Healthier Tennessee a waste of money
The road to a healthier Tennessee has a huge boulder in the middle of it called obesity. Gov. Bill Haslam plans to clear this obstruction with the Healthier Tennessee program.
A program? Really?
When the state Legislature wants an issue to go away and die, they send it back to committee for further study. Gov. Haslam launches a program. He is spending $6.2 million in state money to tell us to exercise more, eat less and stop smoking.
The state spends $6 billion every year treating people with behavior-based disease, and most of these people are obese.
Look out, boulder! The Governor has a Tonka and he knows how to use it!
DAVID CLARK, Tullahoma, Tenn.
A few points on horses, Johnson and Obama
A few thoughts worth mentioning: I would compare soring of the Tennessee Walkers to the athlete's PED. Abused small animals are rescued when detected, million-dollar sports figures are fined hundreds of thousands when found, so who is looking out for the horses that are abused?
I say three cheers for Drew Johnson for saying what needed to be said, but if he indeed broke company policy, he needed to be dismissed. By the way, how many times was he warned not to speak harshly of liberals? I might add, how about stop printing the vile letters which are so negative toward conservatives?
Thinking back six or seven years our so-called leader has been lying about almost everything he talked about. I ask where are the "phoney" scandals? That lie ranks right up there with the lies he and his partners in crime told about Mitt Romney. What's worse about those, is that his following believe them. Tell a lie often enough and loud enough and people will somehow accept it as gospel.
Finally, I ask what's wrong with the vice president moving up, got to be better than we have.
J.J. PERRI, Ooltewah
Trio of crosses is not what Jesus would do
It amazes me that a church would have the gall to erect the three new eyesores as a way of declaring Christ's love for everyone: Christ's love that cost $700,000 and only shows that He is rich and doesn't care about the poor.
Instead of wasting the money on that, the church could have donated to the Chattanooga Food Bank and bought close to 7 million pounds of food or 17,500,000 meals or $70 million worth of meals. This is all based solely on the food bank's donation website.
Which would Christ have wanted? A giant trio of crosses or to give every person in Chattanooga 103 meals?
"Jesus wept," indeed.
AARON MOYER
United States needs to reinstate the draft
We are losing America. Did you know that only one percent of our population served in the Armed Forces? Yes, that's correct; only one percent of the youth of America has a commitment to America. We can't continue to place the brave soldiers and sailors on multiple tours. This is just wrong.
Our commander in chief is not a vet. We have no leadership, just speeches on college campuses. We are no longer a superpower; the whole world sees us as weak. Believe me, we must reintroduce the draft, so that living in the U.S. demands a commitment to or country. In this world, we have to be feared. It's a fact; fear brings respect. I just can't see living in America and not being a vet. We are losing America.
BENJAMIN W. SUTTON, Hiawassee, Ga.