Another take on VW vote - and more letters to the editors

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Another take on VW vote

The recent union vote at VW may point to a broader issue: the struggle for a living wage.

Most automotive industrial growth in recent years has occurred in Mexico, not the U.S. South and away from Detroit. Fundamentally, the pattern is lower wages.

According to the likes of Fox News, those Mexican workers must be enjoying greater freedom and rights than those in Chattanooga for having the "right" to work for that lower wage.

The social cost when price is the determinant factor is a lower tax base from lower wages. The U.S. ranks lower in health, education and infrastructure than many industrialized countries with higher wages.

And there are other quality- of-life issues due to well-established links in poverty, crime -where don't we go at night? We should consider gains for the greater good a life quality that also inures to the benefit of the individual.

JOHN F. EARY, Ringgold, Ga.


No soup for you, Georgia lawmakers

As a potential future citizen of the state of Georgia, I have one question to ask of my future lawmakers. Why do you not want me?

Why is this fight simply about the billions of gallons of water you can suck for Atlanta, and not about righting a wrong. I feel offended that I and my neighbors are not worth more than 1.5 acres of land?

Look how easily you discard us. Obviously we are not really wanted. We are a means to an end.

If you go through with a lawsuit and win, what will happen to us, the unwanted citizens of Georgia? You are greedy and undeserving of my citizenship, and for that you should get nothing.

No Soup For You.

MATTHEW DeGLOPPER, East Ridge


Solve our traffic woes

Issue: Traffic mess on 153 at the dam backed up to Highway 58 and on Amnicola from the traffic light at Chattanooga State to the traffic light at 153 exit.

Question: Do city or county personalities have a solution to this mess?

Has the city or county implemented a traffic survey? If I cry uncle will that be enough to reveal the survey? Uncle! Uncle!

It's taking me 40 minutes for a 20-minute drive. Last night I watched the light at Chattanooga State change numerous times before I got through the intersection, the traffic light at Access Road and Hixson Pike at least five times.

C'mon guys. Surely someone in city government makes enough money to provide a solution?

If not, hire someone. You just raised my property taxes (yeah, I know, it's a reappraisal); put the money to good use.

STAN WOFFORD


Guns and crime

I live in Brainerd, and I am in danger every day from thugs and cops who either won't or can't do their jobs.

My neighbor on the corner got 10 holes shot in his truck by a carload of thugs who were trying to kill someone and didn't care what or who else they hit in the process.

Of course, our elite gendarmes showed up too late as usual, picked up a few .40-caliber and a few 9 mm shell casings, which probably wound up in the dumpster behind Krispy Kreme, and left after bothering a few people who knew nothing about what happened.

How much longer do we have to put up with this incompetence? Why doesn't someone introduce a constitutional carry bill in the state Legislature and allow people with no criminal record to exercise their constitutional right without all the expensive and useless gun safety courses and permits?

If a person commits a crime while carrying a gun, then it's off to jail and he never gets another chance. What part of "shall not be infringed" does our state and federal government not understand?

RICHARD W. SHULTZ


Legislators, leave the time alone

The Tennessee Legislature is about to create Tennessee Time: That is permanent daylight saving time for all of Tennessee.

So what time will our favorite television shows come on during those otherwise "fall-back" winter months? Can it be the 6 p.m. news if it comes on at 7 p.m.? Will my cellphone and my computer run on Tennessee time?

Have they considered the children starting school at 7:30 or 8 a.m.?

The latest sunrise this year was Jan. 7 when the sun rose at 7:50 a.m. (that's fall-back time). Had we been on daylight saving time, the sun would have risen at 8:50 a.m.

Even in November and March, permanent daylight saving time would have the sun rising at 8 a.m. What is the sense of a law that prolongs winter darkness for children waiting to catch buses or walking to school?

Three of Tennessee's major cities sit on state borders. So from November to March, residents of Chattanooga, Kingsport, and Memphis will constantly be changing their watches as they shop, work or otherwise go about their daily lives.

What nonsense. But what more can we expect of our brilliant legislators?

SANDRA McCREA, Signal Mountain