Conversation requires not just putting forth your ideas, but listening as well
Conversation is defined as a verbal exchange of ideas, opinions or facts between individuals.
In order for conversation to be a two-way exchange and to entail actual communication, it must include not only talk, but a pause by each party long enough to listen to what the other is saying.
This practice is evidently a lost art or people in today's culture are totally ignorant of common courtesy and conversation.
Gary Smith, Flintstone, Ga.
U.S. now socialist democracy
Now that we have lost "the republic for which it stands," and our America has become "the socialistic democracy for which we are," know this about the David Cooks out there who just say "God is love." "See now that I myself am he! There is no God besides me. I kill, and I bring to life. I wound, and I will heal, and none can deliver out of my hand. For I raise my hand to heaven and say, 'As I live forever, when I sharpen my glittering sword and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to my enemies and repay those who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the heads of the enemy leaders'" (Deuteronomy 32:39-42). A republic is not a democracy. And democracy is not socialism. Our founding fathers did not believe we could keep our republic. And they were correct. Very few in America even know what a republic is. This is why we are losing our country. Our covenant with God is broken. Will Jesus Christ help us now?
Robert D. Henry
Who has money for tax increase?
Mr. Rick Smith, I see you want to raise everybody's property tax. Well, we don't all make as much money as you do, and you keep saying there hasn't been a tax increase for 10 years. You don't mention the three assessment changes we have had in the last 10 years, and don't tell me that is not the same as a tax increase. If your assessment goes up, your taxes go up. The last assessment change we had, my assessment went up and my taxes went up more than 50 percent. I am 85 years old and retired. I don't have a big income like some people, so maybe you and the rest of the school employees would like to help me pay this tax increase you want so badly.
Robert Holland
All good in U.S. due to liberals
A while back, an anonymous phone caller challenged, "From the content of your letters, I would say you are a stinking liberal." "Guilty as charged," I proudly replied. Why? Because throughout history, liberals have been on the right side of almost every watershed issue. Initially, Adam Smith's free-market capitalism was considered a radically liberal economic theory. Mercantilism, government regulation of the economy partnered with political absolutism, was the prevailing (conservative) system back then. Democratically elected representative government was once equated with mob rule. Conservatives insisted the nobility and aristocracy were preordained by God to govern. The Enlightenment movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that questioned scientific, social, economic and religious values and changed the world forever was by definition a liberal revolt. In this country, liberals led the movements for self-rule, independence from England, the abolition of slavery, women's rights, overturning the South's Jim Crow laws ... I could go on. To determine if ideas or people are liberal or conservative, one must view them in the context of their own times. With this in mind, I ask: Was Jesus of Nazareth a liberal or a conservative?
George Reed Jr., Rossville
Interference from UAW at VW
I'm curious as to why you continue to repeat this: "Last year, the UAW charged that outside interference by Republican politicians, including Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. tainted the vote's result." Last time I checked, neither Haslam or Corker are outsiders. Haslam, a former Knoxville businessman is our governor; Corker, a former mayor of Chattanooga, and now our junior senator, resides in Chattanooga. The outside influence is the man who makes the charge, a union organizer from Detroit, who walks the assembly floors at VW cajoling and lying to workers about how much better off they will be if they sign his membership cards. He is the trespasser. Tennessee is a right-to-work state, a major reason VW came here. We don't want our workers to be forced to join a union and have their hard-earned wages confiscated to fund Democratic candidates. We don't want Chattanooga to become another Detroit.
Jeffrey K. Wilson, Ooltewah
Child's death was just an accident
Tuesday's "Ask a Doctor" article is poorly informed on vaping. The chemicals released in the exhale vapor are well studied by Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos, Onassis Cardiac Surgery, and pose no threat. The formaldehyde study has since been retracted by its authors. The death of a toddler was due to a parent forgetting to recap and store an open bottle of concentrated nicotine. The nicotine concentrate is used to make a much weaker liquid e-juice. You wouldn't drink a bottle of vanilla extract, but do use it in small doses when baking. Good places to go for recent studies are CASAA.org and E-Cigarette-Forum.com. MOVE, a newly formed medical organization supporting vaping and electronic cigarettes, is concerned about the makeup of e-juice and children's safety. The industry is using childproof caps and won't allow adolescents in their shops. There's always parental neglect: pool drownings or poisoning from common household chemicals. Check your laundry room, under the kitchen sink and garage. Teens can easily get their hands on liquor, cigarettes and illegal drugs.
G.J. Cox
TFP Etc. feature added bit of fun
"Missed connection" often brought a smile to my face. I miss it.
Fouad Moughrabi
Embrace science, ensure progress
Some legislators in Nashville have tried to make the Bible Tennessee's "official" book. Knowing this is unconstitutional, they are still willing to spend our money in a blatantly self-aggrandizing farce. They should be ashamed. Our history is a story of continual, if sometimes uneven, progress in enlightened society's view of acceptable human interaction. This has not been the result of greater adherence to a religion or other non-evidential belief system. It has come because through science, reason and education we have reinterpreted and rejected many doctrines that religion contains. Because we learned the science of disease causation, for example, we now know that the weird old woman down the street cannot blight our crops with her evil eye. Success in the modern world increasingly requires logic and reason. What America needs is not more superstition and religion. By embracing the rational and valuing evidence over faith, we can continue society's moral progress and maintain our position on the world stage.
Russell Clark, Dunlap, Tenn.