'Help immigrants become productive' and more Letters to the Editors

Help immigrants become productive

The lastest census reports tell us that the U.S. is following the European trend with fewer children born to Caucasian mothers.

Population decline is undesirable economically because of the fact that people not only consume, they also produce.

We must have enough younger workers paying into the system to balance those who are draining out of the system.

Therefore, we should encourage immigration of young workers and their families and make it easier for those already here to get job training and the help they need to become more productive citizens.

HELEN DEARING


Actions of TSA are un-American

On a return trip from California, I went through security at the San Francisco and Chicago airports. At both, I noticed that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had a short, quick line for those passengers ticketed for first class and a long, slow line for everyone else.

I am still trying to figure out why the federal government, which bans discrimination on the basis of skin color, sex, age, religion, etc., coddles those passengers with first-class tickets and discriminates against the rest of us. Are we second-class citizens?

Each passenger paid the same amount of money for Sept. 11 security. More importantly, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says we are entitled to equal protection of the laws.

Every so often, I read about an initiative by the TSA management to improve the image of and respect for the employees of the TSA. I am sorry, but fancy uniforms and smiling faces cannot hide the fact that the actions of the TSA are un-American.

JIM OLSON


Constitution speaks for itself

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ..."

I read your left-page editorial of May 25 ("Public prayer and the law") where, predictably, you bowed to courts and legal scholars who say that Christian prayers at public government meetings are unconstitutional.

But what do you say? Please explain, in your own words, how the constraints placed on the U.S. Congress by the opening clauses of the First Amendment (see top of this letter) apply to prayers at local government meetings and at high school football games and graduations (and at sundry other public functions).

To all readers:

The Constitution is ours. It's written in plain English and speaks for itself regardless of what any judge says it says. You and I "own" it. It is not the exclusive property of the courts and legal scholars.

JEFF EPPERSON


Don't reward the Big Lick

The reprehensible training practices in the Tennessee Walking Horse industry have continued for far too long. The industry can eliminate these practices literally overnight. With a set of judging standards at The Celebration and all other shows that eliminates any points for the Big Lick, trainers would have no incentive to continue soring. If you want to make the change quicker, the standard should take points away for any unnaturally high-stepping gait. Nothing could be easier than insisting that judges not reward the Big Lick.

ROGER HOFF

Winchester, Tenn.

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