Debt can't be solved by avoiding issue

Benjamin Franklin once said: "Think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty." Debt, whether national or personal, limits the freedom of the debtor.

A family who has overspent their current and future income must incur the pain of taking corrective measures. They cannot "spend" their way out of their predicament

Our government has and continues to spend beyond revenue levels, requiring more and more debt. We must address this debt now and stop passing the problem to our children and grandchildren.

Logically, it makes absolutely no sense that spending can be reigned in by first raising the debt limit so that we can continue to spend to gain promised reductions later. And, history has shown that we cannot trust Congress to follow through on its promises.

There will be universal pain if the debt limit is frozen at its current level. But the pain will be increasingly greater for each year in which we continue to avoid the issue. If we pull together, we can once again demonstrate our heritage of "can do" and gain victory over one more threat to our nation.

MIKE BUDNICK

Winchester, Tenn.

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Use correct titles for presidents

I was appalled when I picked up the Wednesday (Feb. 2) edition of the Times Free Press, turned to page A10 and saw the article about Barbara Bush backing gay marriage.

As a conservative, I disagree with her view on this issue, but my angst was not about the article topic. My outrage was about the title used for this article, "Ex-President Bush's daughter backs gay marriage." When did we start referring to former presidents as ex-presidents? I surely hope this wasn't a deliberate stab at former President Bush.

Since the article was an AP article I tend to believe it was. Please inform your typesetters to use the proper honorary titles for such servants to our great nation.

CARL W. WILLIS

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Obama's respect in wrong places

Seems to me President Obama shows more respect to Russia and Red China -- state dinner for Red China's president -- and shows little respect for our home-grown tea party.

Wake up, America!

PAT LUDOVICO

Cleveland, Tenn.

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Help people, not military complex

Because the United States does not look like a militarized country, it's hard for Americans to grasp that Washington is a war capital, that the U.S. is a war state.

We have bases and ships in all corners of the world, ostensibly to promote political stability and peace while defending our vast economic interest. This has become a tremendous fiscal burden to a nation on the brink of financial and economic ruin.

We can no longer sustain this financial drain. Yet, Republicans insist on maintaining bloated defense budgets that grow at exponential rates. The GOP Pledge: cut everything except defense spending. For war, there is never enough funding for conservatives, but to help Americans ... Nada.

We must ask ourselves, at what point-in-time do we say "no" to the military-industrial-congressional complex that feeds at the trough of the taxpayers.

Paying taxes should not be a problem provided there is value in return. Value is helping people, promoting social justice and economic equality: not enabling the willful destruction of humanity.

Tea partiers and religious leaders must stand up and speak out. There is no value in wasteful defense budgets that are the primary contributors to trillion-dollar deficits.

JOHN HIGHT

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Homosexuals in military no threat

What tactical threat exists in enlisting homosexuals? (Hint, none.)

While I have no desire for armed service or even a support role, I can see the necessity for a prepared military. But I fail to see how including what is supposedly a small portion of the U.S population -- estimates ranging from a conservative 5 percent to a liberal 10 percent -- negatively affects morale of the majority of U.S. troops, who are in a transitional generation or my own younger generation.

The former might have some difficulties adjusting to the notion that there are people attracted to the same sex sharing barracks/showers and fighting alongside them, but even they can see that sexual behavior makes little to no difference in a battle situation.

And as any medical professional could tell you, AIDS is not unique to homosexuals. Accusing the gay and lesbian community of promiscuity and being disease-ridden is as unfair as accusing all Christians of being anti-Semitic. In either case, the behavior associated with the group is not common to most members. Why not just let homosexuals serve? Is it going to hurt the military to have a steady flow of people in it, even if some have slightly different intimate/romantic interests?

JARED COWAN

Sewanee, Tenn.

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Don't waste worthy resources at Lupton

As an alum of UTC and the proud parent of a December graduate of the university, I would like to express my disappointment with the purging of the book collection at the Lupton Library.

This collection, created with hard-earned student tuition and taxpayer dollars, is a valuable resource to the university and to the community. In the rush to digitize information, I hope the library considers its role as a repository of knowledge and as a research institution. Both as an engineering student and now in my technical career, I find the rich information available in the library to be a prime source in understanding the development of technology and scientific thought.

It is important to realize that knowledge is always changing and each generation builds on the foundation of the past. Rather than view these books as obsolete, the library should treasure this collection as a chronicle of human knowledge.

I hope future generations of UTC students have the opportunity to roam the stacks in the Lupton Library as I did during my student days. This valuable collection has served as a source of inspiration and understanding for generations of students and is a valuable resource which should not be wasted.

RON BORUFF

Class of '88

Signal Mountain