:18). The founders of our republic recognized the pursuit of happiness, an express unalienable right, as economic in nature.

Optimistic supply-siders celebrate achievement and success, knowing resources should be used conservatively for the benefit of mankind. They believe government often impedes success. Pessimistic demand-siders focus on “greed,” equality of outcome, win-lose, and running out of resources, believing government can fix all of these issues.

If the current interest in topics economic is bolstered by knowledge of how our capitalistic, free market system works, we will weather the storm. Knowledge of the spiritual and historical foundations of our system will assist in creating a good outcome. Hopefully, our national sanity will soon be restored so that we can optimistically pursue creative solutions to our current economic woes.

PHILIP W.

HAYMAKER SR.

Hixson

Insurance needs single-payer sysem

Dear Representatives:

I worry daily about how devastated my life would be if I were to get sick. A small problem can be an enormous bill in an emergency room. You may know most hospitals charge the uninsured up to three times as much as the insured because they can’t count on getting the money they are owed. As it stands, I can make rent and pay bills and stay out of too much debt. But were I to have an emergency I would be saddled with debt for years. That would stop my ability to contribute to the economy in any meaningful way. Any savings I could put into new business ideas would be poured down the hole of the medical industry’s coffers. It makes sense on so many levels to have a single-payer system for basic checkups and preventive care.

Please vote with the will of the people on this issue and at least let single payer be debated. I realize the insurance industry employs a lot of people, but so does the illegal crack trade. It’s destructive and unsustainable to keep siphoning money off the poor and then bundling that debt as a bank asset.

It’s another form of usury.

DANIEL WESTCOTT

Fourth Estate no longer objective

President Obama’s statement to the attendees of the correspondents’ dinner that, “Most of you covered me; and all of you voted for me,” was humorous only in its perverse truth. The Fourth Estate has strayed far from its laudable mores of objectivity and non-bias and is on its last legs, if not already dead.

WILSON VON KESSLER

Lookout Mountain, Ga.

People’s illegal acts should be punished

In the May 8 Metro section I read about a “construction mistake” that the Chattanooga Land Development office made in issuing an “illegal” (their words) permit, the results of which were going to cost a local woman thousands of dollars. Gary Hilbert (office director) was quoted as saying, “The permit should not have been issued, quite frankly, but we’re only human.”

That excuse has received far too much acceptance in today’s society. He also said that the mistake should be considered an unfortunate oversight, not punishable negligence. Shouldn’t illegal acts be punished?

A few months ago a bicyclist was killed because a truck driver “illegally” failed to give the bicyclist the mandatory three feet of clearance while passing, leading to the bicyclist’s death; no charges were filed.

Leaders of large financial institutions made terrible mistakes with other people’s money, leading our country into the economic crisis, but are receiving huge government bailouts at the taxpayers’ expense.

I agree we’re only human, and, yes, we make mistakes, but when it is our mistake, we, not someone else, should suffer the consequences.

But I’m only human, I could be wrong.

DOUG JUDD

What happened to nuclear fusion?

Here is a mystery. How does something go from being the hope of the world to complete disappearance in about 40 years? As a young man starting out in the early 1970s, I regularly read a number of science publications, all of which optimistically asserted that by the turn of the millennium nuclear fusion would supply the majority of the world’s energy needs.

We are now nearly a decade past the millennial turn, yet in your Sunday article on nuclear power, fusion was not even hinted at. In nearly 40 years some progress must have been made in this area. Even back then the process was well-understood. The problems were recognized as engineering ones.

I challenge your paper to do some reports on this area and find out what the real deal is here. Let’s make this part of the current energy debate.

W. T. RODGERS

Dayton, Tenn.