GOP 'freak' show has deadly result
Many "establishment" Republicans are embarrassed by the clowns in the presidential primary. Truly, it is freak show, but they only have themselves to blame.
The Republican Party has become the big tent for bigotry. It has mined the dregs of American society for votes for the last 40 years.
It has pandered to and provided political cover for racists, homophobes, xenophobes who hate Muslims, Mexicans, and now, Syrians. It made common cause with gun nuts in the NRA and misogynists who believe that women have no value other than as walking incubators for the human fetus.
Exhibit A is John Lewis Dear Jr., a resident of western North Carolina, an area that also produced Christian terrorist Eric Rudolph. Before he assaulted the Planned Parenthood in Colorado, killing three and wounding five more, he had an established history of misogyny, domestic assault on wives and girlfriends, and animal cruelty. He was an anti-government paranoid and hated President Obama.
This violent and unstable man was obviously influenced by lies and misinformation from Republican presidential candidates and antiabortion propagandists. Now three people are dead at a Planned Parenthood.
Right-wing demagoguery and disinformation has consequences.
Terry Stulce, Ooltewah
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Appreciate lessons of World AIDS Day
World AIDS Day is today, and for most it will go unnoticed. That is OK.
Not everyone needs to light a candle in memory of those who have died. Not everyone needs to reflect on the long journey a virus has made from being a death sentence to a manageable disease.
However, for those who choose not to observe the day, I want to add the following: Everyone does need to educate themselves about what is HIV/AIDS and what is the difference. Everyone does need to know how the virus is contracted and how best to reduce his or her risk of infection. Everyone does need to get tested.
Everyone does need to stop the stigma against those living with HIV - stigma that has become almost worse than the virus itself. Stigma that turns loved ones away. Stigma that keeps people in the shadows. Stigma that creates disgust, pity or hate. Stigma that is bred from prejudice, ignorance and misunderstanding.
Not everyone needs to commemorate World AIDS Day, but try to learn the lessons passed down by those who the day is meant to remember.
Cory Howard, Chattanooga Cares
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GMO article fails to make argument
In his Sunday Perspective article, "If GMO foods aren't safe, people need labels to avoid them," writer Ronnie Cummins did not offer one bit of evidence that GMOs pose any kind of health hazard at all.
Do some pesticides and herbicides threaten our health? Of course.
What Mr. Cummins did was connect GMOs and herbicides (Roundup is a "probable" carcinogen) in order to demonize GMOs.
So, what do we conclude from the fact two-thirds of Americans believe GMOs are unsafe? Other than a majority of Americans might be misinformed, nothing. That statistic is meaningless.
On the other hand, Richard Williams' article, "GMO labels won't make foods safer, only more expensive," is filled with facts. He had the stronger, more persuasive argument.
Mr. Cummins really made no argument at all about the dangers of GMOs. All he did was show the dangers of agricultural chemicals. But we knew that already.
Edmond Long, Dalton, Ga.