You need to use pronouns correctly and other letters to the editors

You need to use pronouns correctly

I've been waiting since Aug. 13 to see if someone sharper than myself would correct an editorial on its inability to distinguish between "that" and "those." No one has, so I step into the breach.

I refer to the Free Press' failure to demonstrate that it sees the difference between these two relative pronouns in the editorial "You didn't build 'that.'"

It accuses the president of not knowing the difference and aptly supplies Obama's July 12 quotation in Roanoke, Va. I only have 200 words, not the nearly two columns the editorial consumed, so, unable to repeat the context, I am constrained to give only the relevant sentence.

The president mentions a number of things that might be called infrastructure, roads, bridges, the Internet, the American system, teachers. Then he says, "If you've got a business -- you didn't build that." This clearly means that we all benefit from those who came before us and created things that enabled us to thrive.

"That" obviously refers to the last noun mentioned, "a business." If Obama had used "those" to refer to a single business, he would have been grammatically incorrect.

LARRY INGLE


WCA initiative properly submitted

In an article (front page of Metro, Aug. 25), reporter Cliff Hightower erroneously stated: "The group (Westside Community Association) wants an ordinance that would require the city's public housing authority to replace any demolished unit with a new unit -- a one-for-one swap."

WCA's zoning ordinance would cause all new downtown housing developments with 10 or more residential units to provide affordable housing for low- and moderate-income people.

We properly submitted to the Election Commission for its action as required by state law after which we planned to obtain the required signatures for submission to the commission for inspection and certification, then, if there were sufficient signatures, submit them to the City Council.

However, based on an erroneous opinion of the city attorney that our initiative should have been filed with the City Council, and his arguable opinion that the decision of the state Appeals Court regarding the recall of the mayor will determine whether or not the commission should accept our initiative. The commission delayed any action on our submission.

The WCA unanimously voted that our president intervene in this matter before the state Appeals Court.

KARL EPPERSON, Vice President, Westside Community Association


Akin's words reveal values

Re: the Free Press editorial "Take our the trash, Missouri" (Aug. 25). Thank you for labeling Todd Akin's statement "medically illiterate, politically stupid and morally offensive."

My wife and I recently have moved back to Chattanooga after being away for 41 years. For the last 12 years, our congressional representative whom we left behind was Todd Akin. We worked against him during every election because of his values and ideology as revealed in that statement. His words were not "a mistake," as he now says in his "apology." He believed every word he spoke.

Akin is dangerous because he truly believes he has been chosen by God to do and say what he does, which is why he is refusing to back down regardless of who tells him.

Not only is he ignorant of reproductive facts, he has no regard for any and all women's decisions, health issues, or conception circumstances.

FRANKLIN McCALLIE

Upcoming Events